Patent ID: 8282026

Claim:
A vehicle for distributing animal bedding material in an indoor, industrial livestock production facility, said vehicle comprising: a truck chassis having a hopper body thereon, said hopper body defining a volume by its length, width, and height having an inside surface and sloping sidewalls wherein said sloping sidewalk are formed at an angle relative to a horizontal plane of said truck chassis above an angle of repose of said animal bedding material such that when delivering the animal bedding material, said bedding material is completely dispensed from said hopper; and a conveyor running the length of the bottom inside surface of the hopper body in contact with the animal bedding material, said conveyor extending beyond a rear edge of said truck chassis and defining a discharge point for discharging the animal bedding material; and a dispensing mechanism in fluid communication with said conveyor and extending from said rear edge of the truck chassis; wherein said dispensing mechanism comprises: a pair of rotating distributor plates located at the discharge point of said conveyor; a plurality of upwardly directed baffles formed on or attached to an upper surface of said distributor plates; said distributor plates being rotatable at a relatively high rate of speed such that material accumulated on said plates between said baffles is discharged in a lateral outward direction; a central directing baffle for directing outwardly flowing aggregate between said pair of distributor plates upon discharge; and a diverter plate for operatively directing the entire discharge to one particular distributor plate or the other.