Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Carrier attached to the front or rear end of vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-25
2001-06-12
Vidovich, Gregory M. (Department: 3727)
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Carrier attached to the front or rear end of vehicle
C224S534000, C224S537000, C224S924000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06244483
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a carrier device, which, in one preferred embodiment, is a bike carrier that is suited for attachment to a vehicle. One preferred embodiment of the present invention features a modular carrier structure that is interconnectable with other carrier structures to form a carrier assembly with the modular carrier structures preferably being arranged in a vertically stacked or staggered arrangement.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A plurality of bike carrier designs have been developed including compact strap designs that position a bike on the upper surface of a bumper and rely on strap, buckle and trunk hook components to secure the bike to the body of the vehicle. Examples of this type of bike carrier can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,118,018 and 5,038,980. In addition to the potential damage to the vehicle created by the hook and buckle components, bike carriers of this type are generally limited to single bike support and also often involve a great deal of set up and adjustment. One advantage of this type of carrier is, however, that they can be made rather compact for shipping and retail shelf space requirements.
There also exists in the art carriers for bikes and other items that include components that attach directly to a vehicle body such as the roof of the vehicle. An example of this type of carrier can be seen in U.S. Pat. No 5,884,824. These type of carriers are applied on a more permanent basis as compared to the hook and strap arrangements described above and thus are typically not easy to remove and instal and also introduce the added possibility of damage to the vehicle body.
The prior art also features bike carriers that are designed to extend out away from the rear end of a vehicle from an attachment point in the bumper region of the vehicle such as from a square hitch common on many vehicles, particularly sports utility vehicles or SUV's. Many of these bicycle carriers include carriers with a relatively lengthy vertical main support bar from the top of which extends horizontal support beams that are provided with clamps or the like to attach to a bicycle generally in an upper region of its frame. Examples of this type of bicycle carrier can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,476,202; 5,469,997 and 5,373,978. As having to attach clamping components to the more susceptible painted frame regions of bicycles is undesirable, carriers that attach to a rear end of a vehicle also include carriers that are not designed for attachment to the upper or internal frame structure of a bicycle or other wheeled appliance, but are designed for providing an underlying platform on which the bicycle can be positioned. Prior art examples of this latter type of bicycle carrier include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,025,932; 5,377,886; 5,497,927; and 5,570,825. While these type of carriers avoid the drawback of having attachments extending near or in contact with the bicycle's upper, interior frame structure, they generally suffer from a plurality of other problems, such as there being (1) highly complex in design; (2) not very versatile from the standpoint of being able to accommodate for variations in the desired number of bikes (motorbikes or bicycles); (3) not able to accommodate a large number of bikes; not well suited for ease in loading (e.g. difficult wheel or fork latching or the positioning of handle bars of multiple bikes at a common level, conflicting relationship); (4) bulky to the extent of presenting difficulties from the standpoint of, for example, shipping, retailer shelf space requirements and high customer handling weight; and/or (5) formed of a large number of unique components making for high manufacturing and purchase costs as well as difficulty in customer assembly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed at providing a carrier device that is directed at avoiding or alleviating the various problems described above as being associated with the prior art. The present invention features a carrier device, which, in one preferred embodiment, is a bike carrier that is suited for attachment to a rear end of a vehicle such as by way of a hitch, tow ball platform or bumper attachment. A preferred embodiment of the present invention features a modular carrier structure that is interconnectable with other carrier structures to form a carrier assembly with the modular carrier structures preferably being arranged in a vertically stacked or staggered arrangement as they extend out away from the rear end of a vehicle. The vertical stacking arrangement provides the advantage of being able to retain an underlying bike support relationship while avoiding having the clearance level of the rearmost bike supporter subject to scraping during certain vehicle travel conditions (e.g, steep driveway aprons or rough terrain such as that often faced during off-road travel). Thus, because of this modular stacking arrangement, a large number of bikes can be carried (e.g., 4) while avoiding scraping problems. In addition, the vertical stacking arrangement positions the handle bars of many bike at alternate levels so as to avoid loading and unloading conflicts.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention also features a modular arrangement wherein a user/customer can choose the number of individual carriers (preferably each a self-contained one bike carrier) desired. For example, a single person may wish to purchase just a single, self contained modular carrier structure and not incur the expense of a multi-support carrier and yet also wish to keep the option open for later expansion. A couple on the other hand, may prefer to purchase two modular carrier structures (one attached to the vehicle and the second attached to the one attached to the vehicle), and yet also keep open the option for later expansion without having to discard or sell the earlier purchased modular carrier structures. Furthermore, with the modular nature of the present invention an expanding family can add on to a prior number of purchased carriers based on the exact number needed. Also, because a preferred embodiment of the invention features modular carrier structures that are the same in all respects or have the exact same design (or at least the same design for all extensive purposes) there is avoided confusion both at the manufacturing level (e.g. which product is being shipped out) and at the customer level (avoiding having to return items because the purchased item was not the one intended). In addition, the preferred modular carrier support of the present invention features a highly symmetrical arrangement wherein all of the components attached to a central element are in same design pairs and mutually useable on either side (making for high efficiency manufacturing and also ease in customer assembly once purchased).
The present invention also has the advantage of being able to have a compact break down arrangement which is beneficial from the shipping container and storage requirements (particularly from the standpoint of a retailer shelf storage requirement which is at a premium). The arrangement of the present invention is also able to provide the numerous advantages described above while avoiding the introduction of a large number of components, particularly a large number of different designed components, which again avoids many of the manufacturing, assembly and use difficulties associated with the prior art.
The present invention also provides a design that allows for rapid loading and unloading of one or a large number of bikes (e.g., 4) while still providing high stability and position maintenance assurance to the user. This is particularly true following the initial sizing of the carrier wheel cradles (which in itself is easy to achieve under the present invention) wherein the user can simply insert and remove the bike from the preadjusted cradles without having to further manipulate the preset cradle position. A preferred embodiment of the invention also includes an easy to perform tie down assembly which relies on the underlying
McLemore Don C.
McLemore John D.
Smith Gambrell & Russell
Vidovich Gregory M.
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