Snow thrower including reverse shut-off mechanism
AssigneeSnow Joe, LLC
InventorJoseph S Cohen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A snow thrower is disclosed having a reverse shut-off mechanism configured to deactivate voltage supplied from a power source to a motor that rotates an auger assembly. The reverse shut-off mechanism deactivates the voltage supplied in response to the snow thrower being moved or rolled in a reverse direction. Upon movement of the snow thrower in a forwards direction to clear snow or other debris, the shut-off mechanism reactivates voltage supplied from the power source to the motor that rotates the auger assembly. This allows the snow thrower to conserve power and/or fuel when the snow thrower is not being used to clear snow or other debris.
Claims20
A snow thrower, comprising:
- a frame;
- a main housing coupled to the frame and having an inlet cavity;
- an auger assembly disposed in the main housing and extending across the inlet cavity;
- a motor disposed in the main housing and coupled to the auger assembly, the motor adapted to rotate the auger assembly;
- a wheel assembly coupled to the frame and including an axle and wheels coupled to ends of the axle for rolling the snow thrower;
- a shut-off mechanism coupled to the wheel assembly and adapted to deactivate power to the motor in response to the snow thrower being rolled in a reverse direction.
A snow thrower, comprising:
- a frame;
- a main housing coupled to the frame and having an inlet cavity;
- an auger assembly disposed in the main housing and extending across the inlet cavity;
- a motor disposed in the main housing and coupled to the auger assembly, the motor adapted to rotate the auger assembly;
- a wheel assembly coupled to the frame and including an axle and wheels coupled to ends of the axle for rolling the snow thrower;
- and
- a shut-off mechanism coupled to the wheel assembly and including:
- a counter adapted to count a number of rotations of the wheels in the reverse direction;
- and
- a switch adapted to deactivate power to the motor in response to the number or rotations meeting or exceeding a threshold value.
A method of making a snow thrower, comprising:
- coupling a shut-off mechanism to a wheel axle of a snow thrower;
- electrically coupling the shut-off mechanism between a power source and a motor adapted to rotate an auger assembly of the snow thrower;
- and
- allowing the shut-off mechanism to interrupt and deactivate power to the motor in response to the wheel axle rotating in a reverse direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.