Pick-up style utility vehicle with expandable cargo bed

• US 8,240,737 B2
• Filed: 12/23/2009
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kawasaki Motors
• Original Assignee: Kawasaki Jukogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Inoue, Masafumi, Tanba, Shinichi, Takagi, Daisuke, Koga, Masahiro, Nishikawa, Yoshitaka, Kawabata, Takao, Reinke, Dave, Takaya, Satoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Pape, Joseph
• Application Number:
  US12/646,041
• Publication Number:
  US 20110148146A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 296/26.1, 296/26.09, 296/26.11, 296/65.09, 296/183.1
• US Class Current: 296/65.09
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/3011 the back-rest being hinged on the cushion, e.g. "portefeuille movement"
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/3065 in a longitudinal-vertical plane
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2/36 into a loading platform B60N2/065 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: B60N 2002/363 characterised by provisions for enhancing the cargo floor surface, e.g. elements closing gaps or enlarging the back-rest surface

Abstract

A pick-up style utility vehicle with an expandable cargo bed, including a front seat, a rear seat, a stationary bottom plate serving as a bottom face of the cargo bed, an expansion bottom plate for expanding the bottom face of the cargo bed, and a shared linkage mechanism for holding the rear seat at a use position where the rear seat is positioned on the upper side of the stationary bottom plate and a shunting position where the rear seat is shunted into a rear leg room provided in front of and below the stationary bottom plate. The shared linkage mechanism also holds the expansion bottom plate at a storage position where the expansion bottom plate is above the stationary bottom plate and an expansion position where the expansion bottom plate is positioned over the leg room.

Claims

1. A pick-up style utility vehicle with an expandable cargo bed, comprising:

a front seat;

a rear seat;

a stationary bottom plate serving as a bottom face of the cargo bed; and

a linkage mechanism movably connecting the rear seat to the stationary bottom plate,

wherein the linkage mechanism includes an expansion bottom plate as a second link, a first link rotatably connecting the rear seat to the expansion bottom plate and a third link rotatably connecting the expansion bottom plate to the stationary bottom plate so that the linkage mechanism can hold the rear seat at a use position where the rear seat is positioned above the stationary bottom plate and a shunting position where the rear seat is positioned below the expansion bottom plate.

2. The pick-up style utility vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the rear seat is shunted, at the shunting position, into a rear leg room provided forward of the stationary bottom plate and below a level of a lower surface of the stationary bottom plate.

3. The pick-up style utility vehicle according to claim 1, wherein, at the shunting position, the expansion bottom plate is positioned forward of a front end of the stationary bottom plate such that the expansion bottom plate and the stationary bottom plate are aligned in a horizontal direction.

4. The pick-up style utility vehicle according to claim 1, wherein, at the shunting position, the rear seat hangs from the expansion bottom plate, and, at the use position, the rear seat is positioned over an upper surface of the expansion bottom plate and the expansion bottom plate is positioned over an upper surface of the stationary bottom plate.