Patent Application
20100295361
This invention relates to the field of vehicles and emergency movement of disabled vehicles. More particularly, a device is introduced that allows a vehicle with a broken axel in a remote location to be driven to safety.
In emergency situations where a driver has broken an axel in a remote location, the axel tends to come out of the axel housing and separate the axel and wheel from the vehicle when driven, making the vehicle inoperable. If the vehicle is an off-the-road vehicle it may be impractical or impossible for an emergency vehicle such as a tow truck to reach the remote location. In such circumstances, it may be necessary to hire a bulldozer or tractor to tow the vehicle. Such an operation is time consuming, cumbersome and often very expensive. It is an object of this invention to provide a safe, inexpensive device that may be used to extract a remote vehicle with a broken axel to a safer location.
If a device is capable of keeping the broken axel and hence the tire and wheel in its proper place, the disabled vehicle may be driven out of the remote location, thus saving much time and expense. At least one attempt has been made to create such a device. Off Road Trail Tools, LLC advertises a bar that may be attached to a disable vehicle by chains. The bar has two fixed tubes attached at fixed positions. The chains are attached to the vehicle so that the tubes rub along the sides of the tire to keep the broken axel and wheel in it proper place. While Off Road is an advance in this particular field, the device has certain drawbacks.
First as the tire rotates against the front fixed tube, the front tube tends to move downward. Conversely, the rear fixed tube tends to move upward, both in the counterclockwise rotational direction of the tire movement. This force tends to move the bar from the horizontal to an oblique angle. It is another object of this invention to provide an emergency device for a disabled vehicle that has a bar and cylinders that remain horizontal when in contact with a rotating tire.
Another problem with the Off Road device is that the tubes are fixed to the bar and remain stationary even when the tire rotates against the tubes. These fixed tubes create much wear on the sidewalls of the tire due to the friction created by the tubes rubbing on the tires. The heat and wear and tear generated by the fixed tubes require that the vehicle move very slowly, if at all. It is a further object of this invention to provide a device that keeps a broken axel and tire in place while providing a minimum of wear and friction to the sidewall of the tire.
A final problem with the Off Road device is that the fixed tubes are not always riding on the front and back part of the tire. Since the tubes are fixed, they must be placed in a generally advantageous location suitable to most vehicles. However, tire size and other factors vary markedly making a standard, fixed length a problem. It is a still further object of this invention to provide a tire restraining system that is adjustable to a wide variety of tire sizes and placements.
Other and further objects of this invention will become obvious upon reading the following specification and disclosure.
An axel splint to keep a broken axel and wheel from separating from the axel housing and vehicle is attached to the trailer hitch of the vehicle. The hitch coupling piece has an essentially square cross-section with an elongated L-shape. The short end of the coupling piece is inserted into the hitch. The long end of the coupling piece is horizontal to the ground and is inserted into the long end of an L-shaped extension bar. The coupling piece has adjustment holes for horizontal adjustment of the device. The short end of the extension bar is vertical and has adjustment holes. The extension bar is attached to a round rod which is horizontal to the ground and is located next to the rear tire of the broken axel. The rod is adjustably attached to the extension bar and the vertical height of the rod may be set as desired. A cylinder is adjustably attached around the rod by collars. The placement the cylinder may be set to any desired length along the rod. The cylinder is in contact with bearings and rotates freely about the rod. The horizontal adjustment of the extension bar and the vertical adjustment of the rod allow a user to set the cylinder against the wheel of the broken axel for emergency movement of the vehicle. The coupling piece and extension bar may be rotated 90 degrees to the vertical in the hitch when the device is not in use.
An alternative embodiment of the device has a rod attached to the vehicle by adjusting straps. Two cylinders are adjustably and rotatably attached to the rod. The straps hold the rod and tire cylinders against the wheel for emergency movement of the vehicle.
An axel splint 1, shown on
The hitch coupling piece has a square-shaped cross-section in the preferred embodiment to accommodate the standard square-shaped trailer hitch receiver 7. The hitch coupling piece has a short leg 2S and a long leg 2L, as best shown on
Adjustably and removably attached to the hitch coupling piece 2 is an extension bar 3. The extension bar 3 is adapted to fit into the hitch coupling piece 2. The extension bar 3 has an essentially square cross-section and is L-shaped. The extension bar 3 has a bar long leg 3L and a bar short leg 3S shown in
The tire cylinder rod 4 has a tire cylinder rod adjusting and coupling piece 6 attached at one end, as best shown in
As best shown in
For each of the embodiments described herein, attached to each of the collars 14 and 14′ is a bearing 16 and 16′ respectively, as best shown on
Turning now to
In order to prevent this catastrophic result from occurring, and in order to allow a user to drive his vehicle to safety or to a repair shop, the axel splint 1 is attached to the hitch as shown in
An alternative embodiment of the axel splint is shown in
This alternate embodiment offers several enhancements over the prior art. Since the cylinders are on bearings, they roll with the tire as it rotates. This action makes driving the crippled vehicle easier and saves wear on the tire sides. In addition, since the cylinders are adjustable along the length of the tire, the cylinders 5′ can be precisely located on each side of the tire. The prior art had neither the rotatable nor adjustable cylinders.
However, the alternate embodiment has several drawbacks from the preferred embodiment described above. The preferred embodiment not only has an adjustable and rotatable cylinder, it is also fixed in height since the hitch coupling, extension bar and cylinder rod are in a fixed location relative to the tire. On the “strap embodiment” the tire rod tends to move up as the tire rotates, especially when the cylinders are fixed to the rod and do not rotate. The preferred embodiment provides an axel splint that will not ride up as the tire rotates.
Another feature of the preferred embodiment is that it may be carried attached to the hitch, thus eliminating the need for extra storage space for the somewhat bulky axel splint. In order to carry the axel splint on the hitch when not in use, the short arm 2S of hitch coupling 2 is turned upward 90 degrees so that the long arm 2L of the hitch coupling is vertical from the hitch. The hitch coupling adjusting holes 8 allow for a user to adjust the length of the short arm 2S from the rear of the vehicle. Using this storage scheme, the long arm 3S of the extension bar is located on the long arm 2L of the hitch coupling. The only part of the axel splint that must be stored in the vehicle is the relatively small tire rod 4, tire cylinder 5 and coupling piece 6.
