The hand
truck / forklift as disclosed in this application is new and useful as an improvement in manually operated lifting trolleys in that it is versatile, fast, safe, practical and
user friendly for transporting and lifting loads commonly carried on a hand
truck, and with the preferred optional use of an electric hoist and cable actuating
assembly lift apparatus overcomes some limitations of use in enclosed environments and (or) raised structurally spanned floors without special provisions for excessive air changes or special structural reinforcements in floor construction as would be required for most power operated lifting trolleys currently available for lifting weights comparable to the lifters
body weight or heavier. This lift
assembly is versatile in that it may be used is a basic lifting trolley with various optional features which include a mountable base
carriage trolley, an extensible mast and cable or chain assemblies, the parallel actuating arm (rotary frame) or the lift actuating electric hoist to lift loads less than or comparable to the lifters
body weight. When this lift apparatus is used in this most basic form it lifts loads faster and in some cases
safer and efficiently when compared to other manually operated lifting trolleys. The rotary frame of the manually operated lift
assembly is preferably adapted with a sleeved punched post assembly at the outer end with a spring loaded caliper and pin assembly operated by a hand controlled lever on the rear frame extension and a sleeved cable to secure the load at selected heights, and to serve as a safeguard for holding the raised load on the lift fork. The optional addition of the parallel lifting arm to the extensible mast even further increases the vertical lifting height and frontal range of the lift apparatus including lifting from depths beyond the level of the loading dock. This invention in either form can also be used as a practical, versatile, convenient, fast and economical supplement to conventional hand trucks and forklifts by transporting and lifting loads onto and from delivery trucks to work counters, shelves, standard hand trucks etc. and stacking loaded
pallet units for handling by heavier conventional lifts for improved efficiency in either indoor or outside
material handling operations, and yet capable without the optional extensible mast and its actuating rear mounted jack assembly of being manually loaded onto a delivery
truck to perform these lifting functions at stops along the truck
route. The present lift apparatus is also equipped with an electric hoist significantly reduce the
resultant impact of stopping on structurally suspended floors, avoid tilt-over, to maximize the frontal, height and depth range of the lift trolley apparatus and actuate mounting and subsequent dismounting with the use of an electric
winch and cable all in succession based on the
relative resistance to movement of the lift assembly components in this continuous hoist cable pulling motion with all lift trolley features mounted and by means of the optional use of cables or chains and reverse movement of the lift trolley A-frame and the indirectly attached load fork to dismount the
carriage trolley.