Patent ID: 6171036
Filing Date: 2001-01-09
Classification: B60P

Abstract:
A tie-down apparatus for securing a vehicle to a longitudinally-extending elongate vehicle transporter, comprising:(a) a vehicle support assembly, including a front deck and a rear deck, one of which is variably positionable with respect to the other;(b) at least four variably positionable securement devices associated with said front and rear decks and attachable to said vehicle;(c) a respective flexible tension member portion interconnected with a respective one of each of said four securement devices, each tension member portion capable of exerting a pull-down force on a respective one of said securement devices;(d) a tension-applying mechanism interconnected with each said tension member portion to adjust said pull-down force on each of said securement devices; and(e) a tension-equalizing mechanism, interconnected with each said tension member portion, capable of automatically distributing tension applied by said tension-applying mechanism among each said tension member portion so as to substantially equalize said pull-down force automatically with respect to said four securement devices, said tension-equalizing mechanism further capable of maintaining said substantially equalized pull-down force during adjustments of the relative positions of said front deck and said rear deck relative to each other.