Patent ID: 8286562

Claim:
A transportable load carrying platform comprising: a base frame for supporting a load with said base frame having two opposed ends; a pair of end walls mounted one at each of the two opposed ends of the base frame, said end walls each being adjustable between an operative position in which the end walls extend upwardly from the base frame when the load is being supported by the base frame so that the platform can be transported with the end walls in the operative position, and an inoperative position in which the end walls extend generally parallel to the base frame so as to reduce an overall height of the platform and thereby enable an unloaded platform to be stacked with other unloaded platforms to form a transportable stack of unloaded platforms for a return journey; a pivot mounting on the base frame about which one of said end walls is mounted for pivotal movement from the inoperative position and towards the operative position; cooperating abutment faces on the base frame and one of said end walls which inter-engage, when one of the end walls takes up the operative position, in order to resist any lateral impact applied in use to the end wall; a pivot pin disposed in the end wall with the pivot pin defining a pivot axis about which the end wall is pivotable; and an eccentric pin coupled to and extending axially from the pivot pin parallel to the pivot axis with the eccentric pin mounted and rotatable within the pivot mounting and with the eccentric pin offset from the pivot axis such that the eccentric pin defines an eccentric axis which is spaced laterally from the pivot axis and with the eccentric pin coupling the end wall to the pivot mounting; wherein inter engagement of the cooperative abutment faces is achieved by rotation of the eccentric pin about the eccentric axis thereby rotating the pivot pin about the eccentric axis within the socket whereby the movement of the end walls from the inoperative position to the operative position is a two-part movement comprising pivotal movement about the eccentric axis and lateral displacement of the pivot axis.