Patent Publication Number: US-2021178810-A1

Title: Tire bar and method of using the tire bar to unstick a vehicle

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to a tire bar and a method of using the tire bar to unstick a trapped vehicle. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     When vehicles, such cars, vans, trucks, and busses become stuck, such as in sand, mud, soft dirt, gravel, ice snow or other situations often an expensive tow truck is required to unstick the vehicle. Tire chains are heavy and difficult to install and remove, especially when the vehicle is already stuck before the tire chains are installed. Furthermore, tire chains must be sized properly for a specific tire. The Tracgrabber sold on Amazon cinches to the tire and is difficult to install. The belt must be fed entirely around the tire and through the rim of the wheel. 
     There is a need for an easy to attach device to unstick vehicles. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An objective of the invention is to provide a device that can be easily mounted and removed from a wheel of a vehicle without having to feed a cable through the rim or around the tire. The device easily adjusts to different wheel sizes. Furthermore, the device can easily be mounted on a wheel stuck in mud, sand, soft dirt, gravel, ice, or snow. Moreover, the device is light and easy to carry in a vehicle. 
     The objectives of the invention can be obtained by a quick disconnect tool comprising:
         an elongated body;   a traction section at a first end of the elongated body and extending from a surface of the elongated body, the traction section is configured to be mounted over a tire tread on a vehicle wheel, the traction section has an inner surface configured to contact the treads of a wheel and an outer traction surface configured to contact a driving surface, the inner surface opposing the outer traction surface; and   a lug contact section comprising at least one lug connector configured to contact at least one lug nut on a wheel, the lug contact section is configured to be movable along a length of the elongated body to vary a distance between the lug section and the traction section.       

     The objectives of the invention can also be obtained by a method of unsticking a vehicle comprising:
         providing a tire bar comprising an elongated body, a traction section at a first end of the elongated body and extending from a surface of the elongated body, the traction section is configured to be mounted over a tire tread on a vehicle wheel, the traction section has an inner surface configured to contact the treads of a wheel and an outer traction surface configured to contact a driving surface, the inner surface opposing the outer traction surface, a lug contact section comprising at least one lug connector configured to contact at least one lug nut on a wheel, the lug contact section is configured to be movable along a length of the elongated body to vary a distance between the lug section and the traction section;   adjusting a distance between the lug contact section and the traction section;   attaching the lug contact section to at least one lug nut on a vehicle wheel and attaching the inner surface of the traction section to a tire tread on the wheel; and   rotating the wheel so that the traction section contacts a driving surface and moves the vehicle.       

    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1A  illustrates front view of a tire bar. 
         FIG. 1B  illustrates a side view of the tire bar. 
         FIG. 2A  illustrates a view of the tire bar mounted on a wheel having 4 lug nuts. 
         FIG. 2B  illustrates a view of the tire bar mounted on a wheel having 6 lug nuts. 
         FIG. 2C  illustrates a view of the tire bar mounted on a wheel having 5 lug nuts. 
         FIG. 2D  illustrates a view of the tire bar mounted on a wheel. 
         FIG. 3A  illustrates a side view of the tire bar. 
         FIG. 3B  illustrates a side view of a socket section. 
         FIG. 3C  illustrates a top view of a socket section. 
         FIG. 3D  illustrates a side view of a locking nut. 
         FIG. 3E  illustrates a perspective view of the locking nut. 
         FIG. 3F  illustrates a side view of an alternative locking structure. 
         FIG. 3G  illustrates a back view of an alternative locking structure locked in a first position. 
         FIG. 3H  illustrates a back view of an alternative locking structure locked in a second position. 
         FIG. 3I  illustrates a front view of an alternative locking structure. 
         FIG. 4A  illustrates a view of a sliding cavity on the tire bar. 
         FIG. 4B  illustrates a view of the tire bar mounted on a wheel. 
         FIG. 4C  illustrates a view of the tire bar lifting a wheel off of the driving surface. 
         FIG. 5A  illustrates a tire bar having a foldable traction section in the extended position. 
         FIG. 5B  illustrates a tire bar having a foldable traction section in the storage position. 
         FIG. 5C  illustrates a side view of the foldable traction section. 
         FIG. 5D  illustrates a front view of the foldable traction section. 
         FIG. 5E  illustrates a top view of the foldable traction section. 
         FIG. 5F  illustrates a side view of the elongated body configured to mount the foldable traction section. 
         FIG. 5G  illustrates a view of the foldable traction section mounted to the foldable traction section. 
         FIG. 6A  illustrates a side view of an embodiment of the tire bar having a body formed from a single piece of metal. 
         FIG. 6B  illustrates a side view of an embodiment of the tire bar having a body formed from a single piece of metal. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention will now be explained with reference to the attached non-limiting drawings. 
       FIGS. 1A through 6B  illustrate a tire bar having an elongated body  11 . A traction section  12  is disposed at a first end of the elongated body  11 . The traction section  12  is configured to be mounted over the treads  25  on a vehicle wheel  24 . The traction section  12  extends a length  20  from a back surface of the elongated body. The traction section  12  has an inner surface  14  configured to contact the treads  20  of a wheel  24  and an outer traction surface  2  configured to contact a driving surface  30 . The inner surface  14  is preferably concave, but can be flat or any another shape as desired. The inner surface  14  can have protrusions, ridges, grooves, or other structures to enhance grip between the inner surface  14  and the treads  25  of a wheel  24  so that during turning of the wheel  24  the traction section  12  turns with the wheel  24 . The inner surface  14  opposes the outer traction surface  2 . A lug contact section  16  has a lug connector  1  configured to contact at least one lug nut on a wheel. The lug contact section  16  is configured to be movable along a length of the elongated body  11  to vary a distance between the lug section  16  and the traction section  12 . A locking structure  4  is configured to lock the lug contact section  16  at a position on the elongated body  11 . Thus, when installed on a wheel  24 , the distance between the lug contact section  16  and the traction  12  can be adjusted so that the inner surface  14  rests against the treads  25  on wheel  24 . The wheel  24  can be a rim with a tire mounted thereon or a solid one-piece wheel. 
       FIG. 2A  shows a wheel  24  having four lugs  5 .  FIG. 2B  shows a wheel  24  having six lugs  5 .  FIG. 2C  shows a wheel  24  having five lugs  5 . The lug section  12  can be easily mounted on the lugs  5  of any wheel  24  as shown in  FIGS. 2A through 2C . 
     The traction section  12  can be foldable for easier storage of the tire bar. As shown in  FIGS. 5A-5G , the traction section  12  is mounted to the elongated body  11  by a movable joint  50 . The movable joint  50  allows the traction section  12  to fold into a storage position shown in  FIG. 5B  and an extended position shown in  FIG. 5A . Any suitable movable joint  50  can be used, such as the joint bolt  52  that mounts through the holes  51  in the elongated body  11  and hole  53  in the traction section  12 , which is secured by the joint nut  54 . The traction section preferably has a stop  56  that stops against the stop  57  on the elongated body  11  to prevent the traction section  12  from extending too far, preferably not past about 90 degrees, from the elongated body  11 . 
     The outer traction surface  2  preferably contains a surface that enhances traction to the driving surface  30 , such as grooves, ridges, spikes, studs, paddles, treads, or any other desired traction enhancing structure. The driving surface  30  can be a road, dirt, mud, gravel, sand or any other surface that vehicle can drive on. 
     The traction section  12 , elongated body  11  and lug contact section  16  can be any desired size. The elongated body  11  should be a length to provide the lug connector  1  to connect to a lug  5  and the inner surface  14  to contact the treads of the wheel  24 . Examples of suitable lengths for the elongated body  11  are from about 6 inches to about 4 feet, preferably about 6 inches to about 2 feet for passenger vehicles and about 10 inches to about 3 feet for trucks and busses. Preferably, a length  20  of the traction section  12  is about the same thickness (width) of the wheel  24  or less, as shown in  FIG. 4B , however, the length  20  can be any desired amount. Examples of the length  20  are from about 1 inch to about 16 inches for passenger vehicles and from about 6 inches to about 24 inches for larger trucks and busses. The thickness of the traction section  12 , which is the distance between the inner surface  14  and the traction surface  2 , can be any desired thickness, for example, from 0.5 inch to about 12 inches, preferably about 1 inch to about 6 inches. As shown in  FIG. 4 c   , as the wheel  24  is rotated, the vehicle is lifted up from the driving surface  30  by the thickness of the traction section  12  when the traction section  12  is between the wheel  24  and the driving surface  30 . The outer traction surface  2  can be angled or sloping as shown in  FIG. 4C  so that as the wheel is turned the angle or slope allows lifting of the vehicle less abrupt. During rotating of the wheel  24 , when the traction surface  2  contacts the driving surface  30  the vehicle can be propelled forward or backward depending on the direction of rotation of the wheel  24 . 
     The tire bar can be formed from any suitable materials, such as metals, rubbers, plastics, composites, and polymers. 
     As shown in the Figs., the lug connector  1  can be in the shape of a cylinder having an opening that fits over and around a lug  5 . The inside surface of the lug connector  1  can be shaped as desired, such as circular (in the cylinder shown in the drawings), square, triangular, hexagon or any other shape, including a socket. If desired, the lug connector  1  can utilize the quick disconnect tool to connect the tire bar to a lug nut, which is described in my previous U.S. Pat. No. 10,343,452, the completed disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The lug connector  1  can be formed of a rigid material, such as plastic, polymer, metals, or composites, and have an inner surface formed from a deformable material, such as rubber, to fit snuggly to a lug nut  5  on the wheel  24 , i.e. the deformable material conforms at least partially to the shape of the lug nut  5 . 
     Preferably, the lug contact section comprises two lug connectors  1  as shown in the Figs. so that the tire bar can be mounted to two lug nuts  5 . When there are two or more lug connectors  1 , different sized lug contact sections  16  having different distances between the lug connectors  1  can be provided to fit different lug nut patterns, such as those shown in  FIGS. 2A-2C . Alternatively, the lug contact section  16  can be configured so that the distance between two or more lug connectors  1  can be adjusted. 
     The tire bar can be used to unstick a vehicle stuck in mud, gravel, sand, snow, ice, loose ground or other driving surfaces. The tire bar can easily be installed on a vehicle wheel  24  as shown in  FIGS. 4B and 4C . First, the locking structure  4  is loosened so that the lug contact section  16  can move within the sliding cavity  3 . The lug contact section  16  is moved to a position where the lug connector  1  slides over a lug nut  5  on the vehicle wheel  34  as shown in  FIGS. 2A-2C . A gap  28  between the inner surface  14  and treads  25  on the wheel  24  should be removed by moving the lug contact section  16  along the elongated body  11  to remove the gap  28 , so that the inner surface  14  contacts the treads  25  on the wheel  24  as shown at  26  in  FIG. 2D . The locking structure  4  can then be locked to lock the lug contact section  16  to the elongated body  11  so that the lug contact section  16  cannot slide within the sliding cavity  3 . 
     Once the tire bar is installed on the wheel  24 , the wheel  24  need only be rotated, such as by a vehicle engine, so that when the outer traction surface  12  contacts the driving surface  30  as shown in  FIG. 4C  the vehicle can be propelled forward or backward depending on the direction of rotation of the wheel  24  and/or the vehicle can be lifted by the thickness of the traction section  12 . The force between the tire tread and the inner surface  14  when the weight of the vehicle is on the inner surface  14  keeps the traction section  12  in place against the tire tread. The tire bar is surprisingly easy to use to unstick a car. It was surprising and unexpected that no hard connection to the lug nut(s)  5  or wheel  24  is required for operation of the tire bar. The tire bar stayed mounted on the wheel  24  even though the lug connector  1  was merely slid over a lug nut  5  with no fasteners required. Thus, the tire bar is preferably a slip on-slip off device that requires not hard fasteners. 
     An example of a suitable locking structure  4  is shown  FIGS. 3A-3E , which includes locking threads  9  on the lug contact section  16  and a locking nut  19  having internal threads  10  configured to accept the threads  9 . The locking structure  4  can be locked by tightening the locking nut  19  threads  10  on the threads  9  s shown in  FIG. 3A  to lock the lug contact section  16  in a desired position on the elongated body  11 . The locking structure  4  can be unlocked by loosening the locking nut  19  threads  10  from the threads  9  so that the lug contact section  16  can be moved to a desired position on the elongated body  11 . 
     Another example of a suitable locking structure  4  is shown in  FIGS. 3F-3I , which includes a lug section locking bolt  18  and a lug section locking nut  21 . The locking structure  4  can be locked by tightening the bolt  18  to the nut  21  shown in  FIG. 3F . The locking structure  4  can be unlocked by loosening the bolt  18  from the nut  21 . The bolt  18  has threads configured to accept internal threads in the nut  21 .  FIG. 6A  shows an example using two bolts  18  and two nuts  21 . In this example, the locking structure  4  has a dual purpose, a first purpose to lock the lug contact section  16  in a desired position along a length of the elongated body  11 , and second to adjust the distance between the two lug connectors  1 .  FIGS. 3G and 3H  show the distance between the lug connectors  1  being different. The lug contact section  16  comprises two parts, a first lug contact section part  16   a  and a second lug contact section part  16   b  that can be slid in relation to each other. The bolt  18  rests in a slot formed in the two lug contact section parts  16   a  and  16   b.  The two lug contact section parts  16   a  and  16   b  can be set in a desired position to provide a desired distance between the two lug connectors  1  and then the bolt  18  tightened to the nut  21  to lock the distance between the lug connectors  1  by locking the two lug contact section parts  16   a  and  16   b  together. Any suitable locking structure can be utilized to lock the two lug contact section parts  16   a  and  16   b  together. 
     While a cavity  3  and locking nut  4  is shown and described other types of mechanisms can be used to adjust the distance between the lug contact section  16  and traction section  12 . For example, a spring  40  can be used to bias the lug contact section  16  towards the traction section  12  and during installation the lug contact section  16  can be pulled away from the traction section  12  until a desired length is achieved and after installation the spring  40  will provide tension on the luge contact section  16  towards the traction section  12 , which is shown in  FIG. 4A . Thus, when the wheel  24  compresses when the outer traction surface  2  contacts the driving surface  30 , the traction section  12  and lug contact section  16  can move towards one another and then as the wheel decompresses when the outer traction surface  2  no longer contacts the driving surface the traction section  12  and lug contact section  16  can move away from one another. 
       FIGS. 1A through 5G  show the elongated body  11  comprised of two rods or tubes.  FIGS. 6A and 6B  show another example where the elongated body  11  is formed from a solid piece of material, such as metal. 
     REFERENCE NUMBERS 
     
         
           1  Lug connector 
           2  Outer traction surface 
           4  Locking structure 
           5  Lug 
           6   4  Lug wheel 
           7   6  Lug wheel 
           8   5  Lug wheel 
           9  Locking bolt threads 
           10  Threads inside locking nut  8   
           11  Elongated body 
           12  Traction section 
           14  Inner surface configured to contact treads 
           16  Lug contact section 
           16   a  First part of contact section 
           16   b  Second part of contact section. 
           18  Lug contact section locking bolt 
           19  Locking bolt nut 
           20  Length traction section extends 
           21  Lug contact section nut 
           24  Vehicle wheel 
           25  Treads 
           26  No gap 
           28  Gap 
           30  Driving surface 
           40  Spring 
           50  Movable joint 
           51  Holes in elongated body  11   
           52  Joint bolt for movable joint 
           54  Joint nut 
           56  Stop 
           57  Stop 
       
    
     While the claimed invention has been described in detail and with reference to specific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that various changes and modifications can be made to the claimed invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof. For example, while a collar  20  is shown in the drawings, other structures to close and open the detents  14  can be used.