1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a handle device, more particularly to an extensible and retractable handle device for a wheeled trunk.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a wheeled trunk 1 has a conventional retractable handle device (B) installed on a side wall 11 of the trunk 1. As illustrated, the conventional handle device (B) includes a frame member 12, a handle member 13 and a locking mechanism 14. The frame member 12 is mounted on the side wall 11 of the trunk 1 and includes a pair of vertically extending storage tubes 131, each of which has an open top end 1311 and a hole 1312 adjacent to the top end 1311. The handle member 13 is U-shaped and has two parallel arm portions 132 inserted downwardly and slidably into the top ends 1311 of the storage tubes 131. An engaging device (not shown) interconnects the storage tubes 131 and the parallel arm portions 132 and thus prevents disengagement of the arm portions 132 from the storage tubes 131. The parallel arm portions 132 can be pulled out from the storage tubes 131 so as to be located at the fully extended position. Each of the parallel arm portions 132 has a vertical row of holes 134 formed therethrough. The arm portions 132 can be moved within the storage tubes 131 so as to align the holes 1312 of the storage tubes 131 with a selected pair of holes 134 of the arm portion 132, thereby permitting the locking mechanism 14 to lock the arm portions 132 on the storage tubes 131.
The locking mechanism 14 is mounted on the frame member 12 between the storage tubes 131 and includes a pair of spring-loaded projection members 15, each of which has a projection 151 that extends into the first hole 1312 of the respective storage tube 131 at normal condition. When the arm portions 132 are moved within the storage tubes 131 so as to align a selected pair of holes 134 with the holes 1312 of the storage tube 131, the projections 151 are biased by the spring action to extend into the holes 134 of the arm portions 132 via the holes 1312. When desired, the spring-loaded projection members 15 can be operated by two fingers of a hand in the openings 121 which are formed through the frame member 12 so as to disengage the projections 151 from the holes 134, 1312.
Note that the length of the handle member 13 cannot be adjusted by the use of a single hand. When one wishes to extend the handle member 13 to a desired length, one hand must operate the locking mechanism 14 to disengage the projections 151 from the holes 134, 1312, while the other hand must pull the handle member 13 out from the storage tubes 131. This is inconvenient to the user, especially when one of his or her hands is carrying an article.