Vehicle-mounted carrier system

Claim 1

A readily disassembled, vehicle-mounted carrier system comprising: a frame having a platform portion with a generally rectangular periphery, and with engagement means comprised of a plurality of socket elements disposed at spaced locations about said periphery, and having a pair of substantially identical elongate support members with rectilinear end portions extending laterally outwardly from one side of said platform portion beyond said periphery thereat and parallel to one another; a pair of elongate, rectilinear mounting members adapted for attachment to a vehicle and for coaxial telescopic interengagement with said support members of said frame; means for securing said mounting members to a vehicle; a bottom wall supported by said platform portion of said frame; a multiplicity of sidewall members assembled with said frame and extending about said bottom wall to define an upwardly opening container therewith of generally rectangular cross sectional configuration, each of said sidewall members comprising a planar panel unit with a planar portion having a bottom edge, and including at least one attached post, an end portion of said post projecting beyond said bottom edge to provide an engagement element for engagement with one of said socket elements of said frame platform portion to support said sidewall member in upstanding relationship thereto, each of said socket elements defining an upwardly-opening socket dimensioned and configured to slidably receive and snugly seat said end portion of one of said posts therewithin, said end portion of said post of at least a plurality of said sidewall members being engagable with said socket elements of said platform portion by movement of said plurality of sidewall members toward said platform portion, and being disengagable by movement thereof in the direction opposite thereto, said sidewall members also having joining means thereon interengaging adjacent sidewall members int he assemblage thereof, said joining means on said plurality of sidewall members being engagable and disengagable by the same movement, toward and away from said platform portion, of at least one of said plurality of sidewall members, and comprising a plurality of mated pairs of plates secured to said panel units providing said plurality of sidewall members and disposed at corners of said container, each of said plates having an open-ended, rectilinear slot defining a flange portion outwardly therealong, said slots of said plates of each pair opening in directions opposite to one another, and said plates being so constructed and disposed on adjacent panel units as to position said slots for interdigitated interengagement of said flange portions of said plates of each of said pairs thereof.