In an industrial lift truck of the kind having a mast assembly, a load-lifting carriage mounted for sliding movement up and down the mast, and a load support carried on the carriage, the load support being capable of being moved transversely of the truck by means provided for this purpose, the load-lifting carriage comprises a rear part mounted on the mast assembly and a front part carrying the load support, the front part being pivotally connected to the rear part to pivot about a horizontal transverse axis and being slidable together with the load support transversely of the rear part. There is provided a roller which contacts an up-and-down extending surface of one of said parts at a location below said horizontal transverse axis, which roller is mounted on the other part of the lifting carriage for rotation about an up-and-down extending axis and for movement in a fore-and-aft direction relatively to said other part. An hydraulic ram is provided to effect the fore-and-aft movement of the roller so as to effect tilting of the front part relatively to the rear part about said horizontal axis, the roller also acting as an antifriction support for the lower end of the front part of the carriage during the transverse movement of the front part of the carriage and the load support.
A fork carriage attitude adjusting arrangement includes a mounting tower secured to and extending upwardly from the forward end of a longitudinally extending frame. A lever arrangement is pivotally attached to the mounting tower and has a hydraulic tilt motor operatively connected thereto for adjusting its angularity relative to the mounting tower. A pair of vertically spaced parallel arms have their rearwardly extending ends pivotally connected to the lever arrangement and their forwardly extending ends pivotally connected to a mast assembly to maintain the mast assembly at a predetermined attitude relative to the lever arrangement. The mast assembly includes at least one upright, a fork carriage and a roller mounting device for rotatably attaching a plurality of rollers to the fork carriage for adjusting the angularity of the fork carriage relative to the upright so that the angularity of the fork carriage may be selectively adjusted to maintain it at a predetermined attitude when the relative angularity between the mast assembly and mounting tower is changed by pivotal movement of the lever arrangement.
A side shiftable carriage assembly has a carriage frame and a side shift frame. A bracket arrangement connects the side shift frame to the carriage frame for slidable movement in directions transverse uprights of a lift mast. The bracket arrangement has spaced apart first and second support and stop portions which position and axially align first and second jacks at a location closely adjacent first elongated guide and support rail members of the carriage and side shift frames. A fastening device removably connects the first and second jacks to the first and second stop portions, respectively. A restraining member maintains the first and second jacks on the first and second support portions. Rods of the first and second jacks abuttingly engageable with a force reaction device connected to the carriage frame moves the side shift frame transversely along the carriage frame. The side shiftable carriage assembly is particularly suited for use on a lift mast of a material handling vehicle.
A lift truck sideshifting carriage has an upper transverse slide guide with an upwardly-protruding first lip for slidably supporting an upper transversely-extending slide of a sideshifting frame. The sideshifting frame has a second upwardly-protruding lip for supporting the load-handling implement of the lift truck. The slide guide has a transversely-extending reinforcing portion which protrudes forwardly from beneath a forwardly-facing surface of the first lip, and extends throughout at least a major portion of the transverse length of the slide guide. A sideshifting motor, for moving the sideshifting frame transversely with respect to the slide, is mounted to the slide guide externally beneath the reinforcing portion of the slide guide. The forwardly-protruding reinforcing portion of the slide guide and the upwardly-protruding first lip of the slide guide are formed monolithically and homogeneously as a single member.
