U.S. patent application number 10/604413 was filed with the patent office on 2004-11-25 for pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly.
Invention is credited to RIOU, Michel, WOOD, Anthony, ZHANG, Xinge.
Application Number | 20040232651 10/604413 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 30005536 |
Filed Date | 2004-11-25 |
United States Patent
Application |
20040232651 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
ZHANG, Xinge ; et
al. |
November 25, 2004 |
Pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly
Abstract
6A fifth wheel trailer pin assembly characterized by having a
horizontally pivoting joint to reduce the transmission of lateral
flex and stress between the units coupled by the hitching assembly.
The trailer pin assembly is designed to be used with conventional
fifth wheel locking assemblies, which are designed to allow for
horizontal rotation of the trailer pin within the locking assembly
and far longitudinal pivoting between the units coupled by the
hitching assembly, to provide a fifth wheel hitching system which
minimizes the transmission of unwanted forces and stresses between
the units that are coupled together.
Inventors: |
ZHANG, Xinge; (Calgary,
CA) ; WOOD, Anthony; (Calgary, CA) ; RIOU,
Michel; (Calgary, CA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
EDWARD YOO C/O BENNETT JONES
1000 ATCO CENTRE
10035 - 105 STREET
EDMONTON, ALBERTA
AB
T5J3T2
CA
|
Family ID: |
30005536 |
Appl. No.: |
10/604413 |
Filed: |
July 18, 2003 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
280/439 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B62D 53/0842
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
280/439 |
International
Class: |
B62D 053/06 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jul 12, 2002 |
CA |
2,392,663 |
Claims
1. A fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly, for connecting a
trailer to a towing vehicle equipped with a fifth wheel locking
assembly, comprising: (a) a collar attached to the trailer; (b)
means for pivotally attaching the collar to the bracket assembly,
about a substantially longitudinal axis that extends from the front
of the towing vehicle to the rear of the trailer; (c) a skid plate
connected to the bottom of the bracket assembly; and (d) a king pin
connected to the bottom of the skid plate.
2. A fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly of claim 1 in which the
means for pivotally attaching the bottom of the collar to the top
of a bracket assembly consists of a pivot joint comprising: (a) a
sleeve situated through the collar; (b) a bracket assembly with
plates positioned on both the front side and rear side of the
collar about the axis that extends from the front of the towing
vehicle to the rear of the trailer; (c) a roller pin situated
inside and able to rotate within the sleeve, which extends past
both the collar and the front side and rear side of the bracket
assembly, which allows the collar to rotate with respect to the
kingpin; and (d) bushing caps on both terminal ends of the roller
pin.
3. A fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly of claim 2 in which the
collar has a grease nipple connected to a passageway into said
sleeve, allowing lubricant to be inserted in the space between the
sleeve and the roller pin.
4. A pivot joint for a fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly
having a collar, skid plate and king pin comprising: (a) a
cylindrical sleeve situated through the collar oriented
substantially horizontally and aligned with an axis that extends
from the front of the trailer to the rear of the tractor; (b) a
bracket assembly with plates positioned on both the front side and
rear side of the collar about the axis that extends from the front
of the towing vehicle to the rear of the trailer; (c) a roller pin
situated inside and able to rotate within the sleeve, which extends
past both the collar and the front side and rear side of the
bracket assembly, which allows the collar to rotate with respect to
the kingpin; and (d) bushing caps on both terminal ends of the
roller pin.
5. A fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly of claim 4 in which the
collar has a grease nipple connected to a passageway into said
sleeve, allowing lubricant to be inserted in the space between the
sleeve and the roller pin.
Description
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the priority benefit of Canadian
Patent Application No. 2,392,663 filed on Jul. 12, 2002 and
entitled Pivoting Fifth Wheel Hitch Trailer Pin Assembly.
BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
[0002] The invention pertains to trailer hitches and more
particularly to fifth wheel trailer hitches. More specifically, the
invention relates to trailer pin assembly portion of a fifth wheel
hitching system.
[0003] Fifth wheel trailer hitches have long been used to connect
the tractors of semitruck combinations, or smaller trucks, to a
trailer. Commonly a fifth wheel trailer hitch system consists of a
fifth wheel locking assembly which is mounted on the truck and a
fifth wheel trailer pin assembly which is mounted on the
trailer.
[0004] Conventional fifth wheel trailer pin assemblies consist of a
kingpin and skid plate, which are attached to the trailer. When the
kingpin enters a jawslot in a fifth wheel locking assembly the
locking assembly firmly closes on the kingpin, thus mating the
trailer pin assembly and the locking assembly into the complete
fifth wheel trailer hitch system.
[0005] A problem suffered by conventional fifth wheel hitching
systems is that there is no horizontal flex for accommodating
siderocking movement about the axis which generally extends from
the front of the towing vehicle to the rear of the trailer.
Therefore it can be very difficult to couple, or uncouple, the
towing vehicle and the trailer when they are at differing cants due
to uneven ground. Further, undesirable forces can be transferred
from the truck to the hitching system and to the trailer (and vice
versa), thus increasing wear and tear on all components and
increasing the likelihood of a component failure.
[0006] Previous inventors have addressed the lack of horizontal
flex in conventional fifth wheel hitching assemblies by devising a
fifth wheel locking assembly which is capable of pivoting
horizontally as well as vertically. The difficulty with this type
of solution is that the locking assembly is the most complex part
of the hitching assemble and therefore required a complex invention
to add the capability of horizontal flex to the locking
assembly.
SUMMARY OF INVENTION
[0007] Pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly invention
for which this patent application is for, solves the conventional
fifth wheel hitching assembly"s lack of horizontal flex by having a
horizontally pivoting joint in the fifth wheel trailer pin
assembly. The pivoting joint allows for the kingpin of an uncoupled
trailed to be easily alined with the slot in the fifth wheel
locking assembly and the pivoting joint reduces the transmission of
lateral forces and stress between units coupled by the hitching
assembly.
[0008] The pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly provides
a mechanically simple solution to the lack of horizontal flex
problem. The simplicity of the pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer
pin assembly reduces the cost of production and reduces the number
of parts which may be susceptible to structural failure.
[0009] With the pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly
when the towing unit and the trailer unit are not connected the
pivoting joint in the pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin
assembly allows the kingpin to be easily aligned with the slot in
the fifth wheel locking assembly, even when not on level ground.
When a towing unit and a trailer unit are connected with the
pivoting fifth wheel hitch trailer pin assembly, each unit is able
to orientate itself with the ground without being adversely
affected by the orientation of the unit to which it is coupled
to.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0010] FIG. 1 shows a side view of the apparatus,
[0011] FIG. 2 shows a 50% cross sectional side view of the
apparatus revealing a more detailed viewing of the pivot joint,
and
[0012] FIG. 3 shows a front view of the apparatus.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0013] With reference to FIG. 1, the apparatus consists of a
standard collar (1) which may be attached to a trailer by a variety
of existing means, a pivoting joint (2) which is the novel feature
of the apparatus and provides for the horizontal flex in the
trailer pin assembly, a conventional skid plate (3), and a
conventional king pin (4) which is to be inserted into the locking
jaws of a fifth wheel locking assembly.
[0014] As more clearly shown in FIG. 3, the pivot joint consists of
a cylindrical sleeve (5) which passes horizontally along the fore
and aft axis through the collar (1), a bracket assembly (6) which
is attached to the skid plate (3), a roller pin (7) which is
inserted into the sleeve (5) and through both arms of the bracket
assembly (6) and is secured in each arm of the bracket assembly by
two bushing caps (8). In this shown embodiment a grease nipple (9)
is provided to allow for lubrication to be inserted through a
drilled passageway into the space between the sleeve (5) and the
roller pin (7) which allows for the roller pin (7) to rotate within
the sleeve (5), providing horizontal flex in the fifth wheel
hitching system to accommodate siderocking movements and reducing
the transfer of horizontal twisting forces.
[0015] Although the invention is described in terms of the
illustrated embodiment, various changes and modifications may be
made to the illustrated embodiment without departing from the
spirit or scope of the invention.
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