Method and apparatus for transporting factory constructed housing units

Claim 1

In a marine transportation system for handling and transporting factory constructed housing units, each providing completely finished, mechanically operable interior living space ranging in single floor area size to 2000 square feet or more and having structural integrity only in discrete transverse sections defined in part by transverse beam members establishing floor support of sufficient strength to carry the full dead load of the housing unit when supported only near the ends of such members, the housing units being of a common width and varying only in length to provide the range of floor area size, the combination comprising: a marine vessel having a hull structure establishing at least one stowage cell of a transverse dimension sufficiently in excess of the common width of the housing units to provide clearance space between opposite sides of the housing units and the interior of the cell, of a length to accommodate a plurality of said units in end to end relation and of a depth to accommodate multiple tiers of said units, means mounted on said hull structure to provide a foundation-like support for each tier of said housing units, said foundation-like support means for each tier including a plurality of longitudinally aligned beams along each side of said stowage cell, said beams for at least the tiers elevated in relation to the bottom of the stowage cell each being carried by a pair of arms pivotally connected to said hull structure for movement between a load carrying position under opposite ends of said housing unit transverse beam members and a retracted position out of said clearance space on opposite sides of said housing units, and spreader lift means for transferring said housing units to and from said stowage cell, said spreader lift means including a pair of generally parallel, rigid linear support members, each of a length corresponding to the full length of the housing unit to be transferred, means supporting said support members for movement between a retracted position spaced from each other by a distance in excess of a common house width and in which the spreader lift means can be lowered downwardly over a housing unit positioned in said stowage cell, and a lifting position in which said continuous support members engage the underside of the housing unit transverse beam members near the outer ends thereof and means to maintain said continuous linear support meMbers in mono-planar relation at least while in said lifting position irrespective of floor area loading variation in the housing unit, said longitudinally aligned beams of the support means for each tier having unobstructed linear top surfaces lying in a single plane to establish said foundation-like support irrespective of the longitudinal location of a housing unit in said cell and said top surfaces of said beams elevated in relation to said arms or other supporting structure to provide clearance space under the housing units enabling movement of said support members from said retracted position to said lifting position, whereby said housing units may be supported by rigid, essentially mono-planar linear support means along closely adjacent parallel lines of support during both stowage in said load cells and during transfer thereof to and from said stowage cell.