Tire carriers for vehicles and related methods

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10370044-B2
Application number	US-201715721214-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 29, 2017
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	Aug 6, 2019
Grant date	Aug 6, 2019

Abstract

Tire carriers for vehicles and related methods are disclosed. An example tire carrier includes a hinge to be pivotally coupled to a vehicle. A support arm has a first end to be pivotally coupled to the hinge and a second end to receive a tire. A jack including a beam and running gear. The beam to be pivotally coupled to the hinge and the running gear to be coupled to the second end of the support arm.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A tire carrier comprising:
a hinge to be pivotally coupled to a vehicle;
a support arm having a first end to be pivotally coupled to the hinge and a second end to receive a tire; and
a jack including a beam and a running gear, the beam to be pivotally coupled to the hinge and the running gear to be coupled to the second end of the support arm.

2. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the beam includes a plurality of spaced holes to receive one or more climbing pins of the running gear to move the running gear along a length of the beam.

3. The tire carrier of claim 2 , wherein the running gear includes a directional lever, the directional lever being movable between a first position to cause the running gear to move in a first direction along the length of the beam and a second position to cause the running gear to move in a second direction along the length of the beam opposite the first direction.

4. The tire carrier of claim 2 , wherein the running gear is movable between the first end and the second end of the beam via a handle to move the tire between a first position and a second position different than the first position relative to the hinge.

5. The tire carrier of claim 4 , wherein the handle is pivotally coupled to the running gear, and wherein pivotal movement of the handle relative to the beam is to cause the climbing pins of the running gear to move along the length of the beam via the one or more climbing pins engaging respective ones of the spaced holes.

6. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the jack is removably coupled to the tire carrier.

7. The tire carrier of claim 6 , wherein the jack is removable from the tire carrier while the support arm and the tire remain attached to the hinge.

8. The tire carrier of claim 6 , wherein a first end of the beam of the jack is to be removably and pivotally coupled to the hinge via a first pin.

9. The tire carrier of claim 8 , wherein the running gear of the jack is to be removably and pivotally coupled to the second end of the support arm via a second pin.

10. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the beam is to pivot relative to the hinge about a first axis of rotation and the support arm is to pivot relative to the hinge about a second axis of rotation spaced from the first axis of rotation, wherein the first axis of rotation is parallel relative to the second axis of rotation.

11. The tire carrier of claim 10 , wherein the first axis of rotation is positioned adjacent a first end of the hinge when the beam is coupled to the hinge and the second axis of rotation is positioned adjacent a second end of the hinge when the support arm is pivotally coupled to the hinge.

12. The tire carrier of claim 1 , further including a lock movable between a first position to enable rotation of the support arm relative to the hinge and a second position to prevent rotation of the support arm relative to the hinge.

13. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the support arm and the beam are non-telescoping.

14. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the support arm and the beam have fixed lengths.

15. The tire carrier of claim 1 , wherein the jack is a farm jack.

16. A tire carrier comprising:
means for supporting a tire;
means for attaching the means for supporting the tire to a vehicle; and
means for actuating removably coupled to the means for supporting and the means for attaching, the means for actuating having a fixed length, the means for actuating configured to lift a vehicle when the means for actuating is decoupled from the means for supporting and the means for attaching.

17. The tire carrier of claim 16 , wherein the means for actuating is to move between a first position and a second position when coupled to the tire carrier to move the tire between a stored position and a lowered position, the means for actuating being removable from the tire carrier to lift a body of the vehicle.

18. The tire carrier of claim 17 , further including means for pivotally coupling the means for supporting and the means for attaching, the means for pivotally coupling to enable the means for supporting to pivot relative to the means for attaching when the means for actuating moves the tire between the stored position and the lowered position.

19. The tire carrier of claim 16 , further including means for locking coupled to the means for supporting and the means for attaching, the means for locking movable between a locked position to prevent pivotal movement of the means for supporting relative to means for attaching and an unlock position to allow pivotal movement of the means for supporting relative to the means for attaching.

20. A method of coupling a tire carrier to a vehicle comprising:
pivotally coupling a first end of a support arm to a hinge;
removably coupling a first end of a jack to the hinge;
removably coupling a running gear of the jack to a second end of the support arm opposite the first end; and
mounting a tire to the second end of the support arm.

21. The method of claim 20 , further including attaching the hinge to a body of the vehicle.

22. The method of claim 21 , wherein attaching the hinge to the body of the vehicle includes attaching a mounting bracket to the vehicle prior to attaching the support arm and the jack to the hinge.

23. The method of claim 20 , wherein removably coupling the first end of the jack to the hinge includes inserting a first pin through an opening of the first end of the jack and an opening of the hinge, and removably coupling the running gear of the jack to the support arm includes inserting a second pin through an opening in a foot of the running gear and an opening in a second end of the support arm.

Assignees

• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Cherry William Reese
• Rutman Matthew B

Classifications

• B62D43/002

  Handling devices, mainly for heavy wheels (via cables and chains B62D43/045) · CPC title

• B60R9/06

  at vehicle front or rear {(rear luggage compartments within vehicle extensible externally of the vehicle body B60R5/041)} · CPC title

• B66F3/00

  Devices, e.g. jacks, adapted for uninterrupted lifting of loads (mobile jacks of the garage type B66F5/00) · CPC title

• B62D43/02 Primary

  external to the vehicle body · CPC title