Patent ID: 7845441

Claim:
A powered hand truck comprising: a hand truck frame; a handle for steering the hand truck; an electric motor for powering the hand truck; a transaxle driven by the electric motor and having differentially connected right and left axles; right and left wheels attached to the right and left axles respectively; a power source for providing electrical power for the motor; a motor controller for controlling the electrical power provided to the motor; an operator actuated speed control attached to the handle and generating a speed control command; at least one touch point residing proximal to the speed control at a location graspable by the operator during normal hand truck operation and generating a touch point signal; and a control circuit receiving the speed control command from the speed control and the touch point signal from the touch point and providing a motor controller speed command to the motor controller, wherein the motor controller speed command is decreased if the touch point signal indicates that the operator is not touching at least one of the touch points, and wherein the control circuit includes: a transmitter circuit including a radio transmitter, the transmitter circuit in electrical cooperation with the operator actuated speed control; and a receiver circuit including a radio receiver, the receiver circuit in electrical cooperation with the motor controller; a wireless speed control signal is generated in the transmitter circuit based on the speed control command and transmitted from the radio transmitter to the radio receiver; and the controller speed command is generated in the receiver circuit based on the wireless speed control signal, wherein the wireless speed control signal further includes a first code which is compared to a second code stored in the receiver circuit, and the wireless speed control signal is ignored if the codes do not match.