Trailer tongue jack

Abstract

A jack for supporting and adjusting the elevation of a trailer tongue comprises a ground support post, having either a caster wheel or foot plate at its lower end, extending downwardly through a jack mechanism housing which is bolted to the trailer tongue. The post can be raised or lowered either by means of a rotatable crank extending from the housing or, alternately, after manual release of latching means in the housing and tilting of the crank, by manually sliding the post. The post has a toothed rack affixed along one side thereof. The mechanism in the housing comprises a pivotally movable support member on which a crank-driven worm and an intermeshing worm gear are rotatably mounted. The support member is spring biased and releasably latched into an upward position wherein the worm gear engages the rack (and functions as a pinion gear) and manual rotation of the crank is necessary to move the post up or down. Upon manual release of the latch, tilting of the crank moves the support member to a downward position wherein the worm gear is disengaged from the rack, whereupon the post is free to be slid manually to a desired position.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.