Slidable cover assembly for a pickup truck

Claim 1

In combination with a pickup truck having a cab and an open top truck body of substantially lower height than said cab, said truck body having upstanding opposed longitudinal sides with outwardly extending top flanges, a cover assembly comprising a rigid, arched framework consisting of a plurality of bowed members and flexible sheet material overlying and secured on said framework, said cover assembly overlying the truck body and extending to a height equal to that of said cab, a pair of longitudinal bottom plate members secured to said framework and located to overlie said top flanges of the truck side walls substantially in parallelism therewith and substantially of equal length with said side walls, respective longitudinal lower channel bars, having U-shaped cross sections turned with the open sides positioned and facing inwardly towards the center of the body and being secured on the outer portions of said top flanges, respective upper channel bars, having U-shaped cross sections turned with the open sides facing outwardly away from the center of the body and being removably secured to the bottom surfaces of said plate members near the outer edges thereof and having bottom flanges received in the openings of said lower channel bars, and respective depending anti-friction means secured to the bottom surfaces of said plate members and being supportably engaged on said top flanges, said bearing means comprising a plurality of spaced ball bearing assemblies secured to and depending from the plate members inwardly of and adjacent to said upper channel bars, each of said ball bearing assemblies including an inverted conical housing with a ball bearing retained in an opening in the bottom of the inverted housing, at least one apertured block member releasibly secured to and beneath a rear end portion of said plate members and secured inwardly of the upper cannel bar, and a fastening pin engageable through said apertured block member and a subjacent apertured portion of the truck body to lockingly hold the cover assembly in forward position against said cab, said fastening pin being removable from said apertured block member to permit said cover assembly to be moved rearwardly away from said cab, and chain means fastened to said cover assembly at one end and to said fastening pin at the other end to prevent loss of said fastening pin when it is removed from fastening position in the apertured block member.