Vehicle Cab
OwnerLance Hampelinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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OwnerLance Hampelinventor
Estimating the term…
A cab for a vehicle, such as an all terrain vehicle, a tractor, or small construction vehicle, is constructed of twin-sheet plastic panels that can be easily assembled, preferably with snap-together interlocking features. One of the panels can be a door panel having a door hinged to a door frame to control passage through a doorway. Both the door and the door frame have spaced apart hinge knuckles that interleave along a hinge axis to allow the door to pivot about a hinge pin. The door and door frame can be molded in a single twin-sheet panel. The two walls of the panel are fused together along the outer periphery of the panel door portion and the inner periphery of the panel door frame portion. The door is separated from the door frame by cutting the each of the walls along a door perimeter between the door and door frame portions of the molded panel. Preferably, the walls are not fused along the non-hinge sides of the door perimeter so that the walls can be cut in a manner to provide an overlap at the door/door frame interface.
A method of making a plastic door panel for a vehicle cab, comprising:
A plastic door panel for a vehicle cab, the door panel comprising a first wall and a second wall fused together in some locations and separated from each other in other locations, wherein the first and second walls define a door, a door frame and a door perimeter between the door and the door frame, wherein the door has a hinge side defining a plurality of spaced apart hinge knuckles and wherein the door frame has a hinge side defining a plurality of spaced apart hinge knuckles arranged offset from and in opposition to the hinge knuckles of the door, wherein the door can be removed from the door panel by removing at least portions of the first and second walls along the door perimeter to define a doorway, and wherein the door can be mounted to the door frame at the doorway with the hinge knuckles of the door and door frame arranged in alternating fashion along a hinge axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.