B. WALKER MOTOR VEHICLE Original Filed MarCh 21, .1932 7 Hm; 'n 35 2 .gv?fz?ar?erya 45 - plovIed in automotive vehicles, as the Wheel upon 5 "111 so - 11 .130 I Patented Dec. 6, 1938 UNETED STATES 2,139,341 PATENT OFFICE . 2, .139, 341 . MOTOR VEHICLE Brooks Walker, Piedmont, Calif. Original application March 21, 1932, Serial No. 600,126. Divided and this application Febru? ary 1, 1935, Serial No. 4, 498?- _5 Claiins. This application is a divisional application of the caSe ?led in the Unit ed States Patent QmCe, entitled VehiCle lifting and traversing device, ?led March 21, 1932, Serial No. 600,126, new United States Patent Nos. 1 ,999, 159 dated February 5, 1935 - My inventiOn relates to vehicle lifting and trav- ersing device, therefore, and particularly to de- vices employing the spare wheel for'raising one end of the vehicle, and more particularly for a rigid type cover for said spare tire to provide a Suitable cover for said auxiliary tire which shall be preferably of a rigid material so formed as to covei a major portion of the ground engaging surface of the spare tire as viewed from the rear of the car and still be so constructed as to allow Said tire to raise and lower from its partially in? closed pesition to its ground engaging position while the tire cover is attached to the vehicle chassis; to provide means whereby the tire cover may be readily removed preferably without the use of tools for the interchange of wheels in case of a ?at tire or Other causes. Other objects and features of novelty of my in- ventron' Will be either speci?cally pointed out or will become apparent when referring, for a bet? ter understanding of my inventiOn, to the fol-_ lewin'g desCIipti'on in conjunction with the lac- companying drawing, wherein. Fig 1 is a view in top plan, with certain parts . shown in section, of a vehicle assembly embody? ing. the invention; Fig. 2 is a View in rear elevation of the vehicle shown in. Fig. 1, with the auxiliary wheel in its road- engaging position; and- Fig. 3 is a View corresponding to Fig. 2, but 1 showing the auxiliary wheel in its raised or in- effective position. ?40 .Referri-ng; to Figures 1, 2 and 3, I have illus- Stre ted an automotive vehicle chassis 20 having a lifting and t1 aversing device 2! which is provided . with a single wheel 22, upon which the vehicle is 50- 55 raiSed and traversed in an. are about the opposite end of the vehicle. In these views, I have illus- trated the use of a spare wheel such as is em? which one end of the vehicle is supported, al- though it is to be understood that the use of the spare. wheel in this connection is not essential to the invention, although it Will probably be pref? erable and cheaper to use the spare Wheel. The spare wheel 22 is mounted for rotatiori about an axle 24, extending rearwardly- from the arm 25 Which is pivotally attached to the Vehicle chassis at the bearing 26, IWithin the cylinder 3 is Ire? (01.180I?n1) ciprocally mounted a piston which is rigidly at-- tached to the piston rod 32, which is in turn pivn etally attached to an extenSion the bolt 33. in such a manner that a ?uid pres-'- sure against? the piston will cause the piston rod. to project from the cylinder and actuate the arm 25 in such a manner that the wheel 22- supported thereon will be- caused to lower into ground en~ gagement and upon continued movement thereof will cause a lifting of one end of the vehicle chas? sis. aWay f1om the ground. Spring 38 has been provided, one end of Which is attached to the arm 25 at a point adjacent the axle 24 and the other end of which. is attached to a bolt 31 which is carried on the vehiCIe chassis 15 preferably in a manner as illustrated wherein the leverage of the spring is greatest when the tension is the least and, vice-versa. This spring has suf? ?cient tension to retract the wheel 22 to the po- sition shown in Figure 3 with a generous addit- tional tension to prevent rattles and assure a positive and speedy return of the mechanism to its inactive position Whenever the controls are placed in the return position without the neces? sity of engine power application to perform this function. A mechanism is provided for driving engage? ment between one of the driven wheels 49 of the vehicle and the] auxiliary wheel 22. This con- sists of a roller-4 adapted for engagement with the rear Wheel 40, said; roller being ?rmly at? tached. to a shaft. 42, which is rotatably mounted in. suitable bearings-in. the housing 43. 1 At the opposite end of?the shaft ?is rigidly attached a sprocket 44 which is attached to a second sprocket 46,1337 the chain 45'. The sprocket 46 is rigidly attached to. the-shaft 4-7, which is in turn rigidly attached to the roller 48. The shaft is mounted for rotation in suitable bearings in the arms 59. and which arms are rigidly attached to the. housing?. Two arms 52 and 53 are like- Wise ?rmly attached. to the housing-43 by some suitable means such as. welding and carry-at their upper end pivot bolts 54 and 55, respectively, which bolts are rigidly attached. to the vehicle chassis by suitable brackets 56 and 51, respec? *tively. An ear 58 extends upwardly from the arm 53 an?disracted upon by a spring 59 in such a mannerthat the spring causes a partial rotation of the driving mechanism in a counterclockwise direction as viewed. in Figs. 2 and 3, to the posi?I tion shown in Figure, 3, wherein the rollers 41 and 48 are. out. of engagement with the rear wheel 40 and the auxiliary. wheel 22, respectively, when 55 25? 35 1 5 the rear wheel 22 is in its inactive position. The other end of the spring 59 bears against the ve? hicle frame. By virtue of the suitable pivotal mounting of the driving mechanism on the bolts 54 and 55, it will be seen that the mechanism is adapted to be engaged by the wheel 22 by its arcuate lowering operation and the pressure ex- erted on the roller 48 by the wheel 22 causes the driving mechanism to rotate in a clockwise di? rection, as viewed in Figs. 2 and 3, against the face of the spring 59 to a position in which the roller 4 bears against the tire 40, thereby a pres- sure su?iciently high to be satisfactory as a fric- tion driving means is established between the two rollers and their respective wheels. It will be noted that this construction is par- ticularly adapted to conventional type automo- tive vehicles and does not require the addition of any extra actuating mechanism other than the use of the vertical movement of the auxiliary wheel into ground engagement. It is essentially a quiet drive and does not necessitate mecha- nism for meshing gears, splines, etc. As is described in more detail in the above iden- ti?ed Patent No. 1,990,150, suitable means are provided which can be actuated from the driving compartment of the vehicle to cause the appli- cation of ?uid pressure to the cylinder 3i which, in turn, causes the piston rod 32 to move out- wardly and lower the auxiliary wheel 22 to the ground engaging position. The just mentioned means also moves the roller 4 into engagement with the main wheel 48. As is further described in the patent, the control means also serves to lock the man wheel 39 against rotation, so that with the wiliary wheel 22 in the lowered posi? tion, ?Ac usual differential drive for the rear wt eels may be used to rotate the main wheel 40. ?is rotation, in turn, causes the auxiliary wheel 2 to rotate and move the vehicle transversely. If the ?uid pressure is relieved, it will be appre? ciated that the return spring 38 becomes effective to restore the parts to the'retracted positions thereof shown in Fig. 3. The speci?c control means, actuated from the driving compartment, forms no part of the pres- ent invention and so are not illustrated in the present drawing. Attached to the vehicle chassis, I have shown the usual form of resilient type bumper ll. The tire cover 60 encloses a major portion of the rear elevation of the spare tire ?22 view as well as a major portion of the diameter of said spare tire 22, when in the retracted position. The tire cover 60 may be supported on the vehicle chassis by the ears El, and the wing nuts 62, and by the clip 63, which fastens over the back bar of the bumper I. By this construction the tire cover is supported independently of said spare tire 22. The tire cover 60 is so formed with a en- larged section GM, as to allow the spare tire 22 to be lowered out of said tire cover while said tire cover 60 is rigidly attached to the vehicle chassis. Likewise, by means of the wing nuts Bl, the tire cover may be manually removed by re? moving the wing nuts and lifting the cover sub- stantially vertically to disengage the clips 63, to thereby allow removal of said spare tire from its support while in the inactive position for the purpose of tire change. It is obvious that the en- larged section Ella of the tire cover may be re? duced, providing the spare tire 22 moves vertical- ly to road engagement instead of through the transverse are as illustrated herein. 2,139,341 By this construction it will be seen that appli- cant has provided a new and novel tire cover construction and support, which will allow the spare tire to be lowered into road contact, to be readily manually removable and can be formed of a solid structure without doors or like mecha- nism that would have to be opened automat- ically or manually to allow said spare tire to be lowered into ground contact, Practically all pre- vious type tire covers have been supported on the spare tire and did not allow the spare tire to be lowered into ground contact and revolve with- out damage to the tire cover. While I have described and illustrated several embodiments of my invention, it will be appar- ent to those skilled in the art that various changes, additions, omissions, and substitutions may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention, as set forth in the accompanying claims. I claim: .1. A vehicle, a spare tire, a vertically movable mouting for said spare tire, a cover for said spare tire comprising a housing conforming to the tire contour for a major portion of its periphery, said housing being supported on said vehicle inde- pendently of said spare tire, the lower portion of said tire being uncovered by said tire cover to allow said spare tire mounting to be lowered to lower said tire into road contact without mov- ing said tire cover. 2. In combination with an automotive vehicle, regular vehicle supporting wheels, a spare wheel for said vehicle, mechanism connecting said wheel with the chassis of the vehicle and capable of operation for moving the same between an upper ineffective position and a lower position in which it is effective to lift the vehicle and move it transversely, a receptacle connected with said vehicle to partially enclose said spare wheel when the same is in its upper or ineifective posi- tion, the said receptacle having an opening in the lower portion thereof through which said wheel may move when it is lowered to its effective position, the axis of said auxiliary wheel being at substantially right angles to the axis of the regular vehicle wheels. 3. In combination with an automotive vehicle, a spare wheel for said vehicle, mechanism con- necting said wheel with the chassis of the ve- hicle and capable of operation for moving the same between an upper ine?ective position and a lower position in which it is effective to lift the vehicle and move it transversely, a receptacle connected with said vehicle to partially enclose said spare wheel when the same is in its upper or ineffective position, the said receptacle having an opening in the lower portion thereof through which said wheel may move when it is lowered to its effective position, the said spare wheel mount- ed transversely of the vehicle at the rear thereof. 4. In combination with an automotive vehicle, a spare wheel for said vehicle, mechanism con- necting said wheel with the chassis of the vehicle and capable of operation of moving the same be- tween an upper ineffective position and a lower eifective position, and a receptacle rigidly con- nected with said vehicle to partially inclose said spare wheel when the same is in its upper or in- effective position, the said receptacle having an opening in the lower portion thereof through which said wheel may move when it is lowered to its effective position. 5. An automotive vehicle having a chassis, a spare wheel for said vehicle, a cover for said spare 2,139,341 - 3 wheel, a vehicle lifting device, said'vehicle lift- ing device connecting said 'spare wheel with the chassis of the vehicle and capable of operation for moving said spare wheel vertically between an upper ineffective position and a lower position in which the vehicle is? partially lifted on said spare Wheel, said cover cOnn'ected with said vehicle to partially enclose said spare wheel when the same is in its upper inactive position, the said re? ceptacle having an opening in the lower portion thereof through which said spare Wheel may move when it is lowered to its lower position. BROOKS WALKER. Patent No. 2,139,341 Granted December 6, 1938 BROOKS WALKER The above entitled patent was extended July 24, 1951, under the previ? of the act of June 30, 1950, for 6 years and 214 days from the expiration of the original term thereof. Commissioner of Patem?s.