Technical field of the invention The invention relates to a cover arrangement, especially for vehicles, comprising a rolling-up rod and means for rotating the rod so as to roll up or unroll a portion of said cover on or from said rod. Background of the invention

On load-carrying vehicles which are provided with a cover, the cover must frequently be rolled up and rolled down fcr loading and unloading cf goods. Previously, the cover portion ar issue was rolled up to form, a roll and attached by means of lugs a distance up cr. the frame supporting the cover. This is an inconvenient and time-consuming operatic.-., and in recent years rolling-up means have therefore been developed which consist of a box attachable tc the top of the frame or to the cover stanchions and con¬ taining a roller which resembles a roller blind rod. Such an arrangement greatly facilitates rol nσ-up of the cover portion, but suffers from the disadvantage that it must be detached and taken down when dismantling the cover frame, or if the cover portion is damaged. Moreover, the cover portion must be guided such that its vertical edges are kept perpendicular to the box to prevent wedging of the cover portion while being rolled up. A further disadvantage is that the box takes up a great deal of space, whether the cover portion is rolled up or lowered to its position of use.

Brief description of the inventive idea The present invention aims at providing a simple and inexpensive arrangement which eliminates the above- mentioned disadvantages and which is easily handled and can be easily dismounted from the cover frame. According to the invention, this is achieved in that the upper edge of said cover portion is fixedly mounted

and its lower edge is free or detachable, and that the rcllir.σ- c red is nenrctatabiy connected with the cover po io substantially along the hcnzcr.ta._- centre line thereof, said rod, when rotated in one direction, rolling up said cover portion while simul¬ taneously raising both the rod proper and the lower edge of said cover portion and, when rotated in the opposite direction, unrolling said cover portion while lowering both said rod and said lower edge of the cover portion.

In the inventive arrangement, the separate cover portion which, in practice, may be the entire side portion of a vehicle cover, can be easily and rapidly mounted on and dismounted from the cover frame and be easily and rapidly relied up cn the rclling-up rod, while uncovering the entire area which, in the position of use, is covered by said cover portion. Further elucidation of prior art U.S. patent specifications 1,318,820 and 3,397,009 disclose vehicle covers in which a rolling-up rod is per se nonrotatably connected with a cover and positioned approximately midway between the opposite cover ends. In these known arrangements, however, the rolling-up rod stays in one and the same position while the cover is being rolled up, and the two cover ends must be free to move towards the rod during the rolling-up operation. Such a permanently stationary rolling-up rod cannot be used for rolling up the side portions of a vehicle cover, since the rolling-up rod would then interfere with the loading and unloading of goods. Besides, the upper half of the cover would have to be pulled up to a covering position by special means making the arrangement even more complicated. Brief description of the accompanying drawings In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a partial side view of a vehicle cover of which a portion is in its rolled-down state;

Fig. 2 is a similar perspective view in wn ch the cover portion is m its rcllec- r state;

Fig. 3 is a perspective schematic view illustrating a means for rotating the rolling-up rod; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of a component comprised by the means shown in Fig. 3.

Detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention In Figs 1 and 2, a vehicle cover generally de¬ signated 10 comprises a roof portion 11, at least one end portion 12, and one or more side portions 13 along each side of the vehicle. The cover is supported by a frame designated 14 in its entirety and containing a suitable number cf vertical stanchions 15 as well as longitudinal struts 16 and cross members 17. The cover serves to cover and protect the cargo space on a vehicle platform, whether the vehicle is a traction vehicle or a trailer. The platform may be provided with dropsides 18.

Approximately in the area along its horizontal centre line, the cover side portion 13 is provided with a welded or stitched on strip defining a cavity

19 which extends over the entire length of the cover and, in this case, is rectangular. The cavity can also be formed by folding the cover in some suitable manner, instead of providing a special strip. The cavity divides the side portion 13 into an upper half 13' and lower haft 13". A section 20 in the form of an aluminium tube of rectangular cross-section is inserted into the cavity 19. Because of its noncircular shape, the section is nonrotatable relative to the rest of the side portion 13. The length of the section

20 proper conforms substantially to the length of the side portion 13, but the front end of the section merges into an extension piece m the form of a com¬ paratively slender rod 21 (see Fie. 3). The upper

edge 22 of the side portion 13 is permanently attached ir.e 14, more precisely strut 16, while the lower edge 23 is freely movable, although it can per se, during transportation, be fixed to the dropsides 18 in some suitable manner. The upper edge of the side portion can be attached to the cover frame by some simple means, such as hooks or the like. In actual practice, the upper edge of the side portion can preferably be covered with a comparatively narrow section 11" cf the roof portion, which hangs down a distance along the side of the frame.

Reference is now made tc Figs 3 and 4 which illustrate schematically a means, preferred according tc the invention, for rotating the section 20 which serves as a rolling-up rod. This means comprises a guide member 24 for positively guiding the extension piece 21 along a substantially vertical path of motion, and a carrier element 25 which, in this case, is wheel-shaped and nonrotatably connected with the exten¬ sion piece 21 and comprises a plurality of, in this case four, radially extending projections 26 having the character of cogs. In practice, a so-called star wheel can conveniently be used as the carrier element. The projections 26 are adapted to engage one by one into the interspaces between a series of tooth or lug means 27 which are located at a centre distance from each other that increases, preferably pro¬ gressively, upwardly along said guide member. The carrier element moves the rod upwardly along said guide member and causes it to rotate at a successively decreasing speed. In the preferred embodiment, the lug means 27 have the shape of rollers or rings which are rotatably mounted on associated pins 28 via ball bearings 29. The pins 28 are in turn fixedly mounted between the flanges of a U section 30 which, in practice, preferably is associated with or forms part of the guide member 24

mentioned above. The guide member 24 suitably ha s the shape of a box section having a groove 31 mtc which the extension piece 21 is inserted, t e extension piece 21 being provided at its free end with a wheel which is mounted in bearings relative to the extension piece and which can roll smoothly on the walls of the guide member. Outside the extension piece 21, a sleeve 32 is mounted in bearings, the extension piece being freely rotatable relative to said sleeve. The two opposite ends of a pull rope 33 which is passed over upper and lower guide rollers 34 and 35, res¬ pectively, are connected with said sleeve 32.

The arrangement described above functions in the following way. When the star wheel 25 has taken its lower end position indicated by full lines in

Fig. 4 and corresponding tc the state which is shown in Fig. 1 and in which the side portion 13 is completely lowered, one projection of the star wheel engages between rollers 27 which are located relatively close together. When the rope or band 33 is pulled in the direction of the arrow shown in Fig. 3, the extension piece 21 and the section 20 nonrotatably connected therewith are positively moved upwardly along the vertical path of motion defined by the guide member 24. During this rectilinear movement of the extension piece, the star wheel 25 is forced to engage with the rollers 27 mounted in succession, while causing the extension piece and the section 20 to rotate simul¬ taneously as both the upper half 13' and the lower half 13" of the cover side portion 13 are rolled up. Since the rollers 27 at first are comparatively close together, the section 20 is first rotated at a relatively high speed. Since the mutual distances between the rollers 27 successively increase upwardly along the guide member, the speed of the star wheel and the accompanying section 20 successively decreases, however, and thus compensates for the cover build-up on the section 20,

wnicr. occurs as t e cove r i s Demg rc i e; up cn tne ς t ^~ z —- "*~ ^■ : < ^~ ~*- *~- ^■ *" ^> ~-~ ^~ . -t c ^~ - ^~~~ i ^~ ^ r~ ^{~ +} ~ -*- *-< ^. f ^{~~ ~} ~- ~ ^~ c ^~ - ^_ - ^~ " ^r~ - ~~ ^~ -,i~. ~~ ~ ^~ - -z ~ ^~ --

13 ' , which extends betwee the fixed utter edce 22 and the section 20, is kept neatly extended, but is not stretched tc such an extent that further rolling up is rendered impossible.

In its upper end position indicated by dash-dot lines in Fig. 4, the star wheel 25 can be located with a lower projection 26 positioned slightly above a horizontal plane through the centre of an underlying roller 27'. As a result, a self-locking of the section 20 is obtained in the upper end position thereof shown in Fig. 2, the section being releasabie from its locked position by a strong pull on the pull rope 33, whereby the downwardly pointing prcjectic 26 of the star wheel passes the roller 27', such that the wheel is again free tc rotate. After the section 2C has been released from its locked upper end position, the side portion is unrolled from the section in .that the section falls down by its own w ⁷ eight and that of the cover, while beinσ σuideα alone the σuide member 24.