Demountable center disc and methods of using same

Abstract

Provided herein is a demountable center disc. The demountable center disc includes a rim portion having at least one first pad in a first position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc and at least one second pad in a second position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc, wherein the first position and the second position are different; a central portion having one or more central portion features arranged and disposed for securing the demountable center disc to an axle; and a body portion extending between the rim portion and the central portion. The first position provides a first tire track setting and the second position provides a second tire track setting, the first tire track setting being different from the second tire track setting.

Description

Attorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700)DEMOUNTABLE CENTER DISC AND METHODS OF USING SAMECROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

[0001] The present application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 733,295, filed December 12, 2024, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] Vehicle wheels and tires include many different configurations that can significantly impact performance. Depending upon the specific application, it is often desirable to modify one or more of these configurations. For example, in agricultural applications, the tire track setting, or track width, which is the width between the centerlines of two tires on the same axle, defines the path that a vehicle creates when driving through a field. While selecting the correct tire track setting can minimize soil compaction and / or maximize efficiency, different tire track settings may be desired for different uses and / or conditions.

[0003] One current option for adjusting the tire track settings includes the use of wheel spacers. However, many different spacers are required to provide multiple tire track settings. These additional spacers must be available whenever a different tire track setting is desired, which requires storing the spacers between use and / or transporting the spacers whenever the tire track setting is changed.

[0004] Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for articles and methods that improve upon existing articles and methods for adjusting tire track settings. The present disclosure meets this need.SUMMARY

[0005] In one aspect, a demountable center disc includes a rim portion having at least one first pad in a first position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc and at least one second pad in a second position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc, wherein the first position and the second position are different; a central portion having one or more central portion features arranged and disposed for securing the demountable center disc to an axle; and a body portion extending between the rim portion and the central portion; wherein the first position provides a first tire track setting and the second positionAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) provides a second tire track setting, the first tire track setting being different from the second tire track setting.

[0006] In some embodiments, each of the at least one first pads and each of the at least one second pads has at least one pad feature arranged and disposed for attached to a rim. In some embodiments, the at least one pad feature comprises a hole.

[0007] In some embodiments, the central portion is off-center with respect to a center line of the disc. In some embodiments, the off-center central portion is closer to a first face of the disc than a second face of the disc. In some embodiments, the off-center central portion is closer to a second face of the disc than a first face of the disc. In some embodiments, a first side of the off-center central portion provides a first set of track settings and a second side of the off-center central portion provides a second set of track settings.BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0008] For a fuller understanding of the nature and desired objects of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts throughout the several views.

[0009] FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a demountable center disc.

[0010] FIG. 2 shows a front view of a demountable center disc.

[0011] FIGS. 3A-B show a demountable center disc attached to a rim, forming a complete wheel. (A) Perspective view of a demountable center disc attached to a rim. (B) Section view of the demountable center disc attached to the rim in (A).

[0012] FIG. 4 shows a side view of a demountable center disc.

[0013] FIG. 5 shows a front view of a demountable center disc identifying an attachment pattern for attachment thereof to a rim.

[0014] FIG. 6 shows a full tire track setting with a demountable center disc attached to an axle, a rim attached to the demountable center disc, and a tire mounted to the rim.

[0015] FIG. 7 shows a section view of a demountable center disc, taken along section 7-7 of FIG. 2.

[0016] FIG. 8 shows an example of different tire track settings provided by a demountable center disc.Attorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700)DETAILED DESCRIPTIONDefinitions

[0017] As used herein, each of the following terms has the meaning associated with it in this section. Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein generally have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. Generally, the nomenclature used herein are those well- known and commonly employed in the art. It should be understood that the order of steps or order for performing certain actions is immaterial, so long as the present teachings remain operable. Any use of section headings is intended to aid reading of the document and is not to be interpreted as limiting; information that is relevant to a section heading may occur within or outside of that particular section. All publications, patents, and patent documents referred to in this document are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety, as though individually incorporated by reference.

[0018] In the application, where an element or component is said to be included in and / or selected from a list of recited elements or components, it should be understood that the element or component can be any one of the recited elements or components and can be selected from a group consisting of two or more of the recited elements or components.

[0019] In the methods described herein, the acts can be carried out in any order, except when a temporal or operational sequence is explicitly recited. Furthermore, specified acts can be carried out concurrently unless explicit claim language recites that they be carried out separately. For example, a claimed act of doing X and a claimed act of doing Y can be conducted simultaneously within a single operation, and the resulting process will fall within the literal scope of the claimed process.

[0020] As used herein, the singular form “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

[0021] Unless specifically stated or obvious from context, as used herein, the term “about” is understood as within a range of normal tolerance in the art, for example within 2 standard deviations of the mean. “About” can be understood as within 10%, 9%, 8%, 7%, 6%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 1%, 0.5%, 0.1%, 0.05%, or 0.01% of the stated value. Unless otherwise clear from context, all numerical values provided herein are modified by the term about.

[0022] As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “containing,” “having,” and the like can have the meaning ascribed to them in U.S. patent law and can mean “includes,” “including,” and the like.Attorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700)

[0023] Unless specifically stated or obvious from context, the term “or,” as used herein, is understood to be inclusive.

[0024] Ranges provided herein are understood to be shorthand for all of the values within the range. For example, a range of 1 to 50 is understood to include any number, combination of numbers, or sub-range from the group consisting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, or 50 (as well as fractions thereof unless the context clearly dictates otherwise).

[0025] As used herein, the term “ratio” refers to a relationship between two numbers (e.g., scores, summations, and the like). Although, ratios can be expressed in a particular order (e.g., a to b or a.b). one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the underlying relationship between the numbers can be expressed in any order without losing the significance of the underlying relationship, although observation and correlation of trends based on the ratio may need to be reversed. For example, if the values of a over time are (4, 10) and the values of b over time are (2, 4), the ratio a.b will equal (2, 2.5), while the ratio b.a will be (0.5, 0.4). Although the values of a and b are the same in both ratios, the ratios a.b and b.a are inverse and increase and decrease, respectively, over the time period.Detailed Description

[0026] Provided herein are demountable center discs for modifying vehicle tire track settings. Referring to FIGS. 1-2, in some embodiments, the demountable center disc 100 includes an outer rim portion 110, a central portion 120, and a body portion 130 extending between the outer rim portion 110 and the central portion 120.

[0027] The outer rim portion 110 includes two or more pads 111. As illustrated in FIGS. 1-3B, each pad 111 includes one or more pad features 113 to facilitate attachment of a rim 300 to the demountable center disc 100. In some embodiments, the one or more features 113 include one or more holes 114 extending through the pad 111. For example, in one embodiment, as illustrated in FIGS. 3 A-B, each pad 111 includes three holes 114 which are arranged and disposed to align with corresponding holes on a rim 300. In such embodiments, when the holes 114 are aligned with the corresponding holes on the rim 300, a bolt 115 can be inserted therethrough and secured with a nut in order to attach the rim 300 to the demountable center disc 100. Although shown and described herein with respect to three holes 114 in each pad 111 and corresponding wheel holes / bolts being used to secure the rim 300 to the demountable center disc 100, the disclosure is not so limited and may include anyAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) other suitable features 113 / arrangement for securing the rim 300 to the demountable center disc 100. For example, the features 113 may include one or more protruding elements configured to engage one or more holes on a rim 300 in order to facilitate alignment of the rim 300 and the demountable center disc 100. Additionally or alternatively, the features 113 may include more or less than three holes 114, including, but not limited to, at least one hole, at least two holes, at least three holes, at least four holes, between one and four holes, or any combination, sub-combination, range, or sub-range thereof.

[0028] Referring now to FIG. 4, at least two of the pads 111 are positioned differently with respect to a center line 401 of the demountable center disc 100. Each pad position individually includes any suitable position relative to the center line 401, including on the center line 401, so long as at least one pad position is different from another pad position. In some embodiments, the pads 111 are individual elements (e.g., two separate articles extending from a perimeter of the body portion 130 in a radial direction). Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the pads 111 are formed from shifts / changes in a single element. For example, in some embodiments, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the pads 111 are formed from a single continuous element including at least one first pad I l la shifted towards a first face 101 of the demountable center disc 100 and at least one second pad 111b shifted towards a second face 102 of the demountable center disc 100. In such embodiments, attaching a rim 300 to the at least one first pad I l la provides a first tire track setting, while attaching a rim 300 to the at least one second pad 111b provides a second tire track setting, with the first and second tire track settings being different. Although described and shown herein primarily with respect to two different pad positions, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the disclosure is not so limited and may include any other suitable number of pad positions. Suitable numbers of pad positions include, but are not limited to, at least two pad positions, at least three pad positions, at least four pad positions, at least five pad positions, between two and five pad positions, or any suitable combination, sub-combination, range, or sub-range thereof.

[0029] In addition to including any suitable number of pad positions, each demountable center disc 100 may include any suitable number of pads 111 in each position (e.g., I l la, 11 lb, etc.) to securely hold a rim 300 in the corresponding tire track setting. Referring to FIG. 5, for example, in some embodiments, the demountable center disc 100 includes four first pads I l la and four second pads 11 lb. However, as will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the disclosure is not limited to four pads in each position and may include any other suitable number of pads, including, but not limited to, at least three pads, atAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) least four pads, at least 5 pads, or any suitable combination, sub-combination, range, or subrange thereof.

[0030] To further increase the number of tire track settings available with a single demountable center disc 100, in some embodiments, the rim 300 may include similar and / or corresponding pad positioning. In such embodiments, each different pad position of the rim 300 can be attached to each different pad position of the demountable center disc 100, multiplying the number of tire track settings provided by the different pad positions on the demountable center disc 100 by the number of different pad positions on the rim 300. For example, the demountable center disc 100 with two different pad positions, I l la and 11 lb, could provide four different tire track settings when combined with a rim 300 having two of its own pad positions.

[0031] Turning to FIGS. 1, 2, 5, and 6, the central portion 120 includes one or more central portion features 123 arranged and disposed to facilitate attachment of the demountable center disc 100 to a vehicle axle 600. For example, in some embodiments, the one or more central portion features 123 include holes 124 extending through the central portion 120. In some such embodiments, the holes 124 are arranged and disposed to align with one or more corresponding features on the axle 600 (e.g., threaded posts, bolts) to facilitate attachment of the demountable center disc 100 to the axle 600. Accordingly, a rim 300, with a tire 610 mounted thereto, may be attached to an axle 600 through the demountable center disc 100, by securing the central portion 120 to the axle through the central portion features 123 and securing the rim 300 to the rim portion 110 through the pad features 113. In such embodiments, the tire track setting can be adjusted simply by attaching the rim 300 to pads 111 in different positions, without removing / changing the demountable center disc 100.

[0032] In some embodiments, the central portion 120 is centered along the center line 401. In such embodiments, when the two or more pad positions are symmetrical with respect to the center line 401, the demountable center disc 100 provides the same tire track settings regardless of which side is mounted to the axle 600. Alternatively, when any of the two or more pad positions are asymmetrical with respect to the center line 401, each side of the demountable center disc 100 can provide different tire track settings, facilitating additional adjustment options with a single demountable center disc 100. In some embodiments, the central portion 120 is off-center with respect to the center line 401. For example, in some embodiments, as illustrated in FIG. 7, the central portion 120 is a first distance 701 from the first face 101 and a second distance 703 from the second face 102, with the first distance 701 and the second distance 703 being different. In such embodiments, mounting one side of theAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) demountable center disc 100 to the axle provides a first position of the center line 401 with respect to the axle, while mounting the other side of the demountable center disc 100 to the axle provides a second, different position of the center line 401 with respect to the axle. Referring to FIG. 8, moving the center line 401 with respect to the axle also moves the positioning of the pads 111, providing different tire track settings depending upon which side of the demountable center disc 100 is mounted to the axle.

[0033] Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the central portion 120 includes one or more mounting holes 125. In some embodiments, the mounting holes 125 are arranged and disposed for securing / mounting additional ballast weight.

[0034] The body portion 130 connects the rim portion 110 to the central portion 120, such that the rim 300 attached to the rim portion 110 rotates with the central portion 120 attached to the axle 600 as the axle 600 spins. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, the body portion 130 can include any suitable shape and / or configuration for connecting the central portion 120 to the rim portion 110. Suitable shapes and / or configurations of the body portion 130 include, but are not limited to, solid, open (e.g., spokes), uniform, tapered, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, for example, as best illustrated in FIG. 1, the body portion 130 is substantially solid and tapers inward from the rim portion 110 to the central portion 120. Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the body portion 130 includes one or more handling access holes 131. In some embodiments, the handling access holes 131 provide openings for the use of straps or chains.

[0035] Each demountable center disc 100 according to the embodiments disclosed herein provides multiple different tire track settings. Additionally, the different pad positions may be combined with different central portion positions and / or rims having different attachment points of their own. Accordingly, the various embodiments disclosed herein can provide many different tire track settings simply by adjusting attachment points and / or orientation between the demountable center disc, rim, and / or axle, thus eliminating the need to store, carry, or transport multiple different spacers and / or discs for different tire track settings. For example, in some embodiments, each demountable center disc 100 is capable of providing at least two, at least three, at least four, at least five, at least six, at least seven, at least eight, at least nine, between two and ten different tire track settings, or any suitable combination, sub-combination, range, or sub-range thereof.

[0036] Also provided herein are methods of adjusting a tire track setting using the demountable center disc 100 according to one or more of the embodiments disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the method includes securing a wheel to one or more first pads I l laAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a first tire track setting, and securing the wheel to one or more second pads 11 lb on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a second tire track setting. In some embodiments, the method includes securing the wheel to one or more additional pads (e.g., third, fourth, fifth, etc.) on the demountable center disc 100 to provide additional tire track settings (e.g., third, fourth, fifth, etc.). Additionally or alternatively, in some embodiments, the method includes mounting a first side of the demountable center disc 100 to a vehicle axle to provide a first set of tire track settings corresponding to the different pad positions of the rim portion 110, and mounting a second side of the demountable center disc 100 to the vehicle axel to provide a second set of tire track settings corresponding to the different pad positions of the rim portion 110. Furthermore, in some embodiments, the method include securing a first wheel pad on a wheel to the first pad 11 la on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a first tire track setting, securing the first wheel pad on the wheel to the second pad 11 lb on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a second tire track setting, securing a second wheel pad on the wheel to the first pad 11 la on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a third tire track setting, and securing the second wheel pad on the wheel to the second pad 11 lb on the demountable center disc 100 to provide a fourth tire track setting. The vehicle includes any vehicle capable of operating under different tire track settings, such as, but not limited to, agricultural implements (e.g., tractor), automobile (e.g., car, truck, van), off-road vehicle (e.g., ATV, UTV), trailer, or other suitable vehicle.

[0037] Those skilled in the art will recognize, or be able to ascertain using no more than routine experimentation, numerous equivalents to the specific procedures, embodiments, claims, and examples described herein. Such equivalents were considered to be within the scope of this invention and covered by the claims appended hereto.

[0038] It is to be understood that wherever values and ranges are provided herein, all values and ranges encompassed by these values and ranges, are meant to be encompassed within the scope of the present invention. Moreover, all values that fall within these ranges, as well as the upper or lower limits of a range of values, are also contemplated by the present application.EQUIVALENTS

[0039] Although preferred embodiments of the invention have been described using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, and it is to be understoodAttorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700) that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

[0040] The entire contents of all patents, published patent applications, and other references cited herein are hereby expressly incorporated herein in their entireties by reference.

Claims

Attorney Docket No. 391486-1001W01 (00700)CLAIMSWhat is claimed is:

1. A demountable center disc comprising: a rim portion having: at least one first pad in a first position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc; and at least one second pad in a second position relative to a center line of the demountable center disc; wherein the first position and the second position are different; a central portion having one or more central portion features arranged and disposed for securing the demountable center disc to an axle; and a body portion extending between the rim portion and the central portion; wherein the first position provides a first tire track setting and the second position provides a second tire track setting, the first tire track setting being different from the second tire track setting.

2. The demountable center disc of claim 1, wherein each of the at least one first pads and each of the at least one second pads has at least one pad feature arranged and disposed for attached to a rim.

3. The demountable center disc of claim 2, wherein the at least one pad feature comprises a hole.

4. The demountable center disc of claim 1, wherein the central portion is off-center with respect to a center line of the disc.

5. The demountable center disc of claim 4, wherein the off-center central portion is closer to a first face of the disc than a second face of the disc.

6. The demountable center disc of claim 4, wherein the off-center central portion is closer to a second face of the disc than a first face of the disc.

7. The demountable center disc of claim 4, wherein a first side of the off-center central portion provides a first set of track settings and a second side of the off-center central portion provides a second set of track settings.

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