Patent ID: 7398959

Claim:
In an apparatus for supporting a trailer of a tractor-semitrailer with a telescopically height-adjustable supporting element having an outer sleeve and an inner sleeve, with a spindle mounted in the supporting element and driven by a multi step gear shifting mechanism via a bevel gear arrangement and with a spindle nut engaging one of the sleeves and collaborating with the spindle, said gear shifting mechanism displaying a gear input shaft having both a small-diameter sprocket wheel and a large-diameter sprocket wheel, a rotatably mounted set of sprocket wheels collaborating with the sprocket wheels of the gear input shaft and bevel gear arrangement as well as shiftable coupling means designed for the optional connection of the gear input shaft to the sprocket wheels of the sprocket wheel set via one of the sprocket wheels, wherein the improvement comprises an arrangement of the gear input shaft running perpendicularly and in one a common plane onto with the spindle.