From: Bruce Beattie (bruce@eecs.berkeley.edu)
Date: Fri Feb 13 2004 - 20:04:43 PST
Here is my crazy idea folks. It will take a bit of explaining though, so bear me out.
Suppose that you had this hypothetical truck that had a heavy duty I beam sticking out
parralel to the forward bottom edge of the bed, as though some one shoved it accross
the frame just behind the cab but in front of the bed.
Lets say it sticks out 5 or 6 feet. but is solidly mounted on the frame. Yea I know,
its going to play havock with things that you pass, but hear me out, this is just to explain things.
Now suppose that you start to roll on to the side that has this beam sticking out?
Will the truck roll over? I don't think so.
Now that we have established this possibility, lets make it practical.
Set this up with really heavy nested box beams such that under normal times it all stays
where it should be and not sticking out.
Now the truck starts to turn over, as it passes thru a critical angle that you determine,
a latch pops off and the nested tubing shoots out and latches.
Obviously there is a little engineering involved here to get the right steel sizes and
mechanisims in place, but I think this could be made to work.
The benefits of this should be obvious.
Some things to consider might be to have an air accelerator to make sure the steel gets
out fast enough.
You also need to think safety so that this can't shoot out until that critical
angle is reached.
The critical angle should be slightly larger than the rated tip angle, but not by much.
Ok guys, I stuck my head out here, please don't chop it off with anything rusty please...
Bruce MVPA 23824
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