Material or article handling – Self-loading or unloading vehicles – With load-receiving portion – or significant section thereof,...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-05
2001-03-20
Keenan, James W. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Self-loading or unloading vehicles
With load-receiving portion, or significant section thereof,...
C414S462000, C414S480000, C280S414100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06203264
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to recreational vehicles, and particularly to a means for towing, behind a motor home or other towing vehicle, a towed car, truck or other towed vehicle, on a car dolly, with a boat trailer loaded with boat and motor, carried above the front end of the towed vehicle.
It is desirable that vacationers, retirees, and other persons be able to conveniently and safely travel in a motor home or other towing vehicle, and safely and conveniently tow behind such vehicle, a car dolly loaded with a car, station wagon, pick up truck, or other towed vehicle; and to have carried above said dolly a boat trailer, boat and outboard motor, with the heaviest part of the boat trailer and boat being forward of the dolly wheels and as near as possible to the towing vehicle, so as to have advantageous location of the weight-load of the trailer, boat and motor load and so as to also have advantageous short-length of the combination of towing vehicle and towed items, for easier handling while driving and for taking up less room while parking. It is further desirable for such persons, when having towed the items to the travel destination, to be able to conveniently separate the towed items into four usable components: towing vehicle; car dolly; boat trailer with boat and boat motor thereon; and towed vehicle. Such separation permits independent use of all possible combinations of the vehicles with the other components. It permits use of the towed vehicle to tow the loaded or empty boat trailer for certain trips; and use of the towing vehicle to tow the loaded or empty boat trailer for other trips; and use of the towing vehicle to tow the car dolly loaded with the towed vehicle on yet other trips.
Potter U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,656 discloses a trailer which can carry, on its lower frame, the front end of a small automobile, acting as a car dolly, and can also carry, on its upper frame, above the front end of the automobile, a boat with its bow forward; which trailer can also be used to water launch the boat after the automobile has been removed from the trailer. This trailer does not provide the advantageous weight distribution of having the heaviest end (the stern) of the boat, positioned forwardly. This trailer lacks the versatility of the invention herein described, by not permitting use of a boat trailer and a car dolly separately and independently at times, e.g. not being able to use the towing vehicle to tow the car dolly and car on one trip, while at the same time being able to have the boat trailer towed behind the towed vehicle or another (third) vehicle available in the vicinity; or to have such third vehicle tow the car dolly and towed car on one trip, while the towing vehicle is used to tow the boat trailer on a different trip.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other disadvantages are overcome by the present invention, which provides a mechanism conveniently mountable on a standard car dolly, to carry, above the front end of a car on the dolly, a standard boat trailer loaded with boat and outboard motor, with the heavy end of boat and trailer forward, and whereby when travel destination is achieved, and the towed car and boat trailer are unloaded, the mechanism is partially removable from the car dolly, permitting the car dolly and boat trailer to be conveniently used separately and independently in hook-up to either the towing vehicle or the towed vehicle, or to any other vehicles in the destination vicinity.
A mechanism in accordance with this invention includes a post-and-beam mechanism, having a forward central post, a pair of rearward parallel side posts connected by a rear cross beam, and a longitudinal beam connecting the top of the forward post with the center of the rear cross beam. The bottom ends of the posts are pivotably connected to mounts on a standard car dolly. The top of the forward post is removably pivotably connected to the longitudinal beam near the forward end of the beam. The rearward end of the longitudinal beam is fixedly connected to the center of the cross beam. The posts may thus be swung from a substantially horizontal low position along the dolly to a high position above the dolly. In the low position, a standard boat trailer (with boat and motor thereon) may be backed onto the mechanism so that the trailer rests on said beams. The posts are then pivotably swung to the high position, the posts supporting the beams and the boat trailer thereon.
A standard crank reel winch and cable is used to raise and lower the mechanism to any desired position between fully lowered position and fully raised position, and ratchet-lock the mechanism in the desired position selected. The posts, in their bottom portions, are pivotably mounted in U-shaped channel mounts in which the “U” opens rearwardly. In the upright position of the posts, each post is within its associated U-shaped channel, and may be locked therein by pull pin and cotter key arrangement provided near the top of the channel mount.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4068772 (1978-01-01), Prudhomme
patent: 4406477 (1983-09-01), McDonald
patent: 4469346 (1984-09-01), Low
patent: 4705289 (1987-11-01), Weber
patent: 4784545 (1988-11-01), Lawrence
patent: 4880250 (1989-11-01), Cravens et al.
patent: 4946332 (1990-08-01), Daniels
patent: 5152656 (1992-10-01), Potter
patent: 5727920 (1998-03-01), Hull et al.
patent: 5772388 (1998-06-01), Clark
patent: 5863173 (1999-01-01), Bremner
Herriot Howard M.
Keenan James W.
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