Agco Corporation

Hay & Forage Industries

Hesston Corporation

Tribine Industries, LLC

Martin E Pruitt

Cecil L Case

Brendon C Nafziger

Michael L O'Halloran

Douglas Ray Treffer

Kurt Graber

David P Fritz

Stanley R Clark

Shane A Bollinger

H Keith Garrison

Howard J Ratzlaff

Brian D Olander

Melvin V Gaeddert

Dwight E Nickel

Howard R Lohrentz

Jeffrey Funk

James W Schroeder

Adin F Holdeman

Raymond F Schmitt

Douglas R Treffer

Robert A Matousek

Daniel J Soldan

Harold Keith Garrison

Darren J Nelson

Dillon M Thompson

John Dale Anderson

Richard James Buller

Galen C Doud

Deroy Ernest Mahagan

Treg Shidler

Jeffrey S Funk

An improved feeder house assembly has a front end header adapter assembly formed from a front hook assembly for carrying a grainhead and a front header cradle assembly supporting the front hook assembly and including a pair of frame assemblies, each frame assembly having mated top domed surfaces. One of the frame assemblies is stationary and the other frame assembly has laterally tilting along the mated top domed surfaces along an arc of rotation by a pair of linear actuators located at either top side of the front end header adaptor and tangential to the arc of rotation.

Feeder having lateral tilt for an agricultural harvesting combine

A windrower has a first dual-path steering mode, causing a left drive wheel and a right drive wheel to concurrently rotate, wherein the rotation of the left drive wheel is in a direction opposite that of the rotation of the right drive wheel and the position of tailwheel casters are not controlled but are permitted unconstrained rotation. The windrower also has a second tailwheel steering mode non-overlapping in operation with the dual-path steering mode, causing the left drive wheel and the right drive wheel to rotate concurrently in only a same direction and the tailwheel casters are steered based in part on tailwheel caster steer position information received from a sensor.

Self-propelled agricultural machine with dual driving modes

A harvesting header has an outer impeller fixed to an outermost outboard cutter for rotation therewith to convey cut crop material laterally inwardly toward the center of the header. The outer impeller has a lower disc member forming the bottom of an impeller cage and an upper stationary grass ring. An intermediate impeller is located between the axes of rotation of the two outboard cutters, wherein the intermediate cage-like impeller is suspended on the harvesting header above the cutting plane and not fixed to any of the cutters and rotates in the same direction as the outboard impeller. The outboard and intermediate impellers have a plurality of crop conveying discs, wherein the crop conveying discs on the outboard impeller are offset vertically and overlap horizontally with the crop conveying discs on the intermediate impeller to form an intermeshing region between the two impellers.

Wide cut rotary header having vertically intermeshed crop conveying discs

A harvesting header has a crop conveying element fixed to an outboard cutter of a cutter bed. The crop conveying element includes at least one slinger attached to an upstanding spacer to space the slinger apart from a top wall of the cutter. The slinger includes a flat disc with a plurality of lobes extending outwardly from a central portion thereof and the spacer is shorter than an outer impeller such that a top extremity of the slinger is spaced below an upper level of an outer impeller. The spacer is also smaller in diameter than the outer impeller so as to provide a space below the slinger to allow flow of the crop material over the second outboard cutter, the space between the top wall of the cutter and the slinger being at least half of the height between a lower disc member and upper stationary grass ring of the outer impeller.

Wide cut rotary header having crop conveying slinger

A pull-type mower conditioner includes a crop cutting assembly that severs crop material from the ground and a lift mechanism configured to raise and lower the crop cutting assembly to a desired height having at least one lift cylinder and a hydraulic lift circuit supplying hydraulic fluid to the at least one lift cylinder. The mower conditioner also includes a conditioning mechanism receiving the severed crop material from the crop cutting assembly. The conditioning mechanism includes a pair of counter-rotating conditioning rolls to condition the crop material and a tensioning assembly that urges the conditioning rolls relatively toward one another and resists their separation. The tensioning assembly includes a pair of hydraulic tension cylinders and a hydraulic conditioner circuit configured to supply hydraulic fluid to the tension cylinders. The hydraulic tension circuit has a supply line leading to a supply valve, wherein the supply line connects to the lift circuit.

Hydraulic conditioner roll tension in pull-type mower conditioner

A drawbar hitch mechanism has a fore-and-aft extending receiver, a gearbox assembly coupled to the receiver and a tongue assembly attached to the gearbox assembly. A first pivot mechanism couples the receiver with the gearbox assembly for side-to-side movement about a longitudinal axis of the receiver. A draft arm is configured to disperse draft loads between the tongue assembly and the receiver. A second pivot mechanism couples the gearbox assembly and the draft arm. The second pivot mechanism is oriented such that it pivots about an upright axis such that the gearbox assembly and second pivot mechanism enable pivoting movement of the tongue assembly relative the receiver.

Swivel drawbar hitch mechanism for pull-type implement

A harvesting header includes a cutter bed having a plurality of cutting elements arranged transverse to the header and a crop chopping and conditioning region having a crop chopping device and a crop conditioning device. The crop chopping device is configured to chop crop cut by the cutter bed into smaller lengths and the crop conditioning device is configured to crimp the crop to aid in drying. The first chopping roller has a tubular, cylindrically-shaped body and a plurality of parallel knife-mounting lugs extending radially outward along substantially the full length of the body. A plurality of chopping knives are attached to the knife-mounting lugs and arranged around the body, each chopping knife having a length that is shorter than the length of the knife-mounting lug to which it is attached such that each chopping knife covers only a portion of the lateral length of the first chopping roller.

Chopper attachment to improve conditioning of bio-mass type crops

A working vehicle has a castor wheel assembly selectively providing steering assist. A pivoting caster spindle coupled with a caster wheel and an engagement plate connected to the caster spindle in a fixed manner such that the engagement plate pivots with the caster spindle. A pivoting steering arm is rotatably connected to the caster spindle and a steering cylinder is connected to an outward end of the steering arm with a tie rod configured to pivot the steering arm. A keyed connecting mechanism selectively couples the steering arm with the engagement plate. In an engaged position, the keyed connecting mechanism couples the steering arm with the engagement plate such that the steering cylinder pivots the caster spindle and caster wheel. In a disengaged position, the steering arm is uncoupled with the engagement plate such that the caster spindle and caster wheel are free to pivot independent of the steering cylinder.

Steerable rear axle system for dual-path steered windrower tractor

A crop harvesting header has a cutter bed to cut crop material as the harvester advances through a field. The cutter bed includes a plurality of rotatable cutters having knives extending from opposing ends of the cutters. Each cutter is ninety degrees out of phase with respect to its adjacent cutters such that the circular paths of travel of the knives of adjacent cutters overlap one another, and adjacent cutters rotate in opposite directions. Each cutter has a generally elliptical knife carrier, and a pair of knives at opposites ends of the carrier, wherein a portion of each knife extends beyond the end of the carrier to expose a cutting surface to sever the standing crop. The cutter also includes an attachment device connecting each knife to the knife carrier, and a fixed stop restricting rotational movement of the knife with respect to the carrier about the attachment device.

Fixed rotary knife with multiple cutting surfaces

Disclosed is a crop harvesting header configured for attachment to a mobile frame of a harvesting machine. The header has a cutter mechanism to cut crop material and a pair of laterally extending crop conditioner rolls to condition crop material cut by the cutter mechanism. The header includes a header power system having first and second main hydraulic motors and a belt and sheave drive configured to transmit power from the main hydraulic motors to the pair of conditioner rolls. The header also includes an auxiliary drive motor directly connected one of the conditioner rolls of the pair of conditioner rolls.

Auxiliary drive motor for hay conditioner on a windrower header

In an example embodiment, a harvesting header includes a helper roll having an auger flighting configured to move crop material laterally inward. The auger flighting may be outboard of a crop receiving area. The helper roll may be placed rearward of a cutter mechanism and forward of a conditioning roll of the header. The axis of rotation of the helper roll may be positioned slightly above a cutting plane of a cutting bed so that the auger flighting extends vertically past the cutting plane. In an example embodiment, at least a portion of the auger flights are positioning outboard of a conditioning roll of the header. The helper roll may be supported within the cutting zone and comprised of a plurality of sub-helper rolls.

Feeding for wide cut rotary header having helper roll

The conditioning rolls of a crop harvester have intermeshing metal ribs arranged in a herringbone pattern, each rib comprising a pair of end-to-end segments that converge spirally from opposite ends of the roll to a centermost apex. Alternative embodiments provide a single pair of metal herringbone rolls, two pairs of metal herringbone rolls, or a front pair of metal herringbone rolls and a rear pair of compressible surface herringbone rolls.

Crop harvester having conditioning rolls

Crop harvester having metal conditioner rolls with herringbone rib pattern

A wide-cut harvester having a rotary cutter bed that takes a wider cut than the opening to the conditioner rolls of the machine employs a pair of stub augers at opposite corners of the opening to assist in directing cut crop material into the opening for treatment by the conditioner rolls.

Wide cut rotary harvester having cut crop feeder mechanism

A modular rotary cutter bed is formed by a series of essentially identical cutter modules mounted end-to-end along the length of a common support beam. Guards for the cutters of the modules are arranged such that each guard overlaps and bridges the seam between an adjacent pair of modules so as to increase the structural rigidity of the cutter bed. Each guard is attached at its front end to the noses of a pair of adjacent modules and at its rear end to the support beam to increase structural integrity in all directions. A second embodiment does not utilize a common support beam for the modules but instead relies upon the interconnections between adjacent modules and bridging overlap of the guards to rigidify the cutter bed.

Growing community of inventors

Hesston, KS, United States of America

Martin E Pruitt