Package and article carriers – Vehicle attached – Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-05
2002-06-04
Cronin, Stephen K. (Department: 3727)
Package and article carriers
Vehicle attached
Carrier associated with vehicle roof or trunk lid
C224S315000, C224S322000, C224S326000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06398090
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to vehicular load carriers, and more specifically to securement arrangements in such load carriers for exemplarily securing load carrier struts to supporting load carrier feet.
2. Background Art
It is appreciated that a considerable amount of the time that is required to install a load carrier upon a vehicle is that time which is spent on the assembly of the carrier itself prior to its being attached to the transporting vehicle. As a result, it has been found to be an advantageous feature of carrier designs to enable installation and removal of a partially or fully assembled load carrier on to and off of a transporting vehicle.
Known designs for carrier feet that can be installed upon and disconnected from the transporting vehicle while the carrier remains assembled are typically engaged upon a base fixed to the vehicle using a sliding motion parallel to the longitudinal axis of both the load carrier foot and the transporting vehicle. This becomes problematic when the entire carrier is to remain assembled during removal because each foot must be simultaneously removed by being slid off of or out of its respective base together with the other feet. Similar difficulty is encountered when trying to install an assembled carrier onto a transporting vehicle's rooftop or other receiving surface. Each foot must be slidingly engaged upon its respective base, and because that base may not be a perfect fit with the foot, or the base may have become fouled while the foot was disengaged, sliding of the foot onto the base may be resisted. This experience has been likened to trying to slide a sticky drawer into a bureau. Previously, when the feet would each be individually installed upon the respective bases before the load carrier was assembled thereto, an operator could move about the transporting vehicle and manipulate each foot individually. Normally this includes wiggling the load carrier foot onto the base in order to progressively slide the load carrier foot into a properly seated position upon the base. Having configured each foot, the carrier could then be assembled thereupon. A compounding problem of such a process, however, is that the carrier feet are usually upon the roof of a transporting vehicle at this stage in the process and resultantly, assemblage of the load carrier must be awkwardly carried out atop the vehicle. Necessarily, the operator will be reaching atop the transporting vehicle to complete the installation of the load carrier and be required to frequently move about the vehicle because that person's reach will be limited by the roof-top location.
Similar problems can be encountered when only a cross bar or strut is connected between two opposite feet and which must be installed to extend from one side to the other of the transporting vehicle. It will be difficult, if not impossible for a single person working alone to slide each foot onto its respective base because he or she will not be able to simultaneously align both feet with the two respective bases as is required for proper sliding engagement.
Conventional designs for such support feet have, in the past, required that an exterior cover be opened in order to expose for manipulation the operating device that affects the fastening of the load carrier foot to its base. Therefore, when installing the foot upon the base, the exterior cover would normally be open so that the operating device can be manipulated into an open configuration for engagement upon a base or directly to a vehicle. Once engaged, however, the operating device must then again be manipulated to a closed or clamping configuration for fixing the foot to the base or vehicle. The exterior cover of the load carrier foot is then closed and locked to prevent unauthorized tampering with the operating device. From the experience of working with these conventionally designed carrier feet, it has been recognized as desirable to minimize not only the exposure of the internal working parts of the foot, but to also minimize required operator interaction during the installation process when both hands can be better used for properly positioning at least the several feet, and possibly an entirely assembled carrier with respect to the various connection points for attachment thereto.
Another drawback of conventionally designed carrier feet are that they do not typically include an accommodation for adapting to differently configured vehicle mounting surfaces. This is particularly true in cases where the feet are attached to the vehicle's roof at edge regions where contoured slopes are generally incorporated into the vehicle's design. Normally, the base for the foot is rigidly attached to the vehicle's roof in this sloped region and it is the load carrier foot that is specially designed to be fixedly attached to that particular type of vehicle and to compensate for the roofs configuration. As a result, the manufacturer of the feet must essentially provide custom designs for differently configured roof tops. It has been recognized as highly desirable by such manufacturers to enable a generic load carrier foot design to be utilized on a wide range of differently configured transporting vehicle's. Because the primary characteristic affecting this aspect of the design is the degree of slope at the roof region where the base is attached, it has been recognized for the present invention that facilitating pivotation of the load carrier foot with respect to the base in the direction substantially parallel to the cross bar with which attachment must be made permits utilization of a uniformly designed load carrier foot on multiple and differently configured transporting vehicles.
Still yet another drawback is associated with undesirable binding effects occurring in the upper mechanism that secures the load carrier cross bar to the main foot assembly. Because the length dimension of the securing member that moves up the ramp(s) into engagement with the underside of the cross bar is not much longer than it is wide, it is sometimes possible for that member to tilt or rock out of face-to-face engagement with the cross bar resulting in a biting and/or binding affect that inhibits operation of the securement assembly.
In view of the above described deficiencies associated with known designs for load carrier feet and certain securement assemblies associated therewith, multiple aspects of the presently disclosed invention(s) have been developed to alleviate these drawbacks and provide benefits to the user which have been appreciated as desirable at least partially through historical use of these known designs. These enhancements and benefits are described in greater detail hereinbelow with respect to several alternative embodiments of the presently disclosed invention(s).
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
The present inventions in their several disclosed embodiments alleviate the drawbacks described above with respect to conventionally designed load carrier feet and incorporate several additionally beneficial features.
A primary benefit of the load carrier foot design of the present invention is that it permits a load carrier foot to be engaged upon a supporting base in a substantially vertical direction and without operator manipulation of latching mechanisms in the load carrier foot. Installation is accomplished merely by positioning the load carrier foot properly upon the base. This eliminates the sliding engagement described above which has been appreciated as a detrimental characteristic of conventionally designed carrier feet. Also, because the latching member of the present invention's operating mechanism is yieldably biased toward a latching and also locked configuration, the foot can be arranged into the latching and locked configuration before being positioned upon the base and then merely pressed into engagement with the base without further manipulation being required prior to utilization of the load carrier foot. A side benefit of this configuration is that it pr
Cronin Stephen K.
Industri AB Thule
Kilpatrick & Stockton LLP
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