WO2000017037A1

WO2000017037A1 - Parking mount for auto trailer

Info

Publication number: WO2000017037A1
Application number: PCT/DK1999/000449
Authority: WO
Inventors: Børge CHRISTENSEN
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-08-26
Filing date: 1999-08-24
Publication date: 2000-03-30
Anticipated expiration: 2001-02-26
Also published as: DK173192B1; AU5279099A; EP1107900A1; DK199801069A

Abstract

The parking mount is formed as a brace handle that is intended for a removable coupling device on one side of a trailer, on the outside of the wheel, and the side of the trailer body. The parking mount is basically on ablong vertical centrepiece with an upper part intended for direct mounting on the side of the trailer body. The bottom part is a combined support and clamp device with hook shaped arms meant to grip the wheel. The centrepiece is equipped with a number of outward facing transport wheels. When the trailer is to be parked, the parking mount is installed and the trailer is tipped over to an upright position, so the trailer is supported by the transport wheels. The trailer can now easily be moved around and the trailer takes up the least amount space.

Description

PARKING FITTING FOR AUTO TRAILER

This invention related to a parking mount for an automobile trailer, of the kind open box trailer with single or dual axles and a "tail" with a coupling device that can be coupled to the cars ball hitch. Automobile trailers of this type are usually equipped with a simple support or foot under the tail. This support or foot is used as a parking support for the trailer, when this, after release from the car, is put a side it self (parked). As a trailer mostly is used occasionally, the storing of it is often a problem, because of the relative large amount of space the trailer occupies. This is a particular problem for people who only have a carport or single garage available for both their car and trailer.

The object of the invention is to allow a parking option that enables parking the trailer in an upright position that uses less space and enables to manoeuvre the trailer around easily in this upright parking position. This way the trailer can be kept in a narrow space and in places, where access is limited.

The parking mount, according to the invention, is unique because its designed as a brace, which are supposed to be used as a removable coupling device in one of the trailer sides. More defined, on the wheel and in the load side of the concerning side. In mounted position the parking mount will be in supporting mounting tools, towards the side of the wheel at the bottom and the trailer sides top. The parking mount mainly consists of an oblong, vertical centre piece, in the upper part of which there is a supporting surface with an attached mounting device intended for direct mounting or another loose able mounting way, at the trailer side, and at which lower end there is a combined support and clamp device, which with handle or hook shaped arms, is meant to, partly or totally, grip the wheel when the parking mount is mounted to the trailer. Another characteristic of the parking mount is that the sidepiece on the outward facing side (meaning away from the side of the trailer body and the wheel) is equipped with a number of outward facing transport wheels. These serve as rolling support for the trailer when it is turned up around the mounting device in a vertical or almost vertical parking position.

By using the parking mount on a trailer in the way described above, it is possible with little manual effort to tip the trailer into vertical position over and around the mount, so that the trailer is standing on the wheels, which the mount is equipped with. Thanks to these wheels, it is possible to, in an easy and convenient way, to roll the trailer around, so you can store it in places where access is limited, for example in the back of a garage or carport. This quality combined with the fact that the trailer is taking up the least amount of space (floor area) in a vertical position, means that the well-known problems of storing a trailer are reduced.

By using the embodiment according to claim two, one achieve mounting (and dismounting) of the parking mount very easily as one wheel of the trailer is simply pulled in over the wheel gripping arms until this is in correct grip with the wheel gripping. Then just fasten the mount to the load side of the trailer with the here fore supposed grip device, where after the trailer is ready to be tipped into vertical parking position. The tipping movement is done more easily when the parking mount is equipped with a support point that works as a rotation point during the tipping movement, as per claim no. 3. By using the embodiment according to claim no. 4, the parking mount is equipped with a horizontally adjustably load support surface, so that the mount can be fitted for various trailers of the kind where the wheels are placed outboard in proportion to the trailer sides, which means where there is a relatively large horizontal distance between the outside of the wheel and the trailer side. The preferred way of using the adjustable trailer side support surface / trailer side mounting part is described in claim no. 10.

The wheels of the parking mount, could with advantage be a standard type, such as moulded polyamide wheels or rubber covered metal wheels mounted in fork mounts. These kinds of wheels have the adequate load carrying capacity and are at the same time price affordable. By appropriately shaping the mount as a whole and by choosing appropriate materials (for example as stated in claim no. 5) it is possible to produce the parking mount at a relatively low cost, and making it an attractive buy to a great number of potential customers.

Attaching the mount to the side of the trailer can be achieved in several ways. For example by inserting a bolt or thread pin through a hole drilled for this purpose, on the side of the trailer (claim no. 8). On the inside of the trailer body, a nut is screwed onto the bolt or the thread pin, so that the body support surface of the mount is buckled towards the outside of the side of the trailer body. It is an advantage if the nut is a wing nut or the equivalent, so it can be tightened by hand alone, meaning not using any tools. In a preferred manner of mounting, the mount can be locked (claim no. 9), for example by placing a padlock over the nut. In this way, the parking mount in itself, will be an effective theft deterrent for the trailer.

The invention is to be explained more fully with the drawing, where

Fig. 1 shows the trailer with the parking mount mounted in the first design form according to the invention, side view

Fig. 2 same but enlarged. Fig. 3 - the trailer incl. the parking mount, front view

Fig. 4 same but enlarged.

Fig. 5 the parking mount shown in a horizontal cross section along the line A-A in fig. 2

Fig. 5a same cross section shown with the parking mount wheel gripping arms with another design. Fig. 6a-6d the trailer shown at various angles during tipping from normal horizontal position to upright storage position.

Fig. 7 a parking mount according to the invention in another design, shown mounted on a trailer where the wheels are positioned on the outside of the trailer body side. Side view. Fig. 8 the trailer incl. the parking mount. Rear view.

Fig. 9 same but enlarged.

Fig. 10 an enlarged detailed section, showing the parking mounts adjustable trailer body side support, partly in cut. Drawing 1. illustrates the trailer and drawing 2., the parking mount. The trailer mainly consists of a trailer body (3), a set of wheels (4) and a tail (5). The tail is equipped with a coupling device (6), meant for coupling the trailer to the cars ball hitch (not shown) and a support foot (7), which serves as a parking support, when the trailer is parked on it's own. As fig. 1-5 shows, the parking mount (1) consists of a vertical centre piece (8) that is shaped with a horizontal cross piece (9) at the upper end. The crosspiece supports the trailer body side (3a), when the parking mount is mounted on the trailer. Both the centre piece (8) and the cross piece (9) are made of square profile tubing. Other than the cross piece (9), the parking mount is equipped with a protruding, welded studbolt (10), facing toward the trailer body side (3a), at a right angle. The bolt is inserted through a here fore produced drilled hole (11), in the trailer body side, and is secured with a nut (12), on the inside. The nut has a "wing" that makes is possible to tighten it manually and without the use of tools. The drilled hole (11) in the trailer body side (3a) is reinforced by a wear bush (14) inserted into the drilled hole. See fig. 4.

The parking mount is shaped as a gripping handle (15), in the lower part of the centrepiece (8), meant to grip the wheel (4), when mounted (fig. 2 and 4). The gripping handle (15) also includes a horizontal cross bar (16) (square tubing), that is welded to the inside of the centrepiece (8) at an adequate distance from the centrepieces' lower end (8a). The cross bar (16), has a handle (17), produced of bent round steel, and which is welded to the under side of the cross bar. The handle creates a closed shape, fitted to the bottom of the wheel (4), and it encases the tire when the parking mount is mounted. For this purpose, the handle is bent downwards and inwards under the tire. See fig. 5. The lower part of the handle is in near distance to the ground, so that the grip between the mount and the tire can be established by placing the handle (17) standing on the road just in front of the wheel, and here after rolling the tire over the handle by pushing the trailer. Fig. 5 shows the handle (17) in an open design, where the handle consists of two hook- shaped arms (17a and 17b). Other than this difference, the two designs have the same function. In both designs the cross bar (16), serves as a supporting device against the side of the wheel (4). The centrepiece (8), is situated on the side, facing away from the trailer body (3), and is equipped with two fork mounted transport wheels, (18, and 19). The wheels, which are a standard type, for example of moulded polyamide, serves as transport wheels for the trailer, when it is tipped into an upright position. See fig. 6a - 6d. The transport wheels, (18, and 19), make it possible to move the trailer around in this position, easily. Tipping the trailer, from horizontal, (fig. 6a), to vertical position, (fig. 6d), can be done by one person alone, as the trailer first is tipped around an axle, defined by the support handles (7) supporting point, and the trailer wheels (4) supporting point in the respective side. This means that the necessary lifting effort for tipping the trailer is less than half of the weight of the trailer. From a certain angle, the trailer tips around the bottom support point (8) and the centrepiece (8) (fig. 6b).

In fig. 7 - 10, the parking mount is shown in a design meant for a trailer of the type where the wheels (4) are mounted outboard of the trailer body (3). For this purpose, the parking mount is equipped with a horizontally adjustable arm (20) carrying a support surface (21) for the trailer body side (3a). The arm (20) consists of two telescoping square tubing (22 and 23). These are equipped with corresponding drilled holes (24) meant for a locking split pin (not shown). The construction is also shown in the drawing. The stud bolt (25), which the mount is tightened to the load side with, is in this design supplied with a cross going drilled hole (26) to accept a padlock (27). This allows the parking mount, which by the way is identical to the already described, to be used as a trailer theft deterrent. The arm (20) described in figure 10, with arrows (28) can be adjusted upwards and downwards in relations to the centrepiece. This allows the mount to be used for a variety of trailers. The invention is not limited to the uses described on the drawing and the previous text. Other combinations of materials, other versions and other construction options for the single elements and parts of the parking mount, are possible within the parameters of this invention, just as the uses of the parking mount can be expanded to other areas than those described above. It is, for example, also possible to use the parking mount for bicycle trailers and campers (e.g. CampLet and CompiCamp) and other versions of single axle trailers. The described locking mechanism on the parking mount can be adapted in several different ways, based on the already known locking systems. The method with the padlock, described previously, is included as single example, to show how the locking mechanism can be adapted.

Claims

PATENT CLAIMS

1. Parking mount for an automobile towed trailer (1 ), open box (3) with single (4) or dual axles and a tail (5) with a coupling device (6) that can be coupled to the car's ball hitch, c h a ra c t e ri z e d by, the parking mount (2) which mainly consists of a handle type device (8, 9; 16) intended for detachable mounting on one side of the trailer, on the outside of the wheel (4) and the trailer body side (3a), on the same side, so that the parking mount is in supporting devices towards the side of the tire below, and the top of the trailer body side. This parking mount (2) consists of an oblong, vertical centrepiece (8), in which upper part support surface has been arranged (9) with an attached mount (10) intended for direct mounting - or other suitable way of loose able mounting - on the trailer side (3a) and in the lower part of which, a combined support and gripping device (16, 17), is fitted. This has handle or hook shaped arms (17) intended to totally or partially grip the wheel (4) when the parking mount (2) is mounted to the trailer (1), the centrepiece (8) is equipped with out turned transport wheels (18, 19) on the outside of the centrepiece. These serve as a support for the trailer when tipped up around the parking mount in an upright parking position.

2. Parking mount according to claim 1 , c h a r a c t e ri z e d by, the handle or hooked shaped arms (16, 17), with which the parking mount (2) is held onto the wheel (4), grips the bottom of the wheel (4), so that the trailer (1 ) can be pushed over the handle or hooked shaped arms (17) of the mount side tire, and so the arms (17) serve as a bearing support for the tire, which allows the weight of the trailer to be shifted onto the parking mount, when the trailer is tipped from the horizontal to the vertical, over the parking mount.

3. Parking mount according to claim 2, c h a ra c t e ri z e d by that the lower part of the parking mount (2) is shaped with a - against the road (or surface) - supporting rotation mount (8a), around which the trailer can be tipped - at least considered from a specific tip angle (fig. 6b) - when the trailer is tipped from the normal horizontal position to the vertical parking position, and this rotation point is fitted as a simple support point at the bottom of the parking mount centrepiece (8) or the here on placed wheel gripping arms (17), or as one or more basket shaped tracks, intended for rolling over the surface when the trailer is tipped.

4. Parking mount according to claim 1 , c h a r a c t e r i z e d by the previously mentioned support surface or mounting part (9, 21) in the upper part of the parking mount, is adjustable perpendicular to and away from the trailer body side (3a) so that the parking mount can be fitted to various trailer types, including the types, where the wheels (4) are outboard of the trailer body (3), and where the horizontal distance from the outside of the tire and the trailer body side can vary from type to type.

5. Parking mount according to claim 1 , c h a r a c t e r i z e d by the parking mount mainly being produced of tubing with a square or circular cross section, and the materials used are mostly steel or aluminium.

6. The parking mount according to claim 1 , c h a r a c t e ri z e d by the transport wheels (18, 19) on the centre mounting piece (8) are of a suitable standard type, with the wheels mounted in fork mountings and that the wheels are sized 50 - 160 mm in diameter. There must be a minimum of one wheel on each side of the centre piece (8), equidistantly spaced from the centre and parallel, so the trailer can be pushed length wise when in the vertical parking position.

7. Parking mount according to claim 6, c h a ra c t e r!^' z e d by the swivel castors (18,19).

8. Parking mount according to claim 1 , c h a ra c t e ri z e d by mounting to the trailer body side (3a), is done by means of a bolt or stud (10,25) which is placed on the mounting piece (9, 21) and is through a hole, drilled for this purpose, in the trailer body side (3a), and that a wing nut (12) or a nut of similar type, is screwed onto the inside of the trailer body side, so the parking mounts trailer body support surface (9,21) is tightened toward the trailer body side, and the mount, in combination with the gripping arms (16,17) that grip the tire are secured against unintended loosening.

9. Parking mount according to claim 8, c h a r a c t e ri z e d by the connection to the wing nut (12) or other nut of this type, a locking or blocking mechanism (26) is acquired, which, by the use of a pad lock (27) or other suitable locking mechanism, serves as a security lock of the, on the trailer (1) mounted parking mount (2) 10. Parking mount according to claim 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d by the mentioned adjustability of the mounting part (21) for the trailer side, can be obtained by means of a support arm (20), placed horizontally in the upper end of the centre piece (8), in the free end of which, the mounting part (21) is mounted, and whose arm is put together by two telescoping tubes (22,23) inserted into each other, and can be coupled (locked) in various positions, and that this arm is also adjustable for height.