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US 5,181,767 AGranted
Lug nut retention for wheel cover
AssigneeThompson International
InventorsRichard D. Hudgins, Lawrence R. Sounart, Alan G. Storck
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A retention arrangement for a vehicular wheel cover utilizes protruding ends of the vehicle's lug studs which are received in open-bottomed wells formed in a wheel cover. Retainer nuts engage the protruding lug studs in the wells to secure the wheel cover to the wheel. Each well includes a plurality of protrusions which cooperate with the retainer nut to capture the retainer nut in the well, even when the wheel cover is not secured to the vehicular wheel.
Claims10
A wheel cover assembly for covering the rim portion of a vehicular wheel, said assembly comprising:
- a wheel cover;
- a lug stud opening disposed through said wheel cover for receiving a projecting threaded lug stud from a vehicular wheel;
- a retainer nut having a generally tubular body centered over said lug stud opening with a lower body portion engaging said wheel cover, an upper body portion, and a flange disposed about said lower body portion;
- an internal thread pattern disposed within said lower body portion for threadably engaging the lug stud to retain said wheel cover over the vehicular wheel;
- and characterized by a segmented slot intersecting said internal thread pattern and extending completely through said lower body portion and said flange with said upper body portion uninterrupted by said slot for permitting circumferential flexibility of said retainer nut in the area of said internal thread pattern and said flange.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.