PURPOSE: To couple a trailer to and uncouple it from a carrier tractor automatically by inserting a coupling pin into the left or right opening of a hooking fixture by the tail swinging motion of the carrier tractor during its running on a curved road so as to engage the coupling pin with a base portion and, consequently, couple the trailer to the carrier tractor.
CONSTITUTION: A trailer 18 is set in its stand-by state outside a curved road, that is, a curved part of a light reflecting tape 24, with its front wheels 62 positioned on a guide line 60. When a carrier tractor 16 runs in the direction of the arrow along the light reflecting tape 24 and a hooking fixture 14 at its rear end travels while forming a larger arc under its tail swing motion, the coupling pin 12 of the carrier trailer 18 is engaged with the base piece 14a of the hooking fixture 14 so that the trailer 18 starts to run following the carrier tractor 16. When the coupling pin 12 reaches the insertion hole 28a at the base portion of the hooking fixture 14 and presses a stopper 38 into the inside of the base portion 28 against a spring 44, and the coupling pin 12 is inserted into the base portion 28 by swinging motion of the stopper 38, coupling of the trailer 18 to the carrier tractor 16 is completed.
IWAGAMI MINORU
KAWASHIMA HISAYOSHI
