Vacuum sweeper vehicle with lightweight hopper

摘要

A vacuum sweeper vehicle including a hopper mounted to the vacuum truck chassis, a vacuum system for drawing a predetermined partial vacuum at a vacuum inlet and a suspended vacuum sweeper head having a debris conduit leading to a debris outlet. The hopper has a seamless fiberglass tank formed with a front wall having a vacuum outlet for mating with the vacuum inlet and a debris inlet for mating with the debris outlet. The tank has top and bottom walls and is formed with pairs of laterally disposed respective upper and lower longitudinally extending rounded corners formed integrally between laterally disposed side walls. The rear end of the tank is open to form a debris removal outlet and a rear door is hingedly connected to the rear of the tank to be disposed in closing relation over the rear of the tank. In addition, the tank includes a screen and a diverter interposed between the debris inlet and vacuum outlet that cooperate to direct air flow from the debris inlet through the screen to the vacuum outlet.