Excavating – Snow or ice removing or grooming by portable device – Vehicle mount with obstacle responsive trip – or yieldable tool
Reexamination Certificate
2003-03-31
2004-11-16
Will, Thomas B. (Department: 3671)
Excavating
Snow or ice removing or grooming by portable device
Vehicle mount with obstacle responsive trip, or yieldable tool
C037S267000, C037S266000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06817118
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to adjustable snow plows for attachment to personal utility vehicles such as pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Moving snow off of open ground, streets, sidewalks and parking lots is an age-old problem in less temperate climates where significant snowfall is anticipated during colder periods of the year. For instance, in many parts of Canada and in many northern states in the United States, significant snowfall can be expected during the late fall and early-to-mid winter months. Snowfall in some of these areas is also possible in early spring.
Clearing freshly fallen snow from open ground, parking lots, driveways, sidewalks and roadways, whether these surfaces are paved or not, is a task common to all of these areas that is generally required to make these surfaces passable. If the snow is allowed to accumulate over a period of weeks, the snow eventually makes the use of these surfaces for pedestrian and vehicular travel difficult, if not treacherous. Therefore, many devices have been designed and manufactured to remove accumulated snow from such surfaces. Municipalities generally use large vehicles with enormous snow plows to clear paved roadways used by the public and states in these areas also generally have a fleet of these vehicles to clear snow from such roadways and from large parking lots on state-owned properties. However, the purchase and use of such a vehicle by individuals, who have a need to move accumulated snow in smaller areas, is less feasible. First of all, the larger vehicles are expensive to purchase and maintain and are, in some cases, dedicated solely to the removal of accumulated snow. It will be appreciated that it would not be cost effective for an individual to purchase, house and maintain such a vehicle for removing snow from driveways and smaller parking lots during a limited period of the year.
For this reason, many inventors have designed and manufactured adjustable snow plows that can be attached to pickup trucks and other vehicles for a period of time during the year when snow removal is required. In this way, the vehicles can be used for other purposes during periods when snow removal is not required. Many of the snow plows attached to these vehicles, however, are large and heavy and are not easily attached and removed from the vehicles. A number of snow plows have been invented that attempt to address these problems. For instance, Kowalczyk (U.S. Pat. No. 4,944,104) discloses a detachable snow plow assembly that is pivotally attached to a common passenger vehicle. In one embodiment of the invention, the snow plow includes rollers secured within channels attached to mounting uprights to allow the plow blade to ride up and down when the blade comes into contact with irregularities in the surface. The plow blade can also pivot forward along with the mounting uprights in certain embodiments when the vehicle is moving backward allowing the plow blade to pivot forward over the ground. In other disclosures, such as the snow plow assembly disclosed by Rosenberg (U.S. Pat. No. 5,136,795) a trip mechanism is disclosed which allows the lower part of the plow blade to pivot backward when the plow blade comes into contact with relatively immovable objects and the trip mechanism is actuated. Rosenberg also discloses a rubber scraper at the bottom of the plow blade which is secured between two metal plates and oriented at an angle rearward of a vertical orientation. Rubber scrapers are also disclosed on older snow plows, such as the snow plow mold board disclosed by C. H. Wagner (U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,149), which discloses a resilient scraping blade made of rubber. This is a common feature in many snow plows, allowing the rubber scraper to contact the ground and provide a somewhat more forgiving surface with which to contact the ground when the plow is used to remove accumulated snow, but the rubber scraper is generally accompanied by a metal backing.
Although each of these has its own advantages, none of them are easy to attach and remove from the vehicle once attached. They also tend to be heavy and cumbersome, and at least somewhat unsightly. The present invention provides a more cost effective and attractive snow plow for removing smaller amounts of accumulated snow from driveways and small-to-medium sized parking lots where one individual may wish to use his or her vehicle to remove snow during a relatively limited period of time, while still having use of the vehicle for other purposes not involving snow removal, when the snow plow must either be removed or placed in a suitable position for non-snow removing transit. The present invention provides solutions for these and other problems associated with the prior art devices for removing accumulated snow and methods used to accomplish the same.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a self-adjusting snow plow for attachment to a vehicle in such a manner to permit the snow plow to make position adjustments when, during use when the vehicle is in motion, a portion of the snow plow comes into contact with a mass of snow or other objects on the ground, upon which the vehicle travels when in motion, that are relatively immovable. The self-adjusting snow plow preferably includes a mounting apparatus for attachment to the vehicle and a plow blade. The mounting apparatus preferably includes first and second mounting uprights and the plow blade has first and second ends, a top, a bottom, a retention member and a rubber scraper preferably secured to the bottom of the plow blade. In preferred embodiments, the plow blade will include first and second retention members. In these embodiments, the retention members are constructed and arranged to at least partially encircle one of the respective mounting uprights when the plow blade is engaged with the mounting apparatus in a working orientation such that the plow blade is in contact with the ground or objects on the ground. The respective retention members are slidably engaged with the respective mounting uprights when the plow blade is engaged with the mounting apparatus in a working orientation. When the plow blade comes into contact with a mass of snow or other objects on the ground that are relatively immovable, the respective retention members can slide upward along the respective mounting uprights to enable either or both of the respective ends of the plow blade to slide upwardly relative to the mounting upright most proximate to that end of the plow blade. The retention members also permit the bottom of the plow blade to freely pivot away from the respective mounting uprights when the plow blade is engaged with the mounting apparatus in a working orientation and the vehicle is in motion in a direction rearward of the plow blade. In preferred embodiments, the rubber scraper secured to the bottom of the plow blade is a resilient elastomeric member having a resting orientation in which the rubber scraper extends downwardly and away from the bottom of the plow blade at an angle which extends forward from a plane which extends along a main surface of the plow blade. In preferred embodiments, the rubber scraper is preferably about an inch thick and extends away from the plow blade at least about three and one-half inches. In alternate embodiments having a single retention member, the retention member is alternatively constructed and arranged to either encircle or partially encircle both of the mounting uprights.
It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide a method of clearing accumulated snow from the surface of driveways, parking lots and other similar areas where snow removal is essential during the winter months.
It is an additional objective of the present invention to provide such an apparatus that can be easily mounted and removed from the front end of pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles and other commonly used vehicles.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide such an apparatus for snow removal that is much simpler
Beach Thomas A
Freed Robert C.
Moore, Hansen & Sumner PLLP
Will Thomas B.
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