Abstract: An apparatus is provided for the lifting and manipulation of bulk material containers having at least a pair of externally protruding lips or a peripheral rim. The device has a frame adapted to be engaged by one or more kinds of moving machines, such as a forklift, and has a pair of substantially parallel, forward extending container engagement rails. The container engagement rails each have one or more inwardly directed lips which form a shelf or channel, upon or between which a container is supported and captivated for lifting and manipulation by externally projecting lips or rim. The container engagement rails may be vertically displaced from the machine engagement means to more efficiently utilize the lifting range of the machine, and the container engagement rails may be movably mounted to the frame to aid in handling conainers which have become distorted.

Abstract: An apparatus is provided for the longitudinally aligned lifting and manipulation of bulk material containers having apertured or tapered bases, or horizontally oriented ribs, or external peripheral lips on the sides thereof. The apparatus comprises a central frame having a pair of fork like elongate legs extending therefrom, and supporting wheels located at the central frame and at the distal ends of the legs. The legs are spaced sufficiently to straddle the base and simultaneously engage both sides of a container to be lifted, and lifting action achieved by a plurality of power rams which either extend the wheels more downwardly so that the legs and frame of the device are lifted with respect to the ground in con junction with tongues adapted to engage lifting apertures of the container, or by the upward extension of link bars which engage the side walls of a container so that the container is lifted with respect to the legs and frame of the device.

Abstract: A nestable truck body is provided, having dimensions of height and width which increase from the front of the truck body to the back of the truck body do that the majority of the truck body is able to be nested within another empty truck body of similar construction, thereby enabling the storage of more than one truck body in little more space than is required to store one truck body. When this structure is combined with techniques for piggyback towing of bodiless trucks, a method for the simultaneous transportation of a plurality of trucks and bodies therefor is achieved, which may be further improved by reversal of the orientation of the last truck so that the bodies nested therein are carried more securely.