BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

(1) Field of the Invention

This invention relates to a lifting device for a vehicle.

(2) Brief Description of the Prior Art

A person who, though obliged to use a wheel chair, is still able to drive a car, can usually move from the wheel chair to the driver's seat of the car, but is unable, without assistance, to load the wheel chair into the car, or to unload it for use upon leaving the car. Even with assistance available for folding and loading, or unloading and unfolding, the wheel chair, the user has hitherto been obliged to use a fairly large car, capable of carrying a wheel chair which, even when folded is a fairly bulky and heavy article.

BRIEF _. SUMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION The present invention has been devised with the general object of providing means whereby an article, such as a wheel chair for example, may be quickly loaded onto a car to be carried above its roof, and readily unloaded therefrom, by a single person who may remain seated in the car during the loading and unloading operations.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention resides broadly in a lifting device for a vehicle including:- a mounting frame, means for securing the mounting frame on the vehicle roof, a carrier frame pivoted to the mounting frame for movement between a lifting position, extending from a side of the vehicle, and a travelling position, overlying the vehicle roof,

hoisting means for hoisting an article to, lowering it from, the carrier frame in its lifting position, and actuating means for means for swinging the carrier frame to its lifting and to its travelling positions.

Other features of the invention will become apparent from the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that a preferred embodiment of the invention may be readily understood and carried into practical effect, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:-

FIG. 1 is a side view of a lifting device according to the invention applied to a car and connected to a folded wheel chair of conventional type,

FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 are front elevations of the car-mounted device at successive stages in the loading of the wheel chair, FIG. 5 is a side elevation of the lifting device brought to the position of FIG. 3, but with an added cover into which the wheel chair is lifted, and

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of the lifting device of FIG. 4, brought to travelling position. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Fitted on the car 10 is a mounting frame indicated generally at 11 and including a pair of conventional roof bars 12 each fitted transversely above the car top by a pair of brackets 13 of well- known type clamped to the roof gutters 14 of the car.

At the driver's side of the car the two brackets 13 are interconnected by a bar 15. At this side of the mount¬ ing frame 11, upright stop plates 16 are fixed to the extremities of the two roof bars 12, and bearing plates 17 are secured to the bars 12 near to their ends. Near

to the opposite side of the mounting frame 11 two parallel angle members 18 innerconnect the two roof bars 12.

The lifting device includes a rectangular carrier frame 19 of metal tube to which a mesh panel 20 is fitted and secured, the two ends of the frame being secured perpendicularly to a shaft 21 which, near its ends, is rotatably engaged in the bearing plates 17. Torsion springs 22 about the shaft 21 urge the carrier frame 19 to the position shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, extending upwardly and outwardly from the driver's side of the car 10 at an angle of about 45 to horizontal, the ends of the carrier frame being restrained, by the stop plates 16, from moving hingedly down from this position.

Mounted on the two angle members 18 is an assembly of a winch 23 driven by an electric motor 24 through a worm and worm-wheel (not shown) . The motor may be started, stopped and reversed by any suitable control switch (not shown) convenient to the car driver's seat. There is also provided a cut-out switch (not shown) automatically operated, when the carrier frame 19 is swung hingedly over parallel to the roof bars 12, to stop the electric motor. A cable 25 from the winch 23 is carried down under a small roller 26 and then up and over to a pulley wheel 27 mounted centrally on the distal end of the carrier frame 19, the free end of the cable 25 passing through a weight 28 and being connected to a hook 29. A person using a wheel chair 30 can propel it to the car 10 and, after opening the driver's car door 31, can transfer himself from the wheel chair to the car driver's seat. From this position he can easily fold the vacated wheel chair, turn it to a back-down position as shown, and connect the cable 25 to the wheel chair by

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means of the hook 29.

The motor is started to operate the winch 23 so as to hoist the wheel chair up to the outwardly extended carrier frame 19. After the wheel chair has been hoisted to full extent, the continued operation of the winch causes the carrier frame 19 to be swung up to more or less vertical position, as shown in FIG. 3, against the action of the torsion springs 22, so that the folded and hoisted wheel chair swings close to the carrier frame, whereupon the operation of the winch is halted. The ends of the carrier frame 19 are provided with locating flanges 32 between which the wheel chair is located. The driver then engages an elastic rest¬ raining band 33 with the bottom part of the wheel chair and hooks this band to the longitudinal bar 15.

The winch 23 is again operated to pull the carrier frame 19 down so that, as shown in FIG. 4, it is located in its travelling position close to, and parallel to, the roof bars 12, the winch motor 24 then being auto- matic-ally stopped by the cut-out switch. The winch, driven by the motor through a worm and worm-wheel, will require no ratchet to prevent unwinding of its cable.

The wheel chair is thus securely loaded on the car and restrained against undue movement by the locating flanges 32 and by the tensioned cable 25 and the elastic band 33, the tension of which is increased when the carrier frame is swung from upright position to its travelling position.

To unload the wheel chair, the motor 24 is started, in reverse, so that the winch 23 pays out the cable 25 permitting the carrier frame 19 to move hingedly upwards, under the action of torsion springs 22, until it reaches more or less vertical position, at which stage the motor is stopped and the restraining band 33 is released. The winch is restarted to permit the carrier frame to swing

down to its initial or lifting position, and for the wheel chair to be lowered to the ground, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The driver.', can then disengage the hook 29, unfold the wheel chair, and transfer himself from the car to the wheel chair. If desired, the hook 29 can be engaged manually with the carrier frame shaft 21 and the winch can be operated to bring the carrier frame 19 over and down to its folded or travelling position above the carrier bars 12. It may be desired that the wheel chair 30 should be enclosed when carried on top of the car 10. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, a waterproof cover 34, in the form of an open-bottomed bag made of any suitable pliable material and shaped to receive the wheel chair 30, is attached at its top to the distal side of the carrier frame 19, the cable 25 passing, from the pulley wheel 27, through an opening in the top of the cover. When the wheel chair is hoisted, as before described, it is lifted up into the cover.34. In this modification of the invention, the elastic restraining band 33 may be replaced by a number of elastic restraining straps 35 fixed at one end to the outer part of the open bottom of the bag-like cover and having at their other ends hooks 36 which, when the enclosed wheel chair has been raised to upright position as shown in FIG. 5, are engaged with the bar 15.

Lifting devices according to the invention will be found to-be very effective in achieving the objects for which they have been devised, being capable of being quickly and easily mounted on or dismounted from a car, and easily operated to hoist a wheel chair to a secure travelling position above the car, and to unload it to a position convenient to the driver.

The invention is applicable to devices for loading and unloading articles other than wheel chairs, and it will be understood, of course, that the particular

IT

embodiment herein described and illustrated may be subject to many modifications of construction detail and design within the scope of the invention herein¬ after claimed.