US 5,655,801 AGranted

Gate latch

OwnerMichael Caseyinventor

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Abstract

A gate latch has a handle with a cojoined adjustably sized elongated rigid metal rod, which rod is rotatably disposed in sleeves frictionally retained within a drilled hole in a fixed post of a fence. The rod is formed with a plurality of spaced parallel threaded through holes. The handle has a transverse hole and is mounted to the rod by a bolt passing through the handle hole and one of the rod holes disposed at the end of the rod on the outside of the post. The rod is operably connected to a spring return locking plate for locking a gate rod which gate rod is fixedly mounted to an openable gate. The user first drills the post hole to receive the elongated rod slidably disposed in the sleeves, and then cuts the elongated rod to a length to accommodate the thickness of the post, and then attaches the handle at the hole adjacent the cut end of the elongated rod. The user in operating the gate latch rotates the handle downwardly which in turn rotates the elongated rod in the post hole. This rotation extends the spring and rotates the locking plate to unlock the gate rod. The user then pushes the gate open to free the gate rod, and finally releases the handle. When the gate is being closed, the gate rod slides on a cam surface on the locking plate and then snaps, by the spring action, into the locked position. The gate cannot be unlocked unless the handle is downwardly rotated.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A gate latch comprising, latch means for locking a gate, means for mounting said latch means to a fixedly disposed post, rod means for engaging said latch means, means for mounting the rod means on a gate movably disposed with respect to said post, said latch means comprising means for slidably receiving said rod means, so that with movement of the gate towards the post the rod means is slidably received and locked in the latch means, means for unlocking the rod means from the latch means, said means for unlocking the rod means comprising elongated rod means for actuating unlocking of the rod means, and means for rotatably mounting said elongated rod means with respect to said post, said elongated rod means having oppositely disposed ends, said means for unlocking the rod means being operably disposed at one of said elongated rod means ends, and means for adjusting the length of the elongated rod means to fit the post, said means for unlocking the rod means further comprising spring means for biasing to a locked position with the rod means engaged in said latch means, and plate means for operably interconnecting said elongated rod means with said spring means, means for fixedly mounting said plate means to the post, said spring means being operably disposed between said plate means and said one end of said elongated rod means, and said means for adjusting the length of the elongated rod means being disposed at said other end of said elongated rod means, handle means for actuating said means for unlocking the rod means, and means for mounting said handle means to the other end of the elongated rod means at an adjusted length of the elongated rod means, whereby with movement of the handle means, the elongated rod means rotates and in turn moves the plate means to extend the spring means so that the rod means is unlocked from the latch means to permit the gate to be opened, and with the gate opened the handle means is released and the spring means then bias returns the plate means and latch means to the locked position but without the rod means engaged in the latch means, and the spring means is then unbiased.

A gate latch comprising in combination;

latch means for locking a gate, a fixedly disposed post, and a gate movably disposed to said post, and means for mounting said latch means to the post, rod means for locking in the latch means, means for mounting the rod means on said gate, said latch means comprising means for slidably receiving said rod means, and means for releasably locking the rod means in the latch means, so that with movement of the gate towards the post the rod means is slidably received and locked in the latch means, comprising, elongated rod means for actuating the means for releasably locking the rod means, and handle means for actuating the elongated rod means, said elongated rod means being formed with means for attaching the handle means to the elongated rod means, means for adjusting the size of the elongated rod means to accommodate the post before attaching the handle means, said post being formed with a drilled through hole to slidably receive the elongated rod means, and said elongated rod means being rotatably disposed in said post hole, and said handle means being disposed at one end of the post hole and the means for releasably locking the latch means being disposed at the other end of the post hole, said means for adjusting the size of the elongated rod means comprising said elongated rod means being formed with a plurality of spaced holes, said means for attaching the handle means comprising said handle means being formed with a hole similarly sized to the spaced holes, and bolt means sized to be received in said handle hole and one of said elongated rod means holes, and said rotatably disposed elongated rod means comprising sleeve means for slidably rotatably receiving said elongated rod means and said sleeve means being retained in the post hole, whereby with movement of the handle means the elongated rod means rotates actuating the latch means to release the rod means to unlock the gate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.