Personal watercraft lift assembly and kit
A lift for low profile watercraft is substantially comprised of modular extruded components and minimal or no welded parts. The lift comprises a tower to be mounted to a dock. A winch is mounted on the tower for raising and lowering a carriage assembly engaged with the tower. The carriage assembly is comprised of a pair of forks in the form of a forked v-configuration, the intersection of the two arms retained by a carriage that engages and travels along a channeled track in the tower, transported by a winch-driven cable. Further comprising the carriage assembly and traversing the arms of the fork are two bunk assemblies, each bunk assembly comprising a pivot bar adjustably attached to both carriage forks. Connected to each bunk pivot bar and pivoting therewith is a bunk board, disposed upon which is a bunk for engaging the hull of the watercraft.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to lifting devices for watercraft, specifically to improvements in such devices that are employed to lift lighter weight, low profile watercraft, such as personal watercrafts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users of watercraft have need to lift their watercraft from the water, for example for maintenance or in preparation for land transportation of the watercraft as well as for safe storage. Equally, watercraft users have need to lower their watercraft into the water, for example for launching or simply for flotation at dock. Users have heretofore employed a number of devices for such lifting and lowering.
Exemplary of such devices for small profile watercraft such as Jet Skis®, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,182, issued to the inventor of the present invention, specifies a lift comprising a single heavy-duty column having a winch mounted on the top thereof for raising and lowering a carriage that is engaged with a track formed on the column. Adjustable arms and bunk rails on the carriage enable adjustment to fit a watercraft. The carriage may be locked in the raised position by a number of means, such as a retaining pin. The winch can be mounted to any side of the column to meet the needs of a particular installation.
Prior art personal watercraft lifts are typically comprised of a large number of welded connections. Such welded connections present risk of metal fatigue and fracture at welded stress points, leading to structural failure. Furthermore, in general there has heretofore been little effort in the art of personal watercraft lift crafting to modularize construction and minimize the number of distinct parts comprising a lift. Prior art design for lifts for personal watercrafts and other low profile watercraft does not lend itself easily to lift construction from a kit by unskilled users.
A further significant limitation of prior art personal watercraft lifts is that the carriage arms of the lift are subject to uneven forces without substantial supporting elements to balance such forces, creating the risk of twisting or even breaking a carriage arm when the lift is under load.
Yet further, while some prior art bunk rails, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,830,410 to Davidson, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,837 to Arbaugh, et al. are deformable to adapt to varying hull configurations, the adaptability of such bunk rails to the highly varied hull configurations found in personal watercraft and other light craft is limited.
What is needed is a lift for personal watercraft and other low profile watercraft employing few or no welds, that is adapted for modular assembly permitting distribution of lifts in kit form, that provides support for unbalanced loads on lift arms and that has bunk rails that are adaptable to highly varied hull configurations.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is a lift for low profile watercraft, substantially comprised of channel-ridge interlocking extruded components, enabling easy construction with minimal or no welded parts. The lift comprises a tower to be mounted to a dock. A winch is mounted on the tower for raising and lowering a carriage assembly engaged with the tower. The carriage assembly is comprised of a pair of forks in the form of a forked v-configuration, the intersection of the two arms retained by a carriage that engages and travels along a channeled track in the tower, transported by a winch-driven cable. Further comprising the carriage assembly and traversing the arms of the fork are two bunk assemblies, each bunk assembly comprising a pivot bar adjustably attached to both carriage forks. Each pivot bar has a ridge along its length, which is configured to engage with channels in bunk clips that are pivotally disposed on the pivot bar, the bunk clips retaining a bunk board, disposed upon which is a bunk for engaging the hull of the watercraft.
The foregoing objects, as well as further objects, advantages, features and characteristics of the present invention, in addition to methods of operation, function of related elements of structure, and the combination of parts and economies of manufacture, will become apparent upon consideration of the following description and claims with reference to the accompanying drawings, all of which form a part of this specification, wherein like reference numerals designate corresponding parts in the various figures, and wherein:
Referring to
As will be clear to those of skill in the art, hand winch 108 is one of many means available for raising and lowering the carriage assembly 112 of the present invention. Among manually operated means are many providing gear advantage and racheting functionality, such as set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,211,124 to Reiser. Alternative means include electrically, hydraulically or pneumatically driven winches, such as that of Ledford in U.S. Pat. No. 7,226,041, as well as one or more retractable hydraulically or pneumatically powered pistons, and also cog-driven lift mechanisms and related assemblies well known to those in the art for raising and lowering carriage assemblies for watercraft lifts. The present invention incorporates all such means.
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As will be evident to those in the art, all metal parts of the boat lift described herein are comprised of either mass produced parts (such as nuts and bolts) available off the shelf, or of extruded materials which are easily manufactured. The parts may be broken down into components that are easily shipped and reassembled, permitting the lift to be sold as a kit for purchaser assembly. As will be further evident to those in the art, the v-configuration of the forks and the engagement of the forks by the bunk pivot bars results in a lift carriage assembly of considerable strength, resisting the tendency of bunk carriage arms generally to twist under uneven loads.
Although the detailed descriptions above contain many specifics, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention but as merely providing illustrations of some of the presently preferred embodiments of this invention. Various other embodiments and ramifications are possible within its scope.
While the invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it should be recognized that elements thereof may be altered by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications and equivalents as can be reasonably included within the scope of the invention. The invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.
Claims
1. A watercraft lift apparatus, comprising:
- a substantially vertical tower;
- a carriage assembly; and
- a means for lifting and lowering the carriage assembly along the tower, the carriage assembly further comprising: an extruded carriage defining at least one carriage channel and being slideably disposed along the tower responsive to the means for lifting and lowering; an extruded fork lock defining at least one ridge configured to slidingly engage the carriage channel; two forks branching out from the fork lock in a substantially horizontal v-configuration
- a bunk pivot bar having a ridge along its length;
- at least one pivoting bunk clip having a channel pivotally engaging the ridge of the bunk pivot bar; and
- a bunk bar held by the at least one pivoting bunk clip.
2. The watercraft lift apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the two forks include at least one bunk assembly including:
- an extruded bunk pivot bar having a ridge along its length;
- at least one extruded bunk clip defining a channel configured to pivotally engage the ridge in nested relationship; and
- a bunk bar rockingly supported by fixation to the at least one pivoting bunk clip in nested relationship to the ridge.
3. The watercraft lift apparatus according to claim 2, wherein at least one fastener is set in the bunk pivot bar restrain movement of the at least one bunk clip along the ridge.
4. The watercraft lift apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for lifting and lowering is selected from a group consisting of a winch and cable, a hydraulically driven piston, and a pneumatically driven.
5. A bunk assembly comprising:
- an extruded bunk pivot bar having a ridge along its length, the ridge having a generally circular cross-section;
- at least one extruded pivoting bunk clip a generally circular channel configured to pivotally engage the ridge of the bunk pivot bar in nested relationship; and
- a bunk bar supported by affixed engagement with the at least one pivoting bunk clip.
6. A kit of components suited to forming a watercraft lift apparatus, comprising
- a tower including: an extruded track; a winch disposed generally at a top of the tower; a winch cable;
- an extruded carriage configurable to be disposed slideably within the tower in rolling engagement with the track, the carriage having at least one channel defined therein in opposed relation to the track;
- an extruded fork lock defining at least one ridge configured to nestingly engage at least one channel to restrict movement of the fork lock relative to the carriage in any direction except parallel to the orientation of the channel;
- two forks adapted to be received into the fork lock at an aspect generally opposed to the at least one ridge such that, when received in the fork lock, the two forks extend from the fork lock in a v-configuration.
7. The kit of claim 6, further including a fastener that when inserted into the carriage prevents movement of the fork lock relative to the carriage when the at least one ridge is nestingly engaged in the at least one channel.
8. The kit of claim 6, wherein the two forks, when received in the fork lock are configured to receive a bunk assembly, the bunk assembly, when assembled, comprising:
- an extruded bunk pivot bar having a ridge along its length, the ridge having a generally circular cross-section;
- at least one extruded pivoting bunk clip having a generally circular channel configured to pivotally engaging the ridge of the bunk pivot bar in nested relationship; and
- a bunk bar held supported by affixed engagement with the at least one pivoting bunk clip.
9. The kit of claim 6, wherein the bunk bar is affixed to the at least one pivoting bunk clip by means of at least one threaded fastener extending through and bearing on the bunk clip.
10. The kit of claim 6, wherein at least one fastener is set in the bunk pivot bar to restrain movement of the at least one bunk clip along the ridge
11. The bunk assembly of claim 5 wherein the bunk bar is affixed to the at least one pivoting bunk clip by means of at least one threaded fastener extending through and bearing on the bunk clip.
12. The bunk assembly of claim 5 wherein at least one fastener is set in the bunk pivot bar to restrain movement of the at least one bunk clip along the ridge.
13. The watercraft lift of claim 1, further comprising a carriage fastener that when inserted into the carriage prevents movement of the fork lock relative to the carriage when the at least one ridge is nestingly engaged in the at least one channel.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 10, 2007
Publication Date: Aug 13, 2009
Inventor: Samuel T. Basta (Bellevue, WA)
Application Number: 12/001,408