GHIRARDO Giovanni (Corso IV Novembre 30, BRA, I-12042, IT)
CLAIMS
1. Elongated semi-trailer (1) for transporting vehicles comprising:
at least one lower flatbed (5) for supporting said vehicles; at least one upper flatbed (7) for supporting said vehicles;
at least one pair of transporting wheels (9);
at least one pair of front columns (11) and one pair of rear columns (14), said pair of columns (11, 14) being adapted to support said at least one lower flatbed (5) and said at least one upper flatbed (7), to which said pair of columns (11, 14) are connected; characterised in that an on-road overall length of said semi-trailer (1) and of its related tractor (2) is equal to or greater than 20 meters; and characterised in that it further comprises at least one pair of intermediate columns (16) adapted to independently support said at least one lower flatbed (5) and said at least one upper flatbed (7), to which said pair of intermediate columns (16) is connected.
2. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that a distance (dl) between the pair of front columns (11) and the pair of intermediate columns (16) ranges from 5.0 m. to 7.5 m.
3. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that a distance (d2) between the pair of rear columns (14) and the pair of intermediate columns (16) ranges from 7.0 m. to 10.2 m.
4. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 2 and 3, characterised in that the ratio between distance (dl) and distance (d2) ranges from 0.49 to 1.07.
5. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that the upper flatbeds (7) are two, independently supported one by said pair of front columns (11) and by said pair of intermediate columns (16) and the other by said pair of intermediate columns (16) and by said pair of rear columns (14) .
6. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that the pairs of transporting wheels (9) are due.
7. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that said pair of front columns (11) always keeps the same position, while said pair of rear columns (14) can be made go back up
_o _ to about 800 mm.
8. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is adapted to be suited to different types of load, said upper flatbeds
(7) being adapted to be placed, one with respect to another, at different heights, and being adapted to be inclined in a completely independent way one with respect to another.
9. Semi-trailer (1) according to claim 1, characterised in that it is adapted to provide the chance of opening doors of vehicles to be transported without dangers of interferences with side supporting structures of a grid type. |
ELONGATED SEMI-TRAILER FOR TRANSPORTING VEHICLES
The present invention refers to an elongated semi-trailer for transporting vehicles.
Various types of semi-trailers are known in the art, adapted to be connected to tractors and to transport various types of goods, for example vehicles such as cars, trucks, tractors, etc.
None of the currently marketed semi-trailers, however, has such a length as to allow it to transport, for example, a satisfactory number of vehicles with great overall sizes: such length is typically equal to at least 20 meters, and comprises the length of the semi-trailer and of the tractor connected thereto.
Object of the present invention is solving the above prior art problems, by providing a semitrailer that allows reaching, together with the tractor connected thereto, an on-road length at least equal to 20 meters.
A further object of the present invention is
providing a semi-trailer of the above mentioned type that is simple to realise, with a reduced number of parts and consequently with a reduced end cost.
A further object of the present invention is providing a semi-trailer of the above mentioned type that can be suited to different types of loads, providing the chance of placing, one with respect to the other, the two upper flatbeds at different heights, and to completely independently incline them.
A further object of the present invention is providing a semi-trailer of the above mentioned type that provides the chance of opening the doors of the cars to be transported without dangers of interferences with side supporting structures of the grid type, that is a type often used when vehicles are particularly long.
The above and other objects and advantages of the invention, as will appear from the following description, are obtained with a semi-trailer as described in claim 1. Preferred embodiments and non-trivial variations of the present invention are the subject matter of the dependent claims.
The present invention will be better described
by some preferred embodiments thereof, provided as a non-limiting example, with reference to the enclosed drawings, in which Figure 1 is a side view of a preferred embodiment of the trailer according to the present invention.
With reference to the Figure, a preferred embodiment of the trailer of the present invention is shown and described. It will be immediately obvious that numerous variations and modifications (for example related to shape, sizes and parts with equivalent functionality) could be made to the described trailer without departing from the scope of the invention as appears in the enclosed claims. As shown in Fig. 1, the elongated semi-trailer 1 for transporting vehicles (not shown) according to the present invention substantially comprises:
at least one lower flatbed 5 for supporting a first row of vehicles;
at least one upper flatbed 7 for supporting a second row of vehicles; at least one pair of transporting wheels 9; and at least one pair of front columns 11 and one pair of rear columns 14: such pair of columns
11, 14 are adapted to support the at least
_o _
one lower flatbed 5 and the at least one upper flatbed 7, to which such pair of columns 11, 14 are connected.
The characteristic of the inventive semitrailer 1 is that the overall on-road length of the semi-trailer 1 itself and of its related tractor 2 is equal to or greater than 20 meters: in order to obtain such characteristic, the semi-trailer 1 further comprises at least one pair of intermediate columns 16, also adapted to independently support the at least one lower flatbed 5 and the at least one upper flatbed 7, to which such pair of intermediate columns 16 is connected.
According to the preferred practical embodiment, the distance (dl) between the pair of front columns 11 and the pair of intermediate columns 16 ranges from 5.0 m. to 7.5 m.
Still according to such embodiment, the distance (d2) between the pair of rear columns 14 and the pair of intermediate columns 16 ranges from 7.0 m. to 10.2 m.
Therefore, the ratio between distance (dl) and distance (d2) ranges from 0.49 to 1.07.
In the practical embodiment shown, the pair of front columns 11 always keep the same position,
while the pair of rear columns 14 can be made go back till about 800 mm.
In the embodiment, shown, the upper flatbeds 7 are two, independently supported one by the pair of front columns 11 and by the pair of intermediate columns 16, and the other by the pair of intermediate columns 16 and the pair of rear columns 14.
Still according to what is shown, the pair of transporting wheels 9 are, two, but could be in a greater number, according to the needs of the load to be transported.
The inventive semi-trailer 1 can be suited to different types of load, providing for the chance of placing, one with respect to the other, the two upper flatbeds, at different heights, and to incline them in a completely independent way.
Moreover, such semi-trailer 1 provides the chance of opening the doors of the cars to be transported without dang'ers of interferences with side supporting structures of the grid type, that is a type often used when the vehicles are particularly long. For such purpose, the side supporting columns of the two upper flatbeds are placed taking into account the positions assumed by
—o—
the cars to be transported.
Some preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described: obviously, numerous variations and modifications, functionally- equivalent to the previous ones, will readily appear to the skilled people in the art, such variations and modifications falling within the scope of the invention as pointed out in the enclosed claims.