Note : Les descriptions sont présentées dans la langue officielle dans laquelle elles ont été soumises.
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RUNNING BOARD 8TORAGE COMP~T~FNT FOR RECREATIONA~
VEHICLE (CA~E B)
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to improvements in
recreational vehicles and in particular to improved
storage compartments for use in recreational vehicles.
There are many types of recreational vehicles
and the present invention is particularly applicable to
camper van conversions which involve the conversion of a
commercial cargo van. These camper van conversions are
officially known in the industry as Class B recreational
vehicles. Various cargo van body lengths, e.g. short,
standard and extended body lengths are provided by several
of the automotive manufacturers such as General Motors,
Ford and Chrysler. In the process of converting the cargo
van, portions of the floor are lowered or "dropped" and
all or a substantial portion of the roof may be raised
thereby to provide additional head room. The van is
typically provided with an interior layout designed to
make the best use of the limited space available as shown
for example in my earlier Canadian Patent No. 1,200,262
issued February 4, 1986.
Regardless of the degree of effort made to
conserve space in these types of recreational vehicles,
the provision of adequate storage space always poses a
problem. There seldom seems to be sufficient storage
space particularly for larger outdoor items such as lawn
chairs and if these have to be placed inside the van in
places where they are not intended, the result is a
cluttered and untidy van interior.
For years, recreational vehicles of the type
under consideration have been provided with running boards
which extend along both sides of the body between the
wheels at the lower extremity of the body. In the past,
these running boards were flat from one end to another
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with nothing beneath them. Other than acting as a step
and hence providing for ease of entering the van, they
tended to have an attractive appearance and helped to
cover from view anything unattractive underneath the van.
However, certain cargo van manufacturers have in the
recent pàst re-designed the running boards such that the
sides/tops of these pseudo running boards are curved or
slanted, except at the doors, to provide a so-called
"ground effect" and to blend in better with the curved
exterior of the van. Thus, the term "running board", as
used hereafter is intended to refer to this redesigned
form of running board as opposed to the more traditional
form of flat running board which acts as a step. Some of
these running boards have hinged sections in them to
provide easier service access such as for the filling of
liquid propane gas or the discharging of sewer tanks etc.
while at the same time they still have nothing under them
which would serve to provide a closed storage compartment.
For years, we have been using the space under
the floor of the van, that runs next to the running board
and over to the chassis rail, for a semi-closed in type of
storage with a door opening cut in the body below floor
level and through the so-called rocker panel which is a
few inches in from the exterior skin and converges toward
it at the bottom. This storage area is partially exposed
to the dusty and sometimes wet elements and hence items
that had to be kept clean and dry could not be stored
there.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention helps to overcome the
problems associated with the prior art arrangements noted
above and provides a storage compartment which makes use
of the space in the region of the curved running board (as
defined above) and combines it with the space under the
floor of the van running along one side of it thus making
a relatively large storage space which is sealed from the
elements and to which access is provided through one or
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more doors provided directly in the running board or in
the lower portion of the van body side wall directly
thereabove, or in both, depending on the circumstances.
Thus according to the invention in one aspect
there is provided a recreational vehicle including a van
body having a side wall, a floor, and a running board at
the lower extremity of the van body and extending
downwardly below said side wall; a storage compartment
extending inwardly from and being defined in part by said
running board and having a bottom wall running the full
length of the storage compartment and extending inwardly
of the van body away from said running board at a level
corresponding generally to the lower extremity of said
running board and being joined to an upwardly extending
compartment back wall, said bottom wall underlying the
floor of the van body and spaced therefrom in the
vertical direction, said back wall extending upwardly
toward the floor of the van body and being fixed relative
thereto, front end and rear end walls closing the opposed
ends of said compartment to prevent ingress of dust and
water thereinto and defining the fore and aft extremities
of said compartment, at least one doorway opening leading
into said compartment from the exterior of the
recreational vehicle, and at least one door for
selectively opening or closing said at least one doorway
opening.
In a typical embodiment of the invention said
running board extends downwardly and outwardly relative
to the van body and the door opening is in the running
board and extends lengthwise thereof.
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In a further embodiment of the invention said
floor comprises a normal level floor which extends
outwardly toward the side wall of the van body such that
said compartment extends from said bottom wall upwardly
to said normal level floor and said compartment is a
unitary compartment extending from said bottom wall to
the normal level floor.
In a still further embodiment of the invention
said van body floor extends outwardly to the side wall of
the van body with said compartment extending from the
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bottom wall upwardly to said floor, and said compartment
being void of any interior shelf to allow large objects to
be placed in said compartment.
In a further form of the invention said van body
floor extends outwardly to the side wall of the van body
with said,compartment extending from the bottom wall
upwardly to said floor, and a shelf within said
compartment movable from a first horizontal position
spaced from the bottom wall and extending from said back
wall toward said doorway opening to a second collapsed
position in close juxtaposition to said back wall and said
bottom wall of the compartment.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention
said shelf extends the full length of said compartment and
ledges fixed to said front end and rear end walls of the
compartment for supporting the shelf in the horizontal
position, said shelf having longitudinal hinges and being
foldable longitudinally for movement into the collapsed
posltlon .
In a still further aspect of the invention said
shelf is in three parts with the frontal part adjacent the
doorway opening being foldable upwardly or downwardly and
being lockable in place at right angles to the rest of the
shelf to provide rigidity to the frontal portion of the
shelf.
Further features and advantages of the invention
will be apparent from the detailed description of
preferred embodiments of same which follow hereafter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE VIEWS OF DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a partial transverse sectional view
through the body of a recreational vehicle illustrating a
storage compartment at the lower extremity thereof in
accordance with the principles of the present invention;
Fig. 2 is an elevation view of the storage
compartment and its immediate environment as seen from the
exterior of the recreational vehicle;
Fig. 3 is a transverse cross-sectional view of
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the storage compartment taken along section line 3-3 of
Fig. 2 and illustrating one particular form of storage
compartment arrangement;
Fig. 3A is a transverse cross-section as in Fig.
3 but illustrating a modified access door arrangement;
Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view as in Fig.
3 but illustrating a modified form of storage compartment
arrangement with a horizontal partition;
Fig. 5 is a transverse sectional view as in Fig.
3 but illustrating a modified form of a storage
compartment arrangement;
Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view as before
further illustrating the modification of the storage
compartment arrangement of Fig. 5.
Figs. 7 and 8 are transverse sectional views of
two variations of the storage compartment employing a one-
piece single door in place of the doors illustrated
previously with Fig. 8 further showing a collapsible shelf
arrangement.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring firstly to Figures 1 and 2 there is
shown a portion of a recreational vehicle 10 including a
modified van body having a side wall 12, a floor 14 shown
as supporting a refrigerator 15 with the side wall having
a grill-vented refrigerator service door 17. A so-called
running board 16 as defined in the "background" portion of
the specification extends downwardly from a lower portion
of the sidewall. A storage compartment 18 extends
inwardly from the running board 16 and it includes a
bottom wall 20 joined to a lower edge portion of the
running board and extending inwardly of the vehicle body.
This flat bottom wall 20 is joined to an upwardly
extending back wall 22, which back wall extends upwardly
toward a rectangular chassis rail 24 which, in turn, is
secured to the floor 14. The various components noted may
be of suitable composite materials such as fibre
reinforced plastics while in other cases the components
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may be of steel joined together by welding or other
suitable means.
The compartment 18 described generally with
reference to Fig. 1 is shown in greater detail in Figs. 2
5 and 3. It will be noted that the flat bottom wall 20 is
integrally formed with back wall 22 from glass fibre
matting impregnated with thermosetting plastic resin. The
upper extremity of the back wall 22 is overlapped with and
securely bonded or otherwise suitably secured to the outer
side of chassis rail 24. The compartment 18 is also
provided with a frontal wall 30 and a rear wall 32 (see
Fig. 2) also of the same composite material, the outline
shapes of these frontal and rear walls corresponding to
the cross-sectional shape of the compartment 18 as seen in
15 Fig. 3 with these walls together with the rest of the one-
piece compartment structure substantially preventing
ingress of moisture and dust into the compartment 18 when
travelling. The position of the rocker panel, which has
been cut away to allow access to the compartment 18 via
20 doorway 34 is shown by the dashed lines R'.
As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, the compartment
18 is provided with a pair of lengthwise extending doorway
openings 34 and 36. The lower doorway opening 36 is
provided in the running board 16 and extends almost the
25 full length thereof, such doorway opening 36 having a door
36 ' associated therewith for selectively opening or
closing the doorway opening. The upper doorway opening
34 is pro~ided in the lowermost portion of the body side
wall 12 and this elongated doorway opening is provided
30 with a correspondingly shaped door 34 ' for selectively
opening and closing the same.
The lower door 36 ' in the running board 16 is of
course contoured as illustrated to match the contour of
the running board so that when this door is closed the two
35 match perfectly with each other and provide a pleasing
exterior appearance. The upper edge of door 36 ' is
provided with an elongated piano-style hinge 40 which is
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secured to the lower extremity of body side wall 12 thus
allowing door 36 ' to be swung between the open dashed line
position and the closed full line position as illustrated
in Fig. 3. It will also be noted that the door 36 ' is
provided with an inturned lip 42 which is provided with a
suitable gasket material 44 which prevents ingress of
water and dust when the door is closed. In like fashion,
the outer terminal edge portion of door 36 ' co-operates
with a gasketing material 46 retained in a shallow groove
in the lowermost portion of the running board 16'. The
ends of door 36 ' are also provided with sealing lips or
gaskets to keep out dust and moisture. Furthermore, in
order to retain door 36 ' in the closed position, a
plurality of turn locks 52 are provided along the lower
edge of same, each being operable by way of a suitable key
thereby to cause rotation of the lock finger 54 which
engages with an upper edge portion of the fixed lower
running board portion 16 ' . This lower running board
portion 16 ' is of course attached to and forms a
continuation of the previously described lower or bottom
wall 20 of the compartment 18.
The upper door 34 ' is likewise secured along its
upper edge by an elongated piano style hinge 60 to the
body side wall 12. The marginal edges of this door are
also provided with a suitable gasket material 61 thereby
preventing ingress of dust and moisture into the
compartment 18 when door 34 ' is closed. Again, as with
the lower door 36', turn locks 62 are provided for
selectively retaining door 34 ' in the closed position.
It might be noted that the floor 14 of the van
may be provided with an optional door 64 illustrated in
dashed lines in Fig. 3. If a door such as this is
provided, access to the interior of compartment 18 may be
had from the interior of the van. However, an interior
access door 64 such as is shown may not be practical in
many vans owing to the presence of the van interior
facilities including passenger seats, toilet and kitchen
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facilities etc. Hence this option is only usable in a
limited number of cases.
Referring now to Fig. 3A there is shown a
modification of the storage compartment previously
described with reference to Fig. 3. The basic structure
is essentially the same as described previously, the main
difference being that the running board 16 is not provided
with a door, such as door 36' described previously, but,
rather, the running board appears as a unitary element,
having the same curvature as described previously, and
with its upper end having an inwardly turned flange
portion 42' which is securely fixed in sealed relation to
the lower edge of the body side wall 12. The running
board 16 is of one piece composite material integrally
formed with the compartment bottom wall 20 and back wall
22 plus the end walls (not shown). The remaining
components are, with minor structural variations,
essentially the same as described previously especially
the door 34' and its locks 62 and associated structures.
The principal advantage of the embodiment
illustrated in Fig. 3 over and above that shown in Fig. 3A
is that larger items such as lawn chairs can be easily
placed in the bottom half of the compartment 18 via the
door 36' whereas it may be impossible to place such items
into the compartment 18 through the upper door 34' only.
The embodiment illustrated in Fig. 4 is very
similar in structure to the embodiment shown in Fig. 3,
the only exception being that a horizontal partition 68 is
interposed between the upper and lower halves of the
compartment 18 effectively forming a shelf for better use
of space. This partition 68 extends the full length of
compartment 18 and is secured at its outer edge to a
downwardly extended portion of the lower side wall 12
where the rocker panel converges with it while the rear
edge of same is secured by way of a flange 68' securely
bonded or otherwise fixed to the back wall 22 of the
compartment. This horizontal partition 68 gives good
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access and is useful in many cases since smaller objects
can be placed in the upper half of the compartment, which
objects do not fall into and become mixed up and lost
within larger objects stored in the lower half of the
compartment as may be the case with the embodiments of
Figs. 3 and 3A.
Fig. 5 is for the purpose of illustrating the
change which takes place in the structure when a dropped
floor arrangement is used. The previous standard floor
arrangement 14 and chassis rail 24 are shown in dashed
lines in Fig. 5. The so-called rocker-panel which is
present when no compartment at all is provided is
illustrated in dashed lines by the reference character R.
When the floor is dropped downwardly to the lower level as
is shown by reference character 14', the chassis rail 24
is eliminated, and in order to provide the necessary
degree of structural strength, its place is taken by the
sturdy steel back wall 22, the upper end of which is
firmly welded to the floor 14 (and for a sufficient
distance beyond each end of the removed section of the
chassis rail) via flange 28, while the lower end is firmly
attached to the bottom wall 20 via flange 26. Suitable
compartment end walls are provided as before. The upper
part of the rocker panel R is cut away or removed as
illustrated by the dashed lines thereby providing
additional space in the interior of the van with only that
portion of the rocker panel remaining which extends
between the outer edge of the dropped floor 14' and the
lowermost edge of the side wall 12. A small portion of
the rocker panel is designated by the reference R'. With
this alteration, the upper door 34' becomes totally
unnecessary and a short grill-vented refrigerator service
door is put in its place. Hence, the end result of the
modification is the version shown in Fig. 6 wherein the
compartment 18 has but a single entrance doorway which is
closed by the previously described door 36' with the
compartment 18 being bounded on the top by the dropped
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floor 14' and by the remaining structures including bottom
wall 20, back wall 22 and suitable front and rear walls
welded thereto to provide a sealed compartment.
The embodiment of Fig. 7 is si~milar to that of
Fig. 3 except that the two doors 34', 36' of Fig. 3 have
been replaced with a single door 70 which is preferably of
a lightweight composite material (eg. fibre-reinforced
plastics) having suitable stiffening flanges 72 on both
ends. A hinge 74 extends along the upper edge of door 70
to mount it for pivotal motion to the lower edge of body
sidewall 12. A plurality of turn locks 76 as described
previously are provided along the lower free edge of door
70 to retain it in the closed position, and suitable
gasketing material 78 surrounds the door to prevent
ingress of water and dust when the door 70 is closed, all
as described previously. Door 70 is contoured to match
the contours of the lower body sidewall and running board
portions and this contour will of course vary from one
vehicle to another according to body style.
Fig. 8 is similar to Fig. 7 except that a shelf
80 is mounted in the compartment 18 and is movable from
the full line horizontal position shown (where it is
spaced above bottom wall 20 and extends from back wall 22
toward the doorway opening) to the collapsed position (in
dashed lines) in close juxtaposition to the back wall 22
and bottom wall 20.
Shelf 80 extends the full length of the
compartment and ledges 82 are fixed to the front and rear
end walls of the compartment to support the shelf in the
horizontal position. The shelf 80 comprises three
longitudinally extending sections 80a, 80b and 80c and
three-piano-style hinges. Hinge 84 secures the rear edge
of shelf section 80a to the back wall 22. Hinge 86
secures front edge of shelf section 80a to intermediate
shelf section 80b, the latter resting on ledges 82 when in
the horizontal position. A frontal shelf section 80c is
secured by hinge 88 to shelf section 80b. The opposite
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ends of shelf section 80c are provided with barrel bolts
9o which enter into apertures in the compartment end walls
to secure the frontal section 80c at right angles to the
rest of the shelf in either of the two positions shown in
Fig. 8. In both cases the shelf section 80c provides
strength and rigidity to the shelf structure and the
barrel bolts 90 prevent unwanted collapse of the shelf.
However when large items are to be stored in the
compartment the barrel bolts 90 are retracted, section 80c
is folded over onto section 80b in the direction of arrow
A and section 80b is folded over onto section 80a in the
direction of arrow B thus clearing the ledges 82 and
allowing the shelf sections to be swung downwardly in the
direction of arrow C toward the back wall 22 of the
compartment. Following this, the shelf sections 80b and
80c are unfolded in the direction of arrows D and E
respectively so that the two sections lie flush on the
bottom wall 20 of the compartment thus allowing the full
volume of the compartment to be used for storage of large
items.
Although several modifications and variations
have been described by way of example, those skilled in
this art will understand that the invention is not to be
limited to the embodiments which have been described above
but that the invention is to extend to the full range of
equivalencies as encompassed by the appended claims.
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