GB2160486A - Arrangement for stowing a spare wheel on a motor vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

For enabling heavy spare wheel 22 to be stowed away behind the rear wall of motor vehicle cab 12, jib 54 comprising side-by-side swingable jib arms 52, 56, carries an attachment arm 64 for securing to the wheel 22. A winch 44 serves as raising and lowering means and is operated to swing the jib 54 upwards until stop 90 abuts against supporting post 42, thereby to bring the wheel 22 to an elevated position, but projecting to some extent laterally of the vehicle cab 12. Screw means 28 is then operated manually to swing tie supporting post 42, and with it the jib 54, to an inclined position in which the wheel 22 is now wholly behind the cab 12 and a bolt can be inserted into the hole 78 in the free end of the attachment arm 64, now registering with hole 80 in fixed bracket 82, to lock the entire arrangement against further movement. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Arrangement for stowing a spare wheel on a motor vehicle This invention concerns an arrangement for stowing a spare wheel on a motor vehicle, especially on a goods vehicle having a driver's cab distinct from a goods carrying compartment or body.

The stowing of a spare wheel on a goods vehicle can be a problem, because the most convenient spaces for such a spare wheel are often needed for other items such as fuel tanks, batteries etc. Consequently the spare wheel is often located in a position from which it is difficult to retrieve when it is required. This is especially true when the vehicle is of the articulated type and the spare wheel needs to be carried by the usual tractor unit of such a vehicle.

An object of the present invention is to provide an arrangement for stowing a spare wheel on a vehicle which allows the wheel to be stowed behind the rear wall of a cab of the vehicle and which enables the wheel to be moved into its stowed position, and to be retrieved therefrom, in a simple and convenient manner which can be performed by one man even in the case where the wheel is extremely heavy.

With this object in view the present invention provides, in a motor vehicle having a cab, an arrangement for enabling a spare wheel to be secured in a stowed position at an elevated disposition behind a rear wall of the cab and to be moved between said stowed position and a grounded position alongside the vehicle, comprising a jib adapted for the wheel to be attached thereto for raising and lowering, jib raising and lowering means for moving the jib between a pickup position wherein it projects laterally from the vehicle and a raised position, for raising the wheel from and lowering it to its grounded position, and jib displacing means adapted, in the raised disposition of the jib, to move the latter to a stowed position in which the wheel is disposed wholly behind the rear wall of the cab.

A particularly convenient construction is achieved when the jib comprises an adjacent pair of jib arms, the lower ends of which are attached to spaced-apart pivots and the upper ends of which are pivotally connected to attachment means for the wheel. This enables the attachment to be in the form of an attachment arm which, by being pivotally connected to the upper ends of the jib arms, is guided to move whilst remaining in an approximately upright disposition during raising and lowering of the jib.

For locking the entire arrangement the attachment arm is conveniently adapted, in the stowed position of the wheel, to be secured at or adjacent its lower end, to a fixed bracket.

The jib raising and lowering means may comprise a winch having a cable connected to the upper ends of the jib arms, this winch being provided, for instance, at the upper end of a winch supporting post. This post may then be swingably mounted, at its lower end, for moving the jib to the stowed position.

In a practical embodiment of the invention, the jib displacing means comprises screw means adapted to enable the supporting post to be swung between an upright position and in inclined position, the screw means comprising, for instance, a manually rotatable screw extending through a bearing carried by a fixed frame and engaging a nut carried by the supporting post.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a fragmentary rear view illustrating a practical embodiment of the spare wheel stowing arrangement of the invention as applied to a motor vehicle in the form of a tractor unit of an articulated goods vehicle; Figure 2 is a perspective view, to an enlarged scale compared with the other figures, illustrating lifting bar which constitutes a component of the embodiment of the stowing arrangement illustrated in Fig. 1; Figure 3 is a detached view illustrating how the lifting bar of Fig. 2 is used in the firm attachment of a spare wheel to the arrangement of Fig. 1 as a preliminary step in the lifting and stowing away of said wheel; Figure 4 is a view comparable with Fig. 1 but showing an intermediate stage in the raising of the spare wheel;; Figure 5 is a view comparable with Figs. 1 and 4, but showing the spare wheel having been fully raised by the jib, but still projecting partially, laterally of the vehicle's cab; Figure 6 is a view comparable with Figs. 1, 4 and 5, but showing the jib having been swung from its upright position to move the wheel to its stowed position fully behind the vehicle's cab; and Figure 7 is a side elevation corresponding to Fig.

6.

It will be appreciated that only sufficient parts of the motor vehicle, which is in the form of a tractor unit of an articulated lorry, have been illustrated in the drawings to enable the invention to be understood, and that the following description is illustrative, and not restrictive of the scope of the invention.

As shown in the drawings an articulated vehicle's tractor unit, indicated generally by the reference numeral 10, has a driver's cab 12 behind which are driving wheel pairs 14. A support structure 16 (not shown in detail in the drawing) extends from front to rear of the vehicle 10 and serves to support, substantially behind the cab 12, a pair of cross members 18 which constitute the base of an arrangement, indicated generally by the reference numeral 20, in accordance with the invention, for stowing a spare wheel 22.

Rigidly mounted on the base 18 is a fixed frame 24 supporting a bearing 26 through which extends a rotatable shaft 28. A handle 30 can be fitted onto one end 32 of the shaft 28 which is located in the bearing 26 so as to be prevented from moving axially and has, on its part 34 projecting beyond the bearing 36, a screw thread engaging with a tubular nut 38 connected by a pivot 40 about half way up a supporting post 42. This post 42 is mounted by way of a pivot 44 on the base 18 and it will therefore be understood that by rotation of the shaft 28 by means of the handle 30, the supporting post 42 can be caused to swing through an arc relative to the base 18 between its substantially upright position shown in Figs. 1,4 and 5, and an inclined position shown in Fig. 6. A winch assembly 44, having a cable 46, is mounted on the top of the post 42.The winch assembly 46 has a stub 48 on which the handle 30 can be fitted for enabling the winch to be operated to wind ;n or pay out the cable 46 the free end of which is connected to a bracket 50 provided on the upper or free end of first jib arm 52 of a jib, indicated generally by the reference numeral 54 and comprising the first jib arm 52 and an adjacent second jib arm 56. These two jib arms 52, 56 are pivotally mounted, at their lower ends, respectively upon the pivot 44 and a further pivot 58 spaced apart therefrom on the base 18.

Pivotally connected to the free ends of the jib arms 52 and 56, at respective DiVot 60 and 62, by its upper end, is a substantially upright attachment arm 64 adapted for the spare wheel 22 to be attached thereto, the upper end of said arm 64 being angled slightly, as shown in the drawings, between the two pivots 60, 62 so that it will tend to maintain its approximate upright disposition in all angular positions of the jib 54.

About a quarter of the way up its height, a fixed stud 66 projects from the arm 64 to the side of the latter opposite to that from which the arm 64 is viewed in the drawings. Equispaced from the stud 66 are a pair or opposed C-shaped catches or bifurcated brackets 68, and complementary hereto is a channel-sectioned lifting bar 70 having a central hole 72 and from which project a pair of bolts 74 the spacing of which equals the spacing apart of the slots in the brackets 68 and also the diametrical spacing between holes 76 spaced around the wheel 22.

A locking hole 78 is provided at the lower end of the attachment arm 64 and this is complementary to a hole 80 provided at the top of a fixed bracket 82 upstanding from the base 18 adjacent the pivot 44.

The manner of operation of the illustrated arrangement will readily be appreciated from the foregoing description.

Fig. 6 of the drawings shows the spare wheel 22 in its stowed-away position behind the cab 12, the wheel 22 and the jib 54 having been locked against clamped to the fixed bracket 82 by a bolt 84 through the holes 78 and 80 which are in register.

In this position the wheel 22 is secure and it will remain safely in place for as long as may be required.

If the wheel 22 is required to be retrieved for use, starting from Fig. 6, firstly the bolt 84 is removed so that the attachment arm 64 and the jib 54 are freed relative to the fixed bracket 82. The handle 30 is then applied to the shaft 28 which is then rotated so as to cause the post 42 to be moved from its inclined position shown in Fig. 6 corresponding to the stowed position of the wheel 22, to a position wherein the post 42 and the two jib arms 52 and 56 are approximately upright and substantially perpendicular to the base 18 as shown in Fig. 5.The handle 30 is now transferred to the winch 44 and the latter is then operated to cause the cable 46 to be paid out thereby permitting the jib 54 to swing in the anti-clockwise direction under the weight of the spare wheel 22 from the raised position of Fig. 5, through an intermediate position shown in Fig. 4, and thence to the position shown in Fig. 1. Upon release of nuts 84 on the bolts 74 and/or nut 86 on the stud 66, the wheel 22 can be rolled away and used as desired.

For the reverse operations, that is to say for fixing, raising and stowing away a spare wheel 22, one proceeds generally as follows.

Firstly, referring to Fig. 2, one takes the lifting bar 70 and fits it by its bolts 74 in to convenient bolt holes 76 in the wheel 22, thereupon screwing the nuts 84 relatively loosely on the respective bolts 74. The wheel 22 is then manoeuvred, by rolling, until it is in a position in which the stud 66 projecting from the attachment arm 64 registers with and engages into the hole 72. The nut 86 is then screwed relatively loosely at the stud 66, and the three nuts 84 and 86 are turned until they are fully on their bolts 74 or stud 66, but are not tightened. All of this can be done quite easily, since the wheel 22 itself does not have to be lifted but only has to be rolled, with the winch 44 being operated as necessary to ensure the stud 66 is at the correct height.

As soon as the nuts 84, 86 are in place, the winch 44 is operated to haul in the cable 46 to just a small extent sufficient to cause the wheel 22 to be lifted just clear of the ground as shown in Fig.

3. Thereupon, of course, the wheel 22 can readily be turned about the axis provided by the stud 66 until the bolts 74 enter into the oppositely-facing slots provided by the C-shaped catches or brackets 68. Then, all three nuts 84 and 86 are tightened, thereby to clamp the wheel 22 tightly and reliably to the attachment arm 64.

This having been achieved, the winch 44 is now operated to haul in the cable 46, thereby to swing the jib 54 effectively from the Fig. 1 position, in which the jib 54 is projecting laterally of the vehicle, through the Fig. 4 position to the elevated position of Fig. 5 which is defined by an L-shaped stop 90 on the jib arm 52 abutting against the post 42.

Upon the Fig. 5 position having been reached, the handle 30 is transferred across to the screwed shaft 28 which is then turned to cause swinging of the post 42, and with the latter the jib 54, in the clockwise direction until the position, illustrated in Fig. 6, in which the holes 78 and 80 coincides, is reached. The bolt 84 is then inserted and tightened up, to complete the operations, the wheel 22 then being safely and securely stowed away wholly behind the rear wall of the cab 12. All of the described operations can be carried out by one person, quite easily, even though the wheel may be extremely heavy weighing, for instance, as much as 250 kgs.

Normally the invention is not confined to the precise details of the foregoing example and variations may be made thereto within the scope of the following claims.

Claims (10)

1. A motor vehicle having a cab and an arrangement for enabling a spare wheel to be secured in a stowed position at an elevated disposition behind a rear wall of the cab and to be moved between said stowed position and a grounded position alongside the vehicle, comprising a jib adapted for the wheel to be attached thereto for raising and lowering, jib raising and lowering means for moving the jib between a pickup position wherein it projects laterally from the vehicle and a raised position, for raising the wheel from and lowering it to its grounded position, and jib displacing means adapted, in the raised disposition of the jib, to move the latter to a stowed position in which the wheel is disposed wholly behind the rear wall of the cab.

2. A vehicle as claimed in claim 1 in which the jib comprises an adjacent pair of jib arms and lower ends of which are attached to spaced-apart pivots and the upper ends of which are pivotally connected to attachment means for the wheel.

3. A vehicle as claimed in claim 2 wherein the attachment means comprises an attachment arm pivotally connected to the upper ends of the jib arms.

4. A vehicle as claimed in claim 3 wherein the attachment arm is adapted, in the stowed position of the wheel, to be secured at or adjacent its lower end, to a fixed bracket.

5. A vehicle as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the jib raising and lowering means comprises a winch having a cable connected to the upper ends of the jib arms.

6. A vehicle as claimed in claim 5 wherein the winch is provided at the upper end of a winch supporting post.

7. A vehicle as claimed in claim 6 wherein the winch supporting post is swingably mounted, at its lower end, for moving the jib to the stowed position.

8. A vehicle as claimed in claim 7 wherein the jib displacing means comprises screw means adapted to enable the supporting post to be swung between an upright position and an inclined position.

9. A vehicle as claimed in claim 8 wherein the screw means comprises a manually rotatable screw extending through a bearing carried by a fixed frame and engaging a nut carried by the supporting post.

10. A motor vehicle having a spare wheel stowing arrangement substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.