Mcdonough Power Equipment, Inc.

Mcdonough Power Equipment, Division of Fuqua Industries, Inc.

Harold P Jackson

Richard W Rhinehart

Clifford H Boylston

In a power-driven riding lawn mower, a safety control is provided for auttically disengaging and stopping the cutting blade when the operator leaves the lawn mower or raises his feet while seated on the lawn mower. The control is operated through a foot bar engageable by the operator's feed to permit the cutting blade to rotate during a cutting operation but when the operator raises his feet from the foot bar or dismounts from the mower, the control will activate mechanisms for disengaging the drive and applying a positive brake to the cutting blade. While the control will permit the operator to manually disengage the drive and apply a brake to the cutting blade while the foot bar is depressed by the operator's feet, the control will not permit the operator to reengage the drive while the foot bar is depressed.

Safety control for riding lawn mower

An adjustable axle support system for a lawn mower for supporting the whe and blade housing at a preselectable elevation in accordance with a desired cutting height of the grass cutting blade which is rotatable in a horizontal plane within the blade housing of the mower. The system includes brackets fixed to the opposite ends of the front and rear sections of the blade housing with the axles received in vertical slots formed in the brackets. Axle bearings are slidable on the axles for receipt in enlarged openings formed along the slots in the brackets. The axle bearings are biased into the selected enlarged openings by coil compression springs received about the axles. Adjustment of the height of the blade housing and in turn the cutting blade is achieved simply by retracting the bearings along the axles against the bias of the springs and moving the axles along the slots in the brackets into the desired elevation and then placing the bearings into the appropriate enlarged openings along the bracket slots.

Adjustable axle support system for lawn mower

A rotary lawn mower apparatus including a mower housing and an annular muing liner attachment mounted within the mower housing and extending above the rotating cutter blade. The mulching liner includes integrally formed guide vanes for directing the clippings inwardly toward the center of the mower housing where they pass downwardly through the plane of the rotating cutter blade to be finely mulched and propelled below the cutting plane onto the ground for maximum mulching efficiency.

Rotary lawn mower with removable mulching attachment

Blade housing for a lawn mower

A cutting blade assembly for a lawn mower is provided with mechanism for prestressing the blade to lessen vibration during use and also for adjusting the blade so as to accurately position and align the blade relative to the associated blade housing so that the blade operates in a horizontal plane. This prestressing and adjusting mechanism may also be employed to compensate for any misalignment in the mounting of the blade spindle relative to the blade housing. In one specific embodiment in which the blade is bolted to a blade support bar which, in turn, is fixed to a vertical spindle mounted centrally to the blade housing, the prestressing and adjusting mechanism is achieved by pressure-applying bolts or screws threaded through the blade support bar on opposite sides of the spindle so as to be engageable with the blade. Advancement of the screws serves to deflect the blade downwardly to prestress the blade and/or to position the blade in a desired horizontal plane. Lock nuts are provided about the screws to engage the blade support bar and fix the screws in position after adjustment.

Blade assembly for lawn mowers

A riding mower having an improved blade housing and blade assembly for generating exceedingly high vacuum under the blade housing for facilitating cutting, conveyance and discharge of grass clippings into a two-wheeled cart which trails the mower through means of a hitch. Grass clippings leave and are conveyed from the blade housing to the cart in a straight line through a conduit including telescoping chutes which permit the conduit to elongate or retract to accommodate change in lengths between the blade housing and the cart during operation. The cart has an open top covered by a canopy including a flexible front wall portion which receives an elbow chute to which one of the telescoping discharge chutes is attached. The canopy is pivotally mounted to the front of the cart, and a linkage is provided such that, to discharge the grass clippings, the canopy merely has to be raised through pivoting action which will cause the rear of the cart to pivot downwardly towards the ground as the canopy is being raised so that the contents will discharge by gravity through the rear of the cart. In another use of the mower, the cart is unhitched and another grass collecting assembly is substituted by mounting it directly to frame portions of the mower at its rear. The mower may also be converted for discharging the grass clippings from the blade housing laterally onto the ground without collection.

Growing community of inventors

McDonough, GA, United States of America

Harold P Jackson