Portable shelter assembly
OwnerMatthew S. Cunninghaminventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This portable shelter assembly includes a weather-proof container suitable to be mounted on a pair of support bars atop a vehicle. When the vehicle is at a stand still and the shelter assembly is to be made ready for occupancy, the container unfolds to become a deck or platform on which the occupants can sleep. Attached to the deck are a pair of arch members hingedly connected thereto and a folding arch member having knee joints so that all can collapse into the container or be erected to support a tent canopy to shelter the occupants. The shelter assembly should be balanced atop the vehicle, both in its collapsed and its erected positions. Various means are provided for fastening the shelter assembly to the vehicle. The tent may have associated therewith a screen house for protection against insects.
Claims12
A portable shelter assembly comprising:
- (a) a substantially rectangular container adapted to be mounted horizontally atop a vehicle, said container having a central floor portion and first and second side portions respectively hingedly connected to first and second opposite edges of said central floor portion, said first and second side portions in turn having respectively first and second top portions hingedly connected thereto and adapted to form an upper closure surface of said substantially rectangular container above and spaced from said central floor portion, said first and second side portions and said first and second top portions being also adapted to rotate about said respective hinged connections to form, together with said central floor portion, a deck in which said central floor portion, said first and second side portions, and said first and second top portions are all substantially coplanar;
- (b) first and second arch members pivotally connected to said central floor portion so as to be rotatable into erected positions forming obtuse angles with said central floor portion when said first and second side portions and said first and second top portions are in the aforementioned coplanar position;
- (c) a folding arch member hingedly attached at its respective ends to third and fourth opposite edges of said central floor portion and erectable from a folded position adjacent said central floor portion to provide a supporting structure intermediate said first and second arch members when they are in their erected positions;
- and
- (d) a weatherproof tent canopy adapted to be supported by said first and second arch members in their erected positions and by said folding arch member in its erected position, opposite ends of said weatherproof tent canopy being secured on the extremities of said first and second top portions when in their coplanar positions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.