Land vehicles – Wheeled – Running gear
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-01
2001-01-09
Rice, Kenneth R. (Department: 3611)
Land vehicles
Wheeled
Running gear
C280S796000, C280S124134
Reexamination Certificate
active
06170875
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a wheel suspension attachment assembly and more particularly, to a wheel suspension attachment assembly which may be used by and/or integrally formed within a vehicle frame or sub-frame and which is effective to stiffly, selectively, and movably attach wheel suspension assemblies to the vehicle frame or sub-frame.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A vehicle typically includes a frame, or several sub-frames and/or structural members which are selectively and cooperatively connected to form a frame, to which several wheel suspension assemblies are movably attached. Particularly, the frame receives and deformably absorbs the various forces created by the moving wheels and wheel suspension assemblies.
Oftentimes, especially when the vehicle is driven at relatively high speeds and is forced to make relatively tight turns, substantially large wheel assembly generated forces are received by the frame and cause the frame to undesirably and substantially deform, thereby making the vehicle relatively difficult to control or “handle” and creating discomfort within the passenger compartment, oftentimes referred to as a “rough ride”.
It is therefore desirable to have the wheel suspension assemblies be stiffly and/or rigidly attached to the vehicle frame and to have these assemblies substantially maintain their desired stiff attachment even during these relatively high speed and tight turning conditions, thereby allowing the relatively large wheel assembly forces to be absorbed without substantially and undesirably deforming the frame. Current wheel suspension attachment assemblies do not provide such a desired and stiff/rigid wheel suspension attachment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of this invention to provide a wheel suspension attachment assembly which overcomes at least some of the previously delineated drawbacks associated with prior attachment assemblies and which selectively and stiffly attaches at least a portion of at least one of the wheel suspension assemblies to the vehicle frame.
It is a second object of the invention to provide a wheel suspension attachment assembly which selectively and stiffly attaches at least a portion of at least one of the wheel suspension assemblies to at least one vehicle sub-frame.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an attachment assembly is provided for use in combination with a vehicle having at least one wheel assembly and at least one structural frame member. The attachment assembly includes a member having a hollow end portion which perforates and protrudes from the at least one structural frame member and which contains a portion of the at least one wheel assembly, and a movable member which movably resides within at least a portion of the protruding hollow end portion and which is attached to the contained portion of the at least one wheel assembly, thereby cooperating with the member to rigidly and stiffly attach the at least one wheel assembly to the at least one structural frame member.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description in combination with the referenced drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 657430 (1900-09-01), Maxim
patent: 2009963 (1935-07-01), Matthaei
patent: 2192560 (1940-03-01), Riemenschneider
patent: 2311419 (1943-02-01), Ulrich
patent: 2757016 (1956-07-01), Adloff et al.
patent: 2972498 (1961-02-01), Kelley
patent: 3026124 (1962-03-01), Eyb
patent: 3243007 (1966-03-01), Berckhan
patent: 5114183 (1992-05-01), Haluda et al.
patent: 5611569 (1997-03-01), Sekiguchi et al.
patent: 5641181 (1997-06-01), Galhotra
Jones Robert Allen
Watts Dave
Ford Global Technologies Inc.
Rice Kenneth R.
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