Patent ID: 7584984

Claim:
The hitch assembly comprising: a housing assembly and a tow bar assembly, said housing assembly having a longitudinally extending forwardly opening cavity therein, said cavity being defined by a transverse base wall and laterally spaced, longitudinally extending side walls, said side walls including rear sections and a forwardly and outwardly diverging front section frontally terminating at laterally spaced load bearing surfaces; inwardly extending stop surfaces on said side walls forming a restricted opening having a width less that the lateral spacing between said rear sections of said side walls; a tow bar assembly having a rear section and a front section connected by a center section, said rear section including an enlarged curved section having a width greater than said restricted opening and being disposed for sliding movement between said rear sections of said side walls, said curved section establishing a pivotal connection at said stop surfaces in an extended position and located adjacent said base wall is a retracted position, said center section having side walls having a width less than said restricted opening, said center section frontally terminating with frontally outwardly diverging curvilinear surfaces, one of said curvilinear surfaces coacting with an opposed load bearing surface of said housing assembly in a pivoted condition of said tow bar assembly such that movement to said retracted position effects longitudinal alignment between said housing assembly and said probe assembly; nestable surfaces formed on housing assembly and said tow bar assembly interengaging as said probe assembly approaches said retracted position to effect mechanical longitudinal alignment of said tow bar assembly with said housing assembly; and latching means permitting movement of said tow bar assembly between said retracted position and said extended position in an unlatched condition and fixedly connecting the tow bar assembly to said housing assembly in a latched condition; and actuating means for selectively moving said latching means between said unlatched condition and said latched condition.