Auxiliary movement means for hand trucks

Claim 1

For a hand truck having a frame means and truck wheel means mounted behind and adjacent the lower end of the frame means for facilitating the movement of said hand truck with a load object being supported by said frame means, the plane of said truck wheel means being in and providing for movement of said hand truck in a plane generally perpendicular to the general plane of said frame means and of its supporting engagement with the load object, lateral-movement-facilitating wheel means, said last-named means comprising: secondary wheel means, and means supporting said secondary wheel means to be disposed generally perpendicular to the plane of the aforesaid truck wheel means; means providing that the hand truck and its supported load object are supportable by said secondary wheel means, said first-mentioned truck wheel means being then in non-supporting position; thereby providing that the said hand truck may be moved, by rolling movement of its said secondary wheel means, in a direction generally perpendicular to that of the plane of its first-mentioned truck wheel means; in a combination in which support means supportingly extend between said truck frame means and said secondary wheel means, and provide for operatively locating said secondary wheel means in a retracted position, in which said secondary wheel means do not supportingly engage the associated supporting floor during movement of said hand truck by the rolling movement of the first-mentioned truck wheel means, and an operational position in which said secondary wheel means may be caused to supportingly engage the associated supporting floor by a manipulation of said hand truck to engage said secondary wheel means supportingly with the associated floor and disengage said first-mentioned truck wheel means from supporting engagement with the floor; and in which means are provided in supporting association with said secondary wheel means which, when the said secondary wheel means supportingly engage the floor, engages the firstmentioned truck wheel means to partially support said secondary wheel means from the frame means through the said firstmentioned truck wheel means.