Coupling a towing vehicle and a towed vehicle together is in many cases a difficult task. Generally, the towed vehicle has a tongue with an eye at its tip and the towing vehicle has a hitch. Thus, the towing vehicle needs to be driven rearwards in a manner such that the tongue correctly hits the hitch. This is a difficult task even when the driver is supported by a camera looking rearwards and a display showing the hitch and the tip of the tongue. After the tongue is located in the hitch, the operator needs to leave his operator's cab and lock the hitch manually.
A number of proposals were made with hitches having movable elements allowing the operator to place the towing vehicle in the vicinity of the towed vehicle and to manually move the movable element of the hitch towards the towed vehicle. Afterwards, the towing vehicle is headed forwardly and then the hitch is arrested in a transport position. This requires the operator to leave his cab twice.
In the context of agricultural tractors, hitches with actuators for altering the length of the hitch have been described for providing a connection to pulled implements.
The task of coupling a towing vehicle and a trailed vehicle together is difficult especially in agricultural harvesting conditions with uneven terrain, when a combine and a cart supporting the header of the combine need to be coupled together.
Thus, there is a need for an improved hitch assembly making coupling of two vehicles easier.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a hitch assembly that can be easily used.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds