A VEHICLE SUPERSTRUCTURE

The invention relates to a vehicle superstructure of the kind that is seen in the preamble of the appended claim 1.

Thus, the invention relates to a superstructure of a vehicle, for instance a trailer, which contains a room that has an external-wall surface comprising a lower wall part and an upper wall part, which are foldable around horizontal pivot axes at the upper and lower verge of the wall, respectively, between a substantially horizontal orientation and to vertical orientations, in which they jointly form said external-wall surface .

In vehicle superstructures that contain one or more rooms, which are to be visited by a plurality of people, there is the problem of having to provide these people simple access to the rooms of the superstructure. In that connection, in a trailer superstructure of the mentioned kind, it is, per se, known to provide a flight of steps up to the lower horizontally folded- out wall part, which forms a platform projecting from the trailer. Furthermore, the flight of steps has to be provided with railings, and furthermore the platform has to be provided with railings around the free verge thereof. The problem is that such a trailer every now and then has to be moved between different sites and that the flight of steps, as well as said railings, has to be dismounted and mounted, respectively. Furthermore, the flight of steps, as well as the railings, has to be transported together with the trailer/vehicle and be secured during transportation.

Therefore, an object of the invention is to provide a trailer superstructure with which the flight of steps and the railings easily can be transported and, on one hand, erected after the

transportation, and on the other hand be collapsed as well as secured for transportation before the transportation.

The object is attained by the invention.

The invention is defined in the appended independent claim 1.

Embodiments of the invention are defined in the appended dependent claims .

Thus, in a preferred embodiment of a vehicle superstructure of the kind mentioned by way of introduction, the object is attained by the fact that the room is an anteroom, which is delimited by the external-wall surface, and which has an inner wall having a doored entrance to an inner room in the house, that said wall parts in the folded-out orientations thereof form a floor platform and a porch roof over the same, respectively, that the lower folded-out wall part carries a flight of steps having railings, that the lower wall part carries railings along the free edges thereof, that the lower wall part is provided with suspension members for the flight of steps, that the railings of the flight of steps are foldable around pivot axes that are parallel to and situated near the respective side-edge piece of the flight of steps, that the railings of the platform are foldable around pivot axes that are parallel to and situated near the respective edge of the lower wall part, that the flight of steps, as well as the railings thereof and the railings of the lower wall part, are foldable around the pivot axes thereof to an orientation in which they extend in parallel to each other in a pile, and that means are provided to unite the pile to the lower wall part in order to follow the same upon the turning up thereof, the pile being received in the anteroom.

In the following, the invention will be described by way of examples, reference being made to the appended drawing.

Figure 1 schematically shows an abaft part of a vehicle belonging to a platform having railings and a flight of steps.

Figure 2 shows a section through the object of Figure 1 in the collapsed state.

^' Figure 3 schematically shows the mutual location of the railings, the flight of steps and the platform in the collapsed state .

Figure 4 schematically shows the connection of the folded-out flight of steps to the platform.

Figure 1 schematically shows an abaft part of a vehicle trailer that has a superstructure 1, which contains a room 2, which is delimited by a wall 3 having a door 4 to an anteroom 5 that outward is delimited by a wall surface 7 formed from two wall parts 71 and 72, respectively. Along an upper, substantially horizontal verge, the wall part 71 is suspended in a pivotal mounting 81 and can be ^' pivoted around the same by- means of a pivot device 82 from the vertical position shown in Figure 2 into a position almost raised to the horizontal plane, which is illustrated in Figure 1. The lower wall part 72 is pivotably mounted around the horizontal lower verge, thereof around a lower pivotal mounting 91 and can be pivoted by means of driving member 92 from the vertical position shown in Figure 2 into a substantially horizontal position, which is illustrated in Figure 1. The wall parts 71, 72 together cover the wall surface in question that outward screens off the anteroom 5.

The main direction of travel of the trailer is illustrated by 11 in Figure 1, and for that sake the trailer 1 has wheels 12, as is shown in Figures 1 and 2. In Figure 1, it is seen that the lower wall part 72 in the folded-out state forms a plat- form that protrudes outside an external trailer wall 75, a wall portion of which is defined by the wall parts 71, 72 according to Figure 2.

A flight of steps 31 is shown extending between the ground 40 and the platform 72. The flight of steps 31 has side railings 41, 42. The flight of steps 31 substantially extends along a side edge of the platform 72. ^' Along the other side edges 77, 78 of the platform 72, a respective railing 87, 88 extends.

Reference being made to Figure 3, where the platform 72 at the pivotal mounting 91 thereof is seen. It is seen that the platform 72 carries an upward projecting angle section 79, which co-operates with a complementary section 99 along one long- edge piece 98 of the flight of steps 31. The railings 41, 42 of the flight of steps have folding joints 44 and 45, respectively, near the extension plane of the flight of steps 31, in such a way that the main parts of the railings 41, 42 can be folded in into a parallel relation over and in parallel to the flight of steps 31. The platform railing 88 has a pivot joint 89 at a small distance above the platform 72 in order to be foldable in over the flight of steps 31 to an orientation parallel to the lowered parts of the railings 41 and 42, respectively. Correspondingly, it is seen that the railing 87 has a pivot joint 86 around which the upper part of the railing 87 can be lowered over the lowered upper part of the railing 88, into a parallel relation thereto. It will be appreciated that the pivot joints 86, 89, 44, 45 of the railings are placed in order to allow the railing parts turned-in into a parallel overlaid relation to have a small mutual distance for the for- mation of an element pile containing the flight of steps 31

and said railing parts. The flight of steps 31 including the folded-in railings thereof are suspended on the support section 79, and the railings 87, 88 are carried directly by the platform 72. Accordingly, by means of, for instance, a simple detachable retaining strap 63, said pile can readily be secured to the platform 72 when the same is raised to the orientation according to Figure 2. The retaining strap may naturally be threaded between railing posts, if desired, or between steps in the flight of steps. On the platform, suita- bly there are fastening eyes 61,62 on opposite sides of the pile .

It will be appreciated that the flight of steps 31 readily can be pushed up onto the platform 72 by means of the guide sec- tions 79, 99 as guiding and that the flight of steps 31 also can be drawn out in order to be lowered into the position shown in Figure 1. The upper end of the flight of steps 31 may be secured at the adjacent ^" verge of the platform 72 by detachable securing members, for instance in the form of co-operat- ing hook elements. In Figure 4, the platform 72 is shown to have an elongate recess 51 in the top side thereof along the verge thereof connecting to the flight of steps 31. The recess defines an upwardly directed protuberant border 54 along the verge of the platform. The side pieces of the flight of steps 31 are shown to have a downwardly facing recess 53 that receives the protuberance 54, and which defines a downwardly directed protuberance 52 on the respective side piece. The protuberances 52 are received in the recess 51. Alternatively, the elongate recess 51 may be replaced by two separate borings that receive a protuberance 52 each.

The anteroom 5 has been shown situated at a long side of the trailer 1 but it is evident that other locations are feasible. For instance, the anteroom and the wall parts 71, 72 may extend over the rear end wall of the trailer 1.