Patent Application
20100229781
This invention is directed to a boat ladder which is attached to a boat and stowed or stored, when not in use, on the deck of a boat or other suitable generally horizontal supporting surface and is put into use by being extended over the edge of the deck and is deployed for use downward into or toward the water for climbing into and or out of the boat.
Boat ladders of the type with which this invention is concerned conventionally and commonly comprise a pair of elongated laterally spaced parallel rigid support members with at least one step or rung attached between the rigid supports. The typical ladder may be an expandable type which conventionally has respective support members telescopically engaged with one another to provide extra length and additional steps or rungs for use in climbing into or out of the boat. For storing, the support members are telescopically collapsed into a stored position with the rungs located adjacent to one another to make it more compact. This is a well-known and conventional type of expandable boat ladder. In this fashion the ladder can be stored or stowed in a smaller space yet extendable for deployment for use. Typically and conventionally the ladder is attached to the boat by suitable means such as a bracket mounted on a boat deck or other suitable generally horizontal supporting platform and is hingedly or pivotally attached to the bracket so that it can be moved from its stored position and swung downward over the edge of the deck into or toward the water for use and when no longer in use it is pivotally swung upward to the level of the deck or platform and moved or slid onto the bracket or over the bracket to rest on the supporting deck or platform. It is also not uncommon for the bracket or other mechanism by which the ladder is attached to the boat to be made slidable with respect to the supporting surface so that the ladder can be slid or moved so that its outer end does not protrude over the edge of the deck or supporting platform when stowed. Typically a prior art device of this nature is illustrated and described in the Schmitt, et al U.S. Pat. No. 7,182,175 titled “Retractable Telescopic Boat Ladder”. The '175 patent has slide plates with elongated slots with the side rails of the ladder having radially extending pivot pins engaging the slots and the slide plates are supported on corresponding slide rails allowing the slide plates to slide back and forth over the boat deck. In other words the slide rails are slidably movable with respect to the supporting surface toward and away from the outer edge of the supporting surface and the ladder support members are slidably engaged with elongated slots in the slide rails to allow further movement of the ladder toward and away from the outer edge of the deck to allow the ladder to be moved away from the outer edge of the deck when stored and be extended out over the edge of the deck supporting surface for use. This mechanical arrangement is somewhat complex and costly and places a great deal of reliance on the pivot pin engagement with the elongated slot.
The present invention has a pair of elongated parallel laterally displaced brackets each having a base and upstanding sidewalls extending upward from the outer edges of the base with the brackets connected or coupled to the boat deck or other generally horizontal suitable platform or surface and the brackets are longitudinally slidable along the deck from a rearward location where the coupled boat ladder is in the stored or stowed position to a forward location extending to or beyond the outer edge of the deck for the boat ladder to be in the use position. In each of the brackets at about its outward end a hollow sleeve member is pivotly attached between the sidewalls of the bracket and the elongated ladder support members are slidably engaged in each of the sleeves whereby for storing or stowing the ladder is slid through the sleeve member to be at its most rearward location and for use the ladder is slid oppositely in the sleeve members so that it can be swung down over the edge of the deck or support surface for use to climb into or out of the boat. Using the sleeve member, as differentiated from the arrangement in Schmitt et al patent with pivot pins slidably engaged in elongated slots in slide plates, is considerably more efficient less costly and simpler in construction. Also the pivot pins sliding in the elongated slots in Schmitt et al are likely to be damaged or subject to fatigue over a period of time more so than the hollow sleeve utilized in the instant invention.
Typically and conventionally a boat ladder 10 comprises a pair of laterally spaced elongated rigid support members 11 with a step or rung 12 attached therebetween. It is not uncommon that the ladder 10 can be made extendable by having another section comprising support members 11A with a step 12A between with the support members 11A telescopically engaged with the support members 11 with suitable stops, not shown, located internally to keep the two sections from separating from one another when extended. As illustrated in
For connecting the boat ladder 10 to the boat there is provided a pair of elongated laterally spaced brackets 15 each having a base 16 and parallel sidewalls 17 extending upward along the outer edges of base 16. The base 16 of each bracket 15 contains an elongated slot 18 which is slidably engaged with a rail designated by reference numeral 20. Rail 20 is a generally tee shaped member having a vertical rod 21 and an outwardly extending cap 22 at its top end. The rod member 21 is fixedly attached in some suitable fashion to a plate 24 which in turn is fixedly attached in some suitable and conventional manner to the deck 13. Rail 20 is engaged with elongated slot 18 whereby each of the brackets 15 is slidably movable toward and away from the edge 13A of the deck 13. At what can be defined as about the outer end of each of the brackets 15 a sleeve member 25 is pivotally coupled to bracket 15 by radially extending pins 26 engaging suitable apertures or openings (not shown) in the sidewalls 17 at about the outer ends of bracket 15. Slidably engaged in the opening of each of the sleeves 25 are corresponding rigid elongated ladder support members 11 with suitable stops 27 extending radially outward at about the end of the ladder support members 11 preventing the support members from becoming disengaged from the sleeve members 25.
In practice when the boat ladder is not in use it is stored or stowed on the deck 13, or other suitable horizontal supporting surface, the brackets 15 being moved rearwardly or away from the outer edge 13 of the deck by slot 18 engaged with the rail 20 and the ladder raised from its deployed downward position so that sleeve 25 pivots or swings until it is generally aligned with and between the sidewalls 17 of the bracket 15 and the ladder segments slidably passing through the opening of sleeve 25 until the ladder is completely on the supporting surface without any end portion projecting out over the edge 13A of the deck, as illustrated in
