Auxiliary dumping apparatus for a vehicle

Claim 1

Dumping apparatus for a vehicle comprising: a hollow chamberdefining container structure effectively defining a dump box taking the form of an auxiliary vehicle body portion having a rear load-discharging end and having a hollow interior loadcarrying chamber defined within said container structure; a container mounting and supporting longitudinal frame means fixedly mounted in a substantially horizontally directed plane with respect to a vehicle body portion, said longitudinal frame means effectively comprising track means; rear end portions of said longitudinal frame means being provided with upwardly directed pivot roller means for rollable and pivoting cooperation with respect to corresponding roller-riding, load-supporting and effective pivoting portions of said container structure; at least a forward portion of said container structure being provided with track follower means adapted to movably cooperate with said track means for relative longitudinal movement of said container structure therealong from a forwardly extreme, normal, loadreceiving and load-carrying position toward a rearwardly extreme, preload-dumping position where a rear portion of said container structure extends rearwardly beyond a rear end of said track means and said upwardly directed pivot roller means carried thereby and is unsupported thereby and provides a downwardly directed tipping movement to said rear portion of said container structure for automatically causing said rear load-discharging end thereof to arcuately pivotally move downwardly into a lower extreme gravity-load-discharging position for discharging a load previously carried within said container structure; said track follower means carried by a forward portion of said container structure comprising substantially downwardly directed rollable wheel means and said track means comprising said longitudinal frame means taking the form of wheel-receiving means normally receiving said downwardly directed rollable wheel means of said track follower means and cooperating therewith for relative rollable movement therealong of said rollable wheel means and said container structure; and biasing return spring means having one end connected to an upwardly and forwardly offset connection portion of said container structure forwardly displaced from its horizontal axis of rotation during said downward tipping movement between said rearwardly extreme preload-dumping position and said lower extreme gravity-load-discharging position and vice versa, said biasing return spring means having an opposite end effectively connected with respect to the vehicle body portion at a location forwardly displaced from a rear end thereof, said biasing return spring means and said connections of opposite ends thereof being normally of a size, shape, and position such as to cause said biasing return spring means to be substantially untensioned until said container structure is moved into said rearwardly extreme preload-dumping position, after which any downward tipping movement thereof effectively tensions said biasing spring means to an extent such as to be adapted, after said conTainer structure has discharged its load and is substantially unloaded, to forcibly return said container structure from said lower extreme, angularly inclined, gravityload-discharging position into its upper normal substantially horizontal position preparatory to being rollably moved into its forwardly extreme normal load-receiving and load-carrying position.