Tailgate enclosed telescopic ramp structure

Claim 1

In combination with a vehicle load bed having front and rear end portions and a hollow tailgate including an upper free margin and lower base margin and pivotally supported from said load bed rear end portion for swinging about an axis closely adjacent and paralleling said lower margin and extending transversely of said load bed between a first upstanding position closing the rear end portion of said load bed and a second horizontal rearwardly projecting position forming a rearward extension of the rear end portion of said load bed, said free margin including at least one elongated slot formed in and extending along said free margin, a ramp structure, said ramp structure including wide and narrow ramp sections and at least one intermediate ramp section with said wide, intermediate and narrow ramp sections being progressively smaller in width and thickness from said wide ramp section to said narrow ramp section and telescopically engaged with each other for substantially full telescopic engagement of said intermediate and narrow ramp sections within said wide section and limited extension of said intermediate and narrow sections relative to said wide section, said ramp sections including outer and inner ends, said inner end of said narrow section and said free margin including coacting abutment structure preventing outward extension of said inner end of said narrow section relative to said free margin, said wide section, when said sections are retracted relative to each other, being retractable at least substantially fully within said slot, the narrower and thinner ramp section defining a cross sectional area appreciably less than the cross sectional area of said slot, whereby said narrow section, when extended to its limit position relative to said slot, may be angulated rearwardly and downwardly relative to the free margin of said tailgate independent of binding with the opposite longitudinal sides of said slot.