Parking devices for motor road vehicles

Claim 1

In a parking apparatus for a motor road vehicle, comprising a pair of ground-engaging rollers, a pair of pivotal arms each having one of said rollers rotatably mounted on one end and having its other end pivotally connected to the sprung part of the vehicle, power mechanism adapted to swing the arms and rollers downwards and outwards about the said pivotal connections from a retracted position in which the rollers lie close underneath the vehicle to a lowered position in which they engage the ground one at each side of the vehicle adjacent to a pair of road wheels, and cooperating parts on the arms adjacent the rollers and on the unsprung parts of the vehicle adjacent the said road wheels, respectively, effective to impart an upward thrust to the said unsprung parts as the rollers complete their movement into the lowered position and thereby to lift the said pair of road wheels from the ground, the pivotal connection of each arm to the sprung part of the vehicle being constructed to permit movement of the arm about a substantially horizontal transverse axis, and said pivotal connection incorporating means for resiliently restraining such movement of the arm about said transverse axis, whereby the roller and arm are substantially self-sustaining in the desired line of movement while swinging from the retracted position into the lowered position and vice versa but can execute vertical movements relative to the sprung part of the vehicle in the lowered position; the improvement in which said pivotal connection comprises screw adjuster means secured to the arm, said resilient restraining means acting between said screw adjuster means and the sprung part of the vehicle whereby adjustment of said screw adjuster means swings the arm and roller vertically about said axis to adjust the height of the equilibrium positions of the arm and roller.