Roper Corporation

Donald L Gobin

Joseph E Scanland

Eugene Letner

A rotary mower having an inverted housing with a discharge opening formed in the rear surface thereof, the opening having a cover plate which is hinged at the rear edge of the housing and biased into a normally closing position. The plate has a pair of integral arms projecting beyond the hinge at its lateral edges. A pair of parallel guide plates are secured to the housing in positions closely alongside the respective arms, the guide plates having angled but parallel slots extending forwardly and downwardly therein. A grass catcher is provided having a mouth dimensioned to receive the cover plate and including a support bar spaced horizontally above the mouth, the support bar, upon insertion into the slots, serving to engage the arms for progressively swinging of the cover plate into a horizontally extending position within the catcher. The arms are provided with radially facing notches complimentary to the bottoms of the respective slots for latching the bar captive with the catcher in its receiving position. A third arm is provided on the cover plate extending beyond the first two arms for purposes of manual release.

Catcher securement for rear bagger

A power lawn mower having a transversely arranged tubular grip for manual control rockable forwardly from a reference position to adjust a power control member. The grip is of oval cross section dimensioned to fit the grasp of the operator's hands. When the grip is in reference position the long dimension of the oval is angled rearwardly and downwardly so as to be substantially parallel to the operator's palms in a natural grasping position, so that the operator can sense by the orientation of his hands the neutral, or starting, position of the power control member and, upon forward rocking, the degree of departure from neutral position. A safety latch is provided for securely latching the grip in its reference position. A latch-releasing trigger on the grip is positioned to be manually engageable by at least one hand of the operator incident to grasping the grip for releasing the latch and thereby releasing the grip for forward rocking movement. The grip is coupled to the power control member by a cable having a return spring for restoring the grip to latched reference position when the grip is manually released, providing a so-called 'dead man' control.

Twist-type control handle for lawn mowers

A cutter pin for mounting on a mower disc having a keyed radial socket with a curved backstop adjacent thereto, the pin being tapered from shank to tip portion in the vertical plane but with the top portion having substantially the same maximum width as the shank in the horizontal plane to provide a flattened blade-like structure with generally parallel lateral edges. The pin is formed integrally of durable plastic having substantially the characteristics of nylon so that it stands out from the periphery in radially self-supporting position with sufficient stiffness for the cutting of grass as the disc rotates. The tip portion has a sufficiently high width-to-thickness ratio and is smoothly merged with the shank so that when the pin strikes a weighty or fixed obstruction with a force having a random vertical component it bends backwardly engaging the backstop with distributed curvature accompanied by resilient twisting of the tip portion about the pin axis so that the engaged cutting edge turns away from the obstruction and so that a relatively flat side of the tip portion is presented for idly wiping-by the obstruction. In the preferred form of the invention the pin is tapered substantially uniformly in the vertical plane from head to tip, with the tip portion being of lenticular cross section. Also in the preferred embodiment the shank is formed with longitudinal ribs of tapering height defining flutes of tapering depth between them.

Cutter pin for rotary mower having lenticular section

Cutter pin for mower

A rotary mower having a discharge chute with a downwardly angled guard for interception of missiles, the structure providing a coupling mechanism for securing a catcher to the chute, with attachment of the catcher serving to tilt the guard upwardly and to lock it in a horizontal position in which the clippings are freely discharged into the catcher. More particularly, the guard has inwardly extending projections formed with upwardly facing notches, and the chute has a cooperating outwardly facing groove. The catcher frame includes a horizontal supporting rod which is pressed against the projections incident to installing the catcher to swing the guard upwardly until the rod drops into seated position in the groove, the vertical edges of the notches serving to hold the rod captive. The rod is guided into seated position by an upstanding guide surface. An arm secured to the guard and extending inwardly into a manually accessible position is pressed to move the guard beyond its horizontal position, thereby moving the notches out of register with the groove to free the rod for removal of the catcher from the mower housing, with the guard being restored automatically to its downwardly angled position. The arm may also be manipulated, if desired, to facilitate attachment of the catcher.

Growing community of inventors

Savannah, GA, United States of America

Donald L Gobin