Appeal No. 2003-0677 Page 8
Application No. 09/759,950
other desired position. After loading operations are completed, platform 34 is manually
pivoted from the horizontal position of Figure 4 to the vertical tailgate position of Figure
5 and the manual effort required is greatly reduced by the helper springs 102.
Mortenson's invention is especially designed to provide a lift gate in which the
linkage is so arranged as to lie in underlying supporting relationship to the platform
when the platform is in its stored position to fully support the platform assembly and to
minimize rattling and the accompanying jarring road shock impacts on the lift linkage.
As shown in Figure 1, the rear of the load carrying bed B of a truck T has a fixed
rearward extension plate 46 attached thereto to partially shield the lift gate linkage when
in its stored position and to serve as a mounting member for a latching mechanism and
as an aligning member cooperable with load supporting platform 28 when in its raised
position. As best seen in Figures 2 and 3, load supporting platform 28 has a pair of
fixedly mounted forwardly projecting pins 48 located at the front edge of the platform
adjacent each side of the platform. A downwardly turned flange 50 at the rearward
edge of extension plate 46 is formed with elongate slots 52 into which pins 48 project
when the platform 28 is at its elevated position, shown in broken line in Figure 3. When
received within slots 52, pins 48 function to prevent further upward movement of
platform 28, thereby establishing its upper limit of movement, while at the same time
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