Abstract:
A tree climber&#39;s stand has at least one pin securing a tree encircling strand when the strand is being shortened or lengthened by a climber in order to level the tree stand. An anchoring block on an end of the strand has an elongated slot spanning more than one hole in the tree stand frame for receiving a pair of pins, one of which always extends through the slot to anchor the strand.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to stands for people who climb trees, such as hunters, photographers and bird watchers. Often the diameter of a tree becomes smaller towards its top. After a person has moved a stand up into such a tree, it is necessary for him to shorten the portion of the cables used to hold the components of the stand on the tree in order to level the stand. Some prior tree stand leveling arrangements used single anchoring pins insertable into a hole to secure a cable to the frame of the stand. When the single pin anchoring the cable had been removed and the cable was being held by the tree climber, there was the risk that the cable would slip from the person&#39;s hand, which might result in the stand and tree climber falling out of the tree. Also, the tree climber had to try to align the cable end with holes while bearing the weight of the stand and holding an anchoring pin, sometimes in low light conditions or at night. 
     OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved climber tree stand. 
     Another object is to improve the safety of tree stand leveling arrangements. 
     An additional object is to provide a tree stand cable with an anchoring mechanism that always has at least one pin securing the cable in the stand. 
     Another object is to coat a tree stand cable anchoring block with highly visible plastic to facilitate alignment of the anchoring block with holes for anchoring pins. 
     A further object is to dampen the noise made by tree climbers by coating parts with plastic so as to eliminate metal-to-metal contact. 
     An additional object is to make a simple pin and cable block leveling combination foolproof by using a cable leveling block that always has at least one pin inserted through it. 
     A further object is to provide climbing tree stands that are rugged, economical, comfortable, easy to use, fail-safe and which do not possess defects found in similar prior art climbing aids. 
     Other objects and advantages of a tree stand incorporating this invention will be found in the specification and claims and the scope of the invention will be set forth in the claims. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an embodiment of a tree stand in accord with this invention. 
         FIG. 2  is top view taken generally along the line  2 - 2  in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 3  is a cross sectional view taken along the line  3 - 3  in  FIG. 2 . 
         FIG. 4  is a cross sectional view corresponding to  FIG. 3  showing the parts moved to level the stand with one pin in place. 
         FIG. 5  is a cross sectional view corresponding to  FIG. 4  showing the second pin in place. 
         FIG. 6  is an enlarged end view of taken along the line  6 - 6  in  FIG. 2   
         FIG. 7  is an enlarged cross sectional view taken along the line  7 - 7  in  FIG. 6 . 
         FIG. 8  is a top plan view of the cable and blocks. 
         FIG. 9  is an end view taken along the line  9 - 9  in  FIG. 8 . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The drawing shows a tree stand  10  in accord with this invention having an upper platform  11  with a removable seat cushion  12  and a lower platform  13 . Platform  11  is constructed from identical, hollow frame members  15  and  16 , each having one open end  17  that exposes the hollow interior  14  thereof. Platform  13  is constructed from identical, hollow frame members  18  and  19  that are the same as frame members  15  and  16  in all aspects relating to this invention. All frame members are generally rectangular and square in cross section, and may be made from a lightweight metal such as aluminum. 
     Each frame member has a plurality of uniformly spaced, identical circular holes  21  through its upper surface  22  that communicate with its hollow interior. A plurality of mating, or additional, holes  23  exactly matching and identical to the holes  21  pass through the frame lower surface  24  in axial alignment with the holes  21 . 
     Since the location and spacing of the holes in each frame member are identical, only the holes  21  in frame  15  will be described, and since the frame members  18  and  19  are essentially identical to frame members  15  and  16 , only the cable connections to frame members  15  and  16  will be described. 
     As shown in  FIG. 2 , the front end  25  of each hole  21  is the same predetermined distance  26  from the back end  27  of its next most adjacent hole. To simplify the disclosure and claiming of this invention, the hole  21  in any pair of adjacent holes that is closest to the open end  17  its frame member  15  will be identified as the first hole of such pair of adjacent holes, and the hole  21  that is farther from the open end of the frame member will be identified as the second hole of such pair of adjacent holes. 
     A pair of identical flat-headed, cylindrical pins  30  are dimensioned to slide through the holes  21  into the hollow interior  14  and out through the mating holes  23 . The pins may be coated with a sound deadening plastic. 
     An elongated flexible cable  31  made from multiple braided wire strands may be used for encircling a tree trunk  32  in well-known manner to hold the platforms  11  and  13  against the tree. The ends of the cable  31  are removably connected to the frame members  15  and  16 . The cable ends are slidable into and through the open ends  17  and hollow interiors  14  of the frame members  15  and  16  to enable a climber to level the frame as the climber moves up or down in a tree. Other types of elongated flexible components or strands, such as straps or chains may be used instead of cables to hold the tree stand frames against a tree. 
     A first end  35  of cable  31  is secured, by welding, crimping or bonding with an adhesive such as Loctite, into an integral tubular cylindrical extension  36  at one end of an elongated, generally rectangular leveling block  37  that may be made from a metal such as aluminum. Block  37  is generally square in cross section in that its sides are of equal length and is dimensioned to slide through the hollow interior  14  of the frame members  15  and  16 . Block  37  may have beveled or rounded corners and ends to prevent jamming inside a frame member. Block  37  is significantly longer than the distance separating any two holes  21  from each other, and is coated with a high visibility plastic material  38 . An elongated slot  39  in block  37  is wider than the diameter of the pins  30  and has beveled upper and lower edges  40  to facilitate entry and removal of the pins. Slot  39  has a first end  41  and a second end  42  that are separated by a distance that is slightly longer than the predetermined distance  26  separating the front end  25  of any hole  21  from the back end  27  of its next most adjacent hole; this enables the pair of pins  30  to both be inserted at the same time into any two adjacent first and second holes  21  in a frame member. To simplify the explanation and claiming of this invention, the pin in a first hole will be said to be a first pin, and the pin in the second hole will be said to a second pin. 
     When leveling of one of the platforms  11  or  13  requires shortening the effective length of the cable  31  surrounding a tree, the steps illustrated in  FIGS. 3-5  may be safely taken without the risk of a platform or climber falling if the cable end slips out of a climber&#39;s grasp. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the hole  21  closest to the open end  17  of frame member  15  has been identified as a first hole  45  of a pair of an adjacent pair of holes  21  and the pin in the first hole has been identified as a first pin  46 . The hole of this pair of adjacent holes that is farther from the frame open end  17  has been identified as the second hole  47  of this pair, and the pin in the second hole has been identified as the second pin  48 . The first end  41  of slot  39  is in contact with or closely adjacent first pin  46  and second end  42  of slot  39  is in contact with or closely adjacent second pin  48 . 
     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the first step in shortening the length of cable  31  surrounding a tree is removal of first pin  46  from first hole  45  and pulling on cable  31  so as to slide block  37  farther inside of frame  15  until the first end  41  of the slot  39  is in contact with second pin  48  and the second end  42  of the slot is positioned beneath the hole  21  next farther from the open end  17  of the frame  15 . If the cable  31  slips from the climber&#39;s grasp at the time, the second pin  48  will prevent the cable from sliding out of the frame  15  and the platform or climber from falling. As shown in  FIG. 5 , the cable shortening operation is completed when the pin  46  has been inserted into the next adjacent hole shown as exposed over the slot  39  in  FIG. 4 . These steps of removing one pin  30 , sliding the block  37  farther into the frame  15 , and inserting the removed pin into a more distant hole  21  may be safely repeated until the cable has been shortened enough to level the tree stand platform. The order of these steps would be reversed if the climber found it necessary to increase the length of a cable  31  that surrounds a tree. 
     A second or opposite end  50  of cable  31  is secured, by welding, crimping or bonding with an adhesive such as Loctite, into a tubular cylindrical extension  51  integral with one end of a shorter, generally rectangular block  52  that may be made from a metal such as aluminum. Block  52  is generally square in cross section and is dimensioned to slide through the hollow interior  14  of the frame members  15  and  16 . Block  52  may have beveled or rounded corners and ends to prevent jamming inside a frame member and is coated with the same high visibility plastic material  38  as the block  37 . A single circular hole  54  dimensioned to receive a pin  30  that passes through aligned holes  21  and  23  and through the center of this block, for connecting and anchoring the opposite end  50  of the cable to a frame member of a platform in the same manner shown and described above. The top and bottom of hole  54  may be beveled at  55  to ease entry and removal of a pin. 
     It is also possible to employ a second leveling block identical to the block  37  instead of the shorter block  52 , in which case both ends  35  and  50  of cable  31  would be secured to a leveling block  37 . This will give tree climbers the ability to level a tree stand from both sides of the stand and more capacity for shortening cable  31 . 
     The highly visible plastic  38  material coating blocks  37  and  52  is applied to the tubular extensions  36  and  51  at the ends  35  and  50  of the cable  31  for a distance longer than the predetermined distance  26 , and the plastic coating  38  may be continued beyond the opposite end of blocks  37  and  52  as hollow tubes  57  for a distance longer than the distance  26 . These extensions  36 ,  51  and  57  of the highly visible plastic can be seen through the holes  21 , which will identify the holes that are closed off by the blocks  37  and  52 . This aids climbers in aligning the slot  39  and hole  54  with unobstructed holes  21  in low light conditions by visibly indicating and blocking the unopen holes. The coating  38  also dampens sound by eliminating metal-to-metal contact between the blocks and frames. 
     A cable  31  with a block  37  and pins  30  may be used to safely hold and level platform  13  in a tree in the same manner described above with respect to platform  11 . 
     While the present invention has been described with reference to a particular embodiment, it is not intended to illustrate or describe all of the equivalent forms or ramifications thereof. Also, the words used are words of description rather than limitation, and various changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention disclosed herein. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such changes as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.