BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to steps and platforms for mobile homes, and the like, which may be collapsed to a folded position without the disassembly of any of the components.
The door or entrance to mobile homes, or the like, is usually disposed above the surface of the earth a distance rendering it necessary that one or more steps or stair treads be provided for ease of access to the mobile home door. Since the step or steps usually project laterally of the vertical side surface of the mobile home it is necessary that the steps be removed when moving the mobile home to a new location.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Demountable platform and steps for mobile homes are generally old, however, such demountable platform and steps usually have the components thereof arranged by bolted connections which permit the assembly to be disassembled but are inconvenient in that all of the bolts and connections must be replaced when the device is reassembled and tend to become loosened resulting in a tendency to wobble or become unsafe over long periods of use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,043,396 discloses a demountable step and platform device which requires disassembly of certain of its components for storage and transportation and a subsequent reassembly for further use. U.S. Pat. No. 2,863,494 discloses a collapsing or folding step arrangement which is stored by tracks, or the like, secured to a depending surface of a vehicle.
This invention is distinctive over these patents by providing a platform removable connected with a mobile home wall including legs and steps connected with and foldable under the platform and further including hand rails and supports connected with and foldable over the platform without disassembly of any of the components of the device by removing bolts, screws, or the like.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A rectangular frame forms a horizontal landing which is removably connected with the side wall of a mobile home by rods removably engaging apertured angular brackets secured to the mobile home wall. Vertically adjustable depending legs are pivotally connected with the depending surface of the frame and are foldable toward the lower surface of the frame. Spaced-apart pairs of laterally downward and outwardly projecting bars horizontally support step treads therebetween and are pivotally connected at their upper ends to the depending surface of the frame for folding under the frame with the steps. Hand rails are connected with and supported by a plurality of upright support members, pivotally connected in vertical sliding relation with a like plurality of sleeves secured to the remaining sides of the frame so that the hand rails may be folded in superposed relation on the upper surface of the frame. When collapsed or folded the device thus occupies a minimum of space and yet the pivotal connections of its respective components permits it to be easily erected to form a rigid step and landing assembly. Means are provided on both the legs and the bars for adjusting their position relative to the surface of the earth for maintaining the landing and steps horizontal when the device overlies uneven terrain.
The principal object is to provide a folding platform hand rail and step assembly which may be easily erected and connected with a mobile home and collapsed to a stored position without removal or installation of bolts, screws, or the like.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device in erected position and connected with a fragment of a mobile home;
FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view, to a different scale, illustrating by dotted lines, the folded position of the steps, one leg and oppositely disposed sections of hand rails;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary left side elevational view of FIG. 2 illustrating the folding action of the other leg and the other hand rail section;
FIG. 4 is a top plan view of FIG. 2 with the hand rails removed;
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical cross-sectional view, to an enlarged scale, taken substantially along the line 5--5 of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a fragmentary elevational view, partially in section, looking in the direction of the arrows 6--6 of FIG. 5; and,
FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical cross-sectional view, to a further enlarged scale, taken substantially along the line 7--7 of FIG. 2.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Like characters of reference designate like parts in those figures of the drawings in which they occur.
In the drawings:
The reference numeral 10 indicates the device, as a whole, connected with a fragment of a mobile home wall, indicated at 12, in depending relation with respect to an entranceway or door 14 and above the lower limit of the mobile home wall, indicated by the line 16. The device 10 comprises a landing or platform 18 formed by a rectangular frame substantially square in plan view comprising rigidly interconnected angle iron members with one leg of the angle iron members being disposed horizontally and the other leg thereof being vertical for respectively defining front and rear ends 20 and 22 and opposing sides 24 and 26. A plurality of cross braces 27, 28 and 29, extend between the sides 24 and 26 in parallel spaced relation and are interconnected medially their ends by other cross braces 30 to add rigidity to the frame and support a landing surface comprising heavy screen-like material, such as expanded metal 32, which overlies the frame and is secured thereto adjacent its marginal edges. One side of the frame, for example the side 26, is provided with a pair of rods 34 vertically secured, as by welding, to its vertical side surface in parallel horizontally space-apart relation and which depend, at their lower end portions, beyond the horizontal plane of the lower surface of the frame. A pair of angle iron brackets 36 are secured, as by bolts or lag screws, not shown, to the mobile home wall with the other leg of the bracket 36 projecting horizontally outward from the wall and are vertically apertured or drilled for removably receiving the rods 34 and supporting the platform 18.
A pair of legs 38 and 40 are pivotally connected at their upper ends to the inner surface of the frame side 24 between pairs of lugs 42. Each of the legs 38 and 40 comprise an upper tubular section 44, square in the example shown, of a selected length. A similarly shaped lower section 46 is telescopically received at its upper end portion by the depending end portion of the upper leg section 44 and is maintained in a selected telescoped relation by a bolt and nut 48 extending through the upper leg 44 and a selected one of a plurality of transverse apertures formed in vertical spaced relation in the lower leg section 46. This permits coarse adjustment of the plane of the platform with respect to the surface of the earth, indicated by the line 50. Fine adjustment of the horizontal plane of the platform is achieved by a disk 52 flatly contacting the surface of the earth and coaxially secured to a screw 54 threadedly received by the depending end portion of the lower leg 46.
As shown in FIG. 3, the leg 48 is maintained in perpendicular relation with respect to the plane of the platform by a link 56 pivotally connected at one end with the platform side 22 and projecting angularly downwardly toward and removably engaged with a lock pin 58 secured to the upper leg portion 44. Disengaging the slotted end of the lever 56 from the pin 58 permits it and the leg 38 to be folded or pivoted toward the depending surface of the platform, as shown by dotted lines. Similarly, the leg 40 is maintained in perpendicular depending relation with respect to the platform by a second lever 60 similarly connected with the platform side 24 and upper portion of the leg 40 so that when the lever 60 is disengaged both it and the leg 40 may pivot toward the depending surface of the platform parallel with respect to the frame side 24 (FIG. 2). A pair of forward or front tubular step bars 62, square in cross section in the example shown, are pivotally connected at one end in parallel spaced relation between cooperating pairs of brackets 64 connected with the frame side member 20 in depending relation. The front step bars 62 project angularly outwardly and downwardly from the frame side 20 toward the surface of the earth and are downwardly turned vertically, as at 66, and threadedly engaged with a screw coaxially connected with a disk 68 for the purpose presently described.
A back or rearward pair of step bars 70 are similarly connected at one end in parallel spaced relation with the frame cross brace 27 between depending brackets 72. The step bars 70 similarly project downwardly and outwardly from the frame side 20 in underlying vertically aligned relation with respect to the front step bars 62. The rear step bars 70 are similarly turned vertically downward at their depending end portions and are threadedly connected with screws coaxially secured to disks 74. A pair of upper and lower steps 76 and 78, respectively, each comprising co-axially rectangular frame of a selected width and a length slightly less than the spacing between the pairs of step bars 62 and 70 are longitudinally positioned therebetween in vertically spaced horizontal planes. The upper surface of the frame of the respective step 76 and 78 has secured thereto a similar screen or expanded metal section 80. The rearward end portion of the respective step is hingedly connected, as by a rivet, to the respective rear step bar 70 for vertical pivoting movement of the other longitudinal side edge of the respective step. This front or forward longitudinal side edge of each step, opposite its rearward hingedly connected longitudinal side, is adjustably supported by pins 82 extending horizontally through the front step bars 62 in cooperative aligned relation adjacent the respective end portion of the steps. The rivets 82 project inwardly of the respective inner surface of the front step bars 62 in horizontally aligned relation a distance at least as great as the thickness of the step frame flange 84. The respective step frame flange 84 is provided with an elongated slot 86 open, as at 88, to the depending edge surface of the frame flange 84 for removably receiving the respective support pin 82 thus permitting relative movement of the support pin 82 with respect to the step frame longitudinally of the slot 86 in response to vertical adjustment of the step bars thus permitting the upper surface of the steps to be disposed in parallel horizontal position.
The device 10 is further provided with horizontally disposed front, side and rear hand rails 90, 92 and 94, respectively, each supported by a pair of upright supports 96, 98 and 100, respectively. Since the manner of connecting the supports to the frame or platform is substantially identical, only the connection for the pair of supports 98 will be described in detail. In the example shown, the hand rails and their supports are square in cross section. A pair of tubular sleeves 102, similarly square in cross section, are vertically secured in parallel horizontally spaced relation to the outer surface of the frame front 20. The sleeves thus form sockets which slidably respectively receive vertically the depending end portion of the supports 96. Each of the sleeves are characterized by upstanding parallel arms 104 formed by cutting away opposing sides of the tubular sleeve, as at 106, so that the planes of the arms 104 are disposed perpendicular to the vertical plane of the frame side 20.
As shown more clearly in FIG. 7, the arms 104 are transversely slotted vertically in aligned relation, as at 108, for slidably receiving the respective end portions of a shaft 110 extended transversely through the depending end portion of the respective support 96 and supporting the latter within the socket. Thus, it may be seen that the hand rail 90 and its supports 96 may be moved vertically upward so that when the shaft 110 contacts the upper limit of the slot 108 the hand rail and its supports 96 may be pivoted about the axis of the shaft 110 toward the upper surface of the platform 18. The only distinction between the sleeves 102 receiving the supports 96 and the sleeves receiving the other hand rail supports 98 and 100 is that the length of the slotted arms of the respective pairs of sleeves are selectively dimensioned to compensate for the thickness of the hand rails and their respective supports relative to each other when disposed in folded overlying relation one upon the other on the upper surface of the platform 18. One end of the hand rail 92 is extended angularly downward, as at 112, toward the direction of the steps. The hand rails 92 and 94 are interconnected by a wing 114 horizontally secured in right angular relation to the end of the hand rail 92 opposite its end portion 112. The depending edge surface of the wing 114 is provided with a downwardly open slot which removably receives a pin 116 secured to the end portion of the hand rail 94 opposite the mobile home.
In operation assume the hand rail supports, legs, step bars and steps have been connected with each other and the platform 18 as described hereinabove. The device is initially installed by swinging the step rails 62 and 70 laterally of the frame side 20 and manually engaging the rods 34 with the mobile home connected brackets 36. The legs 38 and 40 are pivoted to a depending position and vertically adjusted in the manner hereinabove described for leveling the platform and are locked in place by the levers 58 and 60. Similarly the steps 76 and 78 have the slots 86 thereof engaged with the step support pins 82 and the upper surface of the steps or treads 80 horizontally disposed by adjustment of the disks 68 and 74. The respective hand rails 90, 92 and 94 are pivoted upwardly from the surface of the platform so that the depending end portions of the respective hand rail supports enter the socket portion of the respective sleeves 102. The hand rail 92 has its supports 98 lowered into their sockets following the erection of the hand rail 94 so that the wing 114 engages the pin 116 when the hand rail 92 moves downwardly. Collapsing or folding the device 10 is accomplished by a substantial reversal of the above described erecting sequence, wherein the hand rails are superposed on the upper surface of the platform and the step means and legs are folded toward the depending plane of the platform in underlying relation.
Obviously the invention is susceptible to changes or alterations without defeating its practicability, therefore, I do not wish to be confined to the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings and described herein.