Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Camper
Patent
1985-12-31
1988-07-26
Pedder, Dennis H.
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Camper
296171, 296173, 296175, 296 26, 5118, B60P 338
Patent
active
047595825
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a mobile lodging including a vehicle body for a trailer and having a plurality of adjacent sleeping cabins with dimensions that can be reduced for transport.
It is already known for a tour bus having a center aisle and rows of seats arranged at both sides of the aisle to use the seat cushions to arrange sleeping areas for the passengers in two superposed planes. The passengers lie next to one another in pairs, separated by the center aisle and curtains drawn therein (U.S. Pat. No. 2,231,822). However, this manner of partitioning sleeping cabins offers a place to sleep for only a small number of passengers.
It is also known to use the side sections of a box-type vehicle to erect sleeping berths adjacent the longitudinal sides of the box-type vehicle, with the sleeping berths extending outside the box-type vehicle transversely to its longitudinal axis. The box-type vehicle itself here serves as the floor from which the sleeping berths are reached and otherwise accommodates cabinets (Austrian Pat. No. 190,812). However, on trips where every night is spent at a different location, it is time consuming and cumbersome to erect the cabin structure each night outside the box-type vehicle and adjacent thereto, to accommodate the beds therein and the next morning to store the beds again within the box-type vehicle and to dismantle the cabin structures.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide lodging of the above-stated type which, although of low-cost design, has high inherent strength and is uncomplicated in its structure.
The above and other objects are accomplished according to the invention in the context of a mobile lodging as first described above wherein each sleeping cabin includes a fixed portion, and a sleeping element extending in a longitudinal direction and containing at least one bed, the sleeping element being slidable in the longitudinal direction in the fixed portion in an open configuration in which the fixed element contains an open aisle region located longitudinally behind the at least one bed and a closed configuration in which the sleeping element totally occupies the aisle region, each sleeping cabin having another sleeping cabin immediately laterally adjacent thereto, the aisle region of each sleeping cabin being directly laterally accessible from the sleeping element of the immediately laterally adjacent sleeping cabin.
The invention is based on the realization that each entire sleeping element is designed to be pulled out until the innermost end of the sleeping element lies above the longitudinal axis of the lodging and the outer end thus projects relatively far to the side. However, it is not necessary that within the sleeping cabin an aisle region be adjacent the entire length of the bed. It is sufficient if access to the bed includes an aisle region that lies within the reduced-size outline of the vehicle body formed when the sleeping cabins are in the closed configuration. However preferably, the part of the sleeping element that can be pulled out beyond this outline is limited to the width of the bed.
The stated solution permits better space utilization in that a bed and cabinet element is constructed in the manner of a vertical drawer and the aisle region which can be used as a dressing area can not be pulled out. This results in a savings of material due in part to the elimination of stiffening elements since the pull-out sleeping elements as a whole are kept smaller and therefore have increased inherent stability. The sleeping elements are preferably pulled out only to one third of their length which permits a simple design for the vehicle frame and the use of uncomplicated supporting elements.
A preferred embodiment is distinguished by the fact that, in a mobile lodging of the above-mentioned type, the greatest possible amount of space can be saved in the transporting position if the sleeping element taking up the most room in the longitudinal direction, i.e., the bed, of the one cabin can be pus
REFERENCES:
patent: 1436984 (1922-11-01), Follett
patent: 2231822 (1937-08-01), Austin
patent: 3484131 (1969-12-01), Shea
patent: 4652041 (1987-03-01), Barber et al.
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