Tow brake
AssigneeD-Brake, LLC
InventorsEugene McCrickard, John P. DeConti
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A tow brake includes a housing, an actuator mechanism mounted within the housing with the actuator mechanism including an actuator member, a towed vehicle attachment member operatively coupled to the actuator member, a controller operatively connected to the actuator mechanism, and an acceleration sensor operatively coupled to the controller, the acceleration sensor being configured and disposed to detect deceleration forces of a towing vehicle, wherein the controller is configured and disposed to selectively activate the actuator mechanism to apply a force to the vehicle attachment member that is proportional to the deceleration forces of the towing vehicle.
Claims21
A tow brake comprising:
- a housing;
- an actuator mechanism mounted within the housing, the actuator mechanism including an actuator member;
- a towed vehicle attachment member operatively coupled to the actuator member;
- a controller operatively connected to the actuator mechanism;
- and
- an acceleration sensor operatively coupled to the controller, the acceleration sensor being configured and disposed to detect deceleration forces of a towing vehicle, wherein the controller is configured and disposed to selectively activate the actuator mechanism to apply a force to the vehicle attachment member that is proportional to the deceleration forces of the towing vehicle.
A method of braking a towed vehicle based on acceleration forces of a towing vehicle, the method comprising:
- detecting a deceleration force of a towing vehicle;
- determining a rate of deceleration of the towing vehicle;
- and
- activating an actuator mechanism to cause an actuation member to apply a braking force proportional to the rate of deceleration of the towing vehicle to a brake pedal in the towed vehicle.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.