Patent Application
20190308474
The present invention relates to the novel design and method of use of pontoons for amphibious vehicles and/or water craft. More specifically the invention relates to the design and use of pontoons on amphibious vehicles to allow efficient launching, beaching, traction, transfer/regeneration of motive/electrical energy, vehicle storage and trailerless towing.
Historically, boating enthusiasts have often experienced difficulty with energy efficient aqueous traction, launching, towing, storing, shallow waters and beaching their boats.
Traditional traction and motive energy transfer for watercraft consists of hulls with propellers, waterjets, sails and/or paddlewheels. While effective, these configurations are typically inefficient and may also be inefficient for the regeneration of energy as commonly done with electric cars. The reason this is inefficient for the regeneration of energy is most of the energy is used or dissipated by the movement of the hull through and/or on the water. These inefficiencies pose a need for a more efficient and sustainable solution for the transfer and regeneration of energy with watercraft.
Current amphibious vehicles address many of the difficulties of launching, beaching and traversing shallow waters. The current art incorporates wheels and/or tracks. While the current art works well for land they are typically slow, inefficient and/or ugly in the water. The current represents a need for a more efficient and elegant way of traversing both water and land.
The incorporation of wheels on watercraft for towing and/or launching without the need or storage of a trailer is evident by the current art. The addition of these wheels for trailerless boats are usually unsightly and/or inefficient. The current art is in need of a solution that maintains or increases efficiency while improving aesthetics and eliminating the need for a trailer.
Launching a watercraft has traditionally required significant effort, time, and ramp availability. Busy water bodies can experience heavy congestion and frustration at boat ramps. Also known as ramp rage. In addition correctly maneuvering a boat onto a trailer can be difficult, time consuming and dangerous. Not to mention the parking of the trailer while the boat is on the water can also be an issue. These difficulties raise a need for a more efficient way to launch a boat and eliminate the need for storing a trailer while in the water.
The current art for storing boats includes boat houses, trailers and simply leaving the boat in the water. Boat houses and trailers both get the boat out of the water which helps preserve the boat. Leaving the boat in the water can cause premature wear and requires more maintenance. Generally these solutions require additional hardware, time and cost. There is a need for a solution that would easily get the boat out of the water and wouldn't require any additional hardware or cost.
It is the object of the present invention to provide for a more efficient solution for the transfer and regeneration of energy with watercraft. Another object of the present invention is a more efficient way of traction for both water and land for watercraft and/or amphibious vehicles. Another object of the present invention is to eliminate the need for a boat trailer while maintaining or increasing aquatic efficiency. Another object of the present invention is to allow the water craft to easily enter and leave the water. These and other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the current art from the summary that follows.
The present invention consists of the novel design and use of transversely mounted pontoons that provide buoyancy, traction and/or steering for an amphibious vehicle and/or watercraft. The pontoons may be fitted with road tires and/or protrusions for traction on land and water respectively. These pontoons with fittings will allow a vehicle to efficiently traverse water, snow, ice, mud, land, roads, and/or to be towed on land without a trailer.
Various embodiments of the invention involve various quantities and arrangements of pontoons on an amphibious vehicle and/or watercraft. More specifically these pluralities include, but aren't limited to, the incorporation of a single pontoon to the entire hull being comprised of pontoons. These embodiments are based on, but not limited to, the need for traction, buoyancy and/or maneuvering.
Various embodiments of the invention have to do with the incorporation of protrusions to the pontoons for water and land traction. More specifically one embodiment uses a tire like embodiment with protrusions to not only give traction but protect the pontoon. Other embodiments incorporate, but aren't limited to, protrusions incorporated directly into, or varying the shape of the the pontoon itself.
Various embodiments of the invention incorporate a conventional road tire to give better traction when traversing roads and towing. Various quantities and/or arrangements pontoons and tires may be incorporated in various embodiments.
Some embodiments of the current invention are illustrated and not limited by the figures in the appended drawings, in which like references may indicate similar elements: The hull and deck shown in the following figures are included only to show the incorporation/orientation and/or method of use with relation to a watercraft and are not intended to detail the design of the invention.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “and”, and “the” intended to include the plural forms as well as the singular forms, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising”, when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and\or groups thereof. As used herein the word “Paddles” can include any protrusion for the traction of water.
Unless otherwise defined, terms (including technical and specific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one having ordinary skill in the current art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant current art and the present disclosure and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
In describing the invention it will be understood that a number of techniques and steps are disclosed. Each of these has individual benefit and each can also be used in conjunction with one or more, or in some cases all, of the other disclosed techniques. Accordingly, for the sake of clarity, this description will refrain from repeating every possible combination of the individual steps in an unnecessary fashion. Nevertheless, the specification and claims should be read with the understanding that such combinations are entirely within the scope of the invention and the claims.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be evident, however, to one skilled in the current art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details
The present invention will be described by referencing the appended figures representing the various embodiments.
Various embodiments of the invention are presented but not limited to the following. Various embodiments of the pontoons are fitted with (but not limited to) axle(s) and oriented transversely to allow the pontoons to connect to the watercraft and to roll across water and land. Various embodiments of the invention may attach to fixed, independent or various other types of suspensions that then attach to the chassis. The preferred embodiment uses, but is not limited to, attachments and/or axles at, but not limited to, each end of each pontoon to attach to the chassis and/or suspension. Various embodiments generally use, but are not limited to, a transverse pontoon axis angle of 90° from the direction of travel. Preferred embodiments of pontoons use, but aren't limited to, 2 separate pontoons on the same axis. Various embodiments shown use, but aren't limited to, rectangular array arrangements of pontoons. Many different arrangements including, but not limited to, circular, triangular or other arrangements may be represented by different embodiments. Preferred embodiments are, but aren't limited to, cylindrical pontoons. Various embodiments may use, but aren't limited to conical or other shaped pontoons. Various embodiments incorporate, but aren't limited to, protrusions incorporated directly into, or varying the shape of the the pontoon itself. Various embodiments of pontoons may be, but aren't limited to, filled with gas, pressurized gas or buoyant solids. The preferred, but not limited to, material for the pontoons is aluminum. The preferred, but not limited to, material embodiment of tire protrusions would be rubber. Various embodiments of the tire protrusion, tow tire, and/or road tire embodiments may use, but aren't limited to, solid or gas filled tires. The protrusion tire, road tire, and tow tire are current preferred embodiments may use, but aren't limited to, conventional tire mounting methods and gaseous inflation methods and hardware.
Different embodiments of the design and method of use are, but not limited to, the following.
Transversely mounted rolling pontoons that allow a watercraft to easily be beached, unbeached and\or traverse shallow water. In this embodiment the pontoons would comprise a significant portion of the vehicles buoyant hull. The pontoons would be the lowest point of the hull and oriented as to engage water bottoms or land before the hull.
Transversely mounted rolling pontoon with protrusions that would allow a watercraft traction for transferring/regenerating motive/electrical energy, maneuvering and buoyancy.
This embodiments protrusions would act similar, but not limited, to paddles on a traditional paddlewheel for water traction. This embodiment of the pontoon design would incorporate a plurality of protrusions that may be an integral part of the pontoon or be applied to the pontoon as would be a traditional tire.
This embodiment shows (
The pontoon embodiments shown in
The pontoon embodiments shown in
The pontoon embodiment shown in
Transversely mounted rolling pontoons with road tires that would allow a watercraft traction for improved transferring/regenerating of motive/electrical energy, buoyancy and maneuvering on land. This embodiment would incorporate a plurality of tires, pontoons, and tire mounting locations to insure vehicle stability and traction.
The embodiments shown in
Transversely mounted rolling pontoons with using road tires in combination with a tow bar that would allow a watercraft to be towed without a trailer on land.
This embodiment can also include, but is not limited to, two pontoons oriented along the same axis to allow differential rotation of the tires when on land.
The special road tires will herein be referred to as “tow” tires. This embodiment represents, but not limited to, a tow tire on each side of the vehicle. The tow tire would be mounted on the pontoons. Additional tow tires may be added on each side to allow towing of larger vehicles.
The tow tire would typically be a higher profile (
The tow bar would typically be used on larger watercraft for towing by a land vehicle. Smaller watercraft such as, but not limited to, pedal powered paddle boats may not need any additional appendage to be manually towed on land. The tow bar could be a part of the chassis that the pontoons are attached to or incorporated into the boat itself.
The capacity for towing a watercraft is available for embodiments of the invention when used with an appropriately designed watercraft.
Although this invention has been described in specific detail with reference to the disclosed embodiments, it will be understood that many variations and modifications may be affected within the spirit and scope of the invention as described in the claims filed with the non-provisional application.
This figure shows the perspective view of an additional embodiment using, but not limited to, cone shaped paddlewheel pontoons along with varying pontoon diameters and arrangements.
This figure shows the side profile of the watercraft from
This figure shows a perspective view of another embodiment of an amphibious vehicle or watercraft. This embodiment uses, but is not limited to, cylindrical pontoons with a solar bmini. The purpose of the solar bimini is, but not limited to, provide electrical energy to the electric motors, an alternating current converter, the electrical grid, a house and/or batteries.
This figure shows a perspective view of an embodiment of 2 rolling pontoons with angled protrusions. This embodiment allows the rolling pontoons to provide a wide range of motion when mounted to a vehicle and differential rotational speeds and/or directions are applied.
This figure shows a perspective view of a modular chassis with a flexible connection to the chassis such as a typical land vehicle suspension. This embodiment will allow, but is not limited to, better towing, driving on hard surfaces and minimizing wave actions while on the water.
