Off-road Jack with Adjustable Leg Extensions for Uneven Terrain
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing vehicle lifting jacks are not designed for effective and safe use on irregular and unstable surfaces, such as those found in off-road environments, lacking the necessary stability and adjustability for secure operation.
Innovation Solution
A vehicle lifting jack with a sliding lifting post, pivotable side legs and leg extensions that can be locked in an extended position, providing a stable base on uneven terrain, and a hydraulic mechanism for raising and lowering the vehicle engaging hook, allowing for secure engagement and lifting on difficult surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a traditional tripod jack is used on stable ground, then it provides sufficient lifting capability, but it lacks stability and safety on irregular and uneven terrain
Solution Approach 1:
The jack employs adjustable leg extensions that can be extended or retracted to adapt to varying ground conditions. The leg extensions are connected via pivot joints, allowing dynamic adjustment of the base footprint to maintain stability on uneven terrain while preserving the compact tripod configuration for transport.
Solution Approach 2:
Each leg is divided into a main leg portion and an extendable leg extension portion. This segmentation allows the jack to adjust its base configuration independently at each leg, providing adaptability to irregular surfaces while maintaining the overall structural integrity and lifting capability of the tripod design.
2Reliability
If the jack structure is extended to provide stability on uneven terrain, then stability improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The leg extensions are designed to nest within or alongside the main leg structure when not in use. This nesting approach allows the jack to maintain a compact form factor for transport and storage while providing extended stability features when deployed on uneven terrain, avoiding permanent increases in device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The leg extensions serve multiple functions: they extend the base footprint for stability on uneven ground, can be adjusted to compensate for ground irregularities, and maintain the compact tripod configuration when retracted. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate stabilization mechanisms, thereby limiting complexity increases.
3Adaptability or versatility
If the lifting post uses a rigid fixed structure, then manufacturing is simple, but it cannot accommodate irregular terrain variations
Solution Approach 1:
The lifting post incorporates a telescopic mechanism with sliding sections that allow vertical adjustment of the post length. This dynamic adjustment capability enables the jack to accommodate variations in ground height and terrain irregularities while using standard telescopic components that maintain manufacturing simplicity through conventional fabrication methods.
4Reliability
If the jack is designed for compact transport, then portability improves, but it lacks the extended base needed for stability on uneven ground
Solution Approach 1:
The base stability is achieved through dynamically extendable leg extensions that can be deployed when needed and retracted when not needed. This allows the jack to transition between a compact configuration for transport and an extended configuration for stability on uneven ground, effectively decoupling the transport size from the operational stability requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The leg structure is segmented into collapsible sections with pivot joints, allowing the base to fold into a compact configuration for transport while maintaining the capability to extend into a stable, wide-based configuration when deployed on uneven terrain.
Data Source
AI summary
A jack has a lifting post, a pair of side legs, adjustable leg extensions, and leg locking mechanisms for locking the leg extensions with respect to the side legs. The lifting post has a bottom element and a top element that slide with respect to each other, and a vehicle engaging hook mounted on the top element. A lifting mechanism lifts the top element with respect to the bottom element, once the side legs have been adjusted.