Abstract:
A carry bag for all-terrain vehicles hafing a top cover with paired zippers that open and close simultaneously during opening or closing of the top cover and that are protected by a sloped protection cover that releasably covers the top cover and the zippers.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
         [0001]    Not Applicable  
         STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT  
         [0002]    Not Applicable  
         REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX  
         [0003]    Not Applicable  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0004]    This invention relates to carry bags for use with all terrain vehicles and is intended to provide effective protection for articles placed in bags that are removably attached to the rear racks of such vehicles.  
           [0005]    Various carry bags have been proposed in the past for holding articles on the racks of all terrain vehicles. Because of the manner in which said vehicles are used it is very important that bags used must provide maximum protection against the entrance of dust and moisture into the bag interiors. Usually, the bags used in the past have included front, back, sides and end walls covered by a flap that is buckled or otherwise secured in a closed position and that is released and pivoted to an open position to allow access to the interior of the bag. Alternatively, the usual bags may include a zipper that is curved around the front and end walls adjacent a top opening of the bag and that secures a top cover of the bag to a bag body. Access to the interior of the alternate bag is achieved by unzipping the top from the front and end walls and lifting the top cover.  
           [0006]    It has been found that with bags as heretofore described dust and moisture gets into the bags and the contents of the bags can be damaged. Furthermore, the zippers turning corners to extend around the top edge of the bag opening often stick, break and fail at the corners turned by the zippers if the zippers are not protected against the introduction of dust and water.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    Principal objects of the present invention are to provide a bag that is suitable for mounting on the racks of all terrain vehicles and that will include protected zippers not subject to sticking, breaking or failing at zipper corners.  
           [0008]    Other objects are to provide a bag with a protection cover for zippers used to provide access to the interior of the bag and with the protection cover sloped to shed moisture that would otherwise collect on the cover.  
           [0009]    Principal features of the invention include a bag having a top cover with a pair of spaced apart, parallel extending, straight zippers in the top cover. A top flap formed between the zippers is raised when the zippers are unzipped to allow access to the interior of the bag. A flexible tether connects the zipper runners if the parallel zippers and is used to simultaneously zip or unzip the parallel zippers.  
           [0010]    A sloped protection cover extends over the top cover of the bag and over the parallel zippers. The sloped protection cover protects the zippers from the introduction of dust and moisture and allows moisture that would otherwise collect on the cover to fall down the sloped surface and off the bag.  
           [0011]    The bag of the invention can obviously be made in different sizes, and with the parallel zippers extending length wise or width wise on the top cover of the bag. Also, a plurality of bags may be connected back to back to make a composite bag, if desired.  
           [0012]    Additional objects and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from the following detailed description and drawings. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0013]    FIG. Is a perspective view of a composite bag of the invention mounted on a rack of an all-terrain vehicle;  
         [0014]    FIG,  2 , a perspective view of the bag of FIG. 1, with the protection cover of the large bag partially opened;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 3, a end elevation view;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 4, a perspective view, with the protection cover fully opened and a top flap partially open;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 5, a perspective view of a small bag of the invention, with the protection cover fully opened. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0018]    Referring now to the drawings:  
         [0019]    In the illustrated preferred embodiment of the invention, a composite bag is shown generally at  10 , mounted on a rear rack  11  of an all terrain vehicle  13 . Composite bag  10  includes a large bag  12  and a pair of smaller bags  14  and  16 .  
         [0020]    Bag  10  includes a bottom  20  that interconnects spaced apart front and rear walls  22  and  24  and spaced apart end walls  26  and  28 . The front and rear walls  22  and  24  and end walls  26  and  28  are made of a semi-rigid material, such as plastic that will maintain or return to their assigned shapes and the bottom and front and rear walls are covered with a suitable water resistant fabric material  30 . A top cover  32  extends over an open top formed by the front, rear and end walls. The flexible top cover  32  is preferably formed from the same water resistant fabric material covering the bottom and front, rear and end walls.  
         [0021]    Spaced apart pairs of parallel zippers  34  and  36  are sewn into the top cover  32  and each pair extend from an end walls  26  or  28  to the center of the top cover. The pairs of zippers  34  and  36 , respectively, have zipper runners  40  and  42 . The parallel zippers  34  are spaced such that each is closely positioned to a front or rear wall  22  and  24  and the zipper runners  40  are interconnected by a flexible tether  48 . Parallel zippers  36  are also sewn into top cover  32 , with each zipper adjacent to the front wall  22  or to the rear wall  24 . A flexible tether  49  interconnects the zipper runners  42 . The zippers are sewn to the top cover  32  with the portion of the top cover between the zippers forming a pair of cooperating top flaps  50  and  52 . The top flaps  50  and  52  extend from adjacent to opposed end walls and have respective ends  54  and  56  that overlap. Ends  54  and  56  have cooperating “VELCRO” elements thereon to interlock when the ends of the top flaps are overlapped. A divider wall  59  may be provided in the interior of bag  14 . Divider wall  59  stretches between the front wall  22  and the rear  2 all  24  and from the bottom  30  to just beneath the top cover  32  and provides backing for the “VSLCRO elements as the elements are interlocked. A hold tab  58  has one end  60  fixed to the material  30  covering the end wall  28  adjacent to ends of zippers  40 . A similar tab  60  has one end  62  fixed to fabric  30  covering end wall  26 , adjacent to ends of the zippers  42 .  
         [0022]    In practice, a user will grasp a hold tab with one hand and a tether with the other hand. The tether and the zipper runners attached thereto are pulled to close the zippers. With the zippers closed top flap  50  is closed to protect the contents of bag  12  and to hold such contents in the bag. To open the zippers a tab is grasped and tether  48  is pulled to open the zippers and to release top flaps  50  and  52  to be lifted and to allow access to the interior of bag  12  as defined by the bottom and the front and rear walls and the end walls.  
         [0023]    To further protect the interior of bag  12  against introduction of dust and water that may be introduced though cut  52  and through the zippers and to protect the zippers from being fouled by water and dust a protection cover  70  is provided to overlie the top cover. Protection cover  70  is preferably made from the same water resistant fabric  30  and extends outwardly from the rear wall  24  to a lip  72  that fits snugly around the end walls  26  and  28  and the front wall  22 . The top edges  74  and  76  of the end walls  26  and  28  are each sloped downwardly from a connection to the rear wall  24  at a location above the top flaps  50  and  52  to a connection with the front wall  22 . Rear wall  24  extends upwardly beyond the top cover  50  so that when the protection cover  70  is secured in place overlying the top cover  50  and with the lip  72  closely surrounding the end walls  26  and  28  the protection cover slopes from the rear wall  24  to the front wall  22 . With the protection cover sloped, as described, some dust and water otherwise collecting on the protection cover  70  will fall from the cover. The protection cover  70  protects the top cover  50  and the zippers  44  and  46  from dust and water.  
         [0024]    The protection cover  70  is releaseably secured to the fabric  30  of front wall  22  by cooperating “VELCRO” strips  78  on the front wall  22  and  80  on the protection cover.  
         [0025]    Smaller bags  14  and  16  are identical in their construction. Bags  14  and  16  are the same as bag  12 , except smaller, and different in the construction of the front wall, top cover, the arrangement of zippers in the top cover and the provision of a single flap between zippers. In this embodiment, the top cover, shown generally at  84  has a pair of zippers  86  and  88  with an access flap  90  between the zippers. The zippers extend from the back wall to the front wall and down the front wall to adjacent the bottom of bag  14 . Zipper runners  93  and  94  of the zippers  86  and  88 , respectively, by a flexible tether  96  to be pulled towards the rear wall to close the top cover to protect contents of the bag  14  and to hold such contents in the bag. Pulling of the tether away from the tear wall to open the zippers will allow the access flap  90 , formed between the parallel zippers, to be raised for access to the interior of the bag.  
         [0026]    A flexible, water resistant, protection cover  96  extends from the upper end of the rear wall of the bag over the top cover  94  and the front wall of the bag is releasably secured to the front wall with cooperating “VELCRO” strips  98  and  100 , attached to the protection cover and the front wall of bag  14 .  
         [0027]    Small bags  14  and  16  are releasably secured to the large bag  12  by cooperating “VELCRO” strips  102 , fastened to the small bags and strips  104 , respectively fastened to the large bag  12  and by connector straps  106  secured tp the small and large bags.  
         [0028]    Connector straps  108 , attached to the large bag  12  are used to secure the composite bag  10  or the large bag  12  to the rack  11  of all terrain vehicle  13 .  
         [0029]    Although a presently preferred embodiment of our invention has been herein disclosed, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is by way of example and that variations are possible without departing from the scopw of the following claims, which subject matter we regard as our invention.