Supporting Apparatus For An Upper Bed Deck Of A Mobile Home Vehicle

Abstract

In a mobile home vehicle means are provided wherein an upper bed deck can be rotated toward a side wall, engaged with rails extending along said side wall and readily moved into storage position against the ceiling wall. A second upper bed deck may be hinged so that it can be readily rotated into storage position against the opposite side wall, or alternatively, can also be moved along rails to storage position along the ceiling wall.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a supporting apparatus for an upper bed deck of a mobile home vehicle or the like which is movable both to the operation and storage positions.

As is well known, mobile home vehicles or the like are often provided with upper and lower beds in order to increase its capacity for lodging. Conventionally, foldable sofa beds or vehicle seats are usually employed as lower beds, while upper bed decks are provided detachably so as to ensure the full use of the vehicle room space.

With the conventional upper bed deck which is detachably provided at a predetermined height in the vehicle room, usually at about half the height of the vehicle space, there are various troubles in fitting and detaching the same, in folding the same in the vehicle room and in transporting the same between the places where it is used and stored. In another conventional method, the upper bed deck is temporarily stored against the side wall of the vehicle room with the aid of suitable clips, but a bed deck in such a position interferes with light and sight through the windows in the side walls of the vehicle room. In still another conventional method, the upper bed deck is guided and moved for storage to the other portion in the vehicle room, for example, to a little space just above the driver's seat by means of a suitable guiding device, but generally speaking, such storing apparatus is complex both in mechanism and construction and poor in durability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A pair of upper bed decks are provided in a mobile home vehicle having suitable supporting walls or the like at front and rear portions in the vehicle room. One bed deck is stored along the ceiling wall and is movable to its operation position by means of rails provided along a side wall and the ceiling of the vehicle body at positions corresponding to the front and rear edges of the bed deck. A second upper bed deck may be stored along the other side wall of the vehicle body using hinge means by which it is pivotally movable to its operation position. If the ceiling wall is wide enough, both bed decks may be stored along said ceiling wall.

Support for a bed deck to be stored along the ceiling wall consists of a pair of rails spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance longitudinally of the vehicle body and extending along a side wall and along a ceiling wall thereof, rollers provided on the frame of the bed deck, said rollers being fitted into said rails and said bed deck being supported movably along said rails, whereby said bed deck may be moved toward and stored along the ceiling wall. In preparation for use, the bed deck is moved downward along said rails to the predetermined position and one side of the bed deck is taken off from said rails through open parts provided thereon so that said bed deck may be rotated into horizontal operating position. The bed deck in this position is supported on the front and rear walls of the vehicle room.

Conveniently, when one bed deck is stored against the ceiling wall and another is stored against a side wall, the former bed deck is about one-half as wide as the vehicle room and the latter is about one-third as wide.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is an improved apparatus including an upper bed deck in the vehicle room of a mobile home whereby at least one upper bed deck may be readily moved from operating position to a storage position along the ceiling of said vehicle room.

An important object of the present invention is to provide supporting and storage apparatus for an upper bed deck to be disposed midway between the lower bed deck and ceiling of a mobile home vehicle or the like, wherein the structure of the upper bed deck itself is simple and storing operation can be easily carried out, and wherein the bed decks can be stored without encroaching on the available vehicle room space and without blocking light from and sight through the windows.

Another object of the invention is an improved apparatus for storing one upper bed deck against said ceiling and a second bed deck against a wall of said vehicle room.

A further object of the present invention is an improved apparatus for storing at least one upper bed deck against a ceiling of a mobile home wherein said apparatus includes rails which function as ribs to reinforce the walls and ceiling of said mobile home.

Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the constructions hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

For a fuller understanding of the invention, reference is had to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side view of a mobile home vehicle of the delivery van type to be provided with the supporting apparatus for the upper bed deck according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the upper bed deck shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3--3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along the line 4--4 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line 5--5 in FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6--6 in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a gate portion in the ceiling rail for receiving and holding the inner edge of the bed deck of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view taken along the line 8--8 in FIG. 7;

FIGS. 9 to 13 are views showing a manner of supporting and storing the upper bed decks using the supporting apparatus according to the present invention; and

FIG. 14 is a sectional view taken along a line analogous to 4--4 in FIG. 1, in which a pair of supporting apparatuses for horizontally supporting a pair of upper bed decks and for storing a pair of upper bed decks along the ceiling wall is shown.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

As illustrated in FIG. 1, a mobile home vehicle 1 includes a driving room 2, a living room 3 and a bath-toilet-kitchen room 4.

The living room 3 is provided with a foldable table 5, and seat units 6 for use during camping. The room 3 is used not only as a living room or a dining room, but also as a bedroom. The seat unit 6 can be rearranged to form a lower bed 6' . Upper bed decks 7 and 8 (FIG. 3) are provided side by side at about half the height between ceiling wall 1b of the living room and the lower bed 6'. The upper bed deck 8 in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is stored along side wall 1a of the vehicle body using hinge means 24 and binding means or catch 25. The other upper bed deck 7 is stored along the ceiling wall 1b by means of rail devices 9a and 9b (FIGS. 3 and 4) provided along side wall 1c and ceiling wall 1b at positions corresponding to the front and rear edges of the bed deck. As a result both bed decks may be completely prevented from encroaching on the space in the living room.

In more detail, the upper bed decks are supported between wall 40 which separates the living room 3 from the bath-toilet-kitchen room 4, and the rear end of shelf board 20 of driving room 2. The length and width of both bed decks are adequate for a man to sleep on as is apparent from FIG. 1. As aforenoted, it is desirable that bed deck 7 be wider than bed deck 8. Also there should be room between bed decks 7 and 8 when in use position for passage therebetween.

For storing the upper bed deck 7 along the ceiling wall 1b, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the rails 9a and 9b are provided along the ceiling wall 1b and the side walls 1a and 1c which are inwardly inclined toward the ceiling at the positions of the rear end of the shelf board 20 and the wall 40, the rails 9a and 9b having channel-like cross-section and openings 16a, 16bopposed to each other in the longitudinal direction thereof. As shown in FIG. 2, the upper bed deck 7 is provided with rollers 12a, 13a and 12b, and 13b which are respectively attached to the top ends of the brackets 10a, 11a and 10b, 11b which in turn are fixed to the outer frame of the bed deck 7 at the front and rear edges thereof in the longitudinal direction. A pair of rollers 12a, 13a at the rear edge of the bed deck 7 are fitted into the rail 9a on the wall 40 side, while a pair of rollers 12b, 13b at the front edge of the bed deck 7 are fitted into the rail 9b on the shelf board 20 side, whereby the upper bed deck 7 is fitted into the opposed openings of the rails 9a, 9b slidably along the side wall 1c and the ceiling wall 1b of the vehicle body.

In order to prevent the fall of the upper bed deck 7 during the sliding operation, the rail 9a is provided with a stopper 14a at the lower end of its rail part on the side wall 1c side and at the height suitable to support the bed deck 7 horizontally, as shown in FIG. 3. The rail 9a is also provided with a stopper 15a, in order to prevent the stored bed deck 7 from moving transversely toward the side wall 1a side, at such a position of its rail part along the ceiling wall 1b that the effective length of the rail part between the top of the side wall 1c and the stopper 15a becomes larger than the width between the rollers 12a and 13a of the upper bed deck 7. Also, the rail 9a is provided with a notched open part or opening 16a on the lower surface thereof at such a distance from the stopper 14a on the side wall 1c side that corresponds to the distance between the rollers 12a and 13a attached to the upper bed deck 7. At the open part 16a (FIGS. 7 and 8) is provided an opening and closing cover 17a to cover the open part 16a and open or close the same as required. Another rail 9b is provided, as shown in FIG. 4, at the front part of the living room 3 or just at the rear of the driver's room 2, and is extended along the side walls 1a and 1c through the ceiling wall 1b to the positions of the rear end of the shelf board 20, similarly to the rail 9a. The stoppers 14b, 15b, the notched open part 16b, and the cover 17b for opening or closing the open part 16b are provided at similar positions to those of the rail 9a in FIG. 3.

Since the open part 16a and the cover 17a are similar in construction to the open part 16b and the cover 17b, the function of the former only will be explained for simplicity. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the notched open part 16a of predetermined length is provided on lower surface 91 of the rail 9a. At the lower outside part of the rail 9a is provided opening and closing cover 17a of L-shape in section which is quite similar to the shape of the rail 9a in section and is of such a size as to cover the open part 16a. The cover 17a is slidable along a slit 92 of suitable length in the longitudinal direction of the rail 9a by means of a shaft piece 18 provided therethrough and also through the slit 92, the shaft piece 18 having at one end a flange part with a diameter larger than the width of the slit 92 and in contact with the inner side part of the slit 92, and a knob 19 provided at the outer end of shaft piece 18.

Also, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the notches 93a, 93bare provided on the rails 9a, 9b such that the distance between the notches 93a, 93b and the stoppers 15a, 15b is equal to the width between the rollers 12a, 13a or 12b, 13b attached to the upper bed deck 7.

In operation, the upper bed deck 7 is movable along the rails 9a and 9b with the rollers 12a, 13a and 12b, 13b which are respectively fitted into the opposed rails 9a and 9b. When the rollers 13a, 13b on one side of the bed deck 7 in the width direction thereof come in contact with the stoppers 15a, 15b, respectively, the rollers 12a, 12b on the other side of the bed deck 7 are positioned in the notches 93a, 93b of the rails 9a, 9b, whereby the upper bed deck 7 is supported for storage along the ceiling wall 1b. Since the rollers 12a, 12b are engaged with the notches 93a, 93b, the upper bed deck can not be accidentally swung or dropped, even if the vehicle is moved laterally at a high rate. The upper bed deck 7 supported for storage is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 with a dot-chain line.

When the upper bed deck 7 is employed for sleeping, the rollers 12a, 12b of the upper bed deck 7 are manually raised out of the notches 93a, 93b, respectively, so that the bed deck 7 may be moved down along the rails 9a, 9b until it is stopped when the rollers 12a, 12b come in contact with the stoppers 14a, 14b. At that time, the other side rollers 13a, 13b are positioned at the open parts 16a, 16b which are covered with the covers 17a, 17b. The covers 17a, 17b are then pushed along the slit 92 to reveal the open parts 16a, 16b, and the rollers 13a, 13b are taken out of the rails 9a, 9b through the open parts 16a, 16b. Then the bed deck 7 is rotated on the rollers 12a, 12b to make contact with the stoppers 14a, 14b, until the rear edge of the bed deck 7 is engaged with the upper surface of a projection 41 provided on the wall 40 at the height of the stoppers 14a, 14b, and until the front edge of the bed deck 7 is engaged with the upper surface of the shelf board at the rear end thereof by means of engaging members or hooks 23 which are spaced apart from each other in the width direction of the upper bed deck 7 at the front edge thereof and each of which is composed of an arm 21 having one end secured to the bed deck with bolt means and having the other end provided with an engaging piece 22 which projects at a right angle from the arm 21 for engagement with the upper surface of the shelf board 20. Thus, the bed deck 7 is horizontally supported at the operation position. (See FIGS. 9 and 10).

The upper bed deck 7 can be moved from the operation position to the storage position by reversing the above mentioned steps. (See FIGS. 11 to 13).

Where there is sufficient space in the width direction of the vehicle body, another upper bed deck 8 may be provided on the side wall 1a side, in addition to the upper bed deck 7 on the side wall 1c side. (See FIG. 11). In detail, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, one side of the upper bed deck 8 in the longitudinal direction thereof is pivotally secured to the side wall 1a side with a pair of hinge devices 24. The rear edge of the upper bed deck 8 is engaged with the projection 41 (FIG. 3) projected from the wall 40, while the front edge of the upper bed deck 8 is supported with the hooks 23 (FIG. 4) on the upper surface of shelf board 20 at the rear end thereof, similarly to the upper bed deck 7 so that the upper bed decks 7 and 8 are supported horizontally at the same height. The upper bed deck 8 is pivotally moved upward and supported for storage along the side wall 1a with suitable binding means 25 such as a clip or the like provided at the upper portion of the side wall 1a, thereby to ensure the wide space in the living room (FIG. 11).

Further, a pair of the upper bed decks 7 may be provided on the side wall 1a side and the side wall 1c side and stored along the ceiling wall 1b, using a pair of supporting apparatuses according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 14.

In the above cases in which two upper bed decks are employed, one of the bed decks may have the width corresponding to about one third of the width of the vehicle room and the other bed deck may be substantially wider than said bed deck so as to ensure a central path between said two bed decks.

In the above embodiments, a long curved rail extending along the side wall 1c, the ceiling wall 1b and the side wall 1a was employed for the rails 9a and 9b. This is because such rails also serve as ribs for reinforcing the mobile home vehicle, especially the ceiling wall 1b. However, the rails 9a, 9b extending from the stoppers 14a, 14b to the stoppers 15a, 15b may be of course employed. Also, such rail may be two separate rails or one continuous rail. For the purpose of the present invention, the rails may be provided at least along the ceiling wall. In that case, the roller 13a or 13b attached to one side of the upper bed deck 7 is inserted into the rail provided along the ceiling wall 1b through either a side open part of the rail near the side wall 1c or the open part 16a or 16b provided on the lower surface thereof, and manually slid along the rail until it is stopped with stopper means or to the predetermined position when there is no stopper means. Then, the other side of the upper bed deck 7 is manually raised toward the ceiling wall and fixed thereon with suitable fixing means, whereby the upper bed deck is supported for storage along the ceiling wall.

When there is no fear that the rollers 12a, 12b to be held in the rails 9a, 9b may pass the open parts 16a, 16b, in view of the effective length of the rails 9a, 9b and the position of the open parts 16a, 16b, it will be unnecessary to provide the opening and closing covers 17a, 17b.

The above mentioned opening and closing covers 17a, 17b of the rails 9a, 9b, supporting devices such as the projected parts 41 on the supporting wall 40 or the engaging members 23 for engagement with the shelf board 20 for horizontally supporting the upper bed deck may be variously modified or substituted by any other suitable means. For example, the supporting devices may be chains hung from the ceiling (not shown).

As described above, the supporting apparatus according to the present invention can store an upper bed deck along the ceiling wall or can store a pair of bed decks along the ceiling wall and along one of the side walls of the vehicle body, so that there is no loss of the living space in the vehicle room of the mobile home vehicle or the like, and the window at least on one side wall of the vehicle body is not interrupted with the bed deck nor the window space is limited thereby to ensure the light and the sight through the window.

Further, with the supporting apparatus according to the present invention, the upper bed deck is slid along the rails 9a, 9b from the storage position until it comes into contact with the stoppers 14a, 14b provided at the lower portion of the rails 9a, 9b, and then it is lowered by being pivotally rotated on the rollers 12a, 12b on one side of the bed deck to the predetermined operation position. Then, the bed deck can be stored again along the ceiling wall by reversing the above steps. Thus, its operation is very simple, and various modifications are possible by combining the upper bed deck to be provided on the side of one of the side walls of the vehicle body and to be stored along the ceiling wall, with the upper bed deck to be provided on the side of the other side wall and to be stored along the other side wall or along the ceiling wall.

Moreover, as the rails provided along the ceiling wall of a mobile home vehicle, reinforcing ribs, usually provided for the reinforcement of the upper part of the side wall and the ceiling may be used, or the rails may be used as the reinforcing ribs.

Thus, the supporting apparatus according to the present invention is suitable for practical use in mobile home vehicles.

It will thus be seen that the objects set forth above, among those made apparent from the preceding description, are efficiently attained and, since certain changes may be made in the above constructions without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. In a vehicle body having side walls, a ceiling wall, a lower bed deck and an upper bed deck, a supporting apparatus for said upper bed deck comprising a pair of first rail means having channel-like cross-section opposed to each other in the longitudinal direction of said vehicle body, said first rail means being provided along the ceiling wall of the vehicle body in the width direction of said vehicle body and being spaced from each other by a distance corresponding to the length of said bed deck, a pair of first roller means attached proximate one side of the front and rear edges of said upper bed deck in the longitudinal direction thereof for rolling in said first rail means, fixing means for releasably fixing the upper bed deck longitudinally at a storage position along the ceiling wall, and supporting means provided on the vehicle body for horizontally supporting said upper bed deck at an operational position intermediate said ceiling wall and said lower bed deck, said position being suitable for supporting a sleeping individual, said first pair of rail means having corresponding first openings into which said first roller means may be inserted for sliding along said rail means to guide the upper bed deck from said operational position toward said storage position, whereby the upper bed deck may be supported horizontally at the operation position thereof and supported for storage along the ceiling wall to provide unencumbered living space in a vehicle room without interrupting the light from and the sight through a window in a wall.

2. The supporting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising first stopper means for limiting the transverse movement of said first roller means.

3. The supporting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a pair of second rail means having a channel-like cross-section opposed to each other in the longitudinal direction of said vehicle, said second rail means being provided along the upper part of one side wall and being spaced from each other by a distance corresponding to the length of said bed deck and being so related to said first rail means that said first roller means may be moved from said first to said second rail means, a pair of second roller means attached proximate the other side of said front and rear edges of said upper bed deck for rolling along said second rail means, and second stopper means for limiting the downward movement of said second roller means, said second stopper means being provided at the height corresponding to said operational position.

4. The supporting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said first and second rail means constitute a pair of essentially continuous rails each having an upper rail part provided along said ceiling wall and a lower rail part provided along the upper part of the side wall, and said openings are provided on the lower surfaces of said first rail means.

5. The supporting apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said openings are provided on the lower surfaces of said upper rail means at a distance from said second stopper means which corresponds to the distance between each of said first roller means and each of said second roller means whereby said first roller means may be introduced into said openings while said second roller means rest against said second stopper means.

6. The supporting apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising first stopper means for limiting the transverse movement of said first roller means.

7. The supporting apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said pair of continuous rails are extended from said second stopper means to said first stopper means.

8. The supporting apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a third pair of continuous rail means extending along the upper part of the other side wall, said third pair of rail means being essentially continuous with said first pair of rail means.

9. The supporting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said supporting means comprises a transverse supporting wall in said vehicle body, a transverse shelf board on said vehicle body, a projecting member on said supporting wall for supporting one end of said upper bed deck in operating position, and hooks on the other end of said bed deck for engaging said shelf board for supporting the other end of said bed deck in operational position.

10. The supporting apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said supporting means comprises a member projecting from a supporting wall provided on the vehicle body and engaging members secured to said upper bed deck for engaging a shelf board provided on the vehicle body.

11. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said fixing means are corresponding notches in said first rail means into which said second roller means can drop when said upper bed deck is in the storage position, thereby preventing accidental dislodgement of said upper bed deck from said first rail means on application of a sidewise thrust.

12. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said vehicle body includes first and second upper bed decks and further comprising second and third pairs of rail means having channel-like cross-sections along both side walls of said vehicles, said second and third pairs of rail means being essentially continuous with said first rail means, third and fourth roller means at positions on said second bed deck analogous to those on said first bed deck, third stopper means for limiting the downward movement of said third roller means, said third stopper being provided at the height corresponding to the operational position of said second bed deck, second corresponding openings in said first rail means for insertion of said fourth roller means attached to said second bed deck, the distance between said third and fourth pairs of roller means corresponding to the distance between said second pair of openings and said third pairs of stoppers, a support shelf and a pair of transverse walls spaced apart from said support shelf by a distance corresponding to the length of said upper bed decks, hooks on one end of each of said upper bed decks for engaging said support shelf when said upper bed decks are in operational position, projections on said transverse walls for supporting the other end of each of said bed decks when said bed decks are in operational position, and one pair of notches in each of said pairs of first rail means into which said second and third roller means can drop as a means of fixing said first and second upper bed decks in said first pair of rail means.

13. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 12, wherein said upper bed decks are of width such that room is provided for passage therebetween when said upper bed decks are in operational position.

14. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 12, wherein said bed decks are unequal in width, one being approximately one-half and the other approximately one-third of the interior width of the vehicle.

15. The supporting apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising on each of said first rail means along the ceiling wall, a cover for removably closing said opening.

16. The supporting apparatus according to claim 15 wherein said cover is L-shape in section similar to the shape of said rail means, is provided at the lower outside part of said rail part, and a shaft is provided through said cover and said rail part, said shaft piece having at one end thereof a flange part with a diameter larger than the width of said slit and being in contact with the side part of said slit and having at the other end thereof a knob for sliding said cover along said slit, wherein said opening is provided on the lower surface of said rail part along the ceiling wall at such a distance from said second stopper means that corresponds to the distance between one of said first roller means and one of said second roller means being on one side of the upper bed deck in the width direction thereof.

17. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein said first stopper means are located on the ceiling of said vehicle.

18. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said supporting means comprises a transverse supporting wall in said vehicle body, a transverse shelf board on said vehicle body, a projecting member on said supporting wall for supporting one end of said upper bed deck in operating position, and hooks on the other end of said bed deck for engaging said shelf board for supporting the other end of said bed deck in operational position.

19. The supporting apparatus as defined in claim 18 further comprising a second upper bed deck hinged to the other side wall of said vehicle, a catch on said other side wall for holding said second upper bed deck in storage position against said other side wall, a second transverse wall having a second projection thereon for supporting a first end of said second upper bed edeck in operational position and hooks at the second end of said second bed deck for engaging said support shelf when said second bed deck is lowered to operational position.