1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to self-contained gas burning heaters and in particular it relates to a self-contained gas burning heater specifically adapted for use on a golf cart.
2. Background Art
Cold weather golfing is becoming more and more popular. Depending upon the geography and climatic conditions, golf can be played all year around. However, in particularly cold climates, because of the nature of the game, it is undesirable to wear heavy winter clothing, e.g. a ski parka and ski gloves, as they severely limit the flexibility of the golfer. The cold weather golfer is forced to wear fairly light clothing and therefor from time to time needs to get out of the cold.
Heretofore, the solution has been to rig up a commercially available portable propane heater in the golf cart. The problem is that none of them are specifically adapted for use in golf carts and consequently are bulky, space consumptive, and dangerous.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,911 to Sanchez discloses an auxiliary vehicle space heater. The auxiliary vehicle space heater taught by Sanchez uses a portable fuel source such as a propane bottle and a suitable burner is connection with a heat exchanger to provide a convection heat source to the interior of a closed vehicle. Sanchez further teaches the use of an electric fan to aid in the circulation of heated air. Unfortunately, the apparatus of Sanchez is specifically adapted for use in an automobile as opposed to a golf cart. Because a golf cart is typically open to the environment, that is it does not have a sealed cab as does an automobile, the heat exchanger unneces-sarily complicates the apparatus. Additionally, the use of a forced air fan would require an electrical hookup to the golf cart's electrical system. In the case of an electrically powered golf cart, this puts an additional strain on the already relatively low duty cycle batteries. Even if the above considerations could somehow be overcome, the amount of available space in a golf cart is severely limited and there is no place or way to mount the device of Sanchez.
What is needed is a portable fuel type heater which is specifically designed to be attached within the compartment of a golf cart. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide such a heater.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds