Patent ID: 7651312

Claim:
A truck comprising: a rear axle and wheel assembly; a chassis having a forward portion that supports a cab, a terminal portion that terminates at a location forward of said rear axle and wheel assembly, a pivot portion located between the forward portion and the terminal portion, and an initial orientation relative to the ground, wherein the cab is at a forward end of the truck; a deck that is rearward of the cab and having a forward portion that overlies the terminal portion and the pivot portion of said chassis and a rearward portion that extends rearward of the rear axle and wheel assembly; and a suspension spring having a forward part connected to the terminal portion of said chassis, a rearward part connected to the rearward portion of said deck, and an intermediate part connected to the rear axle and wheel assembly; wherein said deck is operatively connected to the pivot portion of said chassis so as to be tiltable relative to the chassis about a horizontal pivot axis in the pivot portion, and is configured such that when the deck is tilted rearwardly about the pivot axis, the chassis tilts forwardly from the initial orientation and the forward part of the suspension spring moves with the chassis such that said forward part of the suspension spring moves toward a part of the deck immediately above the forward part of the suspension spring such that a vertical spacing between the forward part of the suspension spring and that part of the deck is reduced, and such that a part of the deck immediately above the rearmost axle lowers towards the rearmost axle to provide a low loading angle for the deck.