| 摘要 |
A telescoping tire inflation apparatus (10) for inflating wheel-mounted tires having a variety of different diameters and widths without requiring a hardware change. The apparatus includes a bell assembly that moves from a retracted position to an extended position where either an outer bell housing (24) or an inner bell housing (38) engages a larger-sized (14) or smaller-sized (12) wheel-mounted tire, respectively. A controller presets the inner bell housing (38) to either a retracted position (42) wherein the inner bell housing (38) is disposed within the outer bell housing (24) or an extended position (40) where the inner bell housing (38) telescopes downwardly from the outer bell housing (24). The inner bell housing (38) can be moved to its extended position (40) to push downward upon the sidewall of a relatively smaller-sized (12) wheel-mounted tire, thereby creating a gap between the tire bead (18) and the rim (16) of the wheel through which compressed air supplied to the inner bell housing (38) enters the tire at a high rate. With the inner bell housing (38) in the retracted position (42) the outer bell housing (24) is capable of doing the same for a larger-sized (14) wheel-mounted tire.
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