Abstract:
A foot for use on soft surfaces has a concave cavity facing downwardly from a mounting bracket. The foot may be used in combination with a cart, dolly, trailer, chair, table, stool, platform or the like.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a foot for use to support an object on a soft granular surface such as sand. The foot is particularly well adapted to enable a chair, table, stool, platform, cart, dolly, trailer, or the like to sit on dry, fine, loose sand. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    Soft, granular surfaces, such as loose sand, pose problems to objects such as chairs, tables, stools, or anything with legs or leg-like supports. Conventional legs or leg-like supports tend to sink into these surfaces displacing sand outwardly causing a “boring,” “drilling” or “sinking in” effect in loose sand. This results in the object sinking into the sand creating the risk of it turning over and/or becoming contorted causing damage to the object. 
         [0003]    The present invention is directed to the problem posed to objects used on loose sand. The objects are not limited to but include outdoor furniture such as chairs, tables, stools, platforms, etc. or other objects such as carts, dollies, trailers utilizing trailer-jack type stands or the like. Legs on furniture items or support stands tend to sink down into the sand, especially if the associated furniture, structure, cart or dolly is supporting significant weight. Conventional attempts to overcome this problem generally involve the use of oversized flat plates to provide large surface areas contacting the sand in an attempt to preclude their sinking into the soft surface. While such large plates enjoy some success in supporting objects on loose materials, there is a cost or tradeoff associated with their increased size and in many cases the objects they are supporting must be modified to accommodate their large size and inhibit ease of portability and storage of the objects. Thus, there remains a need for an improved support/foot for use on loose sand. 
         [0004]    There is a need for an improved support for an object on soft, granular surfaces. In particular, there is a need for design that reduces the tendency of a the leg to “bore into”, “drill into” or “sink into” the surface and which facilitates supporting the object on top of the soft, granular surface. In some cases the object may be a cart, dolly, trailer, or the like that requires support in addition to its wheels. In other cases the object may be a chair, table, stool, or the like on soft surfaces such as loose sand. 
         [0005]    In accordance with the present invention, a foot is provided which displaces sand radially inwardly and upwardly into a concave cavity, in effect, compressing the sand into the cavity. The concavity of the foot is able to collect sand over which it is placed and compress it under the foot rather than displace it outwardly away from the foot or leg. When the foot is removed from the surface, the sand remains in place as part of the surface, or by the force of gravity falls from the concave cavity back to the surface. The foot or feet of the present invention can be attached to support legs of an object or can be attached to the body of an object to support the object on soft granular surfaces. 
         [0006]    Further understanding of the present invention will be had from the following description and claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a front elevation of a beach chair with a horizontal leg supported by a preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention; 
           [0008]      FIGS. 2-4  are perspective views of the preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention shown in  FIG. 1 ; 
           [0009]      FIG. 5  is a cross-section of the foot of  FIGS. 1-4 ; 
           [0010]      FIG. 6  is a cross-section taken at a right angle to the section of  FIG. 5 ; 
           [0011]      FIG. 7  is a side elevation of a beach chair with vertical legs supported by an alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention; 
           [0012]      FIG. 8  is a cross section of the foot of  FIG. 7 ; 
           [0013]      FIGS. 9 and 10  are cross sections of an alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention; 
           [0014]      FIG. 11  is a side elevation of a cart with angled legs supported by the preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention of  FIGS. 9-10 ; 
           [0015]      FIG. 12  is a sectional view of the foot of  FIG. 11 ; 
           [0016]      FIG. 13  is a sectional view of still another alternative preferred embodiment of a foot of the present invention 
           [0017]      FIG. 14  is a side elevation of a trailer jack supported by a sand foot of  FIGS. 2-6  and with an associated trailer shown broken away; and 
           [0018]      FIG. 15  is a side elevation of a table shown broken away and with legs supported by a sand foot of  FIGS. 7-8 . 
       
    
    
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0019]    A support for use on soft surfaces has a concave cavity facing downwardly from an integrated mounting bracket. The foot may be used in combination with a cart, dolly, trailer, or the like, needing supports in addition to wheels, or with a chair, table, stool, platform or the like. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0020]    Broadly speaking, the present invention provides a foot having a concave cavity or concavity on its underside. The foot of this invention is described in the context of its use on soft sand surfaces. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the foot is well adapted for use on other soft, granular surfaces and such uses are contemplated to be within the scope of the present invention. 
         [0021]    It is the underside of the foot which is intended to make contact with the soft sandy surface. When placed on a soft sandy surface, sand grains are displaced upwardly into the concavity allowing the foot to sit on the sand without sinking beyond the depth of the concavity. 
         [0022]    Now referring to  FIGS. 1-6 , a preferred embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown and indicated generally by the numeral  10 .  FIG. 1  shows a conventional beach chair  12  which has horizontally disposed supporting tubes  14 , the front one of which is shown supported on a sandy surface  16  by sand foots  10 . 
         [0023]    The structure of sand foot  10  is shown in detail in  FIGS. 2-6 . Thus, broadly speaking sand foot  10  has a mounting member  18  and a dome member  20 . It is intended that mounting member  18  will be used to attach or secure sand foot  10  to the object to be supported on the sandy surface  16  while dome member  20  functions to interact with sand grains to support sand foot on surface  16 . 
         [0024]    As shown in  FIGS. 2-6 , mounting member  18  is a channel  22  which has side walls  24  and  26  which grippingly engage tube  14  of chair  12 . Sand foot  10  can comprise elastomeric or plastic material which enjoys sufficient elasticity to provide the desired gripping feature. Of course, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that mounting channel  18  is suitable for mounting other horizontally disposed tubes or members such as a leg or support member of a chair, table, stool, cart, trailer, dolly or the like. 
         [0025]    Dome  20  of sand foot defines a concavity  28  with an open mouth or opening  30  and an outwardly facing edge  32 . Opening  30  works with concavity  28  which has a depth and shape sufficient to compress sand granules into it to enable foot  10  to be supported by sandy surface  16 . Edge  32  is intended to be ground or sand engaging when in use and defines opening  30  of concavity  28  which functions as further described below in the discussion of the operation of foot  10  of the present invention. 
         [0026]      FIGS. 7 and 8  illustrate an alternative embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention, indicated generally by the numeral  100 . Sand foot  100  is shown in  FIG. 7  in support of a typical beach chair  102  which has vertical legs  104 , each of which is supported by a sand foot  100 . Sand foot  100  has a dome  106  which is analogous to dome  20  of sand foot  10  but has a mounting member  108  which is adapted to support a vertically oriented leg rather than a horizontally oriented leg. Thus, mounting member  108  has an elongated bore  110  which closely fits about leg  104 . Of course, bore  110  could be square or otherwise shaped depending upon the shape of the leg to be received therein. 
         [0027]    Now referring to  FIGS. 9 and 10 , yet another preferred embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown and indicated generally by the numeral  200 . Sand foot  200  has a dome  202  which is analogous to domes  20  and  106  of sand foot  10  and sand foot  100  respectively but has mounting member  204  which has a horizontally extending slot or channel  206  and a fastener  208  extending between walls  210  and  212  and through a leg  214  to be supported by sand foot  200 . 
         [0028]    Now referring to  FIG. 11 , cart  216  is shown in left side elevation, its right side being analogous to its left side. Cart  216  has triangular leg  218  connected to wheel  210  in a conventional manner and triangular leg  220  attached to sand foot  200  as shown in detail in  FIG. 12 . Thus, as demonstrated by the preferred embodiments of  FIGS. 9-12 , sand foot  200  is adaptable to be attached in multiple ways to different objects. 
         [0029]    Yet another embodiment of a sand foot of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 13  and indicated generally by the numeral  300 . Sand foot  300  has a dome  302  which is analogous to domes  20 ,  106  and  202  of sand foot  10 , sand foot  100  and sand foot  200 , but has a mounting member  304  adapted to clampingly receive and hold a square tubular support  306 . Thus mounting member  304  has a horizontally disposed channel  308  with side walls  310  and  312  with clips  314  and  316  to retain support  306  in channel  308 . 
         [0030]    Still further preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown in  FIGS. 14 and 15 .  FIG. 14  shows a trailer jack  400  of trailer  402 . Trailer jack  400  is supported by sand foot  404  which is analogous to sand foot  10  of  FIGS. 2-6  but, of course, is larger and made of materials sufficiently strong to support a trailer jack.  FIG. 15  is a table  500  shown in side elevation, broken away, having top  502  and four legs  504 , each of which is supported by a sand foot  506  which is analogous to sand foot  100 . 
         [0031]    Domes  20 ,  106 ,  202  and  302  of sand foot  10 , sand foot  100 , sand foot  200  and sand foot  300  operate in soft sand as follows. Thus, when initially contacting loose sand granules, the concave interior of the dome is empty of sand granules and the sand foot is supported on the sand granules by outwardly facing edge  32 . Then, as the sand foot sinks somewhat down into the sand surface, the concavity begins to fill up with sand granules, compressing sand into and against the inner/upper interior surface of the concavity and thereby supporting the sand foot on the sandy surface. A sufficient quantity of sand granules becomes compressed into the concave interior of the dome so that the downward force exerted by dome against the associated sand surface is equally opposed by the sand granules against the dome and its edge. 
         [0032]    It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is subject to modification and variation and it is intended that such modifications and variations are considered to be within the broad scope of the invention which is intended to be limited only by the following claims. Such modifications are intended to be included herein so long as they operate in accordance with the principles of this invention.