GB2129750A - Trailer caravan - Google Patents

Abstract

Full height body part 22 of the caravan is coupled to the rear of towing vehicle 44 by a first coupling 42 which restricts transverse movement of the caravan relative to the vehicle 44. The body part 22 is integral with an upper part 24 which extends forwardly over the towing vehicle's roof and is coupled to the latter by a second coupling 52 which again restricts relative transverse movement. The resultant car/caravan combination is effectively a close- coupled six wheeled vehicle in which sway and the risk of jack-knifing is eliminated. The first coupling 42 comprises a tubular boss vertically slidable on a rod 50. The second coupling 52 comprises a tubular boss 54 slidable in a forward/rearward direction on a rod 60. As an alternative, the couplings 42, 52 may comprise ball-and-socket arrangements. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Trailer caravan This invention concerns trailer caravans of the kind constructed specifically to enable them to be towed from place to place behind private motor vehicles.

As traditionally constructed, trailer caravans usually comprise an elongate body structure having a towing coupling at its front end for connection to a tow-bar of a towing vehicle and mounted by appropriate suspension means upon road wheels disposed one at each side of the body about halfway along its length. It is well known that such caravans involve significant disadvantages when actually being towed. The caravan represents a supplementary load at the rear end of the towing vehicle making the latter somewhat less stable than when being driven without the caravan. This can be particularly significant in high winds, making the towing vehicle more difficult to drive.

Other disadvantages lie in the fact that it is possible for so-called "jack-knifing" to occur, for instance when braking upon greasy road surfaces, and the traditional caravans are often of length greater than the towed vehicle so that the aggregate length of the car/caravan combination is often considerably in excess of twice the length of the car alone, necessitating adoption of different driving techniques as compared with driving the car on its own.

An object of the present invention is to provide a caravan construction by which the above-discussed disadvantages are eliminated or minimised.

With this object in view, the present invention provides a trailer caravan comprising a wheeled body shaped to provide a wheeled rear portion having a front wall whereon is a first coupling permitting coupling of the caravan to the rear of a towing vehicle in such a manner as to permit relative up and down movement of the vehicle and the carvan, said body further being shaped to provide a forward extension disposed to extend above the towing vehicle's roof, said extension carrying on its underside, a second coupling whereby the extension may be coupled to the roof of the vehicle in such a manner as to permit relative forward and rearward movement of the vehicle and the caravan.

Conveniently each of the couplings comprises two components of which one is a bar, rod or the like elongate member and the other is a slide member located on and slidable along the elongate member, one of these components being secured to the trailer caravan, and the other being adapted for securement to the towing vehicle.

The wheels of the trailer caravan are peferably located so as to be as far forward as is practicable, so that when the trailer caravan is coupled to the towing vehicle, it effectively converts the latter into a small six-wheeled mobile home having closecoupled rear axles which, although able to rise and fall relative to one another, are so disposed that they are substantially unable to move relative to one another laterally of the vehicle/caravan combination.

Accordingly, the caravan of the invention has the specific advantage, in comparison with traditional caravans, that when coupled to its towing vehicle it is always maintained in a disposition with its front to rear direction alinged with the front to rear direction of the towing vehicle. Thus, there can be no swinging or swaying movement of the caravan, relative to the towing vehicle, during travel, nor is there any risk of jack-knifing, so that journeys are less tiring and less dangerous to the driver and towing vehicle occupants.

The construction of the caravan of the invention may conveniently be such that the front wall of the wheeled rear portion of the body firstly extends upwards from the first coupling, and then curves forwardly to merge into and form the floor of the forward extension, the second coupling being carried by the underside of the floor. The wheeled rear portion may be occupied by suitable furniture and fittings, such as a cooker, sink and the like, and the forward extension may be fitted with sleeping furniture, and fittings, e.g. one or more sleeping mattresses.

If desired, the structure of the trailer caravan may incorporate a raisable roof section, over the wheeled rear portion, over the forward extension or over both, so that the available internal height of the body can be increased, when the caravan is stationary and occupied.

For enabling the caravan to stand stably when not coupled to its towing vehicle, it is conveniently fitted with retractable supports at or near to its four corners. For the rear two corners, there may comprise conventional jack legs. For the two front corners, the respective supports conveniently comprise respective props each pivotally connected by one end to the forward extension at or neat the respective corner, and swingable between an operative upright propping position, wherein its other end rest on the ground, and an inoperative position underlying the forward extension of the caravan body.The pivotal axles of these props are preferably substantially transverse to the front-to-rear direction of the caravan and its towing vehicle and their dispositions are preferably such that they can be moved between the operative and inoperative positions whilst the caravan is coupled to its towing vehicle.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the acompanying drawing, in which: Figure lisa diagrammatic side elevation illustrating a practical embodiment of the trailer caravan of the invention coupled to a towing vehicle; Figure2 is a diagrammatic detached detail illustrating the first coupling of the trailer caravan of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a view comparable with Figure 2, but illustrating the second coupling of the trailer caravan of Figure 1; and Figure 4 is a diagrammatic front view showing the trailer caravan of Figure 1 uncoupled from its towing vehicle and set up in a stationery disposition, its wheels having been omitted for convenience of illustration.

The illustrated preferred embodiment of the trailer caravan of the invention comprises a basic wheeled floor structure, whose disposition is indicated at 10, generally of rectangular configuration in plan, provided towards the front thereof with a suspension arrangement (not visibie) whereby it is mounted upon a transverse axle fitted at each end with a road wheel 12. The road wheels 12 are, accordingly, disposed towards the front end of the floor structure, as will be appreciated from Figure 1.

Upstanding from the floor are two sidewalls 14, 16 a rear wall 18 and a front wall 20 of a body of the caravan, these defining an occupyable space for accommodating furniture and other fittings (none of which are visible since they are inside the body) as will be referred to again later. The two sidewalis 14, 16 of the body are complementary in shape. Starting from the floor 10, each such sidewall 14, 16 is approximately of constant width upto a height of about one to one-and-a-half metres. Thereafter, as can be seen from Figure 1, the rear edge of each sidewall 14,16 remains approximately vertical whilst the front edge thereof curves abruptly away from the rear edge so that the width (i.e. the front-to-rear dimensions) of each sidewall 14, 16 increases substantially, for instance to about two-and-a-half times the width of the sidewall at the level of the floor 10.Accordingly each said side wall may be regarded notionally a comprising a rear portion 22 of full height, and an upper forward portion 24 whose height is relatively shallow and which connects with or merges with the front of the rear portion 22.

One of the side walls has a door (not shown) therein, whilst the other is fitted with a window 26.

The rear wall 18 of the body is substantially vertical over subsantially its entire height, and is fitted with a window (not visible), the lower edge of this rear wall curving inwards, very slightly, as at 28 to merge with the floor.

The front wall 20 of the body is of a relatively complex shape. It commences at its lower edge at the front of the floor 10 and initially extends substantially vertically upwards as a lower upright section 30 (Figure 4) in correspondence with the front edges of the rear portion 22; it then curied forwards and follows the bottom of the upper forward portion 24 of the body in a substantially horizontal disposition as at 32; finally, at the front of the caravan, the front wall 20 joins with a forward upper upright section 34 which terminates level with the top edges ofthe side walls 14,16 and rear wall 18 of the body.

Stiffening members 36 along the top edges of the side walls 14, 16 front wall 34 and rear wall 18form a frame by which there is mounted, on the said walls, a roof structure 38 the lower part of which comprises a concertina-like skirt 40 as has been shown diagrammatically in Figure 1. A suitable expansible and collapsible support arrangement (not shown) is provided within the body to enable the roof structure 38 to be raised and locked in the raised position shown in dot-dash lines in Figure 1 and lowered to rest upon the walls of the body.

Fixed to the lower upright section 30 of the front wall of the caravan body is one component of a first coupling, indicated generally at 42, of which the other component is adapted for fitting to the rear of a towing vehicle which may simply be a passenger car 44. The said one component 42 of the coupling is a slide member in the form of a tubular boss 46. This is substantially vertically disposed and is mounted by a U-bracket 48 to the front wall 20, so as to be substantially centrally disposed near the bottom of the lower front wall section 30.

Securement of the boss 46 to the bracket 48 is such as to permit very slight pivotal movement of the boss 46 about a horizontal axis transverse to the front-to-rear direction of the caravan so that the axis through the boss 46, which is substantially upright, can pivot very slightly in a vertical plane.

The other or second component of the coupling 42 comprises a metal rod 50 on which the boss 46 aforesaid is a close and smooth sliding fit, this rod 50 having brackets at top and bottom (see Figure 1) whereby it may be fixed in a substantially vertical disposition at the rear of the towing vehicle 44 so as to be substantially at the middle of the vehicle.

Fixed to the underside 32 of the substantially horizontal section of the front wall 20 of the body of the caravan is a respective component of a second coupling 52, the other component of which is adapted to be mounted on the roof of the towing vehicles 44. This coupling 52 is similar in form to the first coupling 42 described above, in that it comprises a boss 54 secured by a U-bracket 56 to the underside 32 of the horizontal section of the front wall so as to extend in the front to rear direction of the caravan, along the longitudinal centre line thereof, and is able to pivot, to a very limited extent, about a horizontal axis directed transversely of the caravan, provided by pivot pins 58.The other component of this second coupling comprises a rod 60 (Figure 3) having diverging struts 62 (Figure 1) with clamps for fitting to the usual roof gutters 64 of the towing vehicle 44, or other suitable mounting points, with the rod 60 (on which the respective boss 54 is slidable) extending in the front to rear direction of the vehicle, above its roof, and substantially centrally thereof or towards the front of the towing vehicle's roof.

It will be understood from the above description that the overall construction of the caravan body is such as to provide a relatively large box-like main rear section 22 to which access can be had by way of the door, with a high level forward extension 24 extending forwardly thereof, the interior of the extension communicating with the interior of the main rear section 22. The interior of the body is appropriately fitted for it to provide caravan accommodation, e.g. with a cooker, sink, cupboards, a table and other necessities and storage devices, with the forward extension accommodating, for example, one or more mattresses and/or other bedding equipment (all of which is not visible in the drawing), so that it may serve as a sleeping compartment. It will be understood, also, that when required for occupation, the roof 38 of the caravan will be raised, and usually such roof 38 will be lowered when the caravan is to be towed.

It will be appreciated that the disposition of the two couplings 42 and 52 of the caravan, as has been described and illustrated, is such that when it is towed the caravan is close-coupled to the towing vehicle 44 at two locations, the one being between the lower part 30 of the front wall 20 of the caravan and the rear of the car, and the other being between the underside 32 of the forward extension of the caravan (which forward extension extends forward above the towing vehicle's roof at a small spacing above such roof) and the coupling rod 60 extending centrally above such roof. Accordingly, when coupled to the towing vehicle, the caravan is fixedly coupled thereto when considered in the front rear direction in that there is substantially no possibility of the caravan moving laterally relative to the towing vehicle.The towing vehicle/caravan combination is virtually the equivalent of a six-wheeled vehicle having two rear axles disposed closely adjacent to one another. The arrangement may involve some minimal measure of tyre drag upon negotiating sharp turns, but the disadvantages arising herefrom are negligable in comparison with the advantages arising from the stability achieved by the relativelyfixed combination which eliminates sway, jackknifing, and other instabilities such as may arise in relation to conventional caravans.

The rod/boss forms of the two couplings is, of course, such as to enable the caravan axle to rise and fall to a limited extent relative to the rear axle of the towing vehicle, to enable all wheels to remain in road contact when the combination is driven over contoured surfaces, e.g. over hump-back bridges or the like.

Retractable supports are provided at or near the four corners of the trailer caravan structure, to enable it to stand stably when not coupled to the towing vehicle 44. For the rear corners, these supports are shown diagrammatically as comprising conventional jack legs 70. For the two front corners, these supports comprise relatively long props 72 secured to the underside 32 of the forward extension of the caravan body, close to the front endge thereof, by respective pivotal brackets 74so that they can be swung between the inoperative positions clipped up below the front edge of the body as shown in full lines in Figure 1 and operative vertical positions shown in Figure 4 whilst the towing vehicle 44 is coupled to the caravan.

Naturally, the invention is not confined to the precise details of the foregoing example and variations may be made thereto. Thus, the shape and configuration of the body of the caravan may vary, over a very wide range, from what has been described. For instance, the forward extension of the caravan body may be shaped and dimensioned to provide portions, in which a person may stand, which extend one longside each side of the rear of the towing vehicle. In this case, then, the overall width of the caravan will be substantially wider that the width of the towing vehicle, the rear of which may be regarded as being accommodated within the front part of the caravan.

The design may, then, also make use of the recess in the caravan body which accommodates the towing vehicle, by the provision of movable removable or hinged panels to provide extra sleeping compartments, a cooker, sink or the like.

It is not essential to the invention that the caravan should have a raisable roof. The roof can be raisable or fixed as may be desired. Moreover, the form of the coupling may be selected as may be considered appropriate. Where rod and slide couplings of the kind above described are used, the arrangement may of course be the converse of what has been described, that is to say the bosses may be fixed to the towing vehicle and the rods secured to the caravan. Also, the coupling between the roof of the towing vehicle and the caravan may be a pivotal one providing a vertical pivotal axis, e.g. of the kind sometimes known as a "third wheel" coupling.

Other variations are possible. For instance the rear connection of the towing vehicle to the caravan body may comprise a standard ball and socket arrangement as used for a conventional caravan coupling, with the ball of the coupling attached to the towing vehicle buy a basically standard or fully standard and proprietary tow bar. The socket section of the said coupling may then be attached to the caravan in a basically conventional manner, but employing a mounting suitably hinged at the caravan to give the vertical flexibility of movement required between the towing vehicle and towed vehicle. The actual position of the hinge may vary from vehicle to vehicle.The rear connection would preferably be provided with a conventional automatic brake arrangement connected to the caravan wheels so that the latter are braked in unison with the braking of the towing vehicle.

As another alternative the roof mounted coupling between the towing vehicle and towed vehicle may be an essentially conventional ball and socket arrangement supported on the roof of the car by a preferably removable structure generally similar to the slide member and boss coupling above described, the ball being located essentially on the forward part or towards the centre of the car roof.

The second component of th is alternative roof coupling may then be a conventional type socket attached to a bar, of suitable section, arranged in a sliding way to permit easy and free movement of the socket in the front to rear direction of the vehicle but preventing all but relatively minor movements vertically and from side to side.

This alternative coupling has the added advantage of enabling the towing vehicle to have coupled to it any conventional towed vehicle such as a caravan, a trailer or farming equipment.

In another variation, the roof-mounted coupling comprises a ball fitted permanently immediately over the front part of the car roof and surrounded by an aesthetically-designed (and preferably dragreducing) windshield or shroud. Because this ball is located in the forward area of the roof, it permits the fitting of a temporary roof rack to the vehicle when it is not being used for towing. Subject also to any individual design peculiarities of the towing vehicle, it may be possible to provide a roof rack which can be so located as not to interfere with the connection and flexibility or movement of the coupling between the towed and towing vehicle.

A further alternative coupling may comprise a conventional U-shaped bracket and pin arrangement synonymous with farming equipment, in the place of the conventional ball and socket arrangement normally used for towing of caravans.

It should be clearly understood that any or all of the various coupling described herein i.e. elongate member and boss, hinged barwith conventional ball and socket, hinged bar with conventional hinge and pin arrangement, adjustable beam mounting with conventional ball and socket, adjustable beam mounting with conventional hinge and pin arrangement, can, with suitable design variations with regard to iengths of members, positions of pivots or hinges, etc., such that motion is only permitted in the single direction required, be arranged for either the roof or the rear mounting joints necessary for this type of towing facility. It should also be noted that any one coupling type for the roof can be used with any or all of the types of coupling for the rear, and vice versa.

In addition, and as previously mentioned, the types of coupling described do not necessarily cover all possible types of coupling and also the two halves of the various couplings, of any type, can be interchanged one with the other to give a reversed coupling arrangement, for instance the socket of the ball and socket coupling may be mounted on either the towing or the towed vehicle.

It should also be noted that all coupling configurations, whether on the towing vehicle roof or rear, may be designed with adjustment to cater for different vehicles.

Claims (12)

1. A trailer caravan comprising a wheeled body shaped to provide a wheeled rear portion having a front wall whereon is a first coupling permitting coupling of the caravan to the rear of a towing vehicle in such a manner as to permit relative up and down movement of the vehicle and the caravan, said body further being shaped to provide a forward extension disposed to extend above the towing vehicle's roof, said extension carrying on its underside, a second coupling whereby the extension may be coupled to the roof of the vehicle in such a manner as to permit relative forward and rearward movement of the vehicle and the caravan.

2. A caravan as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of the couplings comprises two components of which one is a bar, rod or the like elongate member and the other is a slide member located on and slidable along the elongate member, one of these components being secured to the trailer caravan, and the other being adapted for securement to the towing vehicle.

3. A caravan as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the wheels of the trailer caravan are disposed so as to be forwardly located, so that when the trailer caravan is coupled to the towing vehicle, it effective ly converts the latter into a small six-wheeled mobile home having close-coupled rear axles which, although able to rise and fall relative to one another, are so disposed that they are substantially unable to move relative to one another laterally of the vehicles caravan combination.

4. A caravan as claimed in claim 1,2 or 3 whose construction is such that the front wall of the wheeled rear portion of the body firstly extends upwards from the first coupling, and then curves forwardly to merge into and form the floor of the forward extension, the second coupling being carried by the underside of the floor.

5. A caravan as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the wheeled rear portion is occupied by suitable furniture and fittings, such as a cooker, sink and the like, and the forward extension is fitted with sleeping furniture, and fittings, e.g. one or more sleeping mattresses.

6. A caravan as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the structure of the trailer caravan incorporates a raisable roof section so that the available internal height of the body can be increased.

7. A caravan as claimed in any preceding claim appropriately fitted with retractable supports at or near it its four corners for enabling the caravan to stand stably.

8. A caravan as claimed in claim 7 wherein the retractable supports comprises, for the rear two corners, conventional jack legs.

9. A caravan as claimed in claim 7 or 8 wherein the retractable supports comprisse, for the two front corners, respective props each pivotally connected by one end to the forward extension at or near the respective corner, and swingable between an operative upright propping position, wherein its other end rest on the ground, and an inoperative position underlying the forward extension of the caravan body.

10. A caravan as claimed in claim 9 wherein the pivotal axes of the props are substantially transverse ot the front-to-rear direction of the caravan and its towing vehicle.

11. A caravan as claimed in claim 10 wherein the dispositions of the props are such that they can be moved between the operative and inoperative positions whilst the caravan is coupled to its towing vehicle.

12. A trailer caravan substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.