Dredging Loader

Abstract

A dredger-loader vehicle having a shovel loader at the front and a dredging outrigger in the rear. The dredger swingably mounted on the rear portion and including a counterweight, all above the rear axle. The motor is located above the front axle.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a dredger-loader consisting of an at least two-axle vehicle, an earth-moving device such as a loading shovel or grading device articulated on the front of the vehicle, and a dredger swingably positioned on the rear of the vehicle.

Almost all construction sites require digging and loading or grading work within short intervals of time; in order to make full use of the equipment or in order to keep the number of vehicles required to a small number, it is known that ditchers can be attached on the tail end of conventional front loaders. In the case of the front loader, the drive motor, including the driving gears, distributor gears, and hydraulic pumps are customarily arranged in a manner protruding backward, above the rear axle which is arranged like a pendulum. In the case of the additional attachment of a ditcher, there occurs a very unfavorable weight distribution. In order to prevent the vehicle from tipping over during the transportation of the excavator, it is therefore absolutely necessary to lock the jointed swinging axle. A further disadvantage in such equipment, which is made for multipurpose use, consists in the fact that the accessory dredger has a swing radius limited only to about 180.degree. and that no counterweight is available in case of excavating work that runs lateral with respect to the direction of movement or driving. Therefore, the scraping forces may then be employed only to a limited extent. In addition to this, it is extremely awkward for the operator to change his position from his driver and front loader operator seat, over the engine, to the excavator seat, especially in the case of ditch digging, when the vehicle must again and again be driven forward for a small distance after a shorter excavating period.

On the other hand, there are tractors which are converted from farm tractors and which are equipped with a loading scoop that is arranged swingably over the front axle and on whose tail end ditchers can be attached. In this design, poorer loading and grading properties are obtained than in a vehicle specially designed for this purpose because of the fact that the loading scoop or shovel is arranged above the forward control or guidance jointed swinging axle. Since these carrier vehicles, in themselves, are built in the form of traction vehicles, there is usually only provided a single-axle drive with oversized rear driving wheels and small front wheels. This gives poor ground pressure distribution. In this design, furthermore-- if it is equipped with an accessory attachable dredger-- there is also the above-described disadvantages of a limited dredger swing range, of the absence of a counterweight when excavating must be done laterally with respect to the direction of drive, and of the impractical changing of seats from one operating position to the next.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is based on the task of further developing a dredging loader avoiding the described disadvantages, to such an extent that optimum conditions will be available in regard to the bracing and absorption of working forces and weight distribution both for the use of the loading shovel and for the use of the ditcher. Also, obtaining the swingability, as well as force utilization which will remain fully equal over the entire swing range, will become possible particularly when using the dredger or excavator tool. This is intended simultaneously to achieve considerable simplification of the function requiring the operator to change seats from one position to another or to eliminate this seat-changing altogether. To solve this problem, it is proposed, according to the invention, for the multipurpose equipment of the design described in the beginning, that the vehicle motor, including the gears and the hydraulic equipment, be arranged above the front axle and that the frame of the excavator, provided with a counterweight, be arranged approximately above the rear axle. The operating positions for the excavator and the front loader are arranged on a baseplate attached to the vehicle above the rotatable excavator frame or chassis. This gives an excavator-loader with full utilization possibility both for the loading shovel and for the ditcher, without any need for possibly be hampered in this fashion.

An improved equalization or balance with respect to the forces, because of the excavator shovel at a great distance from the center of gravity of the vehicle, is given by the fact that the vehicle motor and the other drive elements are located above the front axle. The inclusion of the excavator in the structure of the vehicle and the equipment of the excavator with a necessarily protruding counterweight turn out to be advantageous for the purpose of combining the driver's position. For the excavator and front loader, one can use a single swing-seat which not only makes it unnecessary to have the driver change seats but which, at the same time, improves the visibility during excavating work. The inclusion of the excavator in the structure of the vehicle accordingly offers favorable arrangement possibilities for the driver's position and the excavator operating position, in such a way that the changing of seats from one seat to the other seat can be eliminated altogether.

A practical further development of the invention consists in arranging the motor on the front of the vehicle and the excavator, with a turntable, on the rear of a vehicle designed in the form of an articulated chassis in which the perpendicular turning axis lies in the middle between the front and the rear axle. In articulated chassis vehicles this gives the advantage of a smaller turning circle for the vehicle and good maneuverability in a very small space.

The driver's positions can be arranged on a baseplate connected with the vehicle, the baseplate covering the rotatable chassis of the excavator and which rests on a central supporting bearing. This proposal likewise offers the possibility of combining the driver's position and the excavator operating position so that the forward-facing control panel or dashboard for the operation of the excavator can be operated from a swing-seat which can be rotated by 180.degree.. The excavator control panel, according to another version, can be swung along, above the baseplate, together with the seat and with the excavator chassis.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is explained in detail below, together with accompanying examples illustrated in the Figures.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section of an excavator-loader according to the invention, designed as an articulated-chassis vehicle.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of the same piece of equipment.

FIG. 3 is another version, in the same illustration as in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The vehicle, which is designed as an articulated-chassis vehicle in the example according to FIGS. 1 and 2, consists of a forward vehicle portion 2 and a rearward position 3 which are flexible and controllably connected with each other via a bending axis 6 which is arranged exactly in the middle between the front axle 4 and the rear axle 5. The forward position includes the drive motor with the driving gears, distributor gears, and hydraulic pumps for various working tools provided on the vehicle. The front axle 4 is constructed in the form of the noncontrollable rigid axle, while the likewise powered and noncontrollable rear driving axle 5 is positioned, in pendulum fashion on rear position 3, in a universal joint bearing 7, schematically indicated at point 7.

A loading shovel, schematically indicated at 8, is attached to the front portion 2 in a manner customary in front loaders. This front loader has good grading and loading properties by virtue of rigid axle 4 and weight stressing due to the motor and the gears, as well as the fuel and hydraulic fluid tanks located on the front portion. Approximately above the rear jointed swinging axle 5 there is arranged, on a chassis 9 of the rear portion 3 a turntable mount 10 which supports an excavator chassis 11, with a counterweight 12, which can be swung about 250.degree. (see FIG. 2). The limitation of the excavator swing arc X to 250.degree. is explained by the design in accordance with the invention. More specifically, the arc is limited by the fact that the rotatable excavator chassis 11 is covered by a fixed baseplate 14 on which the driver's location 15 and the excavator-operating location 16 are combined.

A perpendicular attachment 17 to chassis 9 on rear portion 3 for the purpose of supporting the baseplate thus limits the excavator swing range.

In the example according to FIGS. 1 and 2, baseplate 14 has a borehole at the pivot of the excavator; a bushing 18 for the excavator hydraulics protrudes upward through this borehole, and the bushing 18 is surrounded by a supporting bearing 13 for baseplate 14. A rotatable and lockable seat 19 and the excavator operating panel 16 are attached to baseplate 14 so that an outrigger 20, with a bucket arm 21 and a bucket 22, attached to excavator chassis 11, can be properly observed from there.

In the illustrated resting position of the excavator, in which the outrigger 20 comes to rest against the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, the seat 19, which is flexibly attached at 23, can be rotated by 180.degree. so that it will assume the position indicated with the broken lines in FIG. 1, pointing toward driving wheel 24 and driver's dashboard 15. In place of the driver's and operating positions 15, 16 as shown in FIG. 1, it is basically possible to have the kind of arrangement in which the seat and the excavator operating panel can be swung along with chassis 11. In this case, the control lines from the control panel run to the excavator through the hollow supporting column and not, as was customary in excavators with attachment devices in the past, from the control panel above the swing axle to the individual hydraulic cylinders on the outrigger, the bucket arm, etc.

In the version according to FIG. 3, the motor is positioned-- in a vehicle with a unitary chassis 25-- over the front axle and chassis 11. In this version the vehicle includes a noncontrollable, rigid front axle and a rear steering axle. The excavator is positioned above the rear vehicle wheels, in such a way that it can be rotated around a perpendicular swing axis. In contrast to the design according to FIG. 1, the excavator swing axis is here shifted somewhat further to the rear from the place above the rear axle, so that-- considering the protruding counterweight 12-- there will still be room for a broader, longer attachment or supporting part 26 which, via a baseplate 27 permits the stable positioning of the swing axis, so to speak, in a fork with bearing cups 28, 29. This eliminates the more expensive turntable bearing of the excavator. Nevertheless, the excavator chassis, which is here likewise partly covered by baseplate 27, is included in the structure of the vehicle and there is achieved the same advantages as described before.

In this version likewise there is need for only one seat, for both operating positions, and this seat can be lockably swung around axis 23. There is a further possibility here for running, from the excavator swing axis, for instance, a chain gearing, to a shaft positioned perpendicularly on baseplate 27, the shaft supporting the excavator control panel, including the swing-seat. On the basis of the gear ratio selected, the operating position will then follow the actual excavator swing angle, for instance, from the indicated zero position, but nevertheless, provides excellent visibility. The supporting legs 30 are then retracted from the zero position and the seat is swung 180.degree. around the driver's position.

Claims

I claim:

1. A dredger-loader comprising:

a. a vehicle having a front portion and a rear portion;

b. an earth-moving device connected to said front portion;

c. an excavator connected to said rear portion;

d. an excavator chassis rotatably mounted on said vehicle, said excavator being mounted on said chassis, said chassis having a counterweight to compensate for the weight of said excavator;

e. a baseplate rigidly fixed to said vehicle and extending over said chassis;

f. an excavator-operating position on said baseplate; and

g. an earth-moving operating position on said baseplate.

2. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1, including a front axle on said front portion and a rear axle on said rear portion, a motor substantially over said front axle and said chassis substantially over said rear axle.

3. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1 including a turntable on said rear portion, said excavator connected to said turntable, said turntable being rotatable in a horizontal plane.

4. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1 wherein said front and rear portions are pivotable with relation to each other through a vertical axis.

5. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 4 including a front axle on said front portion and a rear axle on said rear portion, said axis being located midway between said axles.

6. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1 including a noncontrollable rigid front axle attached to said front portion and a rear steering axle connected to said rear portion.

7. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1 wherein said baseplate extends over the axis of rotation of said chassis.

8. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 7:

a. including a seat mounted on said baseplate;

b. wherein said seat and said excavator-operating position is positioned substantially over the axis of rotation of said chassis.

9. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 8 including a supporting bearing between said chassis and said baseplates

10. A dredger-loader as defined in claim 1 wherein said seat and said excavator-operating position are coupled with said chassis for at least partial corotation therewith.