Tree stand hoist system

A hoist for elevating a hunter's tree stand from the ground to a vertical position alongside of the trunk of a tree comprises a segmented, extendable and contractible pole having a tree clamping ring assembly pivotally mounted to the top section of the pole and a V-shaped jaw for engaging the tree trunk near the bottom of the pole. A first rope is tied at one end to the clamping ring assembly and extends down to a retractable reel located near the bottom of the pole. By pulling on this rope, the clamping ring assembly can be pivoted to an angle allowing the ring to pass about the tree trunk and when released, the clamping ring assembly pivots downward under the force of gravity which secures the pole to the tree at its upper end. The clamping ring assembly further includes a pulley, about which a second rope is deployed. One end of the second rope is adapted to be connected to the hunter's tree stand at its upper end and the other end can be pulled on to elevate the tree stand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

I. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to hunting equipment, and more particularly to a device for facilitating erection of a hunter's tree stand.

II. Discussion of the Prior Art

As is explained in U.S. Pat. No. 7,717,232, to Butcher, the teachings of which are hereby incorporated by reference, hunters after deer and other game often employ a tree stand to position themselves off the ground and out of sight of prey. The tree stand generally comprises a ladder formed of plural ladder segments that can be joined together to reach a desired length. A platform is joined to an upper ladder rung and a safety railing and seat are joined to the upper ends of the ladder's side rails as shown in the Butcher '232 patent.

The assembled tree stand may typically be 20 feet or more in length and may weigh about 100 pounds. Hence, it is somewhat of a challenge for a single person to lift and position a tree stand against a support tree. Furthermore, the hunter must mount the ladder of the tree stand in order to safely secure it with rope or straps to a tree trunk against which it is made to lean. Until it is secured, there is a risk that the tree stand assembly may shift and potentially fall, causing injury to the hunter.

The Liu, U.S. Pat. No. 7,458,563, describes a hoist device that involves a crank-operated winch mechanism adapted to be strapped to the trunk of a tree and having a cable deployed over a pulley that is suspended from a tree limb at an elevated location on a tree trunk. The free end of the cable is adapted to be coupled to the safety rail of the tree stand and by turning the crank of the winch, the tree stand is made to assume a vertical disposition along side of the tree trunk.

The Liu invention has several drawbacks. First, the ability to suspend the pulley from the tree limb requires that the hunter find a tree with a lower branch at the desired height. Then a degree of skill is required for the hunter, standing on the ground, to lob a rope to which the pulley is attached over the selected tree limb, especially when the winch cable is looped about the pulley as it must be.

Another tree stand hoist is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,350,769 to Dorzok. It comprises a long pole having an elongate member attached at its distal end where the elongate member is provided with a plurality of regularly spaced apertures along the length dimension thereof. Affixed to the end of the elongate member is a stationary, folding, articulated arm. Slidably mounted on the elongate member is a movable arm and a spring-actuated locking pin arrangement that can be used to lock the movable arm at a selected location along the length of the elongate member with the locking pin inserted into one of the apertures on the elongate member. In this manner, the elongate member can be raised to a desired height by means of the pole and the movable arm slid along the elongate member so the tree trunk is captured between the stationary arm and the movable arm. Once the assembly is clamped to a tree, a rope or cable that is disposed over a pulley suspended from the movable arm can be used to raise a tree stand to a vertical disposition against the tree trunk. The spring actuated locking pin is manipulated by the user pulling on a further rope to thereby extract the pin from the aperture it is occupying and allowing the movable arm to be moved.

While the device the '769 patent overcomes drawbacks of the Liu '563 patent, it has drawbacks of its own. The mechanism is overly complicated, costly to manufacture and requires considerable manual dexterity to deploy. Since the stationary arm and movable arm must clamp to the tree so not as to slide down as the tree stand is being raised, these arms must be substantial and, hence, the amount of weight cantilevered from the end of the pole makes placement thereof by a person holding, say, a 20 foot long pole, quite difficult to say the least.

Accordingly, a need exists for a hunter's tree stand hanger that is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to transport to a hunting site and assemble and easy to deploy and use. The present invention provides just such a hoist mechanism.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention comprises an apparatus for elevating and securing a hunter's tree stand to a selected tree. The hoist has an elongated rigid pole that may include telescoping, extendable segments, where the pole has an upper end and a lower end when oriented vertically. A tree clamp ring is pivotally attached to the upper end of the rigid pole. A V-shaped jaw is affixed toward the lower end of the pole for at least partially surrounding the trunk of a tree proximate the ground. A first length of rope has one end coupled to the tree clamping ring and its other end extending down to a location that can be reached by a person on the ground and when pulled, pivots the tree clamp ring to a predetermined angle to the axis of the pole. Affixed to the tree clamp ring is a pulley having a second length of rope looped about it and having one end adapted to be attached to a tree stand proximate its upper end and a second end of the rope adapted to be grasped by the hunter standing on the ground and pulled to thereby raise the upper end of the tree stand to a location proximate the upper end of the pole. The tree clamping ring is split and bent to form a segment of a helix so as to allow the clamping ring to fit about a tree trunk when the ring pivoted to said predetermined angle, but which is in tight engagement with the tree trunk when at other than this angle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

This description of the preferred embodiments is intended to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings, which are to be considered part of the entire written description of this invention. In the description, relative terms such as “lower”, “upper”, “horizontal”, “vertical”, “above”, “below”, “up”, “down”, “top” and “bottom” as well as derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally”, “downwardly”, “upwardly”, etc.) should be construed to refer to the orientation as then described or as shown in the drawings under discussion. These relative terms are for convenience of description and do not require that the apparatus be constructed or operated in a particular orientation. Terms such as “connected”, “connecting”, “attached”, “attaching”, “join” and “joining” are used interchangeably and refer to one structure or surface being secured to another structure or surface or integrally fabricated in one piece, unless expressively described otherwise.

Referring toFIG. 1, the tree stand hoist of the present invention is indicated generally by numeral10and is seen to comprise an elongated, multi-segment, extendable and contractible pole12having an upper end13and a lower end15. The pole itself comprises a plurality of sections, each being in a range of 5′ to 7′ in length and that either telescope or slide relative to one another so as to be extendable and contractible. The uppermost pole segment14has a short rod16welded to its upper end and that rod has an aperture18drilled laterally through it. This upper pole segment14may comprise a tube of rectangular cross-section whose outside dimensions permit it to slidingly fit within the lumen of a second tubular segment20. Without limitation, the uppermost pole segment14may be about 6½ feet in length and its outside square dimension may be 0.875 inch. The pole segment20in which pole segment14is telescopingly received may have a 1 inch square cross-section. Again, without limitation, the second pole segment may be about 6 feet in length. While the pole segments of the preferred embodiment comprise square tubing, extruded tubes of other cross-sectional shapes may be used.

Welded proximate the opposed ends of the second tubular segment20are rectangular brackets22and24that form bands through which a third pole segment26is arranged to fit so that it is able to slide along side an exterior surface of the pole20for substantially the full length thereof. In the exemplary embodiment, the bands22and24may extend above the height dimension of the rectangular tube segment26sufficiently far to accommodate outer dimensions of the pole segment20, e.g., 1 inch square. The pole segment26is equal in length to the pole segment20.

There is fitted within the lumen of the pole segment26a further pole segment of rectangular cross-section and that is identified inFIG. 1by numeral28. The pole segment28may also be approximately 6½ feet in length so that when fully extended, the overall length of the pole12is approximately 23 feet.

Transversely extending through holes are strategically placed along the lengths of the four pole segments so that removable pins, as at30, may be inserted through aligned holes (not shown) in the mating pole segments to hold the four segments in a fully extended or partially extended state so that the extent of reach of the pole can be adjusted.

Pivotally affixed to the rod16extending from the upper end of the pole segment14is a split-ring tree clamp indicated generally by numeral32. More particularly, and is shown inFIG. 3, the tree clamp ring comprises a steel or aluminum rod that has been bent so as to be somewhat circular over an arc of about 180° with a first end extension34bent upward at an angle of about 50° out of the plane of the 180° arc. The other end extension36extends downward at about a 50° angle to the plane of the 180° arc. The lengths of the two extensions are such that a gap exists between the ends of the two extensions.

Welded to the ring32is a pivot arm38comprising a first segment40laying generally in the plane of the semicircular arc and an integrally formed downwardly projecting arm member42terminating in a toroid-shaped eyelet43defining an opening46. Located at the transition between the arm segments40and42are downwardly depending ears44with aligned apertures. The ears are designed to fit about the rod16and with a hinge pin or bolt48extending through the aligned apertures and a mating aperture18in the rod segment to form a clevis connection.

With reference again toFIG. 1, fitted onto the lower end15is a V-shaped jaw assembly50that is designed to at least partially surround the trunk of a tree proximate the ground. It is removably affixed to the lower end of the pole segment26by a pin52designed to extend through aligned holes in a stem portion54into which the lower end of the pole26is inserted. The leg members56and58of the V-shaped jaws are welded at one end to the stem portion54and the outer ends of each leg includes a ring60by which a strap61of adjustable length may be clipped where the strap61is made to extend the remainder of the way around the trunk of the tree against which the hoist10of the present invention is being secured.

A cord62is joined to the ring43of pivot arm38extending from the clamping ring32and the other end of this cord is preferably affixed to a retractable reel64mounted on the stem portion54of the V-shaped jaws. Spring tension on the reel serves to maintain the cord62in a taut condition. A hunter using the hoist of the present invention can pull downward on this cord to rotate or pivot the tree clamping ring to an angle of about 45° relative to the extended pole12at which point, the tree clamping ring can be made to fit about the tree trunk at its elevated location atop pole12. When the cord62is again released, the tree clamping ring, under the force of gravity, will fall to a position precluding the clamping ring32from being pulled free of the tree trunk which it surrounds. Thus, the V-shaped jaw assembly50and associated strapping61used at the base of the tree and the tree clamping ring32proximate the upper end of the pole will hold the extended pole12locked relative to the tree trunk.

Suspended from an arm66welded to the tree clamping ring32at a location directly opposite the pivot arm38is a pulley68about which is draped a rope70having a spring clip72tied to one end thereof. The rope70is of a length such that with the pole12fully extended, the spring clip72can be secured to a tree stand (not shown) proximate an upper end thereof while the tree stand is laying generally horizontally on the ground and the other end of the rope is hanging down so that a hunter standing on the ground may grasp it. By pulling on the free end of this rope, the upper end of the tree stand will be lifted off the ground and continued pulling down on the rope draped about the pulley68will elevate the tree stand to a vertical position adjacent the tree trunk. At this point, the hunter may climb the ladder of the tree stand and secure the tree stand's platform and seat to the tree trunk using suitable straps. Because at this point in time the tree stand remains fastened to the hoist via the connection of the pulley to the clamping ring, the tree stand's ladder can be climbed without concern that it can shift and possibly cause the hunter to fall as the hunter uses straps to secure the tree stand to the trunk of the tree.

Now, by again pulling down on the cord62to rotate the clamping ring to its 45° orientation, the clamping ring can now be removed from the tree trunk. By pulling out the pins30, the hoist can be compacted into its contracted state illustrated inFIG. 2of the drawings. Again, reinsertion of the pins into aligned holes in the mating members of the segmented pole will retain it in its contracted state.

When not in use, the rope70may conveniently be wrapped around upper and lower retainers74and76welded to the brackets22and24for storage and to prevent tangling thereof.

The present invention provides a hoist for a tree stand that is easy to transport in a contracted state but that can be extended to reach an appreciable height to accommodate most commercially-available tree stands that are typically between 15 and 20 feet in height. The change in direction of the applied force through the use of the elevated pulley makes it much easier for the hunter to elevate a tree stand than when no hoist mechanism is used.