Apparatus for selectively providing vehicle traction
OwnerMarvin C. Thomasinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for providing selectively engageable and disengageable traction surface, on the periphery of a vehicle wheel by means of an apparatus mounted to a fixed portion of a vehicle, selective positioning of a journalled outer portion of the apparatus to engage and rotate with the outer, or tire, portion of the wheel, or, alternatively, to retract to a stored inactive position. The apparatus further provides for positive deployment with spring-loaded extension pressure, accommodation of localized variations in diameter and resilient mounting of traction bars.
Claims19
A traction device comprising:
- a mounting means, an outer support assembly journaled around an axis and rotatably carried on the mounting means, a plurality of radially deformable support members extending from the outer support assembly and movably secured at one end to the outer support assembly in slots defined in the outer support assembly and said slots being eccentric to the axis, at least one traction bar mounted at each end portion of the support members remote from the end thereof secured to the outer support, linkage means interconnecting the support members, and control means to selectively expand the linkage means and attached support members into a circular configuration and, alternatively, to retract the linkage means and position the attached support members in a closely spaced, stored configuration as a function of the positioning of the control means, whereby, the traction device, when mounted by attachment of the mounting means adjacent a vehicle wheel, is capable of extending the traction bars into engagement with a vehicle wheel to provide traction or, alternatively, contract the linkage and retract the traction bars from the wheel into a stored position by selective positioning of the control means.
The combination of a traction device and a wheel of a vehicle in which the traction device includes an outer support assembly rotatably mounted concentric with the axis of rotation of the wheel and adjacent to but axially spaced from the wheel, a plurality of radially deformable support members extending from the outer support assembly in a radial manner and movably secured to a series of slots defined in the outer support assembly and said slots being eccentric relative to the axis of wheel rotation, linkage means interconnecting the support members to maintain the support members in a spaced relationship and to move the support means relative to the slots defined in the outer support assembly, traction bars carried at the end of the support members opposite that attached to the outer support assembly and extending from the support members over the periphery surface of the wheel in a cantilevered manner, and control means to selectively expand the linkage means, attached support members and traction bars into a circular configuration around the axis of wheel rotation with the traction bars contacting and moving with the periphery of the wheel in a substantially equally spaced manner and, alternatively, to retract linkage means, support members and attached traction bars into a closely spaced, stored configuration with the traction bars radially spaced from the periphery of the wheel, the configuration being a function of the position of the control means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.