US Patent Issued to CURT Manufacturing on July 8 for "Fifth wheel hitch" (Wisconsin Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,351,255, issued on July 8, was assigned to CURT Manufacturing LLC (Eau Claire, Wis.).

"Fifth wheel hitch" was invented by Joel D. Diller (Eau Claire, Wis.) and Wolfe C. Parzyck (Colfax, Wis.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A fifth wheel hitch has a base attachable to a towing vehicle, a seat attachable at a selected elevation above the base, and a kingpin adapter attachable to a kingpin of a trailer so as to permit rotation of the kingpin adapter relative to the kingpin about a kingpin rotation axis. The seat has a mouth which narrows in the longitudinal direction, such as by having a pyramidal shape. A bottom of the kingpin adapter has a ...