Abstract:
The kennel for mounting on a pick-up truck has left and right kennel support plates. Front and rear trusses have their ends fixed to the left and right support plates. A roof panel is attached to the front and rear trusses. A rear wall is pivotally attached to the rear truss and extends vertically downward from a horizontal pivot axis when in a closed position. The rear wall pivots about the pivot axis to a vertical position above the pivot axis and adjacent to the rear side of the rear truss to provide ingress and egress. Side openings in the kennel permit a dog to extend his nose and at least part of his head from the kennel. An adjustable bar changes the height and the size of each side opening. The support plates hold the entire weight of the kennel.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention relates to a dog kennel that is mounted in the box of a pick-up truck. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Dogs are occasionally transported in the box of pick-up trucks. Without some restraint there is a chance that dogs will fall out or possibly jump out while the truck is moving. Restraints such as ropes and chains are generally either too confining or they can cause injury to the dog they are intended to protect. Any restraint that encircles the neck of a dog has the potential to cause injury or even death. Such restraints are particularly hazardous to dogs when used in moving vehicles. 
     Containers with tops, bottoms and four sidewalls are often used when transporting dogs. Many of these containers do not provide sufficient space for a dog to stand and substantially restrict movement. They can also have ventilation problems as well as temperature problems. In the summer dogs can become overheated. In the winter they can freeze. Dogs will often resist going into containers that are too confining. Containers with four walls, a floor and a top that hold multiple dogs and provide some freedom of movement are relatively heavy. Their weight complicates the task of moving them into or out of a truck box. Their size limits or even prevents the transport of other cargo. It may be necessary to remove such containers when transporting other cargo and to leave the dog or dogs at home. 
     Vehicle mounted kennels have been proposed which employ a pick-up truck box to provide a floor, a portion of the side walls and a portion of the front wall. Such kennels have the advantage of providing space for a dog to stand and move around and to also see where the vehicle is going. Due to the variation in the size and dimensions of pick-up truck boxes these kennels have been custom made for specific truck models by given manufacturers. There are a large number of truck models available on the market today. To custom make a kennel to fit each size and style would be demanding in time and effort and relatively expensive. Such an effort would be complicated by the fact that some truck boxes are equipped with floor protection mats, bed liners that fit under side rails or bed liners with upper flanges that rest on the top rails of box side walls. The variable thickness of floor protection mats and the variations in bed liners complicates the problems by changing the effective inside width and depth of truck boxes. The large numbers of variations has made it very difficult to make a kennel that will fit a large number of pick-up truck boxes without substantial field modifications. 
     Vehicles are subjected to shaking, vibrations, wind and other forces that tend to damage vehicle mounted kennels. Many of the kennels proposed in the past have had structural problems that have reduced their ability to withstand the forces to which vehicles are subjected. These problems have in some cases endangered dogs. In other cases structural problems have merely reduced the useful life of vehicle mounted kennels. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The dog kennel has a front truss with a front bowed beam and a front horizontal beam connected to the front bowed beam. A rear truss includes a rear bowed beam and a rear horizontal beam connected to the rear bowed beam. A left support plate is fixed to a left end of the front truss and the left end of the truss. A right support plate is fixed to the right end of the front truss and to the right end of the rear truss. A roof panel is attached to the front truss and the rear truss. A rear wall is suspended from the rear truss. During use, the entire kennel is supported by the left support plate and the right support plate. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The presently preferred embodiment of the invention is disclosed in the following description and in the accompanying drawings, wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the rear and left side of the kennel mounted in the box of a pick-up truck; 
     FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the kennel with a portion of a truck box shown in phantom lines; 
     FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the kennel showing the rear wall in two different positions and a large dog in phantom lines leaving the kennel; and 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the kennel in a pick-up truck and with a storage container between the kennel and the front wall of the pick-up truck box. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The kennel  10 , as shown in FIG. 1 is mounted in the pick-up truck  12 . The truck  12  includes cab  14  and a pick-up truck box  16  mounted on a vehicle chassis with wheels  18 . The cab  14  has an operator&#39;s station, side windows  20 , a windshield  22  and a rear window  24 . The rear window  24  may be fixed or it may have a center section that can be opened. 
     The truck box  16  has a floor  26 , a front wall  28 , side walls  30  and  32  and a tail gate  34 . The side walls  30  and  32  have top rails  36  and  38 . The tailgate  34  can be latched in a vertical closed position as shown in FIG. 4 or open as shown in FIG.  1 . 
     The kennel  10  has a front truss  40  and a rear truss  42 . The left and right ends of the front and rear trusses  40  and  42  are connected to left and right side rail engaging kennel support plates  44  and  46 . A roof panel  48  is secured to the top of the front truss  40  and the rear truss  42 . A rear wall  50  is suspended from the rear truss  42  and extends vertically downward from the rear truss. 
     The front truss  40  includes a front bowed beam  52  and a front horizontal beam  54 . The front beams  52  and  54  are preferably rectangular or square tubing. The front bowed beam  52  has a generally horizontal center portion  56 , a left end  58  that extends downwardly and outward from the center portion, and a right end  60  that extends downwardly and outward from the center portion. Preferably the front bowed beam  52  has a silhouette that is similar to the rear silhouette of the upper portion of the cab  14 . The front horizontal beam  54  has its ends fixed to the outer ends of the front bowed beam  52 . Two brace members  62  of the front truss  40  are connected to the front bowed beam  52  and the front horizontal beam  54  as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. These brace members  62  are round pipes with an outside diameter that is the same as the inside width of the tubular front bowed beam  52  and the tubular front horizontal beam  54 . Vertically aligned holes are bored through the horizontal top wall  57  of the front horizontal beam  54  and the horizontal bottom wall  59  of the front bowed beam  52 . The two brace members  62  are vertical as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and are welded in place. The two brace members  62  are spaced apart so that they do not interfere with an openable window portion provided in the center of the rear window  24  of some pick-up trucks  12 . Additional vertical brace members  62  may be provided in the front truss  40  as shown in FIG. 4 if desired. The kennel  10  is moved rearward from the cab  14  as shown in FIG. 4 to make room for a storage container  64 . The additional vertical brace members  62  keep dogs from leaving the kennel through the front truss  40 . To obtain additional strength, the brace members  62  can be solid rods rather than pipes. 
     The rear truss  42  has a rear bowed beam  66  and a rear horizontal beam  68  that are substantially identical to the front bowed beam  52  and the front horizontal beam  54 . Rear bowed beam  66  is a square or rectangular tube with a generally horizontal center portion  70 , a left end  72  that extends downwardly and outwardly from the center portion and a right end  74  that extends downwardly and outwardly from the center portion. The rear horizontal beam  68  has its ends fixed to the outer ends of the bowed beam  66 . A plurality of round vertical pipes  76  pass through bores through the bottom wall  78  of rear bowed beam  66  and the upper wall  80  of the rear horizontal beam  68 . These vertical pipes  76  have an outside diameter that is about the same as the inside width of the tubular passage in the tubular beams  66  and  68 . The vertical pipes  76  are then welded in place. This construction eliminates the need to employ fixtures to position the vertical pipes  76 . If desired, the pipes  76  could be solid rods. 
     The front truss  40  is welded to the front ends  82  and  84  of left and right kennel support plates  44  and  46 . The rear truss  42  is welded to the rear ends  90  and  92  of the kennel support plates  44  and  46 . Both kennel support plates  44  and  46  are L-shaped members with their generally vertical legs  86  and  88  fixed to the ends of the front and rear trusses  40  and  42 . Both the front and the rear trusses  40  and  42  are held in spaced apart generally vertical positions relative to each other by the kennel support plates  44  and  46 . 
     A roof panel  48  is secured to the front truss  40  and the rear truss  42 . End portions  94  and  96  of the roof panel  48  extend vertically down the left and right ends of the front and rear trusses  40  and  42 . These end portions  94  and  96  add strength and rigidity to the kennel. The end portions  94  and  96  also provide additional shade for dogs in the kennel. 
     A left side opening  98  and a right side opening  100  are provided in the kennel  10  to permit dogs to stick their noses or heads out of the kennel and to see out. The left side opening  98  is between the front truss  40  and the rear truss  42  and between the leg  86  of the kennel support plate  44  and the end portion  94  of the roof panel  48 . The right side opening  100  is between the front truss  40  and the rear truss  42  and between the leg  88  of the kennel support plate  46  and the end portion  96  of the roof panel  48 . To keep dogs from jumping out of the kennel  10  and to protect them from injury an adjustable bar  102  is connected to the front truss  40  and the rear truss  42  by bolts  104  to change the size of the side openings  98  and  100 . The positions of the bars  102  are adjustable to accommodate various size dogs. Additional bars  102  can be added if required to keep small dogs in the kennel  10 . 
     A rear wall  50  is suspended from the rear truss  42 . Rectangular tubes  108 ,  110 ,  112  and  114  encircle the entire rear wall  50 . Vertical round tubes  116  pass through bores in an upper wall  118  of the rectangular tube  114  and through bores through a lower wall  120  of the rectangular tube  108  and are welded in place. The tubes  116  have an outside diameter that is less than the inside width of the passage through the rectangular tubes  108  and  114 . 
     A piano hinge  122  pivotally attaches the rear wall  50  to the rear truss  42 . The piano hinge  122  has a horizontal pivot axis  124  that is at the same vertical height as the kennel support plates  44  and  46 . The piano hinge permits the rear wall  106  to pivot between a position extending vertically downward from the rear horizontal beam  68  and a position extending vertically upward from the pivot axis  124  and adjacent to a rear side of the rear truss  42 . The bottom  126  of the rear wall  50  is positioned a short distance above the floor  26  of the box  16  as shown in FIG.  3 . The space between the rear wall  106  and the floor  26  is sufficient to accommodate floor pads, bed liners and some variation in the height of the side walls  30  and  32 . 
     Wheel wells  128  extend inward from the side walls  30  and  32  and upward from the floor  26  of the box  16  as shown in FIG.  1 . Left and right wheel well recesses  130  and  132  are provided in the rear wall  50  to accommodate wheel wells  128 . 
     The left side rail engaging support plate  44  and the right side rail engaging support plate  46  sit on the top rails  36  and  38  of the truck box  16  and support the entire weight of the kennel  10 . The support plates  44  and  46  are the only surfaces on the kennel that contact the truck  12 . If a bed liner is used that covers the top rails  36  and  38 , the plates  44  and  46  sit on the bed liner rail covers. Clamps or bolts (not shown) secure the kennel to the rails  36  and  38 . 
     The front and rear trusses provide sufficient strength to permit some cargo to be carried by the roof panel  48 . 
     The kennel  10 , when made from aluminum or a similar light weight material, can easily be mounted on and removed from a truck  12  by one person. 
     A pin  140  passes through the rear horizontal beam  68  and the rectangular tube  108  to hold the rear wall  50  in a door closed position as shown in FIG.  2 . The pin  140  passes through bores  142  and  144  to hold the rear wall  106  in a door open position. When the rear wall  106  is extending upward from the hinge axis  124 , the kennel  10  is a relatively small compact package for storage and transport. In the door open position, the rear wall  106  permits the entire length of the floor  26  to be used to transport long items such as plywood sheets without removing the kennel. 
     The kennel can be easily modified to provide a fixed rear wall  50  if desired. The round pipes  76  can be lengthened, pass through the horizontal beam  68 , and extend into the rectangular tube  114 . With this modification the hinge  122  as well as the rectangular tube  108  could be eliminated. An alternate door would then be required. 
     The disclosed embodiment is representative of a presently preferred form of the invention, but is intended to be illustrative rather than definitive thereof. The invention is defined in the claims.