Vehicle anchoring apparatus

Abstract

Vehicle anchoring apparatus is disclosed, in its preferred form, for use in conjunction with an apparatus for repairing and straightening vehicles having a support surface for supporting vehicles thereon. The support surface includes an array of regularly shaped apertures which extend vertically therethrough. A unibody clamp is disclosed including adjustable jaws for removably gripping the pinch weld of a unibody frame. Abutment wings are further provided on the clamp for abutting with a stop member which accepts, substantially in line, the counterforce from the clamp. The stop member is removably attached to the support surface by an attachment member which extends into a selected support surface aperture and allows self-alignment thereof in the support surface.

Description

BACKGROUND

The present invention relates generally to vehicle anchoring apparatus, and more particularly, to vehicle anchoring apparatus for an apparatus for repairing and straightening vehicles.

With the increasing sophistication of apparatus for repairing and straightening, faster repairing and straightening of damaged vehicles has been attained without large expenditures of time, labor, and energy. There is also an increasing need for accessories for use in such apparatus for repairing and straightening to further increase their ability to repair vehicles having various types of damage and to further increase their efficiency to thus further reduce the time, labor, and effort required to repair and straighten vehicles. Also, such accessories should be easy to operate without the need for other type of apparatus, such as support blocks.

Still further, such apparatus should be light in weight, and of small size thus allowing easy use thereof without the expenditures of large amounts of energy.

A special need has arisen for accessories for use in repairing unibody type vehicles. Previous apparatus used in anchoring unibody type vehicles had serious deficiencies in the ability to accept the counterforce conveyed from the vehicle substantially in line. Therefore, it was necessary to align the vehicle exactly in a position allowing the counterforce to be conveyed substantially in line. Thus, it was necessary to move the vehicle to an exact position, possibly several times, thus requiring large expenditures of time and effort. Also, if the vehicles were not substantially in line with the accessories, previously known accessories could damage the vehicle when the repair force was exerted thereto. Further, such previously known accessories also suffered serious deficiencies in the ability for their use in unibody vehicles having bent pinch welds.

SUMMARY

The present invention solves these and other problems in vehicle anchoring apparatus for use in an apparatus for repairing and straightening by providing, in the preferred embodiment, a stop member which abuts with abutment wings formed on an elongated member attached to a portion of the vehicle. The stop member is thus able to accept the counterforce exerted by the elongated member.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide novel vehicle anchoring apparatus for use in an apparatus for repairing and straightening.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide such vehicle anchoring apparatus for accepting counterforces in a substantially horizontal manner.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide such vehicle anchoring apparatus allowing self-alignment.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide such vehicle anchoring apparatus allowing the vehicle anchoring apparatus to be substantially in line with the counterforce exerted by the vehicle.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide such vehicle anchoring apparatus which maximizes the materials used.

It is further an object of the present invention to provide such vehicle anchoring apparatus which is easy to use in conjunction with an apparatus for repairing and straightening.

These and further objects and advantages of the present invention will become clearer in light of the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment of this invention described in connection with the drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The illustrative embodiment may best be described by reference to the accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a clamp member utilizing the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a member which can be utilized with the apparatus of FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an end view of the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 2 in use according to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a side view of the apparatus of FIG. 6 according to view line 7--7 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing the method of manufacture of the apparatus as best seen in FIGS. 4 and 5.

The remaining figures of the drawings of the present invention and the remaining disclosure of the present invention, including preferred embodiments, are incorporated herein by reference to application Ser. No. 722,825 filed Sept. 13, 1976, by Gerald A. Specktor entitled "Accessories For An Apparatus For Repairing and Straightening", now patent 4,138,877, the parent application of the present application.

Claims

1. Apparatus for anchoring a vehicle to a support surface comprising, in combination: an elongated member for attachment to a portion of the vehicle, with the elongated member having an axis and including at least two abutment wings integrally attached to and projecting from the elongated member, with the wings being located on opposite sides of the axis; stop member for abutting with the abutment wings without physical connection for allowing the wings to slide in a vertical direction on the stop member for accepting a counterforce from the elongated member in a substantially horizontal manner through the abutment wings to the stop member to substantially reduce the necessity for use of supporting apparatus in straightening the frame of the vehicle; and means for attaching the stop member to the support surface.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the means for attaching the stop member to the support surface comprises means, for rotation about a vertical axis, for attaching the stop member to the support surface, for allowing rotational self-alignment of the stop member about the vertical axis, and for allowing the stop member to be substantially in line with the counterforce of the elongated member.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the support surface has a top surface and a bottom surface defining a finite thickness and further includes at least one regularly shaped aperture passing vertically through the support surface and wherein the attaching, self-alignment, and allowing means comprises, in combination: attachment means having a cross sectional size substantially equal to but slightly less than the size of the aperture and having a removed portion of a thickness substantially equal to but slightly greater than the thickness of the support surface for allowing the attachment means to be vertically inserted into the support surface aperture and moved in a first lateral direction parallel to the support surface to engage the support surface within the removed portion, with a lip being defined by the removed portion for abutting with the bottom surface of the support surface; means for preventing the attachment means from moving in a second lateral direction opposite to the first lateral direction and for preventing unintentional removal of the attachment means from the aperture; and means extending around the preventing means, located on the opposite side of the attachment means from the lip, for abutting with the top surface of the support surface.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the support surface aperture is circular in shape and wherein the attachment means has a circular cross section.

5. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the preventing means comprises a pin inserted within the support surface aperture next to the attachment means after the attachment means has been moved in the first lateral direction to an extent that the support surface engages the removed portion.

6. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the attachment means includes an L-shaped member including a vertical leg and a horizontal leg, with the horizontal leg defining the abutting lip, wherein the vertical leg is attached to the bottom surface of the stop member, and wherein the removed portion is defined between the horizontal leg and the bottom surface of the stop member.

7. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the lip of the attachment means includes a flat end portion for transferring the counterforce from the attachment means to the bottom surface of the support surface along a line and for reducing the shearing effect of the lip on the support surface.

8. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the attachment means comprises a cylindrical member formed of thick wall tubing having a notch formed therein by a first saw cut of a depth substantially equal to but slightly greater than the thickness of the support surface and along a cord of the circular cross section, a second saw cut spaced from and parallel to the first saw cut and of a depth equal to the depth of the first saw cut, a third saw cut perpendicular to the first and second saw cuts and intersecting therewith, with the material located between the first and second saw cuts being removed and the remaining portions being attached together, and with the cylindrical member being attached to the bottom surface of the stop member.

9. The apparatus of claim 3 or 8 wherein the stop member includes the top surface abutting means which comprises, in combination: a flat, bottom section, with the bottom section of the stop member extending beyond the attachment means adjacent to the preventing means for abutting with the top surface of the support surface.

10. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein the stop member comprises a U-shaped member including first and second upstanding arms, with the arms upstanding from a center section, and with the arms of the U-shaped member being of a dimension allowing the elongated member to be located between the arms of the U-shaped member and allowing the abutment wings to abut with the arms of the U-shaped member.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the center section is generally flat and wherein the upstanding arms are perpendicularly attached to the opposite ends of the center section.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the upstanding arms further include projecting means for stopping any vertical movement of the abutment wings there beyond and thus preventing the abutment wings from slipping over the top of the upstanding arms.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the center section of the stop member extends beyond the attachment means adjacent to the preventing means for abutting with the top surface of the support surface and comprises the top surface abutting means.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the vehicle has a unibody type construction including at least one pinch type weld and wherein the elongated member attaches to the pinch type weld of the unibody of the vehicle.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 or 14 wherein the elongated member comprises a clamp member including adjustable jaw members for removably capturing the portion of the vehicle.

16. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2 wherein the stop member includes arms upstanding from the support surface for abutting with the abutment wings.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the upstanding arms further include projecting means for stopping any vertical movement of the abutment wings there beyond and thus preventing the abutment wings from slipping over the top of the upstanding arms.

18. The apparatus of claim 1 or 2 wherein the stop member comprises a U-shaped member including first and second upstanding arms, with the arms upstanding from a center section, and with the arms of the U-shaped member being of a dimension allowing the elongated member to be located between the arms of the U-shaped member and allowing the abutment wings to abut with the arms of the U-shaped member.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the center section is generally flat and wherein the upstanding arms are perpendicularly attached to the opposite ends of the center section.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the upstanding arms further include projecting means for stopping any vertical movement of the abutment wings there beyond and thus preventing the abutment wings from slipping over the top of the upstanding arms.