Abstract:
A front loading garbage truck with a unique packing blade that creates a self-cleaning garbage truck without the need for manual clean outs and construction for the accomplishment of same. The packing blade includes a top vertical portion that is in a fixed position and a second bottom vertical portion that is retractable into a horizontal position to allow for repeated pass-throughs to collect all debris prior to emptying the garbage from the truck. Additionally, a unique cab shield sits atop the cab portion that contains a plurality of holes on the sides and along the top sloping face to allow ventilation therethrough and prevent damage to the engine caused by excessive heat.

Description:
REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATION 
     This application claims the priority of provisional application 61/573,259, filed Aug. 31, 2011 entitled FRONT LOADING GARBAGE TRUCK by Paul Campbell, Wendell Perkins and Ron Alderfer. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Front loading garbage collection trucks are common in the field of trash, garbage, refuse and/or recyclable materials removal. Typically, the truck includes an arm at the front of the truck that grabs with forks or other grabbing mechanism a trash can or other receptacle containing trash, garbage, refuse and/or recyclable materials. The grabbing mechanism is attached to an arm that travels over the top of the cab of the truck and behind the cab to an opening called a hopper and dumps the trash, garbage, refuse and/or recyclable materials can therein. Once the garbage is inside the body of the trash truck, a packing blade pushes the garbage to the rear end of the truck to make room for more trash, garbage, refuse and/or recyclable materials and to optionally allow for expulsion through the rear of the trash truck once full. 
     One problem that often occurs is that some of the garbage is not grabbed by the packing blade on the push through. When garbage is left behind like this, the missed garbage needs to be manually removed by the operator. To accomplish this, the driver must climb inside the body of the trash truck. Additionally, a side door is required for access as is a floor clean-out trough to remove the missed garbage. 
     Also with front loading garbage trucks, there is often some sort of shield over the cab of the chassis to prevent debris that may fall out of the container being dumped from falling onto the cab of the truck. These shields are solid construction, but have been known to include a single hole in the top for the chassis engine exhaust pipe. This system has problems, however, in that the action of moving over the engine and the exhaust creates heat over the cab. Engine heat trapped under this cab shield design can then enter back into the engine air intake system thereby causing engine problems. 
     There is a need for a front loading trash truck engine design that overcomes the aforementioned shortcomings in the prior art. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The preferred embodiment of the instant inventions teaches a front loading garbage truck comprising: a chassis; a cab attached to said chassis; four or more wheels attached to said chassis; a movable arm attached to said chassis rests in the front of said cab and that can be moved to reach over said cab and terminates in a gripping means, such as forks to grip a garbage receptacle; a large hollow body attached to said chassis and behind said cab for the placement therein of garbage through the movement of said arm; a horizontal channel on both sides of said hollow body; a horizontal member that fits inside of said horizontal channel that is movable along said horizontal channel along the length of said hollow body; a top blade that is attached to said horizontal member that is in a fixed vertical position; and a bottom blade that is attached to said horizontal member that is movable between a first vertical position and a second horizontal position. 
     The above embodiment can be further modified by defining that the hollow body terminates in a movable tail gate. 
     The above embodiment can be further modified by defining that the horizontal member ejects collected garbage through said tailgate. 
     The above embodiment can be further modified by defining that a cab shield rests above said cab, said cab shield having a wedge shape with a bottom portion, a first triangular shaped side portion, a second triangular shaped side portion, a back portion and a sloping top face portion extending from the top of said back portion along the angle of said first and second triangular shaped portions to said bottom portion and wherein said first and second triangular shaped portions contain a plurality of apertures for ventilation and wherein said sloping top face portion includes one or more rows containing a plurality of apertures for further ventilation. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention without any garbage inside. 
         FIG. 2  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention with a load of garbage therein with the packing blade moving the load from the hopper portion of the body of the truck to the rear portion of the body of the truck. 
         FIG. 3  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention with the packing blade moving back to the hopper section of the body of the truck with the bottom portion of the blade in the retracted position so as to pass over any missed garbage from the initial pass through. 
         FIG. 4  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention with the packing blade back in the initial position and with the bottom portion of the blade returned to the vertical position having travelled along the matching radius of the bottom of the inside of the hopper section of the body of the truck. 
         FIG. 5  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention with the packing blade making a second pass through to push any garbage missed in the initial pass through. 
         FIG. 6  is a side view of the trash truck of the instant invention with the packing blade in the ejecting position ejecting the collected garbage through the rear of the body of the truck. 
         FIG. 7  is a perspective view of the cab shield that sits atop the cab chassis as seen in  FIGS. 1-5 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of presently-preferred embodiments of the invention and is not intended to represent the only forms in which the present invention may be constructed or utilized. The description sets forth the functions and the sequence of steps for constructing and operating the invention in connection with the illustrated embodiments. It is to be understood, however, that the same or equivalent functions and sequences may be accomplished by different embodiments that are also intended to be encompassed within the spirit and scope of the invention. 
     The most basic embodiment of the instant invention is a front loading trash truck that has a two-piece, self-cleaning packer blade design that allows for the lower part of the blade to operate initially as a standard packing blade in that it pushes and packs material into the receiving body as prior art packing blades design would. Additionally, it can also push material out of the body on full eject models as with prior art designs. What is unique about the design of the instant invention is that the packing blade has two parts: a top portion that remains vertical and a bottom portion that is retractable along the radius of the internal surface of the hopper section of the inside of the truck. 
     The retracting function of the lower part of the packing blade is unique in that the lower part of the blade will sweep upward from its initial vertical position into a second horizontal position before the packing blade returns to the front end of the hopper. Once the packing blade returns to the front end of the hopper, it returns to the vertical position for a second pass through, thereby moving any refuse that may have been missed during the initial pass through. Because of this function, there is no need for a side door for the operator to enter the body and there is no floor clean-out required for refuse removal. In this sense, the retractable bottom portion of the packing blade creates a self-cleaning front loading garbage truck. 
     The garbage truck of the instant invention also includes a unique cab shield that is designed to let air flow through from the front of the unit as it travels down the street. It also provides for the flow of exhaust through the sides and the rear. This allows heat and exhaust from the chassis engine to escape without harming the engine air intake system during use. 
       FIGS. 1-6  show a side view of the trash truck  10 . In  FIG. 1 , the truck  10  is empty. The front components of the truck  10  include the cab  12 , the movable arms  14  and the grabbing forks  16 . Above the cab  12  is the unique cab shield  18  shown in detail in  FIG. 7 . Behind the cab  12  is the body  20  into which garbage is collected through a hopper  22 . At the rear of the body  20  is a tailgate  24  that opens for the ejection of collected garbage. 
     Wheels  26  are attached to the chassis  28  in order for the vehicle to move. The arm  14  is also attached to the truck  10  and is movable in a direction from the front of the cab  12  up to the top of the hopper  22 . The forks  16  of the arm  14  are used to pick up a garbage container (not shown) and the arm  14  travels over the cab  12  to the top of the hopper  22  where the garbage container is dumped and the garbage  42  therein transferred through the hopper  22  into the body  20  of the truck  10 . The arm  12  is controlled from inside the cab  12  by the operator (not shown). 
     Inside the body  20  of the truck  10  is a horizontal channel  30  that acts as a guide into which a horizontal portion  32  of the packing blade  34  sits and travels. The packing blade  34  is divided into an upper portion  36 , which remains vertical at all times and a lower portion  38  that is retractable between a first vertical position and a second horizontal position. A mechanical means  40  such as a hydraulic system is used to push the packing blade  34  and its horizontal portion along the horizontal channel  30  in order to move garbage  42  from the front portion of the truck  10  to the rear portion and eventually ejected out through the back when the tailgate  24  is opened. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , once the garbage  42  has been placed inside the body  20  of the truck  10 , the horizontal portion  32  of the packing blade  34  is moved along the horizontal channel  30  inside of the truck  10  in a direction toward the tailgate  24  thereby moving the garbage  42  from the front of the truck  10  to the rear. As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , often times stray pieces of garbage  42   a  as missed by the bottom portion  38  of the packing blade  34  on the initial pass through. 
     To retrieve the stray pieces of garbage  42   a , the lower portion  38  of the packing blade retracts into a horizontal position flush with the horizontal portion  32  of the packing blade  34  as seen in  FIG. 3 . The horizontal portion  32  of the packing blade  34  then moves along the horizontal channel  30  in a direction back toward the front of the truck  10 . Illustrated in  FIG. 4 , the packing blade  34  has returned to the front end of the truck  10  at which point the bottom portion  38  of the packing blade is returned to the original vertical position.  FIG. 5  illustrates the second pass through wherein the stray pieces of garbage  42   a  are then moved along by the bottom portion  38  of the packing blade  34  and packed with the larger compact collection of garbage  42 . 
     For rear ejection trucks, the tail gate  24  is opened as shown in  FIG. 6  and the horizontal portion  32  of the packing blade  34  extends through the rear of the truck at which point the compacted garbage  42  is released from the body  20  of the truck  10 . 
       FIG. 7  is a close up perspective view of the cab shield  18  which sits over the cab  12  of the truck  10  of the instant invention. The shield  18  is a wedge shape with a back portion  46  that attaches to the body  20  of the truck, a first side  48 , a parallel second side  50  and a sloping top face  52 . The back portion  46  and the first and second side portions  48 ,  50  contain a plurality of holes  58  that allow for the flow of air therethrough. On the sloping top face  52 , there is at least one row  56  that includes a flat base with a perpendicular wall  54  extending upward therefrom. Along the perpendicular wall  54  is a plurality of apertures  58  that allow for further airflow therethrough. 
     The design of the cab shield  18  is created to allow air flow through from the front of the unit as it travels down the street as well as for exhaust to flow through the sides and the rear. This allows for heat and exhaust from the chassis engine to escape. 
     The foregoing description of the preferred embodiments of the invention has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching, including but not limited to the mixing and matching of various elements described herein. It is intended that the scope of the invention not be limited by this detailed description, but by the claims and the equivalents to the claims appended hereto. 
     The discussion included in this patent is intended to serve as a basic description. The reader should be aware that the specific discussion may not explicitly describe all embodiments possible and alternatives that are implicit. Also, this discussion may not fully explain the generic nature of the invention and may not explicitly show how each feature or element can actually be representative or equivalent elements. Again, these are implicitly included in this disclosure. Where the invention is described in device-oriented terminology, each element of the device implicitly performs a function. It should also be understood that a variety of changes may be made without departing from the essence of the invention. Such changes are also implicitly included in the description. These changes still fall within the scope of this invention. 
     Further, each of the various elements of the invention and claims may also be achieved in a variety of manners. This disclosure should be understood to encompass each such variation, be it a variation of any apparatus embodiment, a method embodiment, or even merely a variation of any element of these. Particularly, it should be understood that as the disclosure relates to elements of the invention, the words for each element may be expressed by equivalent apparatus terms even if only the function or result is the same. Such equivalent, broader, or even more generic terms should be considered to be encompassed in the description of each element or action. Such terms can be substituted where desired to make explicit the implicitly broad coverage to which this invention is entitled. It should be understood that all actions may be expressed as a means for taking that action or as an element which causes that action. Similarly, each physical element disclosed should be understood to encompass a disclosure of the action which that physical element facilitates. Such changes and alternative terms are to be understood to be explicitly included in the description.