Anti-theft boat speaker brackets

A speaker mounting assembly for use on a boat. The assembly consists of a rigid elongated speaker support bracket on which two interfacing boat engaging members are fixed opposite the speaker. The boat engaging members have a hole through their mid portion and are pivotally joined together each of their sides with a component of the boat, such as a rail, compressed between them. At their other side these two boat engaging members are fixed to the boat by a through bolt extending through both members. At the upper portion of one of the engaging members is a lever arm having an internally threaded hole that fits on the top of the through bolt and, when compressed, is used to retain the members to the boat. Alternately, the lever arm may be used to adjust the compressive force of the boat engaging members with respect to the engaged boat component on which mounted. By reducing the compressive force by turning the lever arm, the upper boating engaging member may be pivoted backwards and released thus releasing the speaker support assembly from the boat for storage and safe keeping. Provisions is also made for the side adjustment of the speaker's mounting bracket.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Protecting items from being stolen has become a full time job. The array of 
devices used to obtain protection includes a great many items such as 
alarms, locks and related items. One area where such property protection 
items have been used extensively is in the boating industry where the 
boats are left unattended for long periods of time thereby providing an 
inviting and easy target for would be thieves. If the particular item to 
be protected can be placed under lock and key inside the boat or removed 
and taken home the likelihood of theft is greatly reduced or eliminated. 
Of particular concern for protection are expensive audio speakers that are 
usually mounted outside the boat's open deck and therefore easily seen and 
removed by a would be thief. The present invention addresses this 
potential theft problem of boat audio speakers by providing for a speaker 
mounting assembly, all as set forth hereafter, that can easily mount a 
speaker firmly to the boat and yet within a matter of seconds, allow the 
speakers to be safely and easily disconnected from where mounted and 
thereafter permit them to be either stored below deck under lock and key 
or taken to a safe remote location. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
Easily removed speaker assemblies are known. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 
5,048,089 to Moore a portable removably attached speaker assembly for a 
vehicle is disclosed having handles. 
In the Gray reference (U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,760) a retractable speaker 
assembly for an automobile is disclosed having means for remotely 
controlling the rotation of and directing the orientation of a speaker 
housing to either the left or right side of the automobile's interior. 
The Jehle et al. patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,946) discloses a folding 
acoustic speaker container that can be stored in the rear of a vehicle 
seat. 
And in the Hinojosa invention (U.S. Pat. No. 5,608,806) an audio speaker 
assembly for a vehicle is mounted in the vehicle's roll bars in a weather 
tight configuration. 
The present invention relates a mounting assembly for audio speakers that 
is specifically designed for use on a boat all as more fully set forth in 
this specification. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a speaker mounting assembly for use with a boat. 
The assembly consists of a adjustable elongated bracket on which two 
interfacing boat engaging members are fixed. The boat engaging members 
have a hole through their mid portion and are pivotally joined together on 
one side. At the other side these members are fixed to the boat by a 
through bolt extending through both members. At the upper portion of one 
of the engaging members is a handle having an internally threaded hole 
that fits on the through bolt and is used to retain the boat engaging 
members together to the boat. 
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide for an 
improved easily mountable and detachable speaker mounting assembly. 
Another object is to provide for such an assembly used for a boat wherein a 
single bolt mounted lever can disengaged from the boat engaging members 
and permit the speaker and their mount to be be removed therefrom. 
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become 
apparent to readers from a consideration of the ensuing description and 
the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
FIG. 1 is a side view of the invention's preferred embodiment showing it 
mounting an audio speaker 1 to a boat's railing 3. Extending from the 
speaker is a power cord 5 which is connected to a source of electrical 
power on its other (not shown) end. Supporting the horizontally disposed 
speaker 1 on its lower underside is the elongated rigid bracket member 7 
which has a first section 11 with two through bolts 9 that go through the 
bracket to engage the speaker's bottom and fix the bracket to the speaker. 
This bracket's first section 11 is cantilevered and has a free end. At the 
end opposite its free end, the cantilevered horizontally disposed bracket 
section 11 is attached to a second bracket section 13 which bends 
downwardly and backwardly in the direction of the mounting rail 3. 
Generally parallel to section 11 and joined to second bracket section 13 
is the joined third bracket section 15. This latter third section acts to 
horizontally support from underneath the two rail engaging members 17 and 
19. An adjustable compressive member consisting of the large externally 
threaded upright bolt 21 extends through both engaging members 17 and 19 
with its enlarged lower bolt head 23 bearing against the under side of 
member 15. Two horizontally disposed and spaced mounting pins 25 and 27 
extend, respectively, through the depth of engaging members 17 and 19. A 
supporting hourglass shaped member 29 is within the engaging members 17 
and 19 and is used to mount the two spaced pins 25 and 27. The member 29 
extends through the open break between the lower and upper rail engaging 
members 17 and 19 to join them together. Extending upwardly from the top 
of bolt 21 is the locking arm 31 used to maintain the bolt in place as the 
bolt extends through the rail engaging members 17 and 19. 
FIG. 2 is a side enlarged view of the FIG. 1 speaker mounting assembly 
without showing the mounted speaker 1. In this reverse side view from FIG. 
1, the hourglass pins mount 29 are within the body of the rail engaging 
members 17 and 19 and therefore are shown in dotted line format. The rigid 
locking arm 31 has a lower bolt engaging threaded through hole in section 
33. The joined bent longer free end lever section 35 is inclined upwardly 
as indicated. A protective rubber or plastic covering may cover most of 
the outer surface of section 35 to permit a user to hold the lever and 
rotate lever arm 31 around bolt 21. Depending on the direction of 
rotation, the arm 31 can be used to adjust the amount of compressive force 
applied by the bolt to the two boat engaging members 17 and 19 . Thus, one 
could either tighten the arm on the bolt 21 and thereby retain the speaker 
mount to the rail or one could loosen the amount of compressive force 
towards zero and permit the speaker mount assembly to be removed from the 
rail 3 as the bolt end of upper rail engaging member 19, when at or near 
zero compression, can be pivoted upwardly on upper opposite side mounting 
pin 27 by pushing downwardly on the free end of lever arm 31. 
A bolt 20 can extend upwardly into and through brace section 15 through a 
side adjustment hole 22 (shown in dotted line format) and into a lower 
female threaded hole in the boat engaging members 17. which receive the 
two speaker attaching bolts 9 of FIG. 1 that extend into the bottom of the 
speaker to fix the speaker to the bracket 7 . The vertical dotted lines 
indicate the approximate areas for the two bracket bends separating the 
three different bracket sections 11, 13 and 15 from each other as 
indicated previously. 
FIGS. 4(a)-(g) each show one or more different views of the individual 
additional components of the FIG. 1 preferred embodiment in more detail. 
The side view of the threaded bolt 21 shown in FIG. 4(a) depicts an upper 
bolt mounted washer 41 which can bear against and engage the holed lower 
portion of the lever section 33. Since, the lever's bolt receiving hole 49 
(see FIG. 4(c)) is threaded where is engages the threads on bolt 21, by 
tightening the lever 31 on the bolt the washer 41 is forced down into the 
top of member 19 to compress the two members 17 and 19 together around the 
enclosed boat's interposed rail 3. 
FIGS. 4(b) and (f) show top views of the two spaced rail engaging members 
19 and 17, respectively . The two U-shaped opened cut outs 43 receive the 
hour glass pins for mount 29 and are vertically aligned when assembled as 
in FIGS. 1-2 while the other U-shaped opened cut 45 (see FIG. 4(b) in 
upper engaging member 19 receives the top part of the threaded bolt 21. 
The lateral dotted lines extending to intersect the cut outs 43 indicate 
the through holes in the two rail engaging members that are used to 
receive the two spaced horizontal pins 25 and 27 on their pin mount 29. 
The hole 47 in the lower rail engaging member 17 (see FIG. 4(f) has 
internal female threads that threadedly receive the lower part of bolt 21 
threads to hold member 17 in place. Hole 47 is vertically aligned with the 
hole 37 in bracket section 15 (see FIG. 3) and the cut out portionn 45 in 
upper member 19 (see FIG. 4(b)) when assembled as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. 
FIG. 4(c) is a top view of the locking lever arm 31 shown in side views in 
both FIGS. 1 and 2. The lower internally threaded hole 49 fits on the 
threaded upright bolt 21 and the opposite end smaller hole 51 in section 
35 can be used to insert a screwdriver or other rigid elongated member 
into the arm 31 to assist in tightening the arm 31 or loosening a 
previously tightened arm 31. 
FIG. 4(d) is a side view of the hourglass pins mount 29 previously 
described. Two spaced opposite end holes 53 and 55 in the mount receives 
the pins 25 and 27 which extend into the two rail engaging members 17 and 
19. These pins permit a pivotal movement of the upper engaging member 19 
as it is lifted up in its cut out 45 when a person desires to release the 
engaging members from the rail when the compressive pressure of the arm 31 
is released. 
FIG. 4(e) is a top view of the lower pin member 25, shown in a side view in 
FIGS. 1 and 2 while FIG. 4(g) is a top view for upper pin member 27 . Pin 
25 is a solid cylinder, such as a stainless steel cylinder, that fits into 
the lower hole space that extends widthwise through the lower rail 
engaging member 17 and its respective lower cut out 43 portion. Similarly, 
in FIG. 4(g), the shown top pin 27 also is a similar solid cylinder, such 
as a stainless steel cylinder, fits into the spaced hole that extends 
widthwise through the upper rail engaging member 19 and its respective 
upper cut out 43 portion. To insure that the two pins 25 and 27 do not 
become dislodged from their respective mounts in members 17 and 19, their 
four pin ends 57 may have enlarged opposite end diameters that are greater 
than the diameters of the pins' sections that extend through their 
respective member 17 and 19 engaging holes. 
In use, to disengage the mounted audio speaker or speakers from their 
respective mounts, one would rotate the arm 31 to loosen the compressive 
hold of the bolt on the two members 17 and 19. When sufficiently loosened, 
the upper member 19 can be pivoted backward on its pin 27 mount and 
released which releases the complete speaker mount assembly from the 
boat's rail 3. After disconnecting the electrical hook up for the speaker, 
the separated speaker may be stored below deck and locked up or taken 
home. Thus, once the speaker is out of clear sight there is considerably 
less likelihood that a random thief will see or take the moved and 
disconnected from the rail speakers. 
Variations to the described embodiment are clearly possible. The two boat 
engaging members 17 and 19 need not be connected to a boat's railing. They 
may be connected to any other firm convenience boat component on which 
they may fit such as a boat's stanchion. All mounting components should be 
constructed of a weather resistant materials such as stainless steel or 
plastic. 
Although the present invention's preferred embodiment and the method of 
using the same according to the present invention has been described in 
the foregoing specification with considerable details, it is to be 
understood that modifications may be made to the invention which do not 
exceed the scope of the appended claims and modified forms of the present 
invention done by others skilled in the art to which the invention 
pertains will be considered infringements of this invention when those 
modified forms fall within the claimed scope of this invention.