Patent Publication Number: US-6220478-B1

Title: Trunk lock apparatus

Description:
This invention relates to trunk locks, more particularly, the invention relates to trunk locks having securing means locking the lid of the trunk to the trunk receptacle. 
     It is another object of the invention to provide a novel trunk lock which has a latching means between the lid and receptacle of the trunk which is not easily accessible to tampering and forced opening of the lid. 
     It is an object of the invention to provide a novel trunk latch and locking mechanism which locks the lid of the trunk to the receptacle portion of the trunk and which with lid latch and receptacle cooperating latch extend along the front inside of the receptacle below the lid and which the trunk latch swing into engagement with the lid latch inside the receptacle and rearward of the front panel of the receptacle with a cover handle covering the front edge of the cover and box making it not readily accessible to being opened from outside the trunk by such things as prying the lid open from the front, other than by the key lock to unlatch or open the lid of the trunk. 
    
    
     Further objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds and when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein: 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the trunk latch apparatus shown installed in a trunk. 
     FIG. 2 is a fragmentary cross sectional side view of trunk latch apparatus shown installed in a trunk with the lid open. 
     FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross sectional side view of the trunk latch apparatus installed in a trunk with the lid closed. 
     FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view taken along line  4 — 4  of FIG.  3 . 
     FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the trunk lock apparatus with the lid cutaway to reveal the latch key lock apparatus mounted in the receptacle of the trunk apparatus. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Briefly stated, the invention comprises a trunk lock apparatus having trunk receptacle and a trunk lid with the lid pivotally mounted to the receptacle at the rear wall of the receptacle and the rear edge of the lid with the lock apparatus to lock the lid forward edge to the forward wall of the receptacle with the receptacle having a pivotal locking plate inside the front wall of the trunk and spaced rearward of the front wall and with the lid having a cooperating lock plate fixed to the underside of the lid and extending downward from a location on the lid spaced rearward from the forward edge of the lid and forward wall of the receptacle to make the locking apparatus less accessible to tampering 
     Referring more particularly to the drawings, in FIGS. 1,  2 , 3  and  4  the trunk latch apparatus  20  is shown installed in a trunk  22  in the lid  22 ′ and the receptacle portion  22 ″ of the trunk. The latch apparatus  20  has a elongated pivotally mounted receptacle latch plate  23  which is pivotally mounted in the receptacle portion  22 ″ of the trunk and which extends in length along the front of the receptacle of the trunk with its one end plate portion  23 ′ adjacent one side of the trunk and its other end plate portion  23 ″ adjacent the other side of the trunk fixed together by a nut and bolt connection  23 ″′ which extends through an opening  24 ″ of the front panel portion  24 ″′ of front panel  27  and is pivotally mounted at its cylindrical top edge  24  to an elongated cylindrical socket  24 ′ which extends similarly along substantially the entire front panel  27  of the receptacle of the trunk from one side  25 ′ of the trunk to the other side  25 ″ of the trunk and which socket is fixed to the sides of the receptacle of the trunk. A compression spring  26  has one end  26 ′ compressed against the horizontal top flange plate  25 ″′ of the front wall  27  and the bottom end  26 ″ compressed against the pivotal rear plate portion  23 ″ of plate  23 . A suitable recesses  26 ″′ may be provided in the plate  25 ″′ and the rear plate  23 ′ to receive and keep the ends of the spring aligned. Also, the spring may have cone shape with the wide base in the recess in the plate  23 ′ and the point of the cone spring in the recess in the upper plate portion  25 ″′. The rear plate portion  23 ″ is fixed to the front plate  23 ′ by the bolt connection  23 ″′ so that plate  23  and pivots as a single piece so that the spring  26  being compressed between the top flange  25 ″ and the pivotal plate flange  23 ″ urges and pivots the latch plate  23  clockwise downward into its angular position shown in solid lines in FIG.  2  and dashed lines in FIG. 3, about its top pivotal mounting  24  in the elongated socket  24 ′ to the front panel  27  of the box or receptacle of the trunk. 
     The receptacle  22 ′ has front and rear walls  27  and  27 ′, respectively, and side walls  25  and  25 ′, with a bottom wall fixed together to form the receptacle. downward and has a forward extending lip  28 ″ at its bottom edge. The flange and lip extend in length from adjacent one side  30 ′ of the cover to the other side  30 ″ of the cover The spring  26  urges the pivoting latch plate  23  of the receptacle portion rearward. The plate portion  23 ′ of the plate  23  has its lowermost edge slightly above the lip  28 ″ when the lid is closed so that the spring urges and swings the plate  23  over the top of the lip  28 ″ of the lid, when the lid is closed as shown in FIG. 3 to lock the lid to the receptacle portion of the trunk. 
     The lid  22 ′ also has a pivoting latch plate or handle  29  which is spaced forward of the pivoting plate  23  and the lip at a location near the front of the lid which serves as a pivoting cover or lid handle and which is pivotally mounted to underside of the lid panel  22 ′ and extends downward at a location spaced slightly rearward from the forward edge  30  of the lid and has a rearward projecting ledge  29 ′ which can be pivoted under the elongated forward protective ledge  31  mounted to the front wall  27  of the receptacle to latch the lid to the receptacle portion, when the lid is closed as shown in FIG.  3  and which operates independently of the lock latch  23  and visa versa so that the lid latch  29  can latch the lid closed to the receptacle independently of the lock latch  23 , and the lid latch  29  can lock the lid closed independently of the lid latch. The lid latch plate  29  has a cylindrical rod portion  32  at its upper edge which is pivotally mounted in a socket  32 ′ of the lid to swing under the ledge  31  of the receptacle for the latching of the lid to the receptacle. The lid latch plate has a slanted outward and downward flange  34  at its bottom edge which extends downward and outward for the operator to grasp and pull or pivot the latch plate outward to unlatch the lid latch from the receptacle by swinging the plate  29  outward and forward away from the ledge  31  of the receptacle and thereby removing the lid latch from its engaged position so that the lid can be swung upward about its rear hinge mounting  34 ′ to the trunk, unless locked by the lock plate. 
     The key lock  35  is mounted in the front panel  27  of the receptacle portion of the trunk and turning the key cylinder  35 ′ with the correct key will pivot the short lug  36  counterclockwise when viewed from FIG. 4 upward which pushed the long rod  37 , which has its lower end pivotally mounted to the short lug  36  at pin  38 , upward and the pushing of the rod upward causes the upper end of the rod  37  to engage the lateral flange  23 ″ of the lock plate  23  and pivot the lock plate  23  counterclockwise away from the lip of the lid to unlock the lid from the receptacle, so that the lid may pivot upward counter clockwise about its rear hinge mounting relative to the receptacle portion as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, if the latch plate  29  is also manually held forward at the same time as already described. 
     The pivoting of the latch plate  23  upward, counterclockwise about its pivotal mounting  24  by the rod  37  being pushed upward by the turning of the key lock as described acts to compress the coil spring  26  putting the spring under compression so that when the rod  37  is lowered by the turning of the key lock in the opposite direction the coil spring  26  being released from its compressing position will push the latch plate  23  clockwise toward its position shown in dashed lines  40  in FIG. 3, so that when the lid  22 ′ is lowered the lip  28 ″ will downwardly engage against the projecting flange  23 ′ of the plate  23  and push the plate  23  counterclockwise until the lip has traveled below the bottom of flange  23 ′ whereupon the plate  23  will under spring compression pivot the plate clockwise back to place the flange above the lip and hold the lid in its downward position. The attempted raising of the lid when the flange is above the lip will only cause the flange to lock against the vertical panel portion  28  of the lid and prevent the flange from pivoting clockwise further thereby holding the lid closed. This action will lock the lid closed until the key lock is again used to engage the flange  23 ″ of the pivot lock plate and push the flange  23 ″ counterclockwise thereby push flange  23 ′ of plate  23  counterclockwise out and away from the lip  23 ″freeing the lid so that it can now be pivoted open relative to the receptacle portion of the trunk. The lid  22 ′ also has a fixed downward extending flange  44  at its forward most edge which extends downward from the lid in front of the receptacle front wall. 
     Thus, it will be seen that a novel latch apparatus has been provided for a trunk which make the latch plate in an largely inaccessible location from the outside of the trunk to make is less susceptible to someone tampering with the latch. 
     The trunk box has a pair horizontal flanges  40  and  40 ′ fixed to the upper edges of the pair of side panels  25  and  25 ′ of the receptacle portion of the box  22 ′ which extend horizontally and perpendicularly outward from the upper side edge of the side panels  25  and  25 ′ and are adapted to extend over the tops of the side panels of  42  and  43  of the rear of a pickup truck and be fixed to the truck by metal screws or bolts or other structure. 
     The length of the box is intended to be the width of the box at the front of the bed of the pickup truck as defined by the inside of the side panels of the truck so that the box will fit between the side panels with the side panels of the box in close proximity to the side panels of the pick up truck. 
     Thus, by having the key operated latching means  23  to hold the cover of the box to the receptacle portion of the box being placed rearward from the front panel and below the top front edge of the box, the latching structure is less accessible to direct access to tampering with, as occurs in those boxes wherein the latch may have an L shape that swings upward from the top front edge of the receptacle into a slot in the front bottom edge of the cover to latch the cover to the receptacle. In the invention described herein, the location of the latching plate  23  makes it difficult for an intruder to reach it, to cause it to release the cover. 
     Further, the pivoting latch plate  29  covers the front edge of the front wall of the receptacle as well as the fixed front flange  44  making prying of the front edge upward more difficult, and the latch plate  29  and cooperating front flange or ledge  44  by extending substantially the entire length of the box makes prying the lid open from forward side of the box more difficult. Further, even if the plate  29  is bypassed, by being destroyed when prying the lid open from the front; then, the plate  23 ′ has pivoted onto the ledge and the prying of the lid upward only wedges the plate portion more securely on the ledge and since the plate and ledge run the full length of the box, it would be more difficult to gain access to the plate  23 . 
     A pair of bolts having threaded ends extend through the front plate  23 ′ and through the lateral extension plate  23 ″″ of the rear plate  23 ″ with spacers on the bolts to form the bolt connection  23 ″′ to keep the plates  23 ′ and the lateral extension plate portion  23 ″″ of plate  23 ″ in parallel fixed spaced relation to one another when nuts are threaded onto the bolts against the lateral extension plate portion  23 ″″ of plate  23 ″ while the head of the bolt is against the front plate  23 ′. The lateral extension  23 ″″ is formed integrally with plate  23 ″ to form an L shaped cross section. The cylindrical top edge  24  of plate portion  23 ′ is pivotally mounted in socket  24 ′ to provide the pivotal mounting for the plate  23 ′, and the opening  24 ″′ through a flange  24 ″ extending down from the socket is sufficient so that the bolts and spacers may move freely through the flange and to enable the plate  23  including the front plate  23 ′ and rear plate  23 ″ to pivot to their two positions freely with only the spring  26  acting on them to urge them to their angular position as already described. 
     It will be obvious that various changes and departures may be made to the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof; and accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be limited to that specifically described in the specification or as illustrated in the drawings but only as set forth in the appended claims wherein: