GB2422809A - Foldable land yacht - Google Patents

Abstract

A folding land yacht suitable for wind powered travel along a beach comprises a rear Y-shaped frame which supports a detachable rear axle, and an elongate front frame pivotally attached to the Y-shaped frame at a point where foot controlled steering pedals are attached. At a forward end of the rear Y-shaped frame a locking bolt passes through both frames so that the two are locked together. When the locking bolt is removed the elongate front frame may pivot about the pedal locations so as to lie beneath the Y-shaped frame. A single steered front wheel is located at the forward end of the frame, and a mast housing tube is located at the point where the arms of the Y-shape frame meet. Two different rear axles are disclosed, one for use on a beach and one for use on grass.

Description

I

Description

The Folding Land Yacht Design The Land Yacht is designed to travel across the beach powered by wind in the sail, although this in itself is not original the frame design is.

The design Now: The Lower Seat Frame is made from high carbon steel or stainless steel box tube welded together at the point where the Y' shaped frame meets. This point is where the mast tube fitting plates are placed. U) The Mast tube side plates are positioned on the outside face of two box section tubes towards the nose-wheel. Between these two tubes are box section spacers these keep the two tubes parallel and in a square orientation to each other.

The tubes that run parallel towards the nose-wheel also have two 3mm thick plates welded on the outside faces of the box tube. These four plates are positioned to extend towards the ground below the lower face of the box tube. Parallel lines of holes drilled through fixed plates at right angles are to attach the nose-wheel structure. One set of holes are designed to hold a Pivot Shaft on which the foot controlled steering pedals are positioned. The foot pedals are now made from two pieces of Aluminium alloy Box section. The box section pedal (One each side) are made from two thick wall ahoy box tube welded wall to wall to form a solid foot platform. The sides are machined to put a hole completely through in a central position for the pedal to pivot forwards and backwards with a heel to toe movement.

At the top and bottom position of the pedal a hole is positioned for a wire cable which moves the steering Nose-wheel left and right. The bottom wire cable is attached to the outside position of the Nose-wheel forks to change the direction of the nose-wheel and the top cable position is fed around a pulley which contributes to the orientation of the opposing foot pedal. The result of this steering mechanism is - When one foot pedal toe position moves away from the person using the land yacht, the other toe position automatically moves backwards and towards the person who is using the land yacht.

The Parallel tube where the pivot shaft for the pedals are positioned also have another shaft with a thread at one end for a nut or a female threaded hand -wheel.

This shaft is designed to be removed from the frame which allows the nose section of the land yacht to fold approximately in half. This can hcmpen when the Y' shaped frame is lifted allowing the nose-wheel frame tc drop to the floor. The folding pivot is at the foot pedal position.

When fully folded the nose-wheel swings under the main body of the frame, it ends up where the seat cloth position normally is. This is in the gap of the Y' frame. If the land yacht pilot was still in that position the phrase "A place to park one's bike comes to mind" this is regarding the new folded position of the nose-wheel.

Both the pivot shaft point and the removable shaft travel through the nose-wheel arm.

The nose-wheel arm consists of two parallel box tubes with three spacers also ii' from box section tubes. The three spacers are designed to keep the tubes parallel and rigid for the nose-wheel. The two nose-wheel box tubes are positioned either side of the Y' frame plates, the rear one of the two holding the shaft for the foot pedal pivot.

At the nose-wheel end of this assembly both of these two tubes kick up at 200 from parallel and have one 3mm plate welded to the upper surface and one below.

These two plates have holes drilled in them to hold the nose-wheel steering shaft and house metal bushes to allow for the rotation of the front forks and nose-wheel.

The Mast tube affixes to the Y' frame on plates aforementioned (I have colour coded the text to help reviewing this document). The base of the mast tube has two holes drilled 12mm diameter on which it can pivot forwards and backwards. However when in use the most will not move in any direction 20mm from the top of this tube is a welded strap which travels around the tube 265 approx, two relatively small tabs point outwards in the rear 75 position of the mast. Two down tubes 20mm diameter are bolted to these tabs and hold the mast in place by threaded attachment to the rear axle.

The resultant forces on the mast tube are thereby dissipated to some extent through the down tubes.

Tension on one down tube results in compression on the opposite down tube when travelling in a side orientation to the wind. Travelling with the wind results in tension on both tubes and this is when acceleration is at it's greatest on a land yacht.

The back axle has two versions: One for grass and rougher terrain and one axle for the beach.

Grass Axle: (, Consists of a main box tube that runs at a right angle to the nose- wheel tubes and over a central position. 50cm either side of the centre position the tube inclines towards the ground at 15 away from parallel. The axle also has another tensioning box tube welded below, this runs parallel to the centre section and has small welded upright struts back to the main axle tube.

The whole axle has two centre sleeve joints that retain locking pins, the centre axle splits into two separate pieces for transport.

Sand Axle: The sand axle consists of two thinner almost straight axle box tubes welded in an overlapping orientation. This axle can be seen in the two pictures within this document.

Both axles: Each axle has two fittings which connect to the rear of the Y' frame assembly. The Y' frame assembly sits on top of the Axle and has sleeve fittings that slide over a male fitting on the rear axle. Locking pins are positioned through holes on the Y' female and the Axle Male fitting.

At the extreme positions of the Axle are Stainless steel wheel hubs that attach the axle to the wheels. The wheel hubs position the wheels 14 from vertical which makes the wheels point slightly outward at the ground position. This reduces the sideways leverage stress on the perimeter of the wheel when cornering. The wheel hubs are bolted on permanently to the axle extremeties.

The rear seat frame is attached to the rear axle sleeves of the Y' frame, the left and right upright arms of the rear seat fram.e pivot on locking pins but have a locked In Use' position. A top bar for the seat frame can be slotted onto two threaded tube extensions, this removes the chance of the seat frame collapsing inwards and also allows for attaching points for the seat fabric. The two treads extend 20mm above this top cross seat frame tube and eyelets from the seat fabric drop over them before a threaded nut is used to lock the seat fabric eyelet in place.

The front of the seat fabric is attached with webbed straps to the front of the Y' position on the lower seat frame.

Folding: The fwd position bolt or shaft is removed and the nose-wheel swung underneath the seating area of the Y' frame.

The rear seat frame is pushed forward and the fabric seat will fold in two. There is an option to remove the rear seat frame altogether by removing the locking pins and disconnecting the fabric seat.

The rear axle is removed by extracting the two locking pins from the Y' frame female and the axle male.

The back axle separates into two pieces at the centre point via removal of a locking pin. The two down tubes from the mast are unscrewed from the rear axle and folded down and forward. This allows the mast tube to swing downward towards the centre of the Y' position. The down tubes now lay parallel to the mast tube Shown right is a folded example of a prototype, Please note this shown is not the final design.

The wheels, bearings and rear seat frame have changed for the submitted design.

Claims (1)

1. The Landyacht frame folds in half at the point where the steering pedals pivot.