Removable Safety-Chain Anchor With Locking Latch for Truck Bed Utility
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing trailer hitch systems lack efficient and convenient mechanisms for securing safety chains that do not hinder truck bed utility when not in use, particularly with 5th wheel or gooseneck arrangements.
Innovation Solution
A removable safety-chain anchor apparatus that includes a body member with a latching mechanism and a locking member, allowing secure attachment and detachment to a hitch receiver, ensuring safety chain stability and preventing rotation when engaged.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a permanent safety chain anchor is installed in the truck bed, then safety chain connection is ensured, but truck bed utility and accessibility are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a removable anchor assembly that can be dynamically installed and removed from the truck bed, transforming the static permanent anchor into a dynamic, on-demand component. This allows the truck bed to switch between having safety chain connection capability and full utility accessibility, resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety chain anchor system is divided into separate modular components: a receiver tube mounted in the truck bed, a removable anchor assembly with body member and latching mechanism, and safety chains. This segmentation allows the anchor to be detached when not needed, preserving truck bed utility while maintaining the ability to provide reliable safety chain connection when required.
2Adaptability or versatility
If a removable safety chain anchor is used, then truck bed utility is maintained, but connection reliability and stability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The receiver tube is pre-installed and permanently secured in the truck bed, creating a prepared receiving structure before the anchor assembly is needed. This preliminary action ensures that when the anchor assembly is inserted, it engages with a pre-positioned, stable structure, maintaining connection reliability despite the removable nature of the anchor itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The latching member incorporates a curved or arc-shaped geometry that rotates within the receiver tube to engage and lock the anchor assembly. This curved path ensures positive engagement and mechanical locking, providing reliable and stable connection when the anchor is installed, while still allowing easy removal when needed.
3Ease of operation
If the latching member remains accessible, then ease of operation is improved, but unauthorized or accidental operation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The locking member provides a dynamic state change for the latching mechanism, transitioning from an accessible, potentially vulnerable state to a protected, locked state. This dynamic protection mechanism maintains ease of operation for authorized users while preventing unauthorized or accidental operation, resolving the contradiction between accessibility and security.
Data Source
AI summary
Various removable tie-down anchor apparatuses and associated methods are described. In one example, a safety chain anchor apparatus can include a body member having an aperture and a latching member operable to be inserted into an elongate slot of the receiver, and a locking member movably coupled to an outside portion of the body member that allows the locking member to be in: an interference position that obstructs a portion of the aperture when the latching member is in the unlatched orientation, and an unobstructed position that substantially exposes the aperture when the latching member is in the latched orientation.