Roll-up door for vehicle shelters

Abstract

A roll-up closure device for typically collapsible vehicle shelters of the type having a structure made of assembled tubular members and cross-members and a complementary covering therefor made of a flexible plastics material and defining at the front end thereof a door opening. The side walls of the shelter are inclined in such a way as to diverge from top to bottom, whereby the door opening has generally a isosceles trapezoidal shape. The device includes a pair of opposed side guide rails mounted at laterally opposite sides of the door opening so as to follow the angled sides thereof, an overhead motor driven roll-up boom extending above the door opening, and a flexible closure shaped like the door opening and having its lateral side edges slidably engaged in the guide rails, whereby the closure device does not substantially reduce the lateral dimensions of the door opening. Cables attached to the roll-up boom are secured to the lateral edges of the closure so that the rotation of the boom causes the cables to wind around respective tapered pulleys provided near each end of the boom with the closure in a rolled attitude extending between the pulleys. Stretched elastics are secured to the lower part of the closure to laterally retract the side edges of the latter towards each other as the closure is being raised. A tensioning mechanism is provided to ensure that the cables remain taut at any position of the closure.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates to collapsible vehicle shelters such as those having a structure made of assembled tubular members and cross-members and a complementary covering therefor made of a flexible plastic material and, more particularly, to a roll-up door for the door opening defined at the front of such vehicle shelters.[0003]2. Description of the Prior Art[0004]The present invention relates to roll-up closures for use in collapsible automobile shelters of the type illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,627 issued on Dec. 19, 1989 to Audet. Audet discloses an improved collapsible shelter comprising a structure made up of tubular members and cross-members forming an assembly having side walls diverging from top to bottom and a roof section with the structure being covered by a covering complementary in shape to the assembled structure and made up of a weather proof flexible plastic material. At the front of the shelt...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0019]It is a still further aim of the present invention to provide a roll-up closure device for vehicle shelters wherein the flexible closure or door includes laterally inward biasing means for maintaining the flexible closure taut during the opening and closing thereof, and for allowing the flexible closure to somewhat yield depth-wise.

Problems solved by technology

However, it is difficult to adapt any closure to such a trapezoid-shaped opening and, to this date, roll-up curtain-type flexible closures have been used therefor with these closures being manually rolled-up from one side of the assembled structure laterally towards the other side thereof, whereat they are retained by strings.

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