Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Carrier attached to special purpose vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2002-10-09
2004-05-04
Elkins, Gary E. (Department: 3727)
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Carrier attached to special purpose vehicle
C224S539000, C296S037600
Reexamination Certificate
active
06729514
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a lockable waterproof tool storage box for use in a land or marine vehicle, i.e., a pickup truck. Such a box in the front end of a pickup bed has, in addition to a conventional closeable top opening, a foldable wall panel facing the pickup tailgate and foldable to a horizontal position to provide, with the top closure open, an increased laterally accessible upwardly unobstructed space within the truck bed including connected areas inside and outside of the box and particularly suited to accommodate large horizontally and/or vertically extending objects such as standard sheets of building materials or major appliances.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Users of pickup trucks have long felt the need for a secure waterproof storage space in addition to space within the truck cab for tools or other valuable objects. It has become a common practice to secure a large box across the front end of the bed ahead of typical wheel wells to store and protect tools or other valuable personal items. Such boxes are usually at least as high as the sides of the bed and either rest on the bed floor or are suspended with end portions resting atop the bed sides. These boxes have a variety of top opening configurations. Although some suspended configurations have a space to slide a few large sheets of building material into the bed with the sheets extending beneath the suspended box, the stack height for such material is limited and the a real bed floor space occupied by such storage boxes substantially reduces the continuous bed floor spaces that is accessible vertically or from overhead. Much of this lost vertically accessible floor space has been regained with various configurations of boxes which can be folded while remaining within the truck bed. However, such folded configurations when closed for storage pose many sealing problems not only with respect to preventing entry of falling rain, but also with respect to excluding entry of standing water in a pickup bed which is poorly drained.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention uses a box having essentially a floor, three vertical waterproof rear and end walls relatively fixed perpendicularly with respect to the floor, a fourth wall having a front panel portion hinged to the floor at its lower edge to swing between a first position perpendicular to the container floor and a second position parallel to the container floor. The box has an openable and/or removable closure to prevent entry of rain into the area within the four vertical walls and which upon being opened or removed permits vertically unobstructed access to the box interior. The invention is particularly concerned with securing continuous waterproof sealing along the side and bottom edges of the foldable or swinging wall panel when it is in its closed vertical first position.
An object of the invention is to provide, in a strong watertight lightweight storage box for a pickup bed, a strong vertical wall panel hinged along the bottom edge of the panel to the box floor with a continuous watertight piano type living hinge enabling the wall panel to swing from a vertical position to a horizontal position.
Another object of the invention is to provide a watertight seal at the vertical edges and along the bottom of a vertical front wall panel of a pickup truck bed box wherein the wall panel may swing from a vertical position to a horizontal position within the box atop the box floor.
A further object of the invention is to provide a watertight seal for a movable vertical front wall panel of a pickup bed box wherein the seal is subject to minimum effect on its sealing properties during use involving wall panel movement in a hostile environment of dust, dirt, mud, rain and snow. Preferably the sealing surfaces of resilient sealing elements at the sides of the folding panel are protected to avoid collecting such contaminants during use or the sealing element surfaces and are provided with self cleaning means to assure optimum sealing on moving the folding panel to its closed vertical position.
The sealing structure at the ends of the front panel preferably utilize portions of the front panel which are not upwardly exposed dirt collecting surfaces when the panel is in use in its open horizontal position. This aids in preventing contamination of the seals or compromising seal integrity when the panel is moved to its vertical sealed position without having to take special care to clean the panel surface.
Another object of the invention is to provide a sealed hinge at the bottom edge of a wall panel of a pickup bed storage box which is strong and protected from physical abuse during loading and unloading of objects or material located partially or entirely within the box while the hinged wall panel is in a horizontal open position.
Another object of the invention is to provide separate physical support for the hinged panel in its vertical position to reduced the vertical physical load imposed by the panel on the continuous hinge during use of the tool box.
A still further object of the invention is to provide strong securing structure to fasten and seal a hinged vertical wall panel of a pickup truck bed box to adjacent vertical box end walls and to the bottom of the box to minimize physical abuse of the panel seals during use when only the box top is open.
Another object of the invention is to provide a relatively large size watertight storage box for a bed of a pickup truck and having at least one vertical wall panel portion which is movable from a sealed box forming position to a secondary position to provide horizontal access to at least most of the floor area of the box to supplement areas of the bed floor outside of the box to accommodate more or larger building materials or objects.
Another object of the present invention is to assure that the width of supplemental storage area made accessible within a box extending transversely of the truck bed is at least as wide as the space between the wheel wells in the pickup truck in which the box is being used.
Another object of the invention is to provide a supplemental storage box for the bed of a pickup truck which has a raisable lid which can be kept open or raised while driving the pickup and which has minimum interference with rearward vision from within the pickup cab.
Another object of the invention is to provide a pickup bed storage box with a vertically openable lid which can be raised to a vertical position generally parallel to the rear window of the pickup and which is at least partially transparent to provide minimum interference with rearward vision from within the pickup cab.
Another object of the invention is to provide a supplemental watertight storage box for the bed of a pickup truck which has a movable or removable sealed lid and a movable sealed wall enabling the interior area of the box to be added to the external area to provide greater vertically unobstructed usable space within the pickup bed.
Another object of the invention is to provide a supplemental watertight storage box for the bed of a pickup truck which is openable to provide a vertically unobstructed walk-in floor area having a non-skid walking surface.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an all weather waterproof storage box having an openable vertical door panel with pressure equalization between the inside and outside of the box as external environmental conditions such as sun, shade, temperature, rain and wind change and effect such equalization at a protected location near the top of the box to prevent pressure differentials from affecting the integrity of waterproof sealing strips around openable door and lid parts.
Another object of the invention is to eliminate the need for bridging strength in a sealed storage box because no large bottom floor portions of the box are suspended above the supporting vehicle surfaces.
This invention provides a sealable waterproof storage container having a plurality of sides enclosing a waterproof storage area with the sides defining a peripheral edge of a top access opening
Freudenberg Kenton L.
Freudenberg Maxwell C.
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