Spare tire carrier torque-limiting slip mechanism

A torque-limiting slip mechanism for a spare tire carrier comprising:

• a camshaft, said camshaft including an outer section, a central section, and an inner section, said central section including a plurality of mating surfaces and intermediate segments;
• a tire carrier drive including a generally cylindrical pocket circumscribed by an interior wall;
• a plurality of free-floating arcuate spring elements including two free ends and a central body being compressed between said central section of said camshaft and said interior wall, a concave inner surface of said central body contacting a mating surface of said camshaft and said free ends contacting said interior wall;
• and
• wherein said spring elements prevent relative rotation between said camshaft and said drive such that said drive and said spring elements rotate through the same angular extent as said camshaft when a torque is applied to said camshaft unless a pre-determined torque is exceeded.

A torque-limiting slip mechanism for a spare tire carrier comprising:

• a camshaft, said camshaft including an outer section, a central section, and an inner section, said central section including a plurality of mating surfaces generally equi-angularly spaced and separated by intermediate segments;
• a tire carrier drive including a generally cylindrical pocket circumscribed by an interior wall;
• a plurality of free-floating arcuate spring elements including two free ends and a central body being compressed between said central section of said camshaft and said interior wall, a concave inner surface of said central body contacting a mating surface of said camshaft and said free ends contacting said interior wall;
• wherein said spring elements prevent relative rotation between said camshaft and said drive such that said drive and said spring elements rotate through the same angular extent as said camshaft when a torque is applied to said camshaft unless a pre-determined torque is exceeded;
• and
• wherein each spring element is elastically deformed with respect to its mating surface and an adjacent intermediate segment when said torque is greater than said pre-determined torque to provide slippage between said camshaft and said interior wall of said carrier drive.