Automated machinery to clean debris from roadside ditches, collect it and then transport the debris to a major collecting area for disposing

摘要

A vehicle, such as a self dumping dirt truck or a trailer, is equipped with a powered assembly of components to automatically clean debris from roadside ditches or irrigation ditches, preferably powered by the truck engine, a tractor engine, or an auxiliary engine, which in turn drives a hydraulic pump of a hydraulic system powering several hydraulic motors. The debris, dirt, gravel, and weeds, are loosened and collected from the ditches alongside a road and then conveyed to a dirt collecting chamber of the trailer or truck. At times if the debris is not objectionable it may be discharged back near the roadbank but removed from the ditch area. This powered assembly of components comprises: a leading powered auger for rotary and advancing movement in a ditch; a powered cleaner conveyor selectively positioned and operating just behind the auger, which it supports, to convey collected debris up and out of the ditch; a powered bucket elevator to continue conveying the collected debris to a higher elevation on the trailer or truck; a powered belt conveyor to move the collected debris from the bucket elevator to the dirt collecting chamber of the trailer or dirt truck, and an interrelated hydraulic drive system using a hydraulic pump and hydraulic motors, powered by the main engine of the dirt truck or tractor, or the auxiliary engine of a trailer. The powered assembly of the ditch cleaning components is adjustably mounted on the vehicle to be transversely or laterally moved relative to the truck to reach ditches located at different distances from a roadside. Also for legal highway travel, i.e., 8 feet wide, these ditch cleaning components are adjustable into such non- use legal width positions.