Road maintenance method and vehicle

Abstract

The cutting blades and smoothing blades of a road maintenance vehicle are adjustable in position with respect to the wheels to avoid extremes in changes in the depth of a cut by a blade or the height of the blades caused by wheels of the vehicle dropping into low places in a road. By including a selected number of wheels mounted to the same stiff frame, the wheels riding on the highest part of the road will lift the rigid frame and other wheels rather than the wheels riding on the lowest part of the road determining the depth of the cut of the cutting blades. The height of the blades with respect to the wheels can then be adjusted so that they never cut too deep and overly stress the blades but do cut the highest elevations of the road and move the loose dirt and gravel into the lower parts of the road. A first frame is supported by wheels and a second frame is movably mounted to the first frame.

Description

RELATED CASES[0001]This application is a continuation of U.S. provisional patent application 61 / 187,596 filed Jun. 16, 2009, by inventor, Lee M. Waldo. The benefit of provisional patent application 61 / 187,596 is claimed.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]This invention relates to road maintenance and more particularly to methods and equipment for smoothing the surface of roads.[0003]One type of road maintenance equipment for smoothing the surface of roads includes a vehicle that is pulled by a tractor or truck and includes one or more cutting or shearing or buster blades that break elevated portions of the road into loose gravel and dirt and one or more striker or smoothing blades to spread the loose gravel and dirt over the road. One prior art road maintainer of this type has a centrally located V-shaped cutting or shearing blade and two side cutting blades that cut the road material and deliver it to a centrally located striker or smoothing blade that spreads the material across the...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel method and apparatus for controlling the magnitude of stress on the blades of a road maintenance vehicle.

[0007]It is a still further object of the invention to reduce the variations in the elevation of the blades of the maintenance apparatus during the road surface smoothing operation.

[0011]It is a still further object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus by which the operator of road maintenance equipment can adjust the height of the blades.

[0014]From the above description it can be understood that the road maintenance vehicle and method of this invention has several advantages such as: (1) the stress imposed on cutting blades is kept within manageable limits by controlling the angle of the blade and the depth of the cut for specific length blades and using multiple blades; (2) the depth of cuts is maintained reasonable in spite of low portions in the road that cause the wheels to drop to a low depth by including a sufficient number of wheels so that the height of the cutting blades is controlled by the wheel riding on a relatively high portion of the road; (3) a plurality of cutting blades is used to distribute the loosed road material more evenly; and (4) the height of the cutting and smoothing blades can be easily adjusted.

Problems solved by technology

This prior art road maintainer has several disadvantages, such as for example: (1) the resistance to cutting is at times undesirable in magnitude; (2) the height of the cutting and smoothing blades above the road is controlled by only two wheels near the end of the road maintainer and thus subject to wide variations as wheels alternately contact the lowest parts of the road and the highest parts of the road; (3) the scrapped and cut material is not distributed with sufficient evenness over the road; and (4) the height of the cutting and smoothing blades is not easily adjustable.

Images