JPH101074A - Vehicle spare tire holding structure - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] When a passenger car collides with a large or medium-sized truck, even a sports-type passenger car with a low ground clearance at the front of the vehicle body works effectively and penetrates below a chassis frame or a carrier. And a spare tire holding device capable of reliably absorbing collision energy and effectively preventing or reducing damage to the cabin of the rear-end collision vehicle and injury to the occupant due to a secondary collision. I do. SOLUTION: A tire holding bracket capable of holding a spare tire in a downwardly inclined position toward the rear is provided below a rear end of a chassis frame of a middle and large truck, and the chassis frame above the bracket is provided. A spare tire carrier capable of lifting and lowering the spare tire and abutting on the bracket for holding the tire in the above-mentioned inclined posture and storing and holding the spare tire is provided thereon.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a structure for holding a spare tire in a vehicle, in particular, a medium or large truck.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a large truck has a so-called ladder-type underframe on which a cab and a loading platform are mounted, and the ground height of the underframe is mounted thereon. The bed is usually high enough to interfere with the windshield glass of passenger cars. For this reason, when the passenger car collides with a medium or large truck, the front part of the car body enters below the chassis frame of the truck, and the windshield glass collides with the chassis frame or the rear end of the cargo truck and is broken, It was not uncommon to have major accidents.

On the other hand, in many medium and large trucks,
A spare tire holding mechanism that holds the spare tire in a substantially horizontal posture is provided below and near the rear end of the chassis frame. In this type of truck, a spare tire itself horizontally supported below a rear end portion of a chassis frame is used to replace a rear-end collision with a passenger car (including a two-box wagon and a van based on a passenger car, and a recreational vehicle). The same technology has been used as a stopper to prevent entry into the lower part of a truck bed and a chassis frame, that is, undercut.
It is disclosed in JP-A-2-10158.

[0004] The above-mentioned proposed device is mounted on the left and right side rails of the chassis frame below the rear end of the chassis frame, in front of a spare tire suspended substantially horizontally via a normal tire carrier. A rigid reinforcing member extending in the vehicle width direction with both ends fixed is arranged, and the front end of the spare tire is brought into contact with the reinforcing member. When abutting, the forward displacement of the spare tire is prevented by the reinforcing member, thereby prohibiting the passenger car from penetrating below the carrier and absorbing the collision energy by the elasticity of the spare tire. The purpose of the present invention is to prevent or reduce damage caused by a collision on the side of a passenger car, particularly, injury caused by a secondary collision of the occupant.

[0005] However, in the proposed structure, the spare tire is held in a substantially horizontal position under the chassis frame, so that especially in the case of a large truck, the ground clearance of the spare tire is considerably high. In the case of a passenger car with a low vehicle height in the front part of the vehicle body, for example, a sports type passenger car,
There is a problem that the spare tire does not work effectively as a stopper for preventing the tire from getting in. In addition, in the case of a passenger car with a sufficiently high vehicle height at the front of the vehicle, even if the front of the vehicle collides with the spare tire during a rear-end collision and the penetration is prevented by the solid reinforcing member, it is absorbed by the elastic deformation of the spare tire. Since the collision energy to be applied is insignificant, there is a disadvantage that it is not possible to expect a sufficient effect to prevent or reduce the damage due to the secondary collision of the passenger on the passenger car side.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention uses a spare tire held below the rear end of a chassis frame to prevent a rear-end collision of a passenger car from entering, ie, penetrating below, a cargo platform and a chassis frame. At the same time, it works effectively and effectively to prevent the rear-end collision of a rear-end collision car, not only a normal car but also a sports-type car or a light car with a low front part. It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive spare tire holding structure. In addition, the present invention can increase the absorption of collision energy in the rear-end collision of the above-mentioned passenger car as compared with the conventional device, and correspondingly effectively reduce the damage of the collision vehicle, especially the occupant of the rear-end collision automobile. It is another object to provide a spare tire holding structure that can be used.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a tire holding bracket for holding a spare tire in a downwardly inclined position is provided below a rear portion of a chassis frame, and the tire holding bracket is provided. A vehicle having a spare tire carrier capable of lifting and lowering the spare tire and holding the spare tire at a storage position in contact with the tire holding bracket on an upper chassis frame. Is proposed. In the present invention,
The rear bumper provided at the rear end of the chassis frame and the rear end of the spare tire stored in the front of the rear bumper at an angle in the tire holding bracket are disposed at substantially the same height. Is preferred.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to a side view of a main part of FIG. 1 and an enlarged perspective view of a main part of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 10 generally indicates a large cab-over type truck. The truck 10 includes a pair of right and left side rails 12 extending in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body, and a side rail 12 extending in the vehicle width direction. And a plurality of cross members 14 fixed at both ends to left and right side rails 12 with a large number of rivets or bolts.

The upper ends of a pair of bumpers 18 are fixed to the web 12w at the rear ends of the left and right side rails 12 by a plurality of bolts or rivets, and the lower ends of the bumpers 18 are hollow tubes having a rectangular cross section. The rear bumper 20 extends and is fixed in the vehicle width direction. Triangular side frames 22 are attached to the lower flange 12f1 of the left and right side rails 12 by bolts, rivets, welding, or other appropriate fixing means. A bottom plate 26 having a chain insertion hole 24 is fixed to the frame member forming the base of the base 22 at a substantially central portion. The pair of left and right side frames 22 and the bottom plate 26 form a tire holding bracket 30 that can hold the spare tire 28 in a rearward and downwardly inclined position.

[0010] Side frame 2 of the tire holding bracket 30
2 is formed by joining steel materials having an L-shaped cross section by welding or the like, and has a sufficient strength to normally and reliably fix the spare tire 28 in cooperation with a spare tire carrier 32 described later. Is formed.
As shown in the perspective view of FIG. 2, the spare tire carrier 32 extends in the vehicle width direction and has both ends,
The shaft 36 of a chain wheel (not shown) supported on a pair of L-shaped members 34 fixed to the lower flange 12f1 of the side rail 12 with bolts or the like and housed therein is connected to the side rail web 12w. Is rotated by a driving tool inserted through a tool hole 38 provided in the spare tire, thereby winding or unwinding a chain 42 connected to a suspension beam 40 engaged with a wheel disk of the spare tire 28, and Is lifted from the ground surface to a storage position where it comes into contact with the tire holding bracket 30 and is held at the storage position, or is lowered from the storage position to the ground surface.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the spare tire 28 is held in a storage position where the spare tire 28 is in contact with the bottom plate 26 of the bracket 30 by the spare tire carrier 32, the rear end of the spare tire 28 And the rear bumper 20 are arranged at substantially the same height position. Further, it is preferable that one cross member 14 of the chassis frame 16 is disposed at a front position at an appropriate distance (for example, several cm) from the front end of the spare tire 28 held at the storage position. Note that reference numeral 4 in FIG.
4 is a rear wheel disposed in front of the spare tire 28;
6 is a vertical joist or subframe 4 on the chassis frame 16.
8 is a loading platform or a loading box mounted on the loading platform.

When a passenger car 50, only the first half of which is shown in FIG. 1, collides with the rear part of the truck 10 having the spare tire holding structure, a front part 52 of the vehicle body of the passenger car collides with the rear bumper 20. And the rear bumper 20
After the bumper sty 18 is plastically deformed forward, it collides with the spare tire 28 held at the storage position in an inclined posture via the deformed rear bumper 20. When the passenger car 50 collides at a relatively low speed, the collision energy is small, so the rear bumper 20 and the bump pasty 1
8, and the collision energy is absorbed by the crushing of the front part 52 of the vehicle body, and the rear-end collision vehicle collides with the spare tire 28 and stops, so that it does not go under the chassis frame 16 and the carrier or the cargo box 46 any more. No major damage occurs in the cabin part behind the windshield glass 54,
Therefore, the safety of the occupant is ensured.

Next, when the passenger car 50 collides at a relatively high speed and the collision energy is large, the spare tire 28 is supported in an inclined posture after the vehicle front 52 collides with the spare tire 28 as described above. The tire holding bracket 30 is deformed forward while effectively absorbing collision energy by plastic deformation, and the front end of the spare tire 28 abuts against the cross member 14 acting as a rigid stopper and stops. It does not go under the chassis frame 16 and the carrier or the cargo box 46 any more. Accordingly, the collision energy of the passenger car 50 that has collided is effectively absorbed by the plastic deformation of the front vehicle body 52 due to the crushing of the front body 52, the plastic deformation of the rear bumper 20 and the bumper tee 18, and the plastic deformation of the tire holding bracket 30. However, the absorption of collision energy due to the elastic deformation of the spare tire 28 also contributes, so that the windshield glass 54
It is possible to prevent the rear cabin portion from being significantly damaged, and to effectively prevent or reduce injuries caused by the secondary collision of the cabin occupants, and at the same time, to prevent the occupants on the truck side of the rear-end collision. Since the impact is also reduced, the safety can be improved.

According to the above construction, the spare tire 2
8 is held in the storage position in the inclined position facing downward and downward, so that the chassis frames 16 of substantially all passenger cars, including sports-type passenger cars and light cars, in which the height of the vehicle body front portion 52 is low, and There is an advantage that it is possible to reliably prevent the undercarriage from getting under the carrier or the cargo box 46, and the tire holding bracket 30 can be manufactured with a simple structure, light weight and low cost.

Depending on the distance between the left and right side rails 12 of the chassis frame 16, the outer diameter of the spare tire 28, and the angle of inclination of the spare tire 28 in the storage position, the tire holding bracket 30 is plastically deformed by the rear collision. As a result, the spare tire 28 is displaced forward, is sandwiched between the left and right side rails 12 of the chassis frame 16, and the spare tire 28 itself can directly function as a stopper. In this case, since the cross member 14 acting as a final stopper is not required, the strength of the chassis frame 16 itself, the arrangement of related members, etc. (for example, The position of the cross member 14 can be freely set from the viewpoint of the position of the suspension spring of the rear wheel 44). Further, instead of the cross member 14 in front of the spare tire 28 shown in FIG. 1, a stopper member having the same effect can be provided at an appropriate position on the left and right side rails 12.

[0016]

As described above, the spare tire holding structure according to the present invention is provided with a tire holding bracket for holding the spare tire in a downwardly inclined position toward the rear below the rear portion of the chassis frame. A spare tire carrier capable of moving the spare tire up and down and holding the spare tire in a storage position in contact with the tire holding bracket is disposed on a chassis frame above the tire holding bracket. Effectively prevents undercut of the chassis frame, carrier or cargo box at the time of rear-end collision of a wide range of passenger cars such as sports cars with low ground clearance at the front of the main body as well as ordinary cars. Thus, it is possible to reduce damage to the cabin portion, and to prevent or reduce injuries due to a secondary collision of the cabin occupant. There is a simple and inexpensive advantage. Further, in the spare tire holding structure, a rear bumper provided at a rear end portion of the chassis frame and a rear end of the spare tire held at an angle by the tire holding bracket in front of the rear bumper are substantially the same. With such a configuration, the rear bumper and the tire holding bracket can be effectively functioned as the first and second-stage collision energy absorbing members.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part side view showing a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an essential part perspective view showing a spare tire holding portion in FIG. 1 in an extracted manner.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 large cab over truck, 12 side rail, 14 cross member, 16 chassis frame, 18
Bumper tee, 20 ... rear bumper, 28 ... spare tire, 30 ... tire holding bracket, 32 ... spare tire carrier, 44 ... rear wheel, 46 ... packing or packing box, 50 ...
Passenger car, 52 ... body front

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A tire holding bracket for holding a spare tire in a rearward and downwardly inclined position is provided below a rear portion of a chassis frame, and the spare tire is mounted on the chassis frame above the tire holding bracket. A spare tire holding structure for a vehicle, comprising a spare tire carrier that can be raised and lowered and that can be held at a storage position in contact with the tire holding bracket. 2. A rear bumper provided at a rear end of a chassis frame and a rear end of a spare tire which is inclined and held by the tire holding bracket in front of the rear bumper is located at substantially the same height. 2. The spare tire holding structure for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein