Bridge parts, especially floating bodies of an amphibious bridge vehicle

Claim 1

An amphibious vehicle having a floatable vehicle body, which includes: a plurality of floatable bridge bodies, a plurality of joint means pivotally connecting said bridge bodies to each other and to said floatable vehicle body, a plurality of elbow lever means respectively arranged within the region of at least some of said joint means and additionally interconnecting adjacent floatable bridge bodies, and a plurality of power operable pivoting means respectively supported by said floatable bridge means and operatively connected to said elbow lever means for selectively moving the same into a first position to respectively pull adjacent floatable bridge bodies together and securing the same in pulled-together position or into a second position for separating portions of adjacent floatable bridge bodies to permit folding said floatable bridge bodies about said joints and placing the same in superimposed position upon said floatable vehicle body, each of said elbow lever means including two arms connected to each other by a joint and each pivotally mounted on the respective adjacent floatable bridge body by another joint, one of said floatable bridge bodies being arranged between and linked to two adjacent bridge bodies and being displaceable substantially in parallel, the arms of each of said elbow levers being of different length, the longer one of said arms being journalled in said bridge body, fluid operable cylinder-piston systems respectively operatively connected to said longer ones of said arms for actuating the same, pivotable lever means respectively interconnecting the cylinder-piston systems with the pertaining longer one of the respective pertaining two arms, said pivotal lever means respectively being offset with regard to the pertaining longer one of said arms, the joints of each elbow lever means in effective bridging position of said bridge bodies being located on a common line of action extending in the longitudinal direction of the pertaining floatable bodies.