Trailer hitch with extensible throat
OwnerJohn M. Ryaninventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerJohn M. Ryaninventor
Estimating the term…
A ball and socket trailer hitch with a throat that is capable of automatically seating and locking a telescoping member capable of lateral swinging movement. The hitch allows a stationary towing vehicle having been imprecisely aligned with a stationary trailer to be coupled without realigning either the trailer or towing vehicle, and then, in one backing motion of the towing vehicle, automatically aligning and locking the hitch into a towing configuration. The preferred embodiment is made up of a frame, a frusto-pyramidally shaped throat, a matingly frusto-pyramidally shaped telescoping member to which a coupling structure which is accepted by the trailer is affixed, an elongated rail, a trunnion pivotally linking the rail to the throat, a locking-pin assembly, and a safety pin. The elongated rail is removably attached to the rear and narrowed portion of the throat by a removable trunnion, which permits the rail, which extends beyond the throat opening, to pivot laterally within the confines of the throat. The telescoping member is capable of being inserted into the throat and onto the rail, whereby the telescoping member may ride and provide the means by which the coupling structure can be extended and coupled with a mating trailer structure after having positioned the towing vehicle into a close proximity to the trailer.
A trailer hitch comprising:
A trailer hitch comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.