Without limiting the scope of the present invention, its background will be described with reference to adjusting a canopy on a vehicle, as an example.
Canopies are used on many vehicles, including farm equipment and the like. Typically, these vehicles include an external roll bar or structure that prevents injury to a user of the vehicle in the case of a rollover of the vehicle. Canopies are used on these vehicle types to provide shelter to a user from sunlight and inclement weather when operating the vehicle; canopies typically do not provide protection to a user of a vehicle from rollover events. Generally, these canopies are unibody or multi-body substantially planar structures that are affixed at their rearward end to the roll bar by a bracket and extend over the seat of the vehicle.
These types of vehicles are manufactured by a many different manufacturers and accordingly, the roll bar systems employed are as varied. For example, some roll bar systems include roll bars made from square hollow structural section steel that extend in a circular or squared “loop” above the seat of the vehicle to provide the rollover protection to a user. These roll bars typically have an upper horizontal section that joins a vertical section or side on each side of the vehicle. The upper horizontal section and the two vertical sections collectively make up the roll bar. Typically, the lower end of the vertical sections of the roll bar are mounted to the vehicle body or chassis via brackets or mounts while the upper end of the vertical sections join the opposing ends of the horizontal section of the roll bar. Additionally, canopy brackets or mounts are affixed to the vertical sections of the roll bar for mounting the canopy to the roll bar. These canopy brackets also are designed individually to provide a desired horizontal canopy orientation such that the canopy is substantially horizontal relative to the ground.
An angle is formed between the longitudinal axis of the vertical sections of the roll bar and a substantially horizontal reference plane or axis. This referenced angle varies among the various vehicle manufacturers, because they do not have a uniform or standard angle for the vertical sections of the roll bars. This angle may be substantially perpendicular to a horizontal reference axis or may be slightly tilted or inclined relative to a horizontal reference axis depending on a particular manufacturer. To provide a substantially horizontal orientation of a canopy in view of the many differently angled vertical sections of roll bars, a large number of brackets are required for different types of vehicles and roll bar orientations to provide the desired positioning and orientation of a canopy. This creates a need to supply large numbers of brackets to fit a wide range of different roll bars such that a canopy is oriented at a substantially horizontal orientation.