CA1065923A

CA1065923A - Wind, bug, and gravel deflector for trailers

Info

Publication number: CA1065923A
Application number: CA300,282A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Harold J. Nicklin
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1978-04-03
Filing date: 1978-04-03
Publication date: 1979-11-06

Abstract

A B S T R A C T

This invention consists of a wind, bug, and gravel deflector for a trailer which is being pulled by a car. It is made of canvas or plastic material; when unfolded, it is in the form of a four sided pyramid; and it is located in a horizontal position between the front of the trailer and the rear of the car to which the trailer is attached. The open bottom of the deflector is attached to and covers tightly the entire front wall of the trailer, and the point of the deflec-tor is attached to the rear of the car by a resilient loop.
The deflector is attached to the trailer by means of grommets at its corners, and hooks which pass through them are attached to the front of the trailer and rear of the car, specially provided for that purpose. A variation of the invention consists of making the edges which enclose the trailer elastic for a tighter fit.

Description

~0659'~3 _ This invention consists generally of a device for redu-cing wind resistance of a rapidly moving trailer attached to a car, and protecting such trailer from being struck by gravel or other loose items on the road; and particularly for reducing wind re-resi~tance ~or econom~ in ruel con~ump~ion.
The most common type of trailer used by people ~or camping purposes or temporary living quarters, consists of a large single rectangular room on wheels, which is coupled to the rear of a car and is being towed by it. The front rectang-ular flat wall of the trailer, which faces the rear of the carand is not too far away from it, offers a great deal of wind resistance, which of couræe results in slowing up the speed of the coupled vehicles thus considerably increasing the consumption of fuel. The same front wall of the trailer i8 also subject to damaging impact with flying insects and birds, and stones and gravel kicked up by the rear wheels of the car.
It is the primary object of this invention to provide a wind, gravel, and bug deflector to the front wall of a trailer, which is being drawn by a car, and which i9 capable of deflect-ing the wind and other objects regardless of the directionfrom which they are coming~ and at the same time be sufficiently streamlined to reduce the wind resistance to a minimum.
This is accomplished in the invention by providing a deflector which is in the shape of a pyramid, whose rec-25 tangular base covers the front wall of the trailer, and whichpoints in the direction of travel.
In describing the invention reference will be made to the attached drawingd in which,-Figure 1, is a diagram showing the location of the 30 deflector in relation to the coupled trailer and car, Figure 2, is an isometric view of the deflector, Figure 3, shows a detail o~ one of the walls of the 1~)659Z3 deflector, and Figure 4, shows a variation of the invention.
In the drawings the deflector 3 is shown consistingof a canvas, plastic, or any other strong and weatAer resis-5 ting material, which when unfolded, forms a pyramid having arectangular open base. The position and location of the de-flector 3, relative to the car 1 and its attached trailer 2, is shown in Figure 1. The deflector is placed in a horizontal po~ition so that its base covers the front wall of the trailer

2, and is attached to it by means of grommets 8 which fit over hooks 4 and 5 at the top and bottom of the trailer, respectively.
In Figure 3, one wall of the deflector 3 is shown to indicate the corner location of the grommets 8. Several spaced grommets in a row are provided 50 that the deflector base can be attached tightly to the trailer, by choosing the right grommet.
To the point of the deflector pyramid is attached a loop 9, by means of which the deflector 3 is pulled tightly and hooked to the rear of the car by means of a hook 6, speci-ally provided to the car for that purpose. The loop 9 con-sists Or an elastic or spring loaded cable, in order to provide resilience to the attachment, to take care of occasional ex-cessive wind pressure on the deflector.
In view of the position of the deflector 3, an open-ing 7 is provided to the bottom wall of the deflector, throughwhich passeæ the hitch by means of which the tractor is coupled to the oar.
In Figure 4, is shown a variation in the invention, where it is desirable to provide elasticity to the base of the deflector pyramid, for greater tightness between the deflector base and the trailer walls, This variation consists of pro-viding a hemmed edge 10 which contains an elastic cable. This form of variation is shown by way of example only, since there 1~65~;Z3 are a number of well known means ~or providing this elasti-city, such as inserting patches of elastic materials in the rim of sald pyramid baæe,etc.

It can be seen from the above description that this invention provides a deflector which completely covers and prOtécts~ th~ front wall of the trailer which is extremely vulnerable to damage during extensive travels, while at the same time being of a form which provideæ a maximum of streamlining against fuel consuming air and wind resistance.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an ex-clusive property or privilege is claimed are described as follows,-

1. A deflector for the purpose of reducing wind resistance of a car drawn trailer during travel, thereby reducing fuel consumption: and for the purpose of protecting such trailer against impinging objects; said deflector being made of a soft, strong, weather resistant material, which when unfolded and at-tached to the front wall of said trailer, takes the form of an open base, four-sided pyramid, located in a horizontal position between said trailer and the car; means for totally and tightly attaching to and enclosing the front wall of the trailer; and resilient means for attaching the vertex of the pyramid to the rear of the said car.

2. A deflector such as described in Claim 1, which is made of canvas.

3. A deflector such as described in Claim 1, which is made of an opaque or transparent plastic material.

4. A deflector such as described in Claim 1, in which the means of attaching the base of the pyramid to the front wall of the trailer consists of spaced grommets provided in each corner of the base of the pyramid in combination with a hook which fits the said grommets, attached to each corner of the front wall of said trailer; and a short resilient cable at-tached to the vertex of the pyramid in combination with a hook, to which said cable can be tied, attached to the rear of said car.

5. A deflector such as described in Claim 1, in which the edges of the base of the pyramid are made resilient by seaming said edges and inserting elastic cables within the seams to provide a tight fit against the front wall of the trailer.