The present invention refers to a novel tent for automobiles, suitable for protection against exposure to sunlight and for thermal insulation. Furthermore, the novel tent provides anti-theft protection.

The object of the present invention is a continuation, modification and improvement of the tent disclosed in application No. 930100238, filed on 10/06/1993 at the Greek Patent Office (OBI), by the present Applicant. Said modification provides manufacturing cost saving, easier use and suitability for any type of automobile.

Numerous covers designed for protection of exterior automobile surfaces against sunlight or rain and made of various materials are commercially known. These range from simple plastic or plasticized sheets for covering the automobile's front and/or back windscreen to large sheets (hoods) conforming to the whole shape of the car.

GB-A-2,167,719, 4 June 1986, by P. D. Brown and E. B. Talbot describes such an tent for automobiles that protects against sunheat and direct ice formation upon the car in the wintertime. The tent consists of a rectangular, flexible sheet stretchable upon the car, having two transverse inserts creating air intervals therein. The flexible sheet is fixed and stretched with hooks secured on the front and back bumpers of the automobile.

Two major disadvantages are obvious from the above brief description. First, the tent has to be exactly as long as the car, thus necessitating the manufacture and sale of different tent sizes with corresponding cost increase. Second, unfastening of the tent can be easily performed and facilitates prospective tent thieves.

US-A-4,825,889, 2 May 1989, by J.B. Monteith also describes a similar car tent. The design and use of this tent as well as the fastening method on the car are the same as in the above patent application and, consequently, presents the aforementioned two disadvantages.

A significant advance in the art is the tent of Greek application No. 930100238/10-06-1993 by the present Applicant. According to this approach, the tent is secured with hooks, in the front part under the car's hood and in the back part inside the car's trunk. Thus, the tent provides anti-theft

protection. Between the tent and the top of the car there are provided transverse straight elastic inserts that create hollow spaces for air circulation that cools the car when parked in the sun, while, simultaneously, the tent shades the car. The use of said tent presents minor disadvantages that are remedied with the presently proposed improved construction.

Particularly, the "shrinking" of the tent under the hood and inside the trunk to accommodate every car length is not very easy when using fastening hooks. Additionally, in the event of a strong wind, the tent may slide because of poor securement, exposing parts of the car. Finally, packing and storing the tent when not in use is space demanding, especially because of the long elastic inserts corresponding to the top of the car.

The improved tent of the present invention fully overrides the above disadvantages due to its superior structure. This structure and the advantages and characteristics of the present invention are better understood from the following description of an embodiment of the invention, in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures where:

Fig. 1 is a top view of the tent of the present invention in an unfolded, relaxed state before installation, Fig. 2 is a top view of the tent of fig. 1 installed upon an automobile, where the whole body of the automobile is omitted for clarity reasons,

Fig. 3 is a side view of an ordinary automobile with opened trunk and lifted hood to install and secure the tent,

Fig. 4 shows the front part of the tent attached under the hood of the automobile which is open for the installation,

Fig. 5 is a side view of the car with the tent installed in its final configuration, with three splittable elastic inserts placed on top of the car and with closed hood and trunk, and

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal view of the splittable inserts. As shown in Fig. 1, the unfolded tent 1 has a rectangular shape with rounded corners. The dimensions of the rectangle are somewhat larger that those of the larger (longer) automobiles, so that a single size tent can accommodate any car regardless of dimensions. This is one of the major advantages of the invention.

In the front part of the tent, parallel and symmetrically about the longitudinal axis of the automobile, extend two tensioners straps 2a and 2β and in the back part another two tensioner straps, 2α' and 2β' respectively. The four tensioner straps are integral with the whole sheet of the tent. The front tensioner straps are longer than the back tensioner straps, to take account of the fact that, usually, a hood is longer than a trunk.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, from the side portions of the tent and perpendicular to the longitudinal edges of the same extend pairs of front tensioner straps 3 and back tensioner straps 3' respectively (the figures are not drawn to scale, they only approximately show the position and the form of the side tensioner straps). The leading edges of the tensioner straps are provided with fastening members or hooks or any other suitable means 5, 5', for attachment and formation of continuous horizontal segments, as shown in Figs. 2 and 4. Each tensioner strap 3, 3' has one clutch 4, 4' to receive, grasp and tension each tensioner strap 3, 3', to secure the entire tent in place. These securements resemble those in a belt that is not fixed with a pin but only with tightening, thus permitting adjustment of the tent's length to the desired value. This is one major advantage of the invention, because it makes a single size tent suitable for every type of automobile, due to the easy "shrinking" of the tent provided by the transferable tightening of the tensioner straps.

Fig. 5 shows a side view of the automobile with closed trunk and hood and the tent firmly installed. The underside of the sheet that makes up the tent is provided with certain transverse inserts 6 comprising elastic foam material. Preferably, every tent is provided with three such inserts 6 but, however, the number of inserts is not limiting.

When the tent is installed, these inserts create hollow spaces α, β, y, for air circulation so that, in combination with the shading provided by the tent, the interior of the automobile is more efficiently cooled on hot sunny days. To make the tent resistant against strong lateral winds, it was found suitable to shape the end edges 8 of inserts 6 with inclined walls, which also makes the tent to suitably overhang at the sides of the automobile.

Finally, to facilitate storage of the tent in the car's trunk, when not in use, e.g. in the winter period, inserts 6 are preferably splittable, that is they

may be divided in two identical halves, joined together and folding about joint 7 (see Fig. 6). As the inserts are affixed to the tent, folding of the former means folding the tent to half its size. Subsequently, the tent sheet is wrapped around the stack of the three inserts 6 to make a roll of length 80 cm approximately and diameter 25-30 cm approximately. This roll can be easily inserted in an ordinary bag and stored inside the car's trunk.

As shown in Fig. 4, the installation of the tent is fast and easy. It suffices to fasten with fastening members 5 the two horizontal side tensioner straps 3 (or 3' respectively) and to tighten the front tensioner straps 2α, 2β (or 2α\ 2β' respectively) through clutches 4 (or 4' respectively) to fix the tent in place. It should be noted that the tent may be readily removed by simply unfastening members 5, without loosening of clutches 4, 4'.

A suitable material for the construction of the tent and tensioner straps is preferably a simple cotton fabric that offers economical manufacture. It should be understood, however, that other suitable materials such as, for example, plastics and the like, are not excluded for the construction of the tent.

It is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment described herein, as this can be slightly modified to suit additional applications, for example, motortrucks or other vehicles, within the scope of the appended.