TRAVEL HOME WITH CAR-TOP HITCH

• US 3,801,138 A
• Filed: 06/25/1973
• Issued: 04/02/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 11/18/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Robert G. Quick
• Original Assignee: Robert G. Quick
• Inventors: Quick, Robert G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Friaglia, Leo
• Application Number:
  US05/373,150
• Time in Patent Office: 281 Days
• Field of Search: 280/478R,478A,478B,479R,423R,456,438R
• US Class Current: 280/478.1
• CPC Class Codes: B60D 1/06 Ball-and-socket hitches , e.g. constructional details, auxiliary devices, their arrangement on the vehicle
• CPC Class Codes: B60D 1/62 involving supply lines, electric circuits, or the like
• CPC Class Codes: B60P 3/34 the living accommodation being expansible, collapsible or capable of rearrangement B60P3/38 takes precedence; tents supported at least partially by vehicles E04H15/06
• CPC Class Codes: B62D 53/067 Multi-purpose, convertible or extendable load surface semi-trailers for container transport B60P1/6418; convertible road transport vehicles in general B60P3/42
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 280/901 Adaptation of nonspecialized vehicles to semitrailer tractors

Abstract

A car-towed trailer has its foreportion segmented in three horizontally extending sections, the two lower sections being telescopically slideable up into the top section by hydraulic means so as to overlie the tow-car which has an ear at each side projecting up through the roof at the back of the driver'"'"''"'"'s seat. The bottom telescoping section has a pendant hitch tube oscillatably secured thereto and rotatably secured to an underlying crossbar having a pair of forwardly projecting ears at each side adapted to extend along each side of a car-roof ear and be secured thereto by a clevis pin through the ears. The rear portion does not telescope and has wheels rearward of the foreportion spaced from the connected tow-car so that the tow-car can be driven forward or backed under the overlying foreportion. Support legs attached to the upper foreportion section may be folded up into hidden position at each side while traveling or folded down and hydraulically extended to support the foreportion when the tow-car is unhitched. The trailer-supported hitch crossbar has a pendant headed stud extending down through slots in one end of each of two forwardly extendable alignment arms whose forward ends carry pendant pins insertable in holes in a cross plate between the car-roof ears, the arm slots being of such length as to move the trailer foreportion transversely for guiding the ears into position when the car is moved toward the trailer.

Claims

1. In a hitch for connecting two vehicles for towing, each vehicle bearing a portion of the hitch;

apparatus for centering the hitch portion of one vehicle with respect to the hitch portion of the other when the vehicles are moved together, comprising;

a pair of elongated arms each slotted longitudinally along one end, the arms being pivotally supported from one hitch portion by a pendant headed stud extending through the arm slots, the other hitch portion having an elongated transverse element having spaced holes therethrough one hole on each side of the center thereof, the holes being equally spaced from the center of the transverse element, and a pair of pins adapted to pivotally connect the unslotted ends of the arms to a respective hole in the transverse element, the pins in the unslotted ends of the arms being spaced from the respective arm slot a selected distance substantially equal to the spacing of the transverse element holes from the element center;

whereby, when the vehicles are closely spaced and approximately aligned, the arms are pivotally connected by the pins to the transverse element and subsequently, when the vehicles are moved closer, the pendant stud meeting the end of a slot moves a vehicle transversely for exact alignment.

2. A hitch for connecting a trailer to an elongated transverse element at the rear of a towiNg vehicle, comprising:

the forward end of the trailer having rotatably secured thereto the ball of a pendant ball-headed pin, a pair of elongated aligning arms, each arm being longitudinally slotted along one end, the ball pin extending down through the arm slots and having retaining means at its end for securing the arms pivotally to the ball pin, the transverse element having at least one horizontally disposed flange means, the flange means having a hole therethrough at each side of and equally spaced from the center of the element, the arms each having a hole through its unslotted end spaced from the slot a distance substantially equal to the spacing of the flange holes from the element center, pin means for securing the unslotted ends of the arms pivotally to the flange means through the arm and flange holes, and means for securing the arms to the flange means when the towing vehicle is moved to align the arms with the flange means.

3. In a combination of a tow vehicle and a towed vehicle, the tow vehicle having a portion bearing an upwardly projecting hitch ear at each side of the vehicle, the towed vehicle having a portion adapted to overlie the ear bearing portion of the tow vehicle, the overlying portion having a pendant hitch cross member secured thereto at its center so as to be rotatable with respect to the overlying portion about a substantially vertical axis, the cross member having a pair of forwardly projecting ears at either end adapted to receive therebetween a respective one of the upwardly projecting ears, the ears being adapted to be oscillatably secured together by a clevis pin through each pair of ears and the ear therebetween;

hitch aligning means, comprising;

a pair of aligning arms pendant from the hitch cross member at its center, each aligning arm being slotted at one end, a headed stud securing the arms to the cross member and passing through the slot of each arm, the unslotted end of each arm having a pendant pin projecting therefrom, the upwardly projecting ears of the tow vehicle being connected by a cross brace, the brace having a hole therein adjacent each upwardly projecting ear adapted to receive an arm pendant pin therein, the slot in each arm extending longitudinally of the arm and terminating at a distance from its pendant pin selected to align each pair of ears so as to embrace a respective tow vehicle ear therebetween when the pendant pins are placed in the brace holes and the tow vehicle is moved toward the towed vehicle.