Claims
- 1. A removable vehicle roof supported on a vehicle body and including a four-link roof operating mechanism (4) mounted on said vehicle body for supporting and guiding said vehicle roof (1) during movement between a closed end position, in which the vehicle roof (1) covers an interior vehicle space, and a storage position, in which the vehicle roof is disposed in a vehicle storage compartment, an actuating element (5) for operating said roof operating mechanism and a spring element (11) supported on said vehicle body and said operating mechanism (41) so as to bias said operating mechanism in each end position of said vehicle roof toward the other end position thereof, said four-link roof operating mechanism (4) including first and second links (6, 7) supported on the vehicle body and a C-pillar link (8) extending between said first and second vehicle body supported links (6, 7), said actuating element (5) being also supported on said vehicle body and connected to one of said two vehicle body supported links (6, 7) which forms a drive link for operating said vehicle roof (1).
- 2. A removable vehicle roof according to claim (1), wherein the second (7) of said two vehicle body supported links (6, 7) is a support link and said spring element (11) is connected to said support link (7).
- 3. A removable vehicle roof according to claim 2, wherein said support link is in the form of a triangle link having two end joints and an intermediate joint by which said triangle link is pivotally supported on said vehicle body, one of said end joints connecting said triangle link to said c-pillar link and the other being connected to said spring element.
- 4. A removable vehicle roof according to claim 1, wherein said spring element is compressed by said operating mechanism in both end positions of said vehicle roof.
- 5. A removable vehicle roof according to claim 1, wherein said spring element is so selected that, in an intermediate position of said vehicle roof between the two end positions thereof, the spring force effective on said vehicle operating mechanism is essentially zero.
- 6. A removable vehicle roof according to claim 1, wherein said spring element is a gas compression spring.
- 7. A removable vehicle roof according to claim 1, wherein said vehicle roof is a hardtop vehicle roof comprising at least two rigid roof shells.
Priority Claims (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
Kind |
101 58 938 |
Dec 2001 |
DE |
|
102 06 650 |
Feb 2002 |
DE |
|
Parent Case Info
This is a Continuation-In-Part application of international application PCT/EP02/12370 filed Nov. 6, 2002 and claiming the priority of German applications 101 58 938.7 filed Dec. 3, 2001 and 102 06 650.7 filed Feb. 15, 2002.
US Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4936626 |
Gmeiner et al. |
Jun 1990 |
A |
6502891 |
Russke |
Jan 2003 |
B2 |
Foreign Referenced Citations (5)
Number |
Date |
Country |
869 159 |
Apr 1953 |
DE |
40 26 392 |
Feb 1992 |
DE |
198 05 477 |
Aug 1999 |
DE |
199 60 010 |
May 2001 |
DE |
100 21 333 |
Aug 2001 |
DE |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
PCT/EP02/12370 |
Nov 2002 |
US |
Child |
10/704493 |
|
US |