Trailer Hitch Waste Container Lifting Apparatus
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing devices for transporting heavy waste and recycling containers to distant locations for pickup often require significant manual effort and can lead to early container failure due to improper handling and mechanical stress, especially on unpaved surfaces, and fail to provide sufficient mechanical advantage for efficient lifting and transport.
Innovation Solution
A trailer hitch-mounted apparatus using lever arms and mechanical advantage to lift and transport heavy waste containers with minimal force, allowing them to be positioned for pickup without direct contact with the ground, utilizing a series of steel tubes, levers, and bushings to provide clearance and secure attachment to a vehicle's trailer hitch.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Force
If a manual lever device is used to lift heavy waste containers, then lifting capability is improved, but mechanical advantage is insufficient when the lever is centrally located
Solution Approach 1:
The lever arm is positioned asymmetrically at the rear end of the frame rather than centrally, creating an unequal arm lever where the effort arm is longer than the load arm. This asymmetric positioning provides greater mechanical advantage, allowing a single operator to easily lift heavy loaded containers that would be difficult to raise with a centrally located lever.
2Adaptability or versatility
If waste containers are transported over unpaved surfaces, then accessibility to remote locations is improved, but container bearing stress increases causing early failure
Solution Approach 1:
The transporting apparatus separates the lifting and transport functions from the container itself. The container is lifted clear of the ground and supported entirely by the apparatus frame and lever system during transport. This segmentation eliminates contact between the container bearings and the ground surface, preventing the excessive stress and damage that occurs when containers are dragged or rolled over unpaved surfaces.
3Length of moving object
If a trailer hitch mounted apparatus is used to transport containers to distant locations, then transport distance capability is improved, but the apparatus complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The apparatus is designed to attach to a standard vehicle trailer hitch, which is a universal mounting point found on most vehicles. This universal attachment method allows the same simple lever-based lifting apparatus to be used with any vehicle for transporting containers to distant locations, whether by car, truck, or other vehicle, without requiring vehicle-specific modifications or complex mounting systems.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables the efficient and safe transport of heavily ladened waste containers to remote locations with reduced manual effort, minimizing container damage and stress on the container's bearings, while allowing for easy repositioning and reuse, thus addressing the challenges of distance and surface type.
Implementation Method 1
through the use of a lever arm, pivoting it to an over center position to provide for lifting of the trash container off of the ground
Implementation Method 2
lever actuated device that can easily grasp the lifting bar of the container, off the ground, lifted for a clearance distance
Data Source
AI summary
A trailer hitch mounted recycling, transporting, and even a waste container transporting apparatus includes a tubing connector, that secures with the trailer hitch of a vehicle, and having a support plate, that mounts a lifting tube permanently thereon. A pivot rod pivotally secures to the upper end of the lifting tube, and the pivot rod connects with a lifting lever, which when pivoted from a vertical to a horizontal position, allows for movement of a container either onto or off of the ground, in preparation for its transport, or removal from this apparatus. A lifting hook slidably engages with the lifting tube, and connects with a lifting bracket at its upper end, which connects with a short lever, that provides a sliding movement to the lifting hook either upwardly with respect to the lifting tube, or downwardly therefrom, so that its hook device can secure to the container to provide for its lifting, transport, and lowering, after it has been moved to a distant location.