Two-wheel hand truck with elevator

Claim 2

A two-wheel hand truck having an elevator mechanism to facilitate raising and lowering the hand truck to and from an elevated deck and comprising: a. a hand truck structure including a pair of longitudinally extended tubular rails open at their bottom ends, a transverse pickup lip outstanding from the bottom front edge of the rails, a pair of spaced wheels mounted upon a transversely disposed wheel shaft adjacent to the bottom back edge of the rails and a handle at the top of the rails, all in an arrangement which permits a load to be picked up by the lip and lie against the front side of the rails when the truck is tipped rearwardly onto the wheels; b. said elevator mechanism including a leg telescopically carried in each rail; and c. a means to extend and to retract a substantial portion of the legs from the bottom of the rails in unison to raise and lower the truck with a load thereon.

Claim 3

In the organization defined in claim 1 wherein: the inner side of each rail is slotted and the legs are joined together by cross bars extending from the slots.

Claim 4

In the organization defined in claim 2 wherein: the extension means includes a pull chain connected to a cross bar and extending downwardly therefrom to a connecting means near the bottom of the hand truck.

Claim 5

In the organization defined in claim 2 wherein: the extension means includes a transverse shaft near the top of the hand truck, a second transverse shaft near the bottom of the hand truck, a sprocket on each shaft, a chain loop between the sprockets having one point connected to a cross bar of the legs and a cranking means associated with a sprocket to forcibly pull the chain loop about the sprockets and lower the cross bar with respect to the rails when the legs are being extended.

Claim 6

In the organization defined in claim 4 wherein: the aforesaid truck handle comprises a tubular member positioned behind the rails and the cranking means includes a shaft through the handle, a hand crank connected with the shaft at one side of the handle and gear means operatively interconnecting the shaft and the aforesaid top shaft sprocket.

Claim 7

In the organization defined in claim 5 wherein: said gear means includes a drive sprocket connected to the crank shaft at the center of the handle, said top shaft parallels the crank shaft and the aforesaid top shaft sprocket thereon connects with the said drive sprocket through a driven sprocket on the said top shaft which, in turn, connects with the said top shaft sprocket.

Claim 8

In the organization defined in claim 5 including: a braking means associated with the said hand crank adapted to prevent rotation of the crank whenever the same is released.

Claim 9

In the organization defined in claim 4 wherein: the aforesaid second transverse shaft near the bottom of the hand truck is in the said wheel shaft and means to support this shaft at each side of the bottom shaft sprocket.

Claim 10

In the organization defined in claim 1 including: a slide means at the back side of each rail adapted to hold the rails away from an edge of an elevated deck whereonto the truck is being lifted or wherefrom the truck is being lowered.

Claim 11

In the organization defined in claim 9 wherein: each slide means comprises a rigid slide bar spaced rearwardly from the back side of the rails and a slide spool thereon adapted to engage the edge of the deck to permit the slide bar to slide within the spool.

Claim 12

In a two-wheel hand truck of the type having a pair of longitudinally extended rails, a transverse pickup lip outstanding from the bottom, front edge of the rails, a pair of spaced wheels mounted upon the truck in transverse axial alignment with a wheel being at each side of the truck near the bottom back edge of a rail, and a handle means at the top of the rail, all in an arrangement which permits a load to be picked up by the lip and to lIe against the front side of the rails when the truck is tipped rearwardly onto the wheels; the improvement consisting of an elevator mechanism to facilitate raising and lowering the hand truck to and from an elevated deck and comprising: Ser. No. 464,805 a. a leg telescopically associated with each rail to normally nest with the rail, but to extend downwardly below the bottom of the rail; and b. a manually actuated means interconnecting the legs to forcibly move said legs in unison to extend a substantial portion of the legs below the rails and to retract the same whereby to raise and lower the truck to and from an elevated deck through such extension and retraction of the legs.

Claim 13

In a two-wheel hand truck of the type having a pair of longitudinally extended rails, a transverse pickup lip outstanding from the bottom, front edge of the rails, a pair of spaced wheels mounted upon the truck in transverse axial alignment with a wheel being at each side of the truck near the bottom back edge of a rail, and a handle means at the top of the rail, all in an arrangement which permits a load to be picked up by the lip and to lIe against the front side of the rails when the truck is tipped rearwardly onto the wheels; the improvement consisting of an elevator mechanism to facilitate raising and lowering the hand truck to and from an elevated deck and comprising: Ser. No. 464,805 a. a leg telescopically associated with each rail to normally nest with the rail, but to extend downwardly below the bottom of the rail; and b. a manually actuated means interconnecting the legs to forcibly move said legs in unison to extend a substantial portion of the legs below the rails and to retract the same whereby to raise and lower the truck to and from an elevated deck through such extension and retraction of the legs.

Claim 14

In the organization defined in claim 11, wherein: said manually actuated means includes a braking means adapted to hold the legs at any position whenever they are being extended and to retard and/or stop the movement of the legs whenever they are being retracted.