Land vehicles: bodies and tops – Bodies – Auxiliary article compartments
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-15
2001-01-16
Pape, Joseph D. (Department: 3612)
Land vehicles: bodies and tops
Bodies
Auxiliary article compartments
C224S404000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174012
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of storage devices for motor vehicles, and more particularly to storage devices for trucks.
Trucks of the type with open rear bed cargo areas accessible through a rear gate door such as conventional pickup trucks are especially susceptible to unwanted intrusion. These vehicles generally have no secure storage area that will keep cargo and personal effects out of sight and secure. Articles left unattended in the truck (especially articles stored in the rear bed of the truck) are viewable by potential thieves and subject to theft and tampering. The theft of articles from these open vehicles is a major problem for owners. Moreso still, the threat of theft of articles is a major inconvenience to owners when shopping, traveling, or engaging in any other activity that involves transporting articles in the vehicle.
In the past, storage devices that create secure storage space in trucks have been devised to address the above described security problem. For the most part, these storage devices are relatively permanently installed (to prevent theft of the entire device and its contents) in the vehicle—usually by mounting the storage device to the rear bed of the truck with metal bolts or sheet metal screws which require deforming the chassis of the truck (drilling holes, etc.) and the use of tools to remove. One consequence of permanently mounting the storage device in the rear bed of the truck is to reduce the effective cargo capacity of the rear bed of the truck and thus render the truck less useful for transporting cargo. Furthermore, if the owner needs to use the rear bed of the truck at its full size, the storage device must be removed from its relatively permanent attachment to the vehicle with tools, which is a time consuming and laborious operation for the owner—not to mention the inconvenience of having to reinstall the storage device back into the truck. The owner of the truck is further inconvenienced by such storage devices since, because they are relatively permanently attached, they tend to obstruct access to the rear cargo bed making it difficult to load and unload articles stored otherwise therein. One such device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,776 issued to Bradley S. Schlachter. Schachter's invention must be relatively permanently attached to the truck with threaded bolts and cooperating nuts. Another such devise is U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,049 also issued to Bradley S. Schlachter. The use of this invention requires drilling holes into the chassis and is attached to the vehicle via sheet metal screws.
Other storage devices require an initial installation of externally supplied latching hardware onto the truck chassis and/or the storage device itself in order to secure the storage device to the truck, which is relatively complicated and cumbersome for the truck owner. Furthermore, when latching hardware is mounted to the truck it can degrade the aesthetics of the truck as well as impede the loading and unloading of articles in the rear bed. One such device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,684 issued to Kenneth Miller. Miller's invention requires mounting properly spaced rails to the vehicle using sheet metal screws or welding. Another such device is depicted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,395,019 issued to David Christensen. Christensen's invention also requires the relatively permanent installation of a latching mount to the vehicle.
Furthermore, it seems obvious that some of the above cited prior art as well as many other prior art inventions require an initial assembly of the storage device components once purchased from the manufacture which further adds to the inconvenience of the user.
There is, therefore, a need in the industry for a device that addresses the problems outlined above as well as other related and unrelated problems.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an apparatus that creates a secure storage trunk in the rear bed of trucks and is quickly installable therein and removable therefrom without the need of tools, assembly, or alteration to the existing structure of the truck.
Disclosed is a removable storage trunk for trucks of the type with a rear bed including a floor, right and left side walls including right and left upstanding door stops, respectively, and a rear gate door movable between an open position and a lockable closed position wherein a forward surface of the rear gate door and rearward surfaces of the right and left door stops are separated by right and left door bumpers to define a gap therebetween. The removable storage trunk includes right, left, top, bottom, and a forward wall connected together to partially define a storage compartment therein accessible through an opening defined by a rear perimeter surface. The removable storage trunk further includes right, left, and bottom flanges extending outward from respective right, left and bottom portions of the rear perimeter surface. When the trunk is properly installed in the truck and the rear gate door is in the closed position, the opening is adjacent the rear gate door and the right and left flanges extend below the right and left door bumpers, respectively, and into the gap defined between the rear gate door and the right and left door stops. Furthermore, the bottom flange extends into the gap defined between a rear surface of the floor and the forward surface of the rear gate door of the truck such that the removable storage trunk is securely latched into the rear bed of the truck and removable only by moving the rear gate door to the open position.
As described above, the right and left door bumpers act as flange retainers and in conjunction with the right and left door stops and the rear gate door prevent the trunk from being removed from the truck when the rear gate door is in the closed position. However, other conventional features of the truck such as the rear gate door latch housings or other features that protrude into the gap can be used as flange retainers wherein the right and left flanges engage the right and left flange retainers to prevent upward removal of the trunk from the truck when the rear gate door is in the closed position. Furthermore, the bottom flange of the trunk can be shaped to retain the trunk in the truck, instead of or in addition to the right and left flanges, when the rear gate door is in the closed position. Thus, the present invention is a simple apparatus that takes advantage of the original structure of conventional pick-up trucks to provide a quick and easy means for truck owners to securely store articles in their truck. Furthermore, as will be shown below, the present invention is of such a simple design that all of its required features are amenable to one piece manufacture such that no assembly of parts is required by either the manufacturer or the customer before installation in the truck.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the removable storage trunk is quickly removably manually installable in and quickly removably manually extractable from the truck without requiring tools or the need for initial alteration of the truck's chassis from its original factory structure. Thus, the user is provided with a quick and easy means for securely storing articles in the rear bed of the truck.
It is therefor an object of the present invention to provide a secure storage means for trucks.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage trunk that is quickly and easily installable into and quickly and easily removable from the rear bed of trucks.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a storage trunk that is installable and removable from the rear bed of a truck without the need for tools of any kind.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a storage trunk that removably latches to the rear bed of a truck without the need for installing mating latching hardware onto the truck or altering the structure of the truck from its structure as manufactured by the original m
Pape Joseph D.
Saffold David J.
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