The present invention relates to a caravan. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a caravan that is convenient to transport and is space-expandable.
Camping cars correspond to a special class of vehicles that are designed to allow a person to travel in the vehicle at any place and camp therein in a pleasant environment by using various living facilities and amenities installed within the vehicle. The size of camping cars can be varied from small pickup trucks to buses.
Caravans correspond to an enclosure equipped with various living facilities inside and supported on a wheeled platform or trailer which can be moved when it is towed by a car. Compared to caravans, camping cars that can move by themselves are also known as motor caravans.
Presently, traveling or camping with the camping car or the caravan is gaining appeal and popularity among people who want to enjoy traveling and leisure activities out in nature. To meet such wants and demands, diverse types of camping cars, or caravans, have been developed and used.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0336166 discloses a camping car equipped with house expander in order to allow the user to expand interior space as one likes.
Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0402023 discloses a camping car that allows the user to utilize spacious interior space by expanding it in one or both directions.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0983626 discloses a camping car that expands interior space by extending a side-panel outwards, wherein the side-panel is equipped on the left or right side of the camping car.
Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1381001 discloses a caravan that can expand interior space by moving the ceiling and a side auxiliary box upwards and sideways respectively, and improves convenience of manipulation while minimizing number of actuators by having interconnected movement of the side auxiliary box and the ceiling.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,597,993 B2 discloses an expandable habitation vehicle.
However, the existing camping cars or caravans are unable solve the fundamental problem of difficulty in transporting and small confined spaces.
Firstly, the camping car which is basically a vehicle equipped with various living facilities cannot be utilized as a vehicle separated from the living facilities. Thus there is a burden of travelling with all the living facilities all the time. If the camping is sparsely done annually, the vehicle of the camping car will be parked in a garage for most of the time, and in this case it is not economical considering the low cost effectiveness. Further, the camping cars are very confining because of limited interior space. There are large camping cars such as camping buses, but the disadvantages are high cost and requirement of acquiring appropriate driving license to drive such camping buses.
Whereas, a caravan supported on a wheeled platform or trailer is towed by another vehicle, and since it can be separated from the vehicle it has an advantage that the vehicle can be used when the caravan is not in use. However, in order to tow a caravan with a vehicle, a separate towing license is required. Also, even with the towing license, it is difficult to tow a caravan in places with poor road conditions.
Camping cars and caravans thus have a fundamental problem of having confined spaces. On average, camping cars and caravans have an area of about 4˜7 m2. The minimum living space in which a person would not feel uncomfortable or stifling is known to be about 10 m2, but living spaces of existing camping cars or caravans are not as large as 10 m2. In order to expand the living spaces of camping cars or caravans they should be bus-sized, which is very impractical in terms of cost of the vehicle, storage and maintenance, and driving.
Thus there has been a need for an improvement in the caravan design to address the fundamental problem of having confined spaces in the existing camping cars and caravans which can provide the living space of atleast 10 m2 but still can be easily transported by one-ton pickup truck regardless of road conditions, can be transported by a towing vehicle by loading the caravan onto a trailer, can be towed by a passenger car by keeping the entire weight under 750 kg, and can be easily transported and expanded by anyone, to solve all the problems existing camping cars or caravans have.
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a novel space-expandable caravan that can expand a small living space of a caravan from approximately 4 m2 up to about three-fold, 12 m2.
Other purpose of the present invention is to provide a space-expandable caravan that can be expanded up to about 12 m2 so that camping experience is pleasant and neither stifling nor uncomfortable.
Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a space-expandable caravan that can be towed by a towing vehicle by loading the caravan onto a trailer.
Further purpose of the present invention is to provide a space-expandable caravan that can be towed by a passenger car after loading the caravan onto a trailer by keeping the entire weight of the caravan under 750 kg.
Further purpose of the present invention is to provide a space-expandable caravan that can be loaded on pickup truck for easy transportation regardless of road conditions.
Further purpose of the present invention is to provide a space-expandable caravan that can be easily expanded, disassembled and assembled by anyone.
The aforementioned and other purposes of present invention can be achieved by the present invention described in more detail below.
The space-expandable and easily transportable caravan according to present invention is a cubical caravan having space expandable and collapsible panel unit and housing various living facilities, wherein the space expandable and collapsible panel unit is symmetrically expandable from both sides.
In a preferred embodiment the present caravan (100) comprises a cubical upper main body (110) having the space expandable and collapsible panel unit and housing the various living facilities and a lower main body carrier (120) integrally attached thereunder to support the upper main body (110); the space expandable and collapsible panel unit comprises external panels (10a, 10b) and internal panels (20a, 20b) on each of side walls of the caravan (100), wherein each of said external panels (10a, 10b) comprises roof panel (11a, 11b) which forms an expansion roof upon outward unfolding, and expansion external panel (12a, 12b) which forms the expanded side outer wall, and each of the internal panels (20a, 20b) comprises floor panel (21a, 21b) which forms an expansion floor upon downward unfolding, and expansion side panel (22a and 23a, 22b and 23b) which forms the front and back expanded outer wall.
Variety of living facilities such as sink, bathroom, refrigerator, TV set, storage closet, sofa, and air conditioner are installed inside the upper main body (110). The upper main body (110) of the caravan (100) is suitable for loading onto small pick-up truck such as one-ton truck having for example, a width of 1,600 mm, a length of 2,500 mm, and height of 2,000 mm.
The lower main body carrier (120) is the portion that is loaded onto the one-ton truck, and is slightly smaller than the size of the upper main body (110), preferably has height of 500 mm. The lower main body carrier (120) houses various supporting equipments such as power generating unit, control unit, sink drain pipe, toilet and water tank. The lower main body carrier (120) also functions as storage for items such as varieties of tools.
All the panels in present invention are filled with insulation inside, and preferably utilizes aluminum sandwich panel assembled with aluminum panels on both sides.
Since the space-expandable caravan of present invention includes a structure in which both sides expand symmetrically, for convenience sake, description regarding one side is provided first.
With the external panel (10a) and the internal panel (20a) assembled, firstly the external panel (10a) is unfolded outward in order to spread out the roof panel (11a) and the expansion external panel (12a). The internal panel (20a) is then unfolded outward in order to spread out the floor panel (21a) and the expansion side panels (22a and 23a) of both sides. At this point the floor panel (21a) became horizontal with the bottom surface of the upper main body (110). The, legs (25) attached to bottom of the floor panel (21a) are unfolded. Two legs (25) are attached to of bottom of the floor panel (21a) at both corners.
The space-expandable caravan (100) of present invention can be set up by conveniently loading onto a cargo box of a truck by lifting the caravan using four jacks, and easily unloading from the cargo box to a desired place by again lifting the caravan using four jacks.
Since the space-expandable caravan of present invention can be transported by loading it on a truck, and can be towed by a towing vehicle by loading it on a trailer, smooth transporting process allows everyone to enjoy camping without limitation of location.
The present invention is now described in greater detail below, with reference to the appended drawings.
The present invention has advantageous effects of providing a space-expandable caravan that can expand a small living space of a caravan of approximately 4 m2 up to about 12 m2 which is about three-fold, and can be easily loaded, transported, unloaded, and set up by anyone by loading on to an one-ton pickup truck or a trailer and towing by a towing vehicle.
The present invention relates to a caravan which is convenient to move, easy to set up, and is space-expandable.
The space-expandable caravan (100) of present invention comprises a cubical upper main body (110) housing various living facilities and a lower main body carrier (120) integrally formed on the lower portion of the upper main body.
The dimension of the caravan (100) of present invention is selectively fixed to make it suitable for loading onto a one-ton truck. Preferably, the dimension, that is width×length×height of the upper main body (110) is fixed to 1,600 mm×2,500 mm×2,000 mm. In order to easily load and unload the caravan (100) onto and from the one-ton truck, the lower main body carrier (120) is made slightly smaller than the size of the upper main body (110). The height of the lower main body carrier (120) has to be slightly higher than the height of the cargo box of the truck, preferably it is fixed to 500 mm, to appropriately fit a cargo box of the one-ton truck. The dimension is not limited to this of course, and the upper main body can be manufactured in slightly bigger or smaller dimensions.
The lower main body carrier (120) houses various supporting equipments such as power generating unit, control unit, sink drain pipe, toilet and water tank. The lower main body (120) also functions as storage for items such as varieties of tools.
The space-expandable and easily transportable caravan of present invention includes a space expandable and collapsible panel unit in which both sides expand symmetrically. The upper main body (110) comprise a pair of larger dimensioned side walls thereof accommodating the space expandable and collapsible unit. The space expandable and collapsible panel unit comprises atleast one foldable external panels (10a, 10b) and atleast one foldable internal panels (20a, 20b) on each of side walls of the caravan. Therefore a description of a side wall of one side is sufficient to easily understand the whole structure.
With the external panel (10a) and the internal panel (20a) assembled as shown in
All the panels in present invention are filled with insulation inside, and preferably utilizes aluminum sandwich panel assembled with aluminum panels on both sides. Producing the roof panel (11a) and the expansion external panel (12a) in foldable structure can be easily performed by any skilled worker in the art.
The width of the roof panel (11a) is same as the height of the upper main body (110), and the height of the expansion external panel (12a) is slightly smaller than the height of the upper main body (110), such that the roof panel (11a) forms a slightly inclined plane after it is set up.
After outward unfolding of the external panel (10a), the internal panel (20a) is unfolded downward in order to spread the floor panels (21a) which form an expanded floor of the caravan (100), and to spread expansion side panels (22a and 23a) from both sides which form front (22a) and back (23a) expanded outer walls for assembling with the expanded side outer wall thus formed by the spread out of the expansion external panel (12a).
Reference in this context invited from
The external panel (10a) comprising the roof panel (11a) and the expansion external panel (12a), the structure of these panels spread out and folded, the internal panel (20a) comprising the floor panel (21a) and the expansion side panels (22a, 23a) of both sides, and the structure of these panels spread out and folded have not been described in detail, but these can be easily implemented by any skilled worker in the art.
Reference is next invited from the accompanying
As shown in
The floor panel (21a) should be horizontal with the bottom surface of the upper main body (110). Hence, in the present caravan (100) as shown in the
The steps for assembling all the panels of present invention are as follows.
Firstly, two legs (25) are unfolded to keep the floor panel (21a) horizontal, and then the expansion external panel (12a) is inserted in the floor panel (21a) for assembly.
After the floor panel (21a) and the expansion external panel (12a) are assembled together, the expansion side panels (22a, 23a) of both sides are assembled on the expansion external panel (12a) one after the other. An engaging protrusion (33) is formed on the expansion side panels (22a, 23a), and a corresponding groove (31) is formed on the expansion external panel (12a), such that these panels are interlocked with each other when the engaging protrusion (33) sits within the groove (31). Elastic rubber material (32) is also inserted in the groove (31) for complete seal up.
The expansion side panels (22a, 23a) are joined with the floor panel (21a) by spring hinges (not shown). Due to the spring hinges, the expansion side panels (22a, 23a) can move freely about 10 cm from left to right. As a result, anyone can connect the expansion side panels (22a, 23a) to the floor panel (21a) without difficulty.
The expansion side panels (22a and 23a) and the roof panel (11a) are fixed by plurality of locking means (60).
Lastly, the expansion side panels (22a and 23a) are firmly attached to the inner wall of the upper main body (110) by plurality of coupling means (70).
As shown on
The caravan (100) of present invention can be set up by lifting up the caravan up with four jacks and then conveniently loading it onto a cargo box of a truck, and by easily unloading it from the cargo box to desired location.
Even though present invention have been described mainly focusing on the external panel (10a) and the internal panel (20a) on left side, since the left and right side walls form symmetrical structure, the external panel (10b) and the internal panel (20b) on the right side can be understood the same way.
Solar panels (80) can be appropriately installed on top of the caravan (100) of present invention to produce needed electricity. Air conditioning and heating system, sink, bathroom, as well as power generating unit and such can be easily implemented by skilled workers in the art as those installed in conventional caravans or camping cars. For example, the caravan can be heated by installing heating wire or pipes, for hot water to flow through, inside the floor panels (21a, 21b). Air conditioning system can be installed, not only in the upper main body (110), but also in the expanded space (A, B) by extension.
By using four jacks (50), the user of the caravan can easily lift the caravan (100) of present invention, load the lifted caravan onto a truck or a trailer, and unload the caravan from the truck or the trailer to set up. Further, the user does not require separate license for transporting the caravan.
The space-expandable caravan of present invention can be transported by loading it on a truck, and can be towed by a towing vehicle by loading it on a trailer, therefore facilitating smooth transporting process that allows everyone to enjoy camping without limitation of location.
The present invention may be put into practice with simple modifications and variations by persons skilled in the art, and such modifications and variation are all within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
10-2018-0135663 | Nov 2018 | KR | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/KR2019/013874 | 10/22/2019 | WO | 00 |