Deere + Company

Craig Allen Richardson

James C Walters

Michael Joseph Verhulst

Roger Dale Stephenson

Allan Wesley Rosenbalm

Stephen K Parsons

Michael James Mellin

Jerry L Krafka

Frederick Carl Krambeck

Daniel Joseph Goodman

J Clark Fickle

A trailer, for a header-equipped implement, has a T-shaped main frame, with the head of the T being defined by a beam extending in the direction of travel and with the stem of the T centered between a pair of loading ramps having first end portions coupled to the beam for pivoting about a fulcrum such that the ramps are moved from a loading to a transport position by the weight of the implement when the implement is backed up the ramps to a loaded position resting on the beam and in engagement with respective bumper/latch bars fixed to the beam. Stability of the trailer is maintained during loading of the implement by parking stands, at opposite ends of the beam, which are either manually or automatically moved between support and stored positions. The wheels are each mounted to an arm having a latch hook secured thereto and which moves into latched engagement with a respective one of the bumper latch/bars to secure the implement to the trailer when the arms are raised by the implement lift cylinders to lower the header onto the frame stem. The implement has a swing tongue used to tow the trailer/implement combination endwise relative to the header. Mounted to one of the ramps is a storable trailer tongue which may be used to tow the trailer when it is empty.

Trailer for endwise transport of mower-conditioner

A rotary mower cutter disc includes a replaceable knife mount shield which, in one embodiment, comprises a unitary slotted body which is received over the edge of the disc and held in place by the knife mounting bolt. The nut holding the bolt in place is located within a cylindrical cavity of the shield. In a second embodiment, the shield in made in two pieces mounted in sandwiching relationship to the mounting location of the disc having a back-turned lip defining a slot received over the edge of the disc and with the other piece being located on the side of the disc beside the lip and forming the cylindrical cavity for protecting the nut of the knife mounting bolt.

Rotary mower cutter disc having replaceable knife mount shield

A mower-conditioner has a header equipped with a rotary cutterbar for severing crop and directing it to a crop conditioner spanning a crop discharge opening centered rearwardly of the cutterbar and having a width some-what less than the length of the cutterbar. The cutter discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbar are equipped with upright, crop converging drums. For shorter cutterbars, paddles are mounted only to the tops of the cutter discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbars for operating in conjunction with the converging drums to move cut crop inwardly and rearwardly to the crop conditioner. For cutterbars of an intermediate length, paddles are also provided on the pair of discs respectively adjacent the discs at the extreme outer ends of the cutterbar and for cutterbars having a longer length, short crop converging drums are mounted to these adjacent discs.

Cutterbar having cutting discs equipped for converging crop

A wobble drive for imparting reciprocating motion to a sickle bar includes a wobble drive shaft rotatable about a first axis and having a cylindrical wobble section formed about an axis making an angle of about 14.5.degree. to the first axis. A toroidal wobble shaft bearing housing is mounted on the wobble section by a set of wobble bearings having their outer races pressed into the bearing housing. An output yoke is coupled to the wobble shaft bearing housing for transmitting the oscillatory motion of the housing, caused by rotation of the drive shaft, to a swing arm fixed to an end of a shaft portion of the yoke. The coupling of the yoke to the wobble bearing housing is accomplished by a pair of headed spindle pins inserted, from the inside out, through pin bores provided at diametrically opposite locations in the wobble shaft bearing housing, and into respective yoke bearings mounted in the ends of a pair of yoke limbs that are joined to the yoke shaft portion. The heads of the spindle pins are respectively received in counterbored sections at the radially inner ends of the pin bores and these counterbores are blocked by outer races of the set of wobble bearings carried by the wobble bearing housing. The pins are each stepped to form first and second sections of different diameters with the radially inner section being larger than the radially outer section and sized for an interference fit with the bearing housing and with the radially outer sections being longer than the pin bores so as to permit the pins to be freely manually inserted through the pin bores and partially into the pin bearings carried by the yoke limbs, whereby the bearing housing and output yoke may be properly aligned one with the other prior to the pins being mechanically pressed into the pin bores.

Headed spindle pin for wobble-type sickle drive

A mower conditioner header has a reel which includes a plurality of rotatably mounted toothbars each carrying teeth. The toothbars are controlled during rotation of the reel so that they rock to maintain the teeth at the desired attitude relative to the crop as it is swept across a cutterbar of the harvester to be cut and then on the nip of conditioner rolls. This control of the toothbars is done by toothbar guide arms fixed to an end of each toothbar, the arms each carrying a roller which is received in an upright D-shaped cam track carried by an adjacent one of opposite side structures of the frame of the header. To permit at least one toothbar to be rotated so as to swing its associated teeth away from the vicinity of the cutterbar for permitting access for performing service on the cutterbar, the toothbar guide arm associated with this toothbar is made of inner and outer arm sections which are mounted for relative pivotal movement but which are held together for movement in unison by a selectively releasable latch pin.

Toothbar release for harvester header reel

A cutterbar for a rotary mower includes a gear housing containing a series-parallel spur gear train coupled for driving cutting units spaced along the cutterbar. The gear housing, as viewed from an end, defines a cavity which is wedge-shaped in cross section with the deep part of the wedge being located at the rear of the cutterbar. As considered when the cutterbar is leveled from end-to-end and disposed for cutting crop at a relatively high level, a top wall of the cavity extends substantially horizontally and the spur gears contained within the cavity are positioned close to and parallel to the top wall so that a substantial volume is left below the gears for containing lubricant. A plurality of fore-and-aft extending, transversely spaced ribs are formed along a bottom wall of the housing at a level below the gearing whereby the ribs serve to prevent the lubricant from moving quickly towards a lower end of the cutterbar when the latter is working on a slope. Provided in a lower rear location of each rib is an orifice which serves to permit lubricant to drain to the low end of the cutterbar when it is desired to remove the lubricant from the cutterbar by way of an appropriate drain hole. A sight gauge is provided at each end of the housing for viewing the lubricant level for aiding in leveling the cutterbar from end-to-end and then for determining if the lubricant level is that desired.

Cutterbar gear housing design for containing gear lubrication fluid

A cutterbar includes a plurality of modules connected in end-to-end relationship with each other, the modules respectively including identical cast gear housing sections which cooperate to form a gear housing in which is located a spur gear drive train. Each module includes a removably mounted cutting unit, with the cutting units having blade-carrying discs and being arranged such that the discs are indexed 90.degree. relative to each other and in counter rotating pairs, when an even number of units are used to form a cutterbar but being arranged such that the leftmost and adjacent blade-carrying discs rotate in the same direction when an odd number of modules are used. The construction of the leftmost module is such that the axis of rotation of the drive shaft of the cutting unit thereof is located rearwardly of a line of centers passing through drive shafts of the cutting units of the remaining modules whereby adequate clearance is provided between the paths of rotation of the cutting blades of the leftmost and adjacent cutting units. A unitary skid pan extends beneath and is connected to each of the modules and serves to both protect the housing sections from damage during operation and to support the modules during assembly and repair of the cutterbar.

Modular cutterbar for rotary mower

A rotary mower includes a cutterbar having a fluid-tight gear housing made up of a plurality of identical gear housing sections connected together in end-to-end relationship with each other. Each section is a casting including spaced apart top and bottom walls, the top wall being provided with a pair of circular openings and the bottom wall being provided with a pair of upwardly opening cylindrical receptacles respectively located in axial alignment with the pair of openings and having respective annular upper ends defining bearing seating surfaces. Each idler gear has a bearing received in a central bore thereof and the assembled idler gear and bearing is located in a housing section such that the inner race of the bearing rests on a selected one of the seating surfaces and is held in place by means of a stub shaft tightly received in the bearing and in a selected one of the receptacles and having an enlarged head which is tightly received in the opening which is aligned with the receptacle. An o-ring seal is received in a groove located circumferentially in the head and operates to prevent leakage of lubricating fluid from the gear housing. A cap screw is threaded axially through the stub shaft and into the bottom wall of the module and operates to hold the stub shaft in place with its enlarged head being held tightly against the bearing. A second o-ring seal is provided at the bottom of each receptacle for preventing leakage along the cap screw.

Modular rotary mower cutterbar incorporating unique idler gear mounting

A hitch adapter couples a semi-integral, PTO-driven implement to a quick coupler carried by a tractor three-point hitch. The hitch adapter includes a drawbar located significantly below the level of the connection of lower three-point hitch link with the quick coupler and a parking stand is integral with the bottom of the drawbar. Lowering of the three-point hitch from a normal working position results in the stand engaging the ground to prevent interference between the hitch and the drive shaft coupling the implement to the tractor PTO shaft. Once the stand engages the ground, the hitch adapter can be disconnected from the quick coupler hooks by releasing latches associated with the lower hooks and lowering the three-point hitch.

Hitch adapter for use in connecting semi-integral, PTO-driven implements

A hitch adapter is used to couple a PTO-driven implement to a three-point hitch arrangement of a towing tractor. The implement includes a transmission housing mounted for rotation about an upright axis that passes through a ball connection effected between a drawbar of the hitch adapter and the implement tongue. The tractor power take-off shaft is connected by a telescopic drive shaft to an input shaft supported by the transmission housing for rotation about an axis extending perpendicular to and intersecting said upright axis. Provided for steering the transmission housing for maintaining the input shaft disposed in parallel relationship to the tractor power take-off shaft is a steering assembly including a pair of steering arms depending from the housing and engaging diametrically opposite locations of a cylindrical guide surface of a guide member fixed to the drawbar with the guide surface arranged concentrically to an axis located in a plane containing the previously mentioned axes and intersecting the upright axis at the ball connection.

Hitch and drive structure for PTO-driven, semi-integral implement

A hitch adapter is attached to the tongue of an implement having components adapted for being driven by a tractor power take-off shaft and is constructed to permit the implement to be semi-integrally mounted either to a tractor having a hitch arrangement consisting only of a three-point hitch or to a tractor having a hitch arrangement wherein a quick coupler is carried by its three-point hitch without necessitating a change in the length of a drive shaft interconnecting the tractor power take-off shaft with an input shaft of a transmission assembly carried by the implement tongue.

Hitch and drive structure for pto-driven, semi-integral implement

A towed implement includes apparatus adapted for being driven by a power take-off shaft of a towing tractor. The implement includes a tongue having a hitch bracket at its forward end, the bracket incorporating a ball coupler. A hitch adapter is provided for coupling the hitch bracket to a three-point hitch of the towing tractor, the adapter including a hitch bar connected to the ball coupler by a pin. The implement includes a power transmission assembly separate from the hitch adapter and including identical first and second right angle gear boxes, with the first gear box being rigidly fixed to the tongue and the second gear box being drivingly coupled to the first gear box along an axis passing through the ball coupler and about which the second gear box may rotate. The second gear box has an input shaft coupled for being driven by the tractor power take-off shaft and a steering arm is coupled to the second gear box and has an end received in a guide track fixed to the hitch adapter so as to keep the second gear box input shaft aligned with the tractor power take-off shaft.

Implement hitch adaptor and transmission assembly for allowing towing

A sickle-type mower includes a cutter bar assembly having a pair of sickles mounted for reciprocable motion along respective cutter bars. The sickles include inner knife sections located to cut against stub guards mounted at inner locations of the cutter bars, with the inner knife section of the upper sickle being disposed to cut against a finger of a double hold-down located centrally along the cutter bar assembly with its fingers disposed above respective stub guards located on opposite side of the centerline of the bar assembly.

Growing community of inventors

Ottumwa, IA, United States of America

Craig Allen Richardson