Deere + Company

Leon Paul Erdman

Jay H Olson

James W Hall

John R Cerny

A mower deck assembly including a unitary housing with an upper, dome-shaped portion is fabricated from a plastic or laminate material. A modular drive including blade spindles and a belt drive is assembled onto a rigid flat metal suppport plate, and the plate is lifted into position within the housing with the drive received within the dome shaped portion. The support plate is fastened to the housing, and is isolated therefrom with elastomeric material to reduce noise and vibration and seal out dust. The dome-shaped portion and the plate define a drive housing which encloses the drive and protects the spindles and belt drive from the environment. The plastic or laminate material can be easily and inexpensively formed to provide the curved surfaces and the like for the housing with the loading being absorbed by the metal support plate.

Modular mower deck with light-weight housing

A lawn and garden tractor is provided with a pair of laterally spaced mounting brackets formed to define a pair of forwardly opening receptacles located at the underside of the tractor between front wheels of the latter. Connected between the brackets and a mower located beneath the tractor is a draft frame including a transverse rod having opposite end portions respectively received in the pair of receptacles and prevented from rotating therein by a pair of spring loaded pins projecting through respective pairs of aligned apertures located in the pair of brackets and in a pair of circular plates fixed to the rod. A lever is fixed to one end of the rod to rotate the latter so as to properly dispose the circular plate for the insertion of the pins during attachment of the mower. The draft frame also includes a pair of draft arms respectively pivotally connected between the pair of plates and the mower.

Growing community of inventors

Beaver Dam, WI, United States of America

Leon Paul Erdman