Tower assembly for mounting a crossbar to a vehicle roof rack
AssigneeYakima Products, Inc.
InventorJoseph J. Settelmayer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A tower assembly for detachably mounting a crossbar to the rail of a vehicle roof-mounted rack. The tower assembly includes a body having a selectively operable clamping mechanism housed in the tower body and includes a wedge-shaped portion adapted to be disposed generally between the rail and the crossbar when the rail and the crossbar are received in the tower body. The clamping mechanism urges the bar and the rail away from each other and against the tower body to thereby secure the bar and the rail to the tower simultaneously.
Claims19
A tower assembly for detachably mounting a transversely extending crossbar to a longitudinally extending rail of a vehicle-mounted roof rack comprising:
- a tower body including a rail clamping surface against which a rail is to be clamped and a crossbar clamping surface against which a crossbar is to be clamped;
- a clamping assembly coupled to the tower body and configured, upon operation, to urge the crossbar against the crossbar clamping surface and simultaneously to, through reactive force resulting from urging the crossbar against the crossbar clamping surface, urge the rail against the rail clamping surface, wherein the two clamping surfaces are disposed generally opposite one another and the clamping assembly is configured to urge the rail and the crossbar generally apart from one another and against their corresponding clamping surfaces;
- and
- a rail receiving passage into which the rail is to be installed, the rail receiving passage being bounded at least in part by the clamping assembly and the rail clamping surface, the clamping assembly being configured to substantially and selectively vary the size of the rail receiving passage to accommodate clamping rails of various sizes and cross sections in the rail receiving passage.
A tower assembly for detachably mounting a transversely extending crossbar to a longitudinally extending rail of a vehicle-mounted roof rack comprising:
- a tower body configured to receive the rail and the crossbar and including a rail clamping surface against which the rail is to be clamped and a crossbar clamping surface against which the crossbar is to be clamped, with the clamping surfaces being generally opposed to each other and the rail clamping surface including a fixed lower surface and an adjoining fixed side wall, the tower body further including a lateral rail opening communicating to the rail clamping surface to allow the tower body to be slipped on and off the rail in a direction generally radial to an elongate axis of the rail;
- a clamping assembly coupled to the tower body and configured, upon operation, to urge the crossbar against the crossbar clamping surface and simultaneously to, through reactive force resulting from urging the crossbar against the crossbar clamping surface, urge the rail against the lower surface and side wall of the rail clamping surface.
A tower assembly for detachably mounting a transversely extending crossbar of predetermined cross-section to a longitudinally extending rail on a vehicle-mounted roof rack, the tower assembly comprising:
- a tower body for receiving a portion of the crossbar and an adjacent transversely oriented portion of a rail, the tower body being adapted to constrain the movement of the rail and the bar away from one another.
- a selectively operable clamping mechanism housed in the tower body and including a wedge-shaped portion adapted to be disposed generally between the rail and the crossbar when the rail and the crossbar are received in the tower body, the clamping mechanism further being configured, upon operation, to urge the bar and the rail away from each other and against the tower body to thereby secure the bar and the rail to the tower simultaneously.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.