Ballast for cargo beds of trucks
OwnerDonald G. Desmaraisinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system for providing ballast for cargo bed of trucks consisting of a multiplicity of interlocking low-profile hollow containers interconnectively-assembled across the entirety of a cargo bed of a pickup truck and secured to the bed of the truck with bolts. When the individual containers are filled with a weighted material, such as water or sand, each container preferably will weight less than 50 pounds, and the flat weighted structure provides additional traction to the drive wheels of the truck on slippery road surfaces. In an alternate application, the filled containers are stacked at selective locations and secured to the truck bed to provide a counter-balancing weight for a heavy piece of cargo that is not placed in the gravitational center of the cargo bed.
Claims9
A system for providing uniform weight distribution in a truck cargo bed, comprising:
- a plurality of low-profile, laterally-interconnected hollow ballast containers made from a generally flexible material, each one having a top, a bottom, a first side, a second side, and two ends and having a length that is longer than the width, and each one further comprising:
- a complementary mating means on said first and second sides for interconnecting with adjacent ballast containers;
- at least one aperture for filling and/or draining said ballast container with a weighting material;
- at least one plug for sealing said aperture;
- and
- a securing means for attaching said structure to a bed of a truck.
A method for improving the stability of in a truck cargo having a bed, the method comprising:
- assembling a plurality of low-profile, laterally-interconnected hollow ballast containers to the bed, each container made from a generally flexible material, each one having a top, a bottom, a first side, a second side, and two ends and having a length that is longer than the width, and each one further comprising:
- a complementary mating means on said first and second sides for interconnecting with adjacent ballast containers;
- at least one aperture for filling and/or draining said ballast container with a weighting material;
- at least one plug for sealing said aperture, filing each such ballast container with the weighting material;
- mating at least one ballast container to at least one other ballast container;
- and
- affixing the plurality of ballast containers by means of a multiplicity of bolts, each passing through a ballast container, through the bed, and being secured with a nut.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.