Motion converting system

Claim 1

For use with a truck trailer, a motion transmission system for operating a truck trailer landing gear mechanism having a pair of landing gear legs and a transverse shaft rotatable in one direction or the other for respectively extending or retracting said legs, said system comprising an enclosure adapted for being carried by said trailer, sleeve means journalled within said enclosure for receiving said shaft in intact condition, means for coupling said sleeve means to said shaft for causing rotation of said shaft by said sleeve means, a pneumatic cylinder, a piston within said cylinder, an actuator rod extending from said cylinder within said enclosure axially normal to said sleeve means and reciprocal axially along a rectilinear path toward and away from said sleeve means, a toothed wheel for rotating said sleeve means and carried concentrically by said sleeve means within said enclosure, first and second sets of lever arms within said enclosure having proximal ends journalled in upper and lower pairs on opposite sides of said toothed wheel and distal ends radially spaced from the axis of rotation of said sleeve means, first and second pairs of links pivotally interengaging the cylinder remote end of said actuator rod and the respective upper and lower pairs of lever arms within said enclosure, first and second pawls located respectively between the upper and lower pairs of lever arms proximate the periphery of said toothed wheel for engaging said toothed wheel responsive to the direction of movement of said actuator rod, means interengaging the upper pair of lever arms for swingably mounting said first pawl, means interengaging the lower pair of lever arms for swingably mounting said second pawl, said pawls being presented to engage said toothed wheel in spaced-apart zones, each pawl having a body, a shoulder centrally of said body and depending fingers projecting from opposite sides of said body and directed toward the periphery of said toothed wheel, resilient means associated with each pawl for resiliently bearing against the respective shoulder for maintaining the pawl in selected forward or reverse overcentered relationship with a corresponding depending finger of the pawl engaging an interdental zone of said toothed wheel to impart rotational force to said toothed wheel, in a selected continuous forward or reverse direction, in response to each movement of said actuator rod, and means for remotely and selectively shifting the overcentered relationship of each pawl for selectively controlling the direction of rotation of said shaft.