US PATENT SUBCLASS 180 / 21
SPECIAL WHEEL BASE

Current as of: June, 1999
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180 /   HD   MOTOR VEHICLES

21SPECIAL WHEEL BASE {6}
22  DF  .~> Five or more wheels {12}
205  DF  .~> With mechanism of occupant-powered type for developing torque for supplementing, alternating with, or replacing torque of motor {2}
208  DF  .~> Collapsible or knockdown for storage or transport
209  DF  .~> With means for changing number of supporting wheels, or for adjusting relative location thereof
210  DF  .~> Having only three wheels {2}
218  DF  .~> Having only two wheels {1}

DEFINITION

Classification: 180/21

(under the class definition) Motor vehicles in which the arrangement of the road-wheels differs from the usual one in which straight lines joining the points of contact of the wheels with the road form approximately a rectangle when the steering-wheels are in the straightaway position.

(1) Note. In the reclassification of former subclasses 25+ ("Three wheeled") and 29+ ("Two wheeled") of this area, now subclasses 205 through 231, and in a concurrent screening of the examiner copies of the patents of this subclass (21), which subclass was not included in the reclassification project, a vehicle which is (a) disclosed solely as having a number or an arrangement of wheels whereby it constitutes a special wheel base type of vehicle, even though the specific number or arrangement of wheels is not claimed, or (b) disclosed as having both special and nonspecial (i.e., four wheels, rectangularly arranged) wheel base species, and claimed only generically, is classified here (subclasses 21 and 205 through 231); however, this statement is not applicable to subclass 22 and the subclasses indented thereunder, which subclasses were not included in the project nor were they screened.

(2) Note. Also included herein (subclasses 21 and 205 through 231) is a subcombination of a special wheel base vehicle, provided that the subcombination (a) is not specifically provided for in another class or in a superior subclass of this class and (b) is primarily relevant only to the special wheel base vehicle with which it is associated.

(3) Note. Generally, a vehicle which is disclosed solely as having a nonspecial (see (1) Note above) wheel base, but for which a number of wheels less than four is claimed, is not classified here (subclasses 21 and 205 through 231) on the basis of that specific number of wheels; rather, classification is elsewhere in the class on some other feature.

(4) Note. Insofar as subclasses 21 and 205 through 231 are concerned, the substitution of a dual wheel (i.e., two wheels having their central portions either joined back to back or else otherwise mounted in such proximity to each other that insufficient space remains therebetween for accommodating an intervening element such as a drive chain or a steering gear operating shaft) for a single wheel at one or more of the vehicle's wheel-carrying locations does not change the number of wheels thereon from the standpoint of determining the vehicle's wheel base. This statement, however, is not intended to affect the meaning assigned to "dual wheel pair" in subclass 24.03.