US 5,671,963 A · Spare tire storage arrangement

Abstract

In a spare tire storage arrangement for vertically retaining a spare tire in a rear part of the vehicle body adjacent to a rear wheel house, a recess is provided in an upper part of the wheel house somewhat behind a highest point thereof, and a saddle member is provided behind the wheel house so that protrusion of the spare tire in both the rearward and lateral directions can be minimized. Therefore, this arrangement can be applied to a motor vehicle having rear wheels located extremely close to the rear end of the vehicle, and can maximize the effective volume of the luggage compartment. Also, owing to provision of the inclined supporting surfaces on the side panel, and the replaceable arrangement of the saddle member, it is possible to store spare tires of different sizes without any major modification.

Claims6

Dependent claims

An arrangement for storing a spare tire in a vertical orientation in a rear interior part of a motor vehicle body, comprising:

a supporting surface, at least partly defined by a wheel housing accommodating a rear wheel exterior of said vehicle body, and projecting into a luggage compartment at a rear part of said vehicle body;
and
means for holding said spare tire in said interior part of said vehicle body against said supporting surface;
said supporting surface defining an inclined surface rising away from a central part of said spare tire, and abutting a peripheral part of said spare tire in said interior part of said vehicle body rearwardly of said rear wheel exterior of said vehicle body.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Spare tire storage arrangement

Life of this patent

Spare tire storage arrangement

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims6