1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus for providing control over both a transmission of a vehicle and an implement, such as a snow plow, mounted on that vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Oftentimes, a plow, particularly a snow plow, is mounted on the front of a general purpose vehicle, such as a truck or tractor, and various driver actuated controls for raising, lowering and/or angling the plow are appropriately situated in the cab of the vehicle. To effectively plow an area, the driver faces the tasks of controlling both the movement of the vehicle and the position of the plow. Usually, to control the vehicle, the driver must maintain one hand on its steering wheel and the other on its transmission lever. Generally, the driver actuated plow controls, which typically comprise one or more levers, are usually mounted below or underneath the dashboard of the vehicle. Typically, to re-position the plow, the driver must first stop the vehicle, in order to take his hand off the transmission lever, and then lean down and appropriately operate the snow plow controls. Thereafter, the driver returns to his normal seated position to set the vehicle in motion. If a relatively large unobstructed area, such as a highway, is being plowed, then the tasks of controlling both the vehicle and the plow are relatively effortless. The driver firsts positions the plow and then starts the vehicle moving. In such a case, relatively little time is spent positioning the plow and the majority is spent controlling the movement of the vehicle. By contrast, these tasks become very time-consuming and fatiguing whenever relatively small or densely packed areas, such as residental streets or driveways, are to be plowed. Here, to avoid obstructions, the driver must constantly stop the vehicle, re-position the plow, and then restart the vehicle in motion. Unfortunately, in this situation, the driver wastes considerable time and is easily fatigued through excess repetitive efforts which entail stopping the vehicle, taking his hand off the transmission lever, bending down, operating the plow controls, returning to his normal driving position and then re-starting the vehicle in motion by shifting gears, steering and appropriately depressing the accelerator. It will be understood that with some prior art controls it is not always necessary to stop the vehicle to re-position the plow. Nonetheless, the driver must still take one hand off the gear shift or transmission lever to re-position the plow, and, if a change in gears is required while the plow is being re-positioned, this can not be readily accomplished with these prior art controls.
Various arrangements exist in the art to control the position of a plow. See, for example, that disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,221,266 (issued to Fardal on Sept. 9, 1980); 4,026,048 (issued to Hill et al on May 31, 1977) and 3,585,319 (issued to Payerle on June 15, 1971). Other arrangements, typified by that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,009 (issued to Brown on Mar. 2, 1976), exist for shift levers to control vehicular transmissions. However, none of these arrangements minimizes the fatigue associated with operating a snow plow by eliminating the excess repetitive efforts required of a driver.