Receptacle lift and slim profile power unit therefor

Abstract

A lifting apparatus includes two pairs of lift arms having respective displaced pivot points on a movable carriage for projecting such carriage up into a refuse-receiving opening of a garbage truck, and in an inverted position so as to dump the contents of a receptacle held on such carriage. The two pairs of arms are also axially nested in a co-planar orientation when the carriage is in its fully lowered position, so as to minimize the overall width of the lifting apparatus. A particular hydraulic rotary motor having a relatively thin width may be used to actuate the apparatus. The hydraulic rotary motor utilizes meshed rack and pinion teeth generally within the confines of a cylinder thereof for minimizing the width of the cylinder block. Also, the rack and pinion teeth remain enclosed within such cylinder immersed in hydraulic fluid passing therethrough so as to lubricate the moving components for prolonging their service life with less maintenance. A plurality of cylinders may be aligned in parallel, and share a common pinion gear output shaft, with each cylinder having a reciprocating piston rod supporting rack teeth for engagement with such pinion gear. A lifting apparatus as presently described in combination with the disclosed hydraulic rotary motor can have minimized width while still being capable of repetitively handling full weight loads with reduced maintenance and projecting same a selected distance up into a garbage truck, which also reduces the need for successive compaction of the dumped receptacle contents after each dumping cycle.