The Toro Company

Dennis J Berndt

Scott Michael Coffin

Daniel Mark Treu

Gerald J Pomerening

Kip S Vangsgard

David S Klis

Richard T Cairns

Richard M Olson

Rodney W Woock

A reel mower has a traction frame which carries one or more reel cutting units. Each cutting unit has a grass basket associated therewith for receiving and collecting grass clippings generated by operation of the cutting unit. Each grass basket has a forward portion of a bottom wall thereof formed by a piece of flexible material. An actuator is operatively engaged with the flexible material piece for lifting a front end of the flexible material piece upwardly relative to a rear end of the flexible material piece in response to changes in orientation between the cutting unit and the grass basket during operation of the mower to incline the flexible material piece and thereby promote the flow of grass clippings down the so inclined flexible material piece to more fully fill the grass basket.

Reel mower with reel cutting units having grass collecting baskets with deflectable bottom portions responsive to movement of the cutting units

A reel gang mower has a row of front reel cutting units and a row of rear reel cutting units that cut an unbroken swath of grass in each pass. Each cutting unit is connected for propulsion to the mower frame by a four-bar linkage having front and rear pivot links that converge towards a focal point that establishes a virtual pull point through which propulsive force acts on the cutting unit. The rear pivot links can attach to the mower frame at a selected one of different attachment points to thereby longitudinally shift the pull point fore-and-aft relative to the center of gravity of the cutting unit, thus changing the fore-and-aft weight distribution. The rear cutting units in the gang can be configured to have a tail heavy weight distribution relative to the front cutting units to help eliminate marking in the overlap areas between the cutting units.

Reel gang mower having reel cutting units with adjustable pull point locations

A rotatable brush is located adjacent to and in contact with a ground engaging roller of a cutting unit of a mower to clean debris from the roller surface. The brush includes a brush shaft having at least one flight of brush bristles releasably secured to the brush shaft by a pair of fasteners. This permits easy replacement of the flight of brush bristles without having to replace the brush shaft. One end of the brush shaft is driven by a belt drive system with the driven end of the brush shaft passing through an elongated slot in a pivotally adjustable tensioning plate. The plate can be pivoted to adjust the tension in the drive belt without moving the driven end of the brush shaft, thus not affecting or changing the position of the brush relative to the roller. Drive can be imparted to the belt drive system using a hardened cap screw that is threaded into one end of the shaft of a rotatable reel on a reel cutting unit. The head of the cap screw mates in a non-circular socket on one end of a drive shaft to transfer power to the drive shaft and, thus, to the belt drive system.

Belt driven roller brush assembly

A plurality of annular collars are provided formed from collar halves. The collar halves are at least partially separable from one another to allow the collar halves to be slipped into and around a groove in a grooved roller for a reel-type cutting unit. The collar halves can then be abutted and secured together to substantially fill in the roller groove. When collars are placed into the last two or three grooves on each end of a grooved roller, a non-shouldered grooved roller is thereby converted into a shouldered grooved roller without having to remove and replace one set of rollers with another.

Method for providing grooved roller with variable shoulders

An articulating vehicle ( ) includes a front axle ( ) operatively connected to a front frame ( ) and a rear axle ( ) is operatively connected to the rear frame ( ). A torsional joint ( ) has an inner shaft member ( ) operatively connected one of the frames and an outer hollow member ( ) operatively connected to the other of the frames. An elastomeric material ( ) is positioned between the inner member ( ) and outer member ( ). The elastic material ( ) connects the inner and outer members, whereby the frames may rotate relative to each other along the longitudinal axis as the elastomeric member ( ) is compressed and resiliently resists rotation between the frames ( and ). A torsional energy absorption suspension is provided for one of the wheels. The suspension includes a torsional joint ( ), a single A-frame member ( ). A lever arm ( ) may also be utilized to vary the preload on the torsional joint ( ).

Growing community of inventors

Eagan, MN, United States of America

Dennis J Berndt