Locking assembly for towing hitch
OwnerAustin Suinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention is a locking assembly and tow bar that allows for one handed locking and unlocking of the tow bar and can be easily manipulated with one person. The tow bar has a receiver joint connecting the ends of two tow bar arms, the receiver joint including upper and lower plates. The receiver joint is connected by a coupling link to a clevis hitch, which has a horizontally mounted pivot bolt mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis. The tow bar rotates at the receiver joint about the pivot pin from a horizontal, or deployed position, to a vertical, or stowed position. The clevis hitch is received by a tow bar receiver, which in turn is disposed in a hitch socket on the towing vehicle.
Claims5
A locking tow hitch comprising:
- a pair of tow bar arms;
- a receiver joint connecting proximal ends of the pair of tow bar arms, the receiver joint including an upper plate and a lower plate and first and second fasteners securing said pair of tow bar arms between said upper and lower plates;
- a capture notch on the upper plate;
- a coupling link secured to the receiver joint;
- a tow bar receiver mountable in a towing vehicle hitch socket;
- a clevis hitch mounted in the tow bar receiver, the clevis hitch including a collar journalled on a pivot pin and connected to the coupling link;
- a detent sized to be received in the capture notch when the tow bar arms are rotated to a vertical position about the clevis hitch;
- and
- a release mechanism for releasing the detent from the capture notch to allow the tow bar arms to return to a horizontal position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.