SAND FOOT

Abstract

A foot for use on soft surfaces has a concave cavity facing downwardly from a mounting bracket. The foot may be used in combination with a cart, dolly, trailer, chair, table, stool, platform or the like.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a foot for use to support an object on a soft granular surface such as sand. The foot is particularly well adapted to enable a chair, table, stool, platform, cart, dolly, trailer, or the like to sit on dry, fine, loose sand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Soft, granular surfaces, such as loose sand, pose problems to objects such as chairs, tables, stools, or anything with legs or leg-like supports. Conventional legs or leg-like supports tend to sink into these surfaces displacing sand outwardly causing a “boring,” “drilling” or “sinking in” effect in loose sand. This results in the object sinking into the sand creating the risk of it turning over and/or becoming contorted causing damage to the object.

The present invention is directed to the problem posed to objects used on loose sand. The objects are not limited to but include outdoor furniture such as chairs, tables, stools, platforms, etc. or other objects such as carts, dollies, trailers utilizing trailer-jack type stands or the like. Legs on furniture items or support stands tend to sink down into the sand, especially if the associated furniture, structure, cart or dolly is supporting significant weight. Conventional attempts to overcome this problem generally involve the use of oversized flat plates to provide large surface areas contacting the sand in an attempt to preclude their sinking into the soft surface. While such large plates enjoy some success in supporting objects on loose materials, there is a cost or tradeoff associated with their increased size and in many cases the objects they are supporting must be modified to accommodate their large size and inhibit ease of portability and storage of the objects. Thus, there remains a need for an improved support/foot for use on loose sand.

There is a need for an improved support for an object on soft, granular surfaces. In particular, there is a need for design that reduces the tendency of a the leg to “bore into”, “drill into” or “sink into” the surface and which facilitates supporting the object on top of the soft, granular surface. In some cases the object may be a cart, dolly, trailer, or the like that requires support in addition to its wheels. In other cases the object may be a chair, table, stool, or the like on soft surfaces such as loose sand.

In accordance with the present invention, a foot is provided which displaces sand radially inwardly and upwardly into a concave cavity, in effect, compressing the sand into the cavity. The concavity of the foot is able to collect sand over which it is placed and compress it under the foot rather than displace it outwardly away from the foot or leg. When the foot is removed from the surface, the sand remains in place as part of the surface, or by the force of gravity falls from the concave cavity back to the surface. The foot or feet of the present invention can be attached to support legs of an object or can be attached to the body of an object to support the object on soft granular surfaces.

Further understanding of the present invention will be had from the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a beach chair with a horizontal leg supported by a preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention;

FIGS. 2-4 are perspective views of the preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a cross-section of the foot of FIGS. 1-4;

FIG. 6 is a cross-section taken at a right angle to the section of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation of a beach chair with vertical legs supported by an alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a cross section of the foot of FIG. 7;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are cross sections of an alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a side elevation of a cart with angled legs supported by the preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention of FIGS. 9-10;

FIG. 12 is a sectional view of the foot of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a sectional view of still another alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention

FIG. 14 is a side elevation of a trailer jack supported by a sand foot of FIGS. 2-6 and with an associated trailer shown broken away; and

FIG. 15 is a side elevation of a table shown broken away and with legs supported by a sand foot of FIGS. 7-8.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A support for use on soft surfaces has a concave cavity facing downwardly from an integrated mounting bracket. The foot may be used in combination with a cart, dolly, trailer, or the like, needing supports in addition to wheels, or with a chair, table, stool, platform or the like.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Broadly speaking, the present invention provides a foot having a concave cavity or concavity on its underside. The foot of this invention is described in the context of its use on soft sand surfaces. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foot is well adapted for use on other soft, granular surfaces and such uses are contemplated to be within the scope of the present invention.

It is the underside of the foot which is intended to make contact with the soft sandy surface. When placed on a soft sandy surface, sand grains are displaced upwardly into the concavity allowing the foot to sit on the sand without sinking beyond the depth of the concavity.

Now referring to FIGS. 1-6, a preferred embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown and indicated generally by the numeral 10. FIG. 1 shows a conventional beach chair 12 which has horizontally disposed supporting tubes 14, the front one of which is shown supported on a sandy surface 16 by sand foots 10.

The structure of sand foot 10 is shown in detail in FIGS. 2-6. Thus, broadly speaking sand foot 10 has a mounting member 18 and a dome member 20. It is intended that mounting member 18 will be used to attach or secure sand foot 10 to the object to be supported on the sandy surface 16 while dome member 20 functions to interact with sand grains to support sand foot on surface 16.

As shown in FIGS. 2-6, mounting member 18 is a channel 22 which has side walls 24 and 26 which grippingly engage tube 14 of chair 12. Sand foot 10 can comprise elastomeric or plastic material which enjoys sufficient elasticity to provide the desired gripping feature. Of course, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that mounting channel 18 is suitable for mounting other horizontally disposed tubes or members such as a leg or support member of a chair, table, stool, cart, trailer, dolly or the like.

Dome 20 of sand foot defines a concavity 28 with an open mouth or opening 30 and an outwardly facing edge 32. Opening 30 works with concavity 28 which has a depth and shape sufficient to compress sand granules into it to enable foot 10 to be supported by sandy surface 16. Edge 32 is intended to be ground or sand engaging when in use and defines opening 30 of concavity 28 which functions as further described below in the discussion of the operation of foot 10 of the present invention.

FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate an alternative embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention, indicated generally by the numeral 100. Sand foot 100 is shown in FIG. 7 in support of a typical beach chair 102 which has vertical legs 104, each of which is supported by a sand foot 100. Sand foot 100 has a dome 106 which is analogous to dome 20 of sand foot 10 but has a mounting member 108 which is adapted to support a vertically oriented leg rather than a horizontally oriented leg. Thus, mounting member 108 has an elongated bore 110 which closely fits about leg 104. Of course, bore 110 could be square or otherwise shaped depending upon the shape of the leg to be received therein.

Now referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, yet another preferred embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown and indicated generally by the numeral 200. Sand foot 200 has a dome 202 which is analogous to domes 20 and 106 of sand foot 10 and sand foot 100 respectively but has mounting member 204 which has a horizontally extending slot or channel 206 and a fastener 208 extending between walls 210 and 212 and through a leg 214 to be supported by sand foot 200.

Now referring to FIG. 11, cart 216 is shown in left side elevation, its right side being analogous to its left side. Cart 216 has triangular leg 218 connected to wheel 210 in a conventional manner and triangular leg 220 attached to sand foot 200 as shown in detail in FIG. 12. Thus, as demonstrated by the preferred embodiments of FIGS. 9-12, sand foot 200 is adaptable to be attached in multiple ways to different objects.

Yet another embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown in FIG. 13 and indicated generally by the numeral 300. Sand foot 300 has a dome 302 which is analogous to domes 20, 106 and 202 of sand foot 10, sand foot 100 and sand foot 200, but has a mounting member 304 adapted to clampingly receive and hold a square tubular support 306. Thus mounting member 304 has a horizontally disposed channel 308 with side walls 310 and 312 with clips 314 and 316 to retain support 306 in channel 308.

Still further preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 14 and 15. FIG. 14 shows a trailer jack 400 of trailer 402. Trailer jack 400 is supported by sand foot 404 which is analogous to sand foot 10 of FIGS. 2-6 but, of course, is larger and made of materials sufficiently strong to support a trailer jack. FIG. 15 is a table 500 shown in side elevation, broken away, having top 502 and four legs 504, each of which is supported by a sand foot 506 which is analogous to sand foot 100.

Domes 20, 106, 202 and 302 of sand foot 10, sand foot 100, sand foot 200 and sand foot 300 operate in soft sand as follows. Thus, when initially contacting loose sand granules, the concave interior of the dome is empty of sand granules and the sand foot is supported on the sand granules by outwardly facing edge 32. Then, as the sand foot sinks somewhat down into the sand surface, the concavity begins to fill up with sand granules, compressing sand into and against the inner/upper interior surface of the concavity and thereby supporting the sand foot on the sandy surface. A sufficient quantity of sand granules becomes compressed into the concave interior of the dome so that the downward force exerted by dome against the associated sand surface is equally opposed by the sand granules against the dome and its edge.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is subject to modification and variation and it is intended that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the broad scope of the invention which is intended to be limited only by the following claims. Such modifications are intended to be included herein so long as they operate in accordance with the principles of this invention.

Claims

1. A foot for use on soft, granular surfaces, said foot having a mounting member for attachment to an object to be supported thereby and a dome member with a concave cavity having an open mouth.

2. A foot as in claim 1 wherein said dome member has an outwardly facing edge defining an open mouth of a concave cavity adapted to capture and compress granules of a granular surface to support said foot thereon when said foot is placed on an upper surface of said loose granules and downward force is applied to said foot.

3. A foot as in claim 1 in combination with an object to be supported.

4. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a chair.

5. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a table.

6. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a cart.

7. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a dolly.

8. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a trailer.

9. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a stool.

10. A foot as in claim 3 wherein said object is a platform.

11. A foot as in claim 1 wherein said foot is comprised of an elastomeric material.

12. A foot as in claim 1 wherein said foot is comprised of a plastic material.

13. A foot as in claim 1 wherein said mounting member has a channel for receiving a tube of an object to be supported by said foot.

14. A foot as in claim 13 wherein said channel has side walls for clampingly gripping said tube.

15. A foot as in claim 14 wherein said side walls of said channel have clips for retention of said tube in said channel.

16. A foot as in claim 13 wherein said channel has side walls and said tube is held in said channel by a fastener extending transversely through said channel and said side walls.

17. In combination, a chair and a foot, said chair having a horizontally disposed tube and said foot having a mounting member attached to said tube, said foot having a dome member with an outwardly facing edge defining an open mouth of a concave cavity adapted to capture and compress granules of a granular surface to support said foot thereon when said foot is placed on an upper surface of said loose granules and downward force is applied to said foot.

18. In combination, a chair and a table, said table having a horizontally disposed tube and said foot having a mounting member attached to said tube, said foot having a dome member with an outwardly facing edge defining an open mouth of a concave cavity adapted to capture and compress granules of a granular surface to support said foot thereon when said foot is placed on an upper surface of said loose granules and downward force is applied to said foot.