NEGATIVE ANGLE WINDOW FOR TENT

Abstract

A collapsible tent is provided having windows which are provided at negative angles, facing the ground. In this configuration, the windows are protected from the entry of rain there through without the aid of a cover. The collapsible tent includes a shell and a frame securable to the shell for supporting the shell. The frame includes at least one outer pole for supporting a wail portion of the shell. The outer pole includes an upper curved section for supporting a window portion on the wall of the shell, where the outer pole positions the window in a substantially downwardly facing direction.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/083,072 for Negative Angle Window Tent, filed on Jul. 23, 2008, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference in it entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates generally to portable living structures, and more specifically to collapsible tents.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A tent is a portable structure used for providing shelter in many different climates. The tent must also allow for ventilation for the users. Although tent walls (which hereafter includes the roof or cover portion) can be made moisture proof, the general procedure is to permit the tent structure to “breath”. This provides a degree of water repellency without condensate forming on the inner surface. A water proof outer cover, or what is known as a “fly” may then be added to the structure for use in snow or rain conditions to effectively water proof the tent.

All tents utilize some soft of a pole structure which, when assembled, forms a frame upon which the fabric covering may be suspended or supported. The pole structure also may be supported by a plurality of guy lines even in advances designs in the matter of the more rudimentary tents. Furthermore, all tents include some means to anchor the tent to the terrain. Such anchor means may be pegs or guy lines and pegs.

Some tents are bowed arches which overlap one another. Some of these tents place the arches on an angular orientation to the ground and further place the cover or wall under tension. It has been found that the pointed arch commonly called the Gothic of lancet arch is stronger than the presently used round or bowed arch when made of flexible tubing. This has been made possible in part by use of a rigid fitting interconnecting the two legs of the arch.

Certain tents are able to eliminate the guy line structure entirely and depend generally upon tension within the pole structure. The tension is usually provided by bending the poles while suspending the tent from some sort of an upstanding fabric web or the like through which the bent pole is passed. In such an arrangement, the so called “fly” is usually a separate entity so that the fly may be positioned above and resting on the upstanding webs.

Ventilation in tents is also important, and may be provided by a door, which can be made of mesh material. Additionally, mesh windows can be provided on opposite side walls of a tent, providing for cross ventilation through the tent. The mesh windows are positioned within the sidewalls, following the contours of the tent walls. In such configurations, the windows are upwardly facing, allowing for rain to enter into the interior of the tent. It is thus necessary to have window flaps or awnings positioned over the windows to protect the interior of the tent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides a collapsible tent including a flexible fabric shell having a door and mesh windows on opposite side walls of the shell. The shell is supported by a collapsible frame formed of resilient poles. The frame includes at least two outer poles used to support the opposite sidewalls of the shell.

The outer poles include an upper curved section for supporting the mesh window in the shell side walls. The outer poles are positioned at acute angles with respect to the floor of the tent, such that the windows are directed toward the ground. In this configuration, the windows are substantially protected from the entry of rain there through.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 depicts a front perspective view of the collapsible tent of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts a rear perspective view of the collapsible tent of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 depicts a top view of the collapsible tent of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 depicts a side view of the collapsible tent of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 depicts an orthogonal section view of a sidewall of the collapsible tent of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 depicts a partial front view of the collapsible tent of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 7. depicts a cutaway view of the partial front view of FIG. 6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides a collapsible tent having windows which are provided at negative angles, facing the ground. In this configuration, the windows are protected from the entry of rain there through without the aid of a tent cover.

Referring now to the drawing figures in which like reference designators refer to like elements, there is shown in FIGS. 1-3 a tent 10 of the present disclosure. The tent 10 includes a flexible fabric shell 12 having a door 14 and mesh windows 16a-b on opposite side walls 17a and 17b. The shell 12 is supported by a collapsible frame 18 having resiklient poles 20 that form an upper portion of the tent 10.

A floor portion 22 which may be made from the same material as the fabric of the shell 12 is provided to interconnect the lower edges 23 of the shell 12. Ties 24 are provided at the lower edges of the shell 12 spreading the floor portion 22 and for additionally securing the tent 10 to the ground, although it will be appreciated that such ties 24 are not necessary for holding the tent 10 upright.

The door 14 of the tent 10 is located on a front surface 26 of the tent 10 for ingress and egress. The door 14 can be a shape cut-out in the front surface 26, having a portion which may be made of a fly-screen 8. The door 14 can have zippered halves 30, 32 joinable along the zipper edges 34, where the zipper holds the door 14 in a sealed position when the tent 10 is being occupied and the zippers pulled up/down.

The poles 20 are resilient members and can be bent into an arched configuration for erecting the tent 10. The poles 20 may also be formed in the arched shape. Each pole 20 may be collapsible, e.g., conventionally constructed of several sections joined together, each section including suitable means at one end for receiving an end of the adjacent section.

To erect the tent 10, the poles 20 are extended through sleeves 36 in the shell 12. Sleeves 36 can be positioned over and about the top surface 38 of shell 12. The poles 20 are generally secured at shared endpoints 40a-d at the lower edges 23 of the shell 12.

Many other configurations, types and numbers of poles, and other types of connectors for securing the poles to the shell 12 are contemplated and within the scope of the invention.

Ventilation of the tent 10 maybe achieved through the fly-screen 28 in the door 14 and windows 16a-b disposed on the upper portion of the side walls 17a and 17b.

Referring to FIGS. 4-7, the windows 16a-b are provided at a negative angle, facing downward, with respect to the sidewalls 17a and 17b. Each of the windows 16a-b is formed and supported by the upper loop 42 portion of the outer resilient poles 44a-b, where each of the outer poles 44a-b is positioned at an acute angle α with respect to the floor 22 of the tent 10. When the floor 22 is expanded, using the ties 24, the outer surface 48 of the sidewalls 17a and 17b form an obtuse angle β with the floor 22 of the tent 10. In this configuration, the normal surface 50 of the windows 16a-b is directed towards the ground.

All references cited herein are expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above to the contrary, it should be noted that all of the accompanying drawings are not to scale. A variety of modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, which is limited only by the following claims.

Claims

1. A tent comprising:

a shell; the shell comprising at least two wall portions, a floor portion, a roof portion, and a window within at least one of said wall portions; said shell capable of having only a collapsed configuration and an expanded configuration;

a frame securable to said shell for supporting said shell in said expanded configuration; the frame including an outer pole for supporting a wall portion of the shell, wherein both ends of said outer pole extend to the floor portion;

the outer pole including an upper curved section for supporting a window in the shell, wherein the outer pole forms an acute angle with respect to the floor portion and positions the window in a substantially downwardly facing direction.

Windows not extendable/retractable—only 1 position (fully extended or collapsed, nothing in between)

2. The tent of claim 1, wherein said window is located within the upper half of said wall portion.

3. The tent of claim 1 or 2, wherein said upper curved section of said outer pole is form by a pre-arched pole.

4. The tent of claim 1 or 2, wherein said wall portions form an obtuse angle with respect to the floor portion.

5. The tent of claim 1 or 2, further comprising a door located within one of said at least two wall portions and two windows, each window located within one of said at least two wall portions, each window being supported by a separate outer pole.