Straddle Hoist with Adjustable Uprights for Solo Hard Top Removal
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of off-road vehicles face difficulties in manually removing or attaching heavy hard tops, which typically require multiple people, and often need to perform these tasks alone.
Innovation Solution
A straddle-type hoist apparatus with adjustable uprights, arms, and rollers that allows a single individual to maneuver and suspend loads, enabling the manual removal or attachment of hard tops by adjusting the legs and arms to straddle the load and facilitate rolling over the ground.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manual removal or attachment of hard top is performed without mechanical assistance, then no additional equipment is needed, but the task requires more than one person and becomes physically difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A hoist apparatus serves as an intermediary mechanical device between the user and the hard top. The hoist includes a load cell for sensing weight, a winch mechanism for mechanical advantage, and a strap system for secure attachment, enabling one person to safely remove or attach heavy hard tops that would otherwise require multiple people
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the purely manual mechanical system (human strength and coordination) with an assisted mechanical system. The hoist apparatus uses a winch mechanism with drum and spool to provide mechanical advantage, reducing the physical effort required and allowing single-person operation
2Reliability
If a hoist apparatus is designed with high lifting capacity for heavy loads, then the device becomes more robust and reliable, but the device complexity and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The hoist apparatus is segmented into distinct functional modules: a frame structure, a winch mechanism with drum and spool, a load cell for sensing, a strap system with buckles, and control components. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently and simplifies assembly, maintenance, and adjustment while maintaining overall reliability
Solution Approach 2:
The hoist apparatus incorporates adjustable and movable components including an adjustable strap length, movable drum and spool, and adjustable frame geometry. These dynamic elements allow the device to adapt to different load weights and configurations, maintaining reliability across various operating conditions without requiring a completely different apparatus for each scenario
Data Source
AI summary
A method to maneuver a load is disclosed, and includes providing a set of uprights, including spacing a set of front legs laterally apart from one another, to extend in a generally vertical direction, and spacing a set of rear legs laterally apart from one another and longitudinally from the set of front legs, to extend in a generally vertical direction. The method also includes coupling a set of front arms to the set of front legs in a generally vertically adjustable manner, coupling a set of rear arms to the set of rear legs in a generally vertically adjustable manner, providing a set of rollers to support the front and rear legs to facilitate rolling of the apparatus over the ground, suspending a load in a space between the arms, and adjustably moving the uprights in a direction toward one another to maneuver the load.