1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to stabilization mechanism, and more specifically, it relates to an apparatus for stabilizing storage, transportation and recreational vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
A fifth wheel recreational vehicle (RV) rides on a suspension system suitable for supporting the RV as it is pulled by another vehicle. Motorized RVs are also carried on a suspension system suitable for their transport on roadways. Such suspension systems do not provide adequate stability to support internal comfort of people once the RV has been parked.
Various devices are known in the art that provide a means of stability for a broad class of vehicles including recreational vehicles, cargo trailers, cabin trailers, vehicles designated as fifth wheel trailers, and the like.
A commonly used stabilizer utilizes jack stands that are extended under the RV. The extensions are held in place with pins. This type of stabilizer is heavy, difficult to operate and to store.
Other stabilizers are intended as complete (i.e., with landing legs and pads) and are mounted as stabilizing and leveling systems. These have frame attachments, e.g., bolts and nuts or screws with flanges, plus ways to deploy and adjust them. The mechanism is typically a manually driven jackscrew (the usual method), or by electric (e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,103,869 and 6,224,102) or hydraulic drives (e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,226).
Other inventions are intended to temporarily support and stabilize an unattached fifth wheel trailer, and do so by extending a footing to the fifth wheel connector pin. Generically, they have two to four telescoping legs with various pads and interconnecting devices using rods or chains.
Some inventions are intended to temporarily stabilize a vehicle with or without leveling the vehicle, including heavy-duty equipment besides the above-mentioned trailers. These inventions are primarily jacks or telescoping footings that attach to couplings or flanges, or they clamp or bolt to the frame of the vehicle. Multiple footing devices are constrained by chains, rods or straps.
Each of these inventions is predominantly installed as a stand-alone system to support, stabilize and optionally level the trailer. Consequently, they are bulky, often difficult to install or to store and require tools for tightening bolts or drilling mounting fixtures. They are not intended for use on trailers with existing landing leg support systems.
It would be desirable if the invention were easy to attach to the existing landing leg supports, be satisfactory in function, simple to detach and easy to store for use.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for stabilizing the landing legs of a fifth wheel or other recreational vehicle (RV).
It is another object of the invention to provide an RV stabilization device that provides stability, is easy to install and easy to store.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the disclosure herein.
In one embodiment, the landing leg clamps of the device are affixed around the top of upper telescoping landing legs. The clamps are aligned so that a threaded pin projects outwardly from the clamp and points inwards to the other landing leg. Long pins are inserted through the alignment holes of the landing pads such that the flat end of the pin also projects inward to the other landing leg.
Each stabilizer rod comprises a pair of rods, one end of which is hollow and the other end is indented or it forms a hole. An all-thread rod is used onto which a nut with a welded lever is placed. The all-thread rod is either press-fitted into the hollow ends of the other rods, or has nuts welded into the hollow ends into which the rods screw.
The stabilizer rods are placed over the leg clamp pin and the similarly configured opposing end of the stabilizer rod slides over the projecting end of the other landing leg pad pin. The levered nut on the center all-thread rod is used turnbuckle-fashion to tension the stabilizer rod against the opposing pins. The second stabilizer rod is similarly affixed across the opposite ends of the two landing legs so that the stabilizer rods form an X-configuration. A C-style clamp is placed in the center at the crossover of the stabilizer rods to reduce flexing of the rods.
Another embodiment of the invention replaces the pin attachment of the landing leg clamps with a magnetic clamp and the stabilizer rods are placed through holes in the leg clamps and are magnetically held in place.