Vehicles including truck bed storage systems with rotating rack assemblies
AssigneesToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc., Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorJosh D. Fraley
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vehicle includes a truck bed that includes a bed deck and a storage system that includes a rack assembly including a housing having a fixed size that occupies at least 10 percent of a total area of the bed deck in a stowed position. The rack assembly includes a pivot mechanism that is mounted to a rear pillar of the vehicle and provides a fixed pivot location. The rack assembly is configured to pivot about the pivot location from the stowed position entirely within the truck bed overhanging the bed deck to an extended position at least partially out of the truck bed and overhanging a tailgate of the truck bed.
Claims18
A vehicle comprising:
- a truck bed comprising a bed deck;
- and
- a storage system comprising a rack assembly comprising a housing, the rack assembly comprising a pivot mechanism that is mounted to a rear pillar of the vehicle and provides a fixed pivot location, wherein the rack assembly is configured to pivot about the pivot location from a stowed position entirely within the truck bed overhanging the bed deck to an extended position at least partially out of the truck bed and overhanging a tailgate of the truck bed;
- wherein the housing is sized and configured to extend between wheel wells of the truck bed and alongside one of the wheel wells nearest the rear pillar in the stowed position, the rack assembly configured to pivot between the wheel wells away from the wheel well nearest the rear pillar to the extended position;
- wherein the housing comprises a first sidewall that extends in a vehicle lateral direction and a second sidewall that extends inn a vehicle longitudinal direction with the rack assembly in the stowed position, a first end of the first sidewall and a first end of the second sidewall are joined together adjacent the rear pillar, a second end of the first sidewall and a second end of the second sidewall are connected by an arcuate wall, when viewed in plan view.
A storage system comprising:
- a rack assembly comprising a housing, the rack assembly comprising a pivot mechanism that is configured to mount to a rear pillar of the vehicle and provide a fixed pivot location, wherein the rack assembly is configured to pivot about the pivot location from a stowed position entirely within a truck bed overhanging the bed deck to an extended position at least partially out of the truck bed and overhanging a tailgate of the truck bed;
- wherein the housing is sized and configured to extend between wheel wells of the truck bed and alongside one of the wheel wells nearest the rear pillar in the stowed position, the rack assembly configured to pivot between the wheel wells away from the wheel well nearest the rear pillar to the extended position;
- wherein the housing comprises a first sidewall that extends in a vehicle lateral direction and a second sidewall that extends inn a vehicle longitudinal direction with the rack assembly in the stowed position, a first end of the first sidewall and a first end of the second sidewall are joined together adjacent the rear pillar, a second end of the first sidewall and a second end of the second sidewall are connected by an arcuate wall, when viewed in plan view.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.