Patent ID: 7810880

Claim:
A removably mountable vehicle equipment rack for holding equipment between headrests within a vehicle that has a first and a second headrest on one or more seats, each headrest having at least one headrest post extending approximately vertically upward from the one or more seats; the vehicle equipment rack comprising: a longitudinally extending hook bar assembly having a guide portion, and at least one longitudinally sliding portion telescopically engaged with the guide portion; a generally planar equipment supporting shelf attached on the hook bar assembly such that the shelf intersects the hook bar assembly along a parallel longitudinal line and extends laterally from opposed sides of the longitudinal line; two end hooks on distal longitudinally outward ends of the hook bar assembly, wherein one end hook is configured for hooking on a headrest post of the first headrest, and the other end hook is configured for hooking on a headrest post of the second headrest, thereby removably mounting the vehicle equipment rack between the first and second headrest posts, supported by the seat; at least one of the two end hooks further comprising two planar inside hook walls fixed orthogonal to the plane of the attached equipment support shelf such that the two inside hook walls form an acute angled V-shape that opens in a longitudinally inward or outward direction; generally rectangular cross-sections for the guide portion and the at least one sliding portion where they are telescopically engaged; and a spring connected for longitudinally biasing the two end hooks with respect to each other, and in the direction of opening for the V-shape of the inside hook walls of the at least one end hook; thereby biasing the V-shaped planar inside hook walls of the at least one end hook against a respective headrest post when the vehicle equipment rack is removably mounted thereupon, which causes the V-shaped planar inside hook walls to be biased into approximately vertical alignment with the respective headrest post, making the shelf approximately horizontal, and thereby opposing torque about a longitudinal axis of the hook bar assembly such as would be caused by weight of equipment supported thereabove on the shelf.