Hesston Corporation

Great Bend Manufacturing Co., Inc.

Harold Keith Garrison

Allen A White

Martin E Pruitt

Howard J Ratzlaff

Cecil L Case

Thomas G Schrag

George Yatcilla

Amos G Hill

John Dale Anderson

Merle Keith Burkhart

Bruce Leo Lutz

David E Schneider

An improved quick attach system for removably attaching an implement, such as a bucket, to a front end loader includes a quick attach assembly connected to the lift arms and tilt operators of the front end loader. A pair of alignment members mate with alignment recesses on the bucket while a pair of spring-urged locking pins mate with a pair of brackets on the bucket. A common scissors-type pin retraction assembly is connected to the locking pins with a single release handle provided to move the pins between locked and release positions. The handle moves within a slot between as the pins move between the locked and release positions and a detent is provided for holding the handle, and the locking pins, in the release position. The handle is automatically urged from the detent position by a locking member on the loader as the bucket is attached to the loader, thus allowing the pins to lock into place in the bucket brackets.

Quick attach system for front end loader

The rectangular forage receiving box or hopper of a crop transporting vehicle is stowed in a compacted, generally upright and squared-up position for over-the-road travel, yet may be rotated into a tilted more spacious and functional position for field operations. When in its field operating position, the bottom of the box is inclined upwardly and outwardly toward an unfolded spout along which crop materials can be conveyed to unload the contents of the box on-the-go into a moving truck pulled alongside of the vehicle and beneath the overhanging spout. The conveyor may be selectively deactivated when the truck is filled and until the next empty truck is moved into position, during which intermediate time the harvesting operations may continue and materials may be temporarily accumulated within the box. A special mounting linkage arrangement supports the box on the vehicle frame in such a manner that the center of gravity of the box remains substantially directly above the center of the underlying vehicle frame and between spaced apart ground wheels thereof notwithstanding rotation of the box from its over-the-road orientation to its tilted field operating mode.

Self-unloading on-the-go forage hopper

A self-propelled farm implement has independent front and rear, wheel supported frames articulated therebetween for execution of turns by operator steering of the front frame from within a cab that is, in turn, mounted on the front frame. The rear frame carries a crop receiving bin which, except for my oscillator limit incorporated in the combination, would be engaged by the cab under certain unlevel ground conditions, causing substantial damage. The front frame is tiltable about a fore and aft axis within a range defined by interengageable stops between the front frame and its coupling link. The stops on the front link are in the form of pivoted members which abut lugs on the rear frame causing the members to swing about their pivots during turning movements. The effect is to progressively limit the extent of tilt as full turns are approached to prevent cab-bin interengagement regardless of the nature of ground contour as the vehicle is steered off a straight path of travel. In the event, intermediate the turning movements, the front frame has reached its maximum tilt, further turning is precluded which also prevents damage to equipment carried by the frames.

Oscillator limit in articulated land vehicle

The thrower is attached to the discharge end of a baler in position to receive bales successively issuing therefrom. A pair of generally superimposed conveyors of the thrower operate at relatively high speeds compared to the speed at which the bales issue from the baler, and as the leading end of each bale enters the awaiting thrower, the high speed conveyors grab the bale and propel it upwardly and rearwardly toward an awaiting receptacle such as a trailing wagon. The upper conveyor is so mounted that it clamps down in a self-actuating manner against the bale as the latter enters the thrower and makes engagement with the propelling surfaces of the conveyors, such clamping action arising from the reaction force generated by the slowly moving bale contacting the rapidly moving surface of the upper conveyor.

Anti-slip bale thrower

A folding implement has a pair of oppositely, laterally projecting tool beams which pivot about vertical axes between wide-spread, working positions and fold-back, transport positions in which the beams are substantially parallel to the path of travel of the implement. A secondary tool assembly situated behind the primary tool beams can swing about a transverse horizontal axis between a fully raised position for transport and a fully lowered position for working the ground. Push rod structure interconnects the secondary assembly with the primary beams so that as the primary beams are swung back to their transport positions, the secondary assembly is raised to its upper position, and conversely, as the primary beams are swung forwardly into their working positions, the secondary assembly is lowered into its ground-engaging position.

Foldable implement with raisable tool assembly

A horizontally folding implement has a pair of tool-supporting beams that project laterally outwardly from opposite sides of the central, fore-and-aft extending frame of the implement when the beams are in their widespread, working positions. A pair of vertical pivots on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of the frame adapt the beams for horizontal swinging between such working position and a folded, transport position, while a pair of horizontal pivots adapt the beams for limited vertical swinging movement in order to accommodate variations in ground contour. A pivotal coupling between the proximal inner ends of the beams when the latter are in their working positions keeps the two inner ends at the same height relative to one another during terrain variations encountered by the ground wheels or the tools of the beams, but the coupling does not inhibit horizontal swinging of the beams between their working and transport positions.

Folding tool beams with level equalizer therebetween

The pull-type rake is designed to remain in a preselected trailing position relative to the towing vehicle while the raking head may be cocked to the right or left without the operator leaving the driver's seat, thereby placing the head in condition to deliver raked material leftwardly or rightwardly depending upon the selected angular position for the head. The main chassis of the implement is constructed in the form of a parallel, four-bar linkage that may be skewed by the operator into leftwardly or rightwardly oblique positions relative to the path of travel of the implement, thereby cocking the rake head accordingly, and the head itself includes a frame and a reel carried thereby, both of which are constructed in the nature of parallel, four-bar linkages so that they, too, can be skewed by the operator. In a fully skewed position, crop-engaging tines of the reel move leftwardly or rightwardly at substantially right angles to the path of travel of the implement so as to maximize the efficiency of the side-delivery action of the rake.

Two-way rake

A belt transmission has a clutch that keeps both belts moving in the same direction when the transmission is in the forward mode and slackens only one of the belts during the usually brief interval that the transmission is placed in its reverse mode with the other belt moving in the reverse direction. Both belts share a common actuating lever having a lost motion coupling with one of the belts so that the lever can be placed in a neutral position in which neither of the belts is driven, even though power continues to be delivered to the transmission. The drive train that supplies such power accomplishes a substantially right-angle drive from the swingable tongue of the machine without a gear box by connecting a number of universal joints in a series that cuts across the corner between the swingable tongue and the main drive shaft of the transmission.

Drive train and transmission for forage harvester

Large round bales are gathered in the field with a towable implement having a long bed that may be tipped forwardly or rearwardly to the ground about an intermediate transverse axis in order to accomplish front or rear loading of the implement. Bales are successively loaded by driving laterally spaced beams of the inclined bed under the bales as conveyor chains on the beams draw the bales in the opposite direction up onto the beams, whereupon the bed is leveled out for transporting the picked up bales. Unloading is accomplished by inclining the bed appropriately and driving the bales off the beams with the conveying chains as the beams are simultaneously drawn out from under the bales. The bed may be disposed either directly behind its towing vehicle or off to one side thereof by virtue of a hydraulically controlled, articulated tongue, and bale loading and unloading is facilitated by virtue of the absence of any interfering drive shafts across the beams at their opposite ends.

Multiple round bale mover

A belt transmission has a clutch that keeps both belts moving in the same direction when the transmission is in the forward mode and slackens only one of the belts during the usually brief interval that the transmission is placed in its reverse mode with the other belt moving in the reverse direction. Both belts share a common actuating lever having a lost motion coupling with one of the belts so that the lever can be placed in a neutral position in which neither of the belts is driven, even though power continues to be delivered to the transmission. The drive train that supplies such power accomplishes a substantially right-angle drive from the swingable tongue of the machine without a gear box by connecting a number of universal joints in a series that cuts across the corner between the swingable tongue and the main driven shaft of the transmission.

The discharge end of a bale chamber may be constricted or enlarged such that bales being packed rearwardly through the chamber may be increased or decreased in density by regulating their resistance to exit from the chamber. Bell cranks at the four corners of the chamber are coupled with shiftable walls of the latter in such a way that pressure increases or decreases are simultaneously experienced by all of the walls upon introduction or release of hydraulic fluid to a pair of power devices which interconnect the two cranks on each side of the chamber. The two legs of each bell crank are of equal radial length with respect to the axis of swinging movement of the crank so that equal moment arms are produced by such legs to accomplish substantially uniform pressure around the bale within the chamber.

Density control mechanism for crop baler

The discharge spout of the pickup in a stack-forming machine is provided with baffle structure inside the spout and adjacent the discharge opening that oscillates horizontally and continuously through a stream of crops being projected into the forming body of the machine in order to break up wads and clumps of matter in the stream and to evenly distribute the stream from side-to-side within the body. One embodiment utilizes a single, centrally disposed fin as the baffle structure, while another employs a pair of such fins angled acutely with respect to one another, centered in the spout and controlled to preclude swinging of each fin inwardly beyond a position parallel to the direction of crop flow.

Stack-forming machine having uniform loading control

A sickle drive has a sway bar that is coupled with the sickle to reciprocate the latter during oscillation of the sway bar. The latter is operably coupled with a crank drive through a special linkage employing a pair of oppositely extending, short pitman links that compensate for one another adjacent opposite ends of the sickle stroke to vary the velocity of the sickle substantially sinusoidally. The oppositely directed inertia forces of the sickle adjacent opposite ends of its stroke, made equal by the special linkage, are balanced out by a pair of superimposed, oppositely rotating weights driven in timed relationship to reciprocation of the sickle, thereby presenting a substantially vibration-free drive.

Balanced sickle drive

In the stacking of hay or other crops, a windrow or swath is lifted off the ground, fed into a pile collected by a vehicle-supported, stack-forming body and the pile compressed from time to time in the body, all in a continuous operation as the vehicle is advanced across the field, by virtue of the provision of an accumulator which receives the crop while the pile is being compressed, and from which accumulator the crop so accumulated is thereupon dumped onto the compressed pile as the latter is held against expansion by a holding assembly.

Growing community of inventors

Newton, KS, United States of America

Harold Keith Garrison