Patent Application
20090039675
This invention pertains to the field of pick up truck vehicles of the type having a crew cab passenger compartment and a short bed cargo compartment extending rearwardly of the passenger compartment that offers the functional convenience of long bed cargo capability.
Generally, pick-up truck vehicles today are available in a variety of cabin and cargo box arrangements to offer a variety of options for potential customers' needs. Common cabin configurations include, among others, crew and quad cab configurations. These configurations generally result in lengthening the cabin so as to accommodate a rear seat assembly. Often, when one of these configurations is selected, a smaller cargo box, such as a short bed, is selected in an attempt to offset the increased cabin length so as to not increase an overall length of the vehicle. This overall configuration of a crew cab or quad cab accompanied by a shorter box has certain benefits such as not increasing the overall length of the vehicle, but it also has certain drawbacks, such as less cargo storage space.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,093,871 B2 discloses a convertible arrangement which combines the benefits of a short bed truck design with the functional convenience of a long bed feature. The arrangement utilizes a downwardly mobile lever-mounted rear seat bottom and a forwardly translatable rear cabin wall that enables the cargo bed to be extended to a long bed length. While effective for its purpose, it has the disadvantages of requiring costly mechanical devices to enable extension of the cargo bed inconvenience to the truck owner of needing to make the physical conversion when even a small amount of long cargo items are loaded. It further exposes the interior of the cabin to the elements when the rear wall is translated forward.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,837,531 B2 discloses another convertible arrangement in which the rear seat bottom is pivoted forward and the rear seat back is pivoted upwards to provide a space that allows the forward wall of the cargo compartment to the translated forward into the cabin to extend the cargo bed. This again is an effective technique but also suffers from mechanical complexity and the inconvenience of having to physically perform the conversion any time long items are to be loaded.
Thus there is a need for a vehicle cabin and cargo bed arrangement that overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages.
Thus, with the foregoing in mind, there is provided a simple and convenient vehicle body arrangement having a passenger compartment with front and rear seats and a cargo compartment projecting rearwardly from the passenger compartment that combines the benefit of short bed cargo compartment with the convenience of a long bed capability. In accordance with the invention, therefore, the passenger compartment includes a rear wall and a floor, wherein the floor is provided with an upwardly stepped segment integrally formed with the rear wall under at least a portion of the rear passenger seat to create an open space thereunder external to the passenger compartment. Further, in accordance with the invention, the cargo compartment is provided with a fixed cargo bed having a first portion that extends rearwardly of the passenger compartment rear wall to provide a short cargo bed and with a second portion that extends forwardly of the same rear wall into the open space under the rear seat to provide an extended cargo bed.
In another feature of the invention, the rear seat components are pivotable forward and a midgate installed in the passenger compartment rear wall is pivoted downward to form a second tier load floor bed for loads that exceed the space capacity provided by the built-in extended cargo space in the stepped portion of the passenger compartment. A liftgate is provided in the compartment rear wall to further increase the load capacity of the second tier cargo bed.
Since the space under the rear passenger seat is built into the structure of passenger compartment and since the cargo bed is fixed in place in this space, certain advantages are obtained in that there are no complex mechanisms required and no physical manipulations of the cargo compartment needed to achieve the benefits of a long bed design for many if not most of the long item loads that the truck will be used to haul. Larger loads can be easily accommodated by simply pivoting the rear seat components and opening the midgate and, optionally, the liftgate without the mechanical complexity and inconvenience of having to translate a portion of the cargo compartment to achieve an extended bed. Thus, the advantage of garaging a short bed vehicle while retaining the convenience of a fixed long bed structure is achieved
Referring to jointly to
The cargo compartment 18 is provided with a fixed cargo bed 30 having a first portion extending rearwardly of the rear wall 20 to provide a short cargo bed section 30a and a second portion extending forwardly of said wall into the open space 26 under the rear seat 16 to provide an extended cargo bed section 30b which, combined with the first short bed section 30a, creates what is commonly referred to as a long bed. To this end, the cargo compartment has a cargo front wall 28 formed with parallel forwardly extending cargo side walls 29 (only one shown) that mate into the open space 26 under the rear passenger seat. The front wall 28 and forwardly extending side walls 29 combine with the forwardly extending cargo bed portion 30b to form a compartment under the rear passenger seat with an opening 31, preferably 8 inches high, facing to the rear which provides ready access to the extended cargo bed section 30b.
This arrangement allows for easy insertion of a payload 38, such as a stack 8 inches tall of two by fours lying flat on the cargo bed, without requiring any manipulation of the physical features of the cargo compartment 18 or of the internal configuration of the passenger compartment 12. With such flat loading, other items, such as paint cans, can be carried loosely on top of the load, a safety convenience that is difficult to achieve when long items are loaded at an angle extending out over a closed tailgate 40 or when the tailgate is lowered to accommodate the longer items. The open space 26 beneath the rear seat bottom created by the stepped segment 24 is such that a useful vertical height, such as eight inches, can be provided for the extended cargo bed section 30b which is sufficient for many if not most typical do-it-yourself projects.
Preferably, the width of the opening 31 of the open space 26 is at least as wide as the width of the short bed section between opposing wheel wells 36 in the cargo compartment, of which only the leftmost wheel well is shown in
Turning now to
As illustrated in
The invention has been described in detail with particular reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, but it will be understood that variations and modifications can be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.
