Importance

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Abstract

A tracked vehicle is tethered so that as it skids on a pile of bulk material, the cleated tracks transfer the material toward the tethered end. The tethering rope hitch point on the vehicle is translatable laterally to effect controlled sideward skiding for sweeping bulk material from a wide area and is located at one end above the vehicle center of gravity so that the vehicle can be lowered by the tethering rope through narrow openings in storage chambers yet come to rest upright. The tracks comprise cleated endless belts coupled to endless wire ropes at the end pulleys by resilient rail members made of two rows of discrete blocks bolted to the belts which are wedged against the wire ropes by grooves in the pulleys so that tension induced in the wire ropes resists the lateral forces tending to cause the belts to creep along the pulleys. The vehicle frame comprises a sealed, structurally rigid, elongated box for each endless track in which the drive motors are protected and channel members extending along the sides and beyond the ends of the elongated box with the end pulleys mounted between the extended ends thereof. In an alternate form, the tethered end of the vehicle trails upward so that it can pile material higher.

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First Claim