Heavy duty transport vehicle

摘要

A heavy load hauler for travelling on conventional road ways to move, for example heavy construction equipment such as cranes or the like from one work site to another. The hauler includes a front tractor drawn carriage, a rear carriage and a load unit disposed between and carried by such carriages. The front carriage is supported upon a multiplicity of independent wheel and axis units. There is a first fifth wheel coupling at the leading end of the front carriage, for connecting to the fifth wheel coupling of a tractor, and a second fifth wheel coupling spaced rearwardly therefrom. The load carrying rear carriage is also supported upon a multiplicity of independent wheel and axle units and there is a fifth wheel coupling intermediate the leading and trailing ends of such carriage. The load unit has detachably connected thereto a forwardly projecting and a rearwardly projecting pair of goosenecks and each has a fifth wheel coupling with the one on the forwardly projecting gooseneck connected to the fifth wheel coupling on the front carriage and the other to the fifth wheel coupling on the rear carriage. The load unit may be either the crane itself or a flatbed upon which the crane is carried. At least some of the independent wheel and axis units are steeraly mounted on the carriage associated therewith. The independent wheel and axis unit has the wheels thereof supported by a hydraulic suspension and included is hydraulic circuitry that interconnects all of the suspensions so as to distribute equally the load among all of the wheel units. Steering of the independent wheel and axle units is interphased for the front and rear carriages by a pair of operatively associated inter-related in-line valve cylinder units.