Title: Barbecue grill with folding legs
Abstract: A barbecue grill with folding legs has a barbecue body and a folding leg assembly pivotally attached to the barbecue body. The barbecue body has an adjustment and storage bracket on the bottom. The folding leg assembly has an adjustment leg and a pivoting leg, and each leg has telescopic feet to regulate the high of the barbecue in accordance with present invention. A latch ring is mounted on the adjustment leg to hook the adjustment and storage bracket and can make small adjustments in the height of the barbecue.
Patent Number: 6,863,063 Issued on 03/08/2005 to Yeh
| Inventors:
|
Yeh; Jui-Ju (14F, No. 223, Sec. 5, Nanking E. Rd., Taipei, TW)
|
| Appl. No.:
|
391015 |
| Filed:
|
March 19, 2003 |
| Current U.S. Class: |
126/25R; 126/276; 126/304A |
| Intern'l Class: |
A47J 037//00; F24C 015//08 |
| Field of Search: |
126/25 R,41 R,9 R,304 A,305,304 R
108/116,119,132
248/421,432,164,172,129,439
|
References Cited [Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Yeung; James C.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Troxell Law Office, PLLC
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A barbecue grill with folding legs comprising:
a) a barbecue body having a bracket located on an exterior of a base
thereof, the bracket having a plurality of adjustment hooks;
b) a folding leg assembly moveable between raised and folded positions and
having:
i) an adjustment leg having a first U-shaped portion with two parallel
first supports and a telescoping foot slidably connected to each of the
two parallel first supports, each telescoping foot being movable between
extended and retracted positions, each telescoping foot being selectively
locked in the extended position by one of a plurality of locking devices
connected to each of the two parallel first supports, the first U-shaped
portion is removably inserted into one of the plurality of adjustment
hooks to position the barbecue body at one of a plurality of predetermined
heights; and
ii) a pivoting leg having a second U-shaped portion with two parallel
second supports and a telescoping end tube slidably connected at a first
end thereof to each of the two parallel second supports, each telescoping
end tube being movable between extended and retracted positions, each
telescoping end tube being selectively locked in the extended position by
one of the plurality of locking devices connected to each of the two
parallel second supports, the second U-shaped portion is pivotally
connected to the exterior of the barbecue body, and each of the two
parallel first supports is pivotally connected to one of the two parallel
second supports; and
c) two wheels, one of the two wheels is connected to a second end of each
telescoping end tube.
2. The barbecue grill according to claim 1, further comprising a storage
notch, the adjustment leg includes a storage rod, the storage rod is
inserted into the storage notch when the folding leg assembly is in the
folded position.
3. The barbecue grill according to claim 2, wherein the storage notch is
integrally formed with the bracket.
4. The barbecue grill according to claim 2, wherein the storage rod is
located between the two parallel first supports of the adjustment leg.
5. The barbecue grill according to claim 1, wherein the first U-shaped
portion has a length that is shorter than a length of the second U-shaped
portion.
6. The barbecue grill according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality
of locking devices includes a button connected to a resilient member, one
button being inserted through a hole in each telescoping foot and each
telescoping end tube on the extended position.
7. The barbecue grill according to claim 1, wherein the first U-shaped
portion includes a latching ring removably inserted into one of the
plurality of adjustment hooks.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a barbecue grill, and more particularly to
a barbecue grill that has folding legs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional barbecue has a cooking pot to cook food, such as meat,
potatoes, etc., over charcoal or the like. Supporting legs with wheels are
mounted under the cooking pot. Food is cooked on a grill or a spit inside
the cooking pot, and charcoal or the like is burned in the cooking pot
under the grill or spit to barbecue the food. The supporting legs with
wheels provide a convenient way of moving the barbecue grill. The
supporting legs with wheels on the conventional barbecue grill are
stationary and unable to be folded. The conventional supporting legs are
straight, cross-linked, etc. However, the different types of supporting
legs support the cooking pot at a fixed height and cannot be folded to
decrease the volume of the barbecue grill. Consequently, the conventional
barbecue grill cannot be adjusted to barbecue in a confined vertical space
or conveniently on a table.
To overcome the shortcomings, barbecue grills with folding legs that can be
used on a table or stored with a smaller volume are still needed to
obviate or mitigate the aforementioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a barbecue
grill with an adjustable height and volume. The barbecue grill in
accordance with the present invention has a barbecue body and a folding
leg assembly with means to completely fold the legs against the barbecue
body for storage and to adjust the height of the barbecue body. The
barbecue body has a bottom. The folding leg assembly comprises a pair of
U-shaped legs pivotally connected to each other. One of the U-shaped legs
is pivotally connected to the bottom of the barbecue body and the other
U-shaped leg is selectively hooked to an adjustment rack on the bottom of
the barbecue body. Therefore, the barbecue grill with folding legs can be
collapsed simply and easily stored.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will
become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a barbecue grill with folding legs in
accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is an enlarged side plan view in partial section of a distal end of
an adjustable leg of the barbecue grill in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged side plan view in partial section of the bottom of
the barbecue body in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a operational side plan view of the barbecue grill with folding
legs in FIG. 1; and
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the barbecue grill in FIG. 1 with the legs
folded.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
With reference to FIG. 1, a barbecue grill with folding legs in accordance
with present invention comprises a barbecue body (10) and a folding leg
assembly (20).
The barbecue body (10) has a bottom (not numbered), an outside (not
numbered), an inside (not numbered) and an adjustment and storage bracket
(15). The inside of the barbecue body (10) is concave. The adjustment and
storage bracket (15) is securely attached to the outside of the barbecue
body (10) on the bottom and has two ends (not numbered), multiple
adjustment hooks (151) and a storage notch (152). The multiple adjustment
hooks (151) are formed sequentially from one end of the adjustment and
storage bracket (15). The storage notch (152) is formed at the other end
of the adjustment and storage bracket (15).
The folding leg assembly (20) has an adjustment leg (21) and a pivoting leg
(22). The adjustment leg (21) is U-shaped and has a proximal end (not
numbered), two parallel supports (not numbered), a second cross member
(not numbered), a latch ring (214), two telescopic feet (211) and a
transverse storage rod (215). Each support has a proximal end (not
numbered), a distal end (not numbered), the second locking device (not
numbered) and a telescopic foot (211). The proximal end of each support is
integrally formed with the second cross member and extends down parallel
to the other support. The transverse storage rod (215) is mounted between
the supports near the proximal end of the supports to engage the storage
notch (152) when the folding leg assembly (20) is folded.
With further reference to FIG. 2, a telescopic foot (211) is attached to
and extends from the distal end of each support. Each telescopic foot
(211) is a tube (not numbered) with an open end (not numbered), a closed
end (not numbered) and an inside diameter (not numbered). The inside
diameter is large enough so the open end of the telescopic foot (211) can
slide over the distal end of the support. The distal end of each support
is open, and a first locking device is mounted inside the distal end of
each support. The first locking device comprises a U-shaped resilient
piece (212), a button (not numbered) and two buttonholes (not numbered).
The U-shaped resilient piece (212) has two ends (not numbered) and an
outside (not numbered). The button is attached to the outside of the
U-shaped resilient piece (212) near one end. A first buttonhole is formed
in each support near the open end, and a second buttonhole is defined in
each telescopic foot (211). The U-shaped resilient piece (212) is inserted
into the open end of each support, and the button is inserted into and
extends out of the corresponding buttonholes in the corresponding support
and the telescopic foot (211) to hold telescopic foot (211) in place.
With further reference to FIG. 3, the latch ring (214) is attached to the
second cross member to selectively engage one of the adjustment hooks
(151) on the adjustment and storage bracket (15).
The pivoting leg (22) is also U-shaped and has a proximal end (not
numbered), two distal end (not numbered), two parallel supports (not
numbered), a first cross member (not numbered), a bracket (not numbered),
two telescopic end tubes (221) and two wheels (222). The bracket is
U-shaped and has an open end pivotally mounted around the first cross
member and securely attached to the bottom of the barbecue body (10) in
line with the adjustment and storage bracket (15). Each support has a
proximal end (not numbered) and a distal end (not numbered). The proximal
end of each support is integrally formed with the first cross member and
extends down parallel to the other support. The first cross member of
pivoting leg (22) is longer than the second cross member on the adjustment
leg (21) so the adjustment leg (21) folds inside the pivoting leg (22)
when the folding leg assembly (20) is folded. The pivoting leg (22) is
pivotally attached to the adjustment leg (21) near midpoints of the
supports of the pivoting leg (22) and the adjustment leg (21). A
telescopic end tube (221) is mounted on the distal end of each support and
is the same as the telescopic feet (211) on the adjustable leg (21) so is
not further described. The wheels (222) are attached respectively to the
telescopic end tubes (221) on the supports of the pivoting leg (22) near
the closed end.
To extend the folding legs, the pivot leg (22) is pulled away from the
bottom of the barbecue body (10) and the transverse storage rod (215) on
the adjustable leg (21) is released from the storage notch (152). The
second cross member of the adjustment leg (21) is moved along the barbecue
body (10) until the adjustment leg (21) and the pivoting leg (22) form a
cross. Then the latch ring (214) on the second cross member of the
adjustment leg (21) is hooked selectively into one of the multiple
adjustment hooks (151) on the adjustment and storage bracket (15). The
telescopic feet (211) and the telescopic end tubes (221) can be extended
or retracted to adjust the total length of folding leg assembly (20) and
the height of the barbecue body (10).
With reference of FIG. 4, the height of the barbecue body (10) can be
further adjusted by the selection of which multiple adjustment hooks (151)
is connected to the latch ring (214). Selecting an adjustment hook (151)
near an outer edge of the barbecue body (10) lowers the height of the
barbecue body (10). The barbecue grill with folding legs as described can
be adjusted to a person's body height.
With reference to FIG. 5, the latch ring (214) is released from the
adjustment hooks (151) in the adjustment and storage bracket (15), and the
adjustment leg (21) is pivoted so the cross members of the adjustment leg
(21) and the pivoting leg (22) correspond to fold the legs (21, 22) under
the bottom of the base (12). The transverse storage rod (215) on the
adjustment leg (21) is hooked into the storage notch (152) to hold the
legs (21, 22) in a stored position. The telescopic feet (211) and the
telescopic end tubes (221) can be retracted by pressing the buttons and
pushing the telescopic feet (211) and the telescopic end tubes (221)
toward their respective supports. Because the folding leg assembly (20) of
the barbecue grill can be folded, the barbecue grill with folding legs can
be stored at a smaller space or used on a table.
The invention may be varied in many ways by a person skilled in the art.
Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and
scope of the invention, and all such modifications are intended to be
included within the scope of the following claims.
*
