Ford New Holland, Inc.

Sperry Corporation

New Holland Inc.

New Holland North America, Inc.

Gilbert W Linde

Shaun A Seymour

James T Clevenger, Jr

Emmett G Webster

Joseph C Hurlburt

Carl E Bohman

Warren H Brackbill

John K Hale

Loren G Sadler

Norman M Stauffer

Howard A Winey

A pivotable tractor fender assembly permits the fender to follow the turning movements of the front wheels of a tractor, yet be pivotable relative to the corresponding front wheel so that the fender will not engage the chassis of the tractor. A fixed control link is pivotally connected between the fender base and the front axle to provide a fixed distance between the respective connection points. The control link will limit the pivotal movement of the fender and effect a relative pivotal movement thereof relative to the corresponding front wheel as the front wheel is turned. The geometry of the pivotable fender assembly is such that the fender lags more behind the corresponding front wheel during an inboard turn than during an outboard turn. This geometry prevents the pivoted fenders from impacting the tractor chassis on tight turns.

Pivotable fender for tractors

A manure spreader has a tank with endwalls including guides for receiving opposite ends of a rotating auger shaft thus permitting a change of position of the rotating auger in the tank relative to the manure. The auger may change position in response to the condition of the manure or may be a controlled change in response to actuation of fluid powered pistons.

Manure spreader having floating auger

A tractor having a steerable axle that pivotally moves laterally in response to a corresponding steering action of the steerable wheels mounted on the steerable axle is disclosed wherein the front of the axle is pivotally supported by a four-bar linkage to control vertical movement of the chassis relative to the steerable axle during lateral relative movement between the chassis and the axle. The mechanism is composed of a spherical ball joint connecting the steerable axle to the chassis, a front carrier member pivotally connected to the chassis, and a pair of link members pivotally interconnecting the carrier member and the steerable axle. All pivot axes associated with the carrier member and the link members coincide at the spherical ball joint.

Steerable axle support linkage

Crop conditioner flail

Manure spreader auger indicator

A forage harvester having a feed mechanism for transporting crop material along a feed path to a rotating cutterhead is provided with a first detector for detecting metal objects in the crop material and a second detector for detecting hard objects. The feed mechanism includes a hollow feed roll rotatable about a fixed shaft and both detectors are supported by the fixed shaft inside the feed roll. The first detector is a metal detector mounted inside a housing supported by the fixed shaft. The second detector is a thin film microphone for sensing air-borne sound waves produced when hard objects impact the feed roll. The second detector may be mounted on the housing or, alternatively, mounted on a support member attached to the fixed shaft. In either arrangement, a vibration-absorbing pad is provided to isolate the microphone from mechanical vibrations occurring in its supporting structure.

Metal and hard object detectors with shared fixed support inside a feed

A manure spreader has a tank with endwalls including guides for receiving opposite ends of a rotating auger shaft thus permitting a change of position of the rotating auger in the tank relative to the manure. The auger may change position in response to the condition of the manure or may be a controlled change in response to actuation of fluid powered pistons. A sealing mechanism is provided to prevent the loss of manure from inside the tank while permitting vertical movement of the auger within slots in the tank endwalls. The seals include a plate and compression springs interposed between the plate and the auger bearings to place an axial load on the seal via the auger.

Seal for manure spreader floating auger

A method of conditioning forage crops utilizing a pair of counterrotating conditioning rolls mounted in a hay harvesting machine is disclosed wherein at least one of the conditioning rolls is transversely reciprocated relative to the other conditioning roll. An oscillating mechanism is provided to effect the transverse reciprocating movement of the conditioning rolls. The method of conditioning can be accomplished by a conditioning mechanism in which the entire conditioning roll is transversely reciprocated while being rotated or by a conditioning roll in which individual lobes circumferentially mounted for transverse reciprocation around the conditioning roll core effect the sliding action while being rotated.

Method of conditioning forage crops

A conditioning roll for use in a conditioning mechanism on a hay harvesting machine is disclosed wherein the conditioning roll is formed by a plurality of axially stacked lobed rings movably mounted on a core member rotatably supported by the hay harvesting machine. Key members affixed to the core and engaged with slots in the lobed rings effect a rotation of the lobed rings with the core. An oscillating mechanism is operatively associated with the lobed rings to position the lobed rings in a plane non-perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the core. The oscillating mechanism effects an oscillating movement of the lobed rings during rotation of the core to provide a transverse movement of the outer peripheral surface of the lobed rings while in engagement with the crop material to effect a more aggressive conditioning thereof.

Lobed ring conditioning roll

A conditioning roll is disclosed wherein the roll has a hollow core of a predetermined length with a plurality of axially aligned, outwardly projecting guide rails detachably connected thereto around the outer circumference of the core. Each guide rail is associated with an elastomeric lobe having a predetermined shape and being mounted on the guide rail for axial slidable movement relative thereto. The guide rails are preferably of a T-shaped cross-sectional configuration to maintain the position of the lobe radially relative to the core.

Conditioning roll structure

A conditioning roll for use in a conditioning mechanism on a hay harvesting machine is disclosed wherein the conditioning roll is formed by a plurality of individual lobes slidably mounted on transverse guide members detachably affixed to a core member. Each lobe is connected to a lobe reciprocating apparatus for effecting a transverse reciprocating sliding movement with respect to the core of the conditioning roll while the respective conditioning roll is being rotated. The conditioning mechanism is provided with a pair of intermeshing conditioning rolls connected to respective lobe reciprocating apparatus so that the lobes on the respective conditioning rolls are transversely moving in opposite directions at the throat formed between the rolls through which crop material passes to be conditioned in an aggressive manner.

Reciprocating lobed conditioning rolls

A counterweight mechanism for use in conjunction with a conditioning apparatus having a reciprocating conditioning roll is disclosed wherein the counterweight is mounted within the hollow core of the reciprocating conditioning roll and connected to an ocillating mechanism to effect a transverse reciprocating movement thereof in opposition to the reciprocating movement of the conditiioning roll. The ocillating mechanism can include a cam mechanism operatively associated with the counterweight and housed internally of the conditioning roll to effect a linearly reciprocal movement of the counterweight in response to the rotation of the reciprocating conditioning roll. The counterweight can be slidably mounted on a non-circular shaft corresponding to the reciprocating conditioning roll so that the counterweight is rotatable with the conditioning roll yet is linearly moveable relative thereto.

Counterweight for reciprocating conditioning roll

In a manure spreader for handling slurry material, an auger is mounted in the bottom of a tank and an expeller is disposed at an opening in the tank to discharge material therefrom. A drive system is provided to rotate the auger and the expeller in different directions when the drive system is connected to a tractor PTO. the drive system includes a series of drive members such as chains and sprockets arranged and connected to cause rotation of the expeller in the same direction as the tractor PTO and rotation of the auger in the opposite direction at a substantially slower speed than the expeller.

Manure spreader drive system

An expeller for discharging manure from the tank of a manure spreader avoids severe deformation when contacting rocks in the manure by having paddles fastened with shear bolts which are designed to fail whenever a predetermined load is exerted on the outer ends of the paddles. If the shear bolts fastening any one of the paddles should fail while the expeller is operating to discharge manure from the tank of a manure spreader, that paddle will be moved to a retracted position and will be held there until new shear bolts can be installed.

Expeller for manure spreaders

A slurry type manure spreader having an auger rotatably mounted in a tank and power devices such as hydraulic cylinders for raising the auger in the tank. Resilient devices such as springs are connected to the ends of the auger to urge the auger downwardly in the tank. The auger may move upwardly in the tank by itself independently of the power devices while being constantly urged downwardly by the resilient devices.

Growing community of inventors

New Holland, PA, United States of America

Gilbert W Linde