Assisting Your Next Adventure
During my stint at Innovation Hub, we had a walk-in ask that pertained to a special project. We were tasked with coming up with an innovative way to stow a heavy off-road spare wheel & tire combo on the back of an SUV/truck tailgate. This needed to be done in such a way that also assists the user in lowering/raising it to and from the ground for use/exchange, while also employing a mechanism that required minimum effort from the user. Thus, this problem was an interesting one to truly understand as the application was targeted towards a wide-ranging demographic. I was the iHub lead for this project, as I oversaw our internal customer’s requirements, the ideation process, as well as prototyping.
As much of what came out of the project is under non-disclosure, I cannot speak to or show the specifics of today’s progress of the project. In all, we had moved on to creating 6 small-scale prototypes as well 4 larger scale ones that are currently in testing (with patents pending). Below are graphics and demonstrations of ideas that I personally contributed, showcasing a glimpse of my ideation process; furthermore, some of these proposals advanced to the prototype phase. Included in the early proposal images below are 2 stowable rack & pinon designs, a cable lift system, and a stowable crank system. Additionally featured, are more economical and simpler/intuitive designs such as having the user leverage the wheel itself to roll down a rack system requiring no additional tools, and a split wheel that reduces component weight. Immediately shown below is a minimum viable product example that I created for one of my rack and pinon ideas; it fully functions and is made entirely out of Legos.
