The Toro Company

The Tord Company

Scott Michael Coffin

Dennis J Berndt

Daniel Mark Treu

Gerald J Pomerening

David S Klis

Gregory M Kostik

Cody Schrupp

Ivan E Brown

Richard M Olson

A reel for a reel mower having reference grooves formed in the shaft thereof and usable as datum to ensure ends formed in the shaft are concentrically aligned and for sharpening and truing maintenance operations.

Reel blade and manufacturing method

A reel mower has a traction frame which carries one or more reel cutting units. Each cutting unit has a grass basket associated therewith for receiving and collecting grass clippings generated by operation of the cutting unit. Each grass basket has a forward portion of a bottom wall thereof formed by a piece of flexible material. An actuator is operatively engaged with the flexible material piece for lifting a front end of the flexible material piece upwardly relative to a rear end of the flexible material piece in response to changes in orientation between the cutting unit and the grass basket during operation of the mower to incline the flexible material piece and thereby promote the flow of grass clippings down the so inclined flexible material piece to more fully fill the grass basket.

Reel mower with reel cutting units having grass collecting baskets with deflectable bottom portions responsive to movement of the cutting units

A method of manufacturing a bedknife for a reel cutting unit comprises providing a base having a tool steel insert that forms a cutting edge of the bedknife. The base comprises a heat treatable steel. Both the base and the insert are heat treated prior to joining the insert to the base. The insert is then integrally joined to the base by brazing the two together using a silver based filler between the two.

Bedknife for reel cutting unit and manufacturing method for same

A reel gang mower has a plurality of front reel cutting units and at least trailing one rear reel cutting unit. Each rear reel cutting unit is centered on a gap between a pair of adjacent front cutting units to cover the gap. Each rear reel cutting unit has a cutting width that is wider than a common cutting width of the front reel cutting units by an amount which is sufficient to maintain positive overlap between the front and rear reel cutting units while mowing when turning or in sidehill mowing such that substantially no uncut strips of grass are left in a cut grass swath provided by the mower.

Reel gang mower having different width front and rear cutting units

A reel gang mower has a row of front reel cutting units and a row of rear reel cutting units that cut an unbroken swath of grass in each pass. Each cutting unit is connected for propulsion to the mower frame by a four-bar linkage having front and rear pivot links that converge towards a focal point that establishes a virtual pull point through which propulsive force acts on the cutting unit. The rear pivot links can attach to the mower frame at a selected one of different attachment points to thereby longitudinally shift the pull point fore-and-aft relative to the center of gravity of the cutting unit, thus changing the fore-and-aft weight distribution. The rear cutting units in the gang can be configured to have a tail heavy weight distribution relative to the front cutting units to help eliminate marking in the overlap areas between the cutting units.

Reel gang mower having reel cutting units with adjustable pull point locations

A gang reel mower comprises a plurality of laterally spaced front reel cutting units having gaps therebetween, each gap being covered by a rear reel cutting unit that spans and overlaps the gap on each side thereof by an overlap area. Each of the front cutting units is supported for rolling on the ground by a grooved front roller having a grooved portion and by a substantially smooth rear roller having a substantially smooth rolling surface that each extend substantially across the entire width of cut of the front cutting unit. Each of the rear cutting units has a grooved front roller with side shoulders on each end and with a grooved portion between the side shoulders such that the shoulders extend substantially over the overlap areas between the front and rear cutting units with the grooved portion on the front roller of the rear cutting units not extending substantially into the overlap areas. In addition, each of the rear cutting units includes a rear roller with a rolling surface is shorter than the rear roller on the front cutting unit such that the shorter rolling surface does not extend substantially into the overlap areas.

Gang reel mower with differing front and rear reel cutting unit setup for improving aftercut appearance

A height adjuster for a grass grooming reel used on a mower includes a rod secured to the bellcrank support(s) which carry the grooming reel. A driver used for a fine adjustment has a screw thread connection to the top of the rod. The driver sits atop a rotary knob having a cam connection to the frame of the mower. The knob effects a quick up/quick down adjustment of the grooming reel between a raised transport position and a lowered grooming position. The knob includes a pointer or finger that points upwardly away from the ground when the grooming reel is in its raised transport position and points downwardly towards the ground when the grooming reel is in its lowered grooming position.

Height adjuster for grass grooming reel

A cutting unit for a mower is supported for rolling over the ground by at least one ground engaging roller. The roller may be grooved over its length to comprise a Wiehle roller. The roller is formed by an ultra high molecular weight plastic roller body that is integrally molded over and around a hollow aluminum tube. The aluminum tube has enlarged diameter knurled ends to help hold the roller body on the tube.

Grass cutting unit having compression molded UHMW plastic roller

A grass groomer for a reel cutting unit of a mower comprises a grooming reel that rotates about a substantially horizontal axis. The grooming reel has a plurality of helical blade tip flights with the blade tips in each flight acting sufficiently against the turf to cut horizontal grass runners and to dethatch the turf. The helical blade tip flights are spaced from one another around a circumference of the grooming reel. The grooming reel also carries a plurality of helical brushes that are also spaced from one another around the circumference of the grooming reel, the helical brushes being disposed between the helical blade tip flights. The helical brushes are disposed to rotate with the grooming grass and to ruffle and wipe the grass in the turf simultaneously with the rotation of the grooming reel.

Grass groomer with integrated brush for reel cutting unit

A rotatable brush is located adjacent to and in contact with a ground engaging roller of a cutting unit of a mower to clean debris from the roller surface. The brush includes a brush shaft having at least one flight of brush bristles releasably secured to the brush shaft by a pair of fasteners. This permits easy replacement of the flight of brush bristles without having to replace the brush shaft. One end of the brush shaft is driven by a belt drive system with the driven end of the brush shaft passing through an elongated slot in a pivotally adjustable tensioning plate. The plate can be pivoted to adjust the tension in the drive belt without moving the driven end of the brush shaft, thus not affecting or changing the position of the brush relative to the roller. Drive can be imparted to the belt drive system using a hardened cap screw that is threaded into one end of the shaft of a rotatable reel on a reel cutting unit. The head of the cap screw mates in a non-circular socket on one end of a drive shaft to transfer power to the drive shaft and, thus, to the belt drive system.

Belt driven roller brush assembly

A plurality of annular collars are provided formed from collar halves. The collar halves are at least partially separable from one another to allow the collar halves to be slipped into and around a groove in a grooved roller for a reel-type cutting unit. The collar halves can then be abutted and secured together to substantially fill in the roller groove. When collars are placed into the last two or three grooves on each end of a grooved roller, a non-shouldered grooved roller is thereby converted into a shouldered grooved roller without having to remove and replace one set of rollers with another.

Growing community of inventors

Plymouth, MN, United States of America

Scott Michael Coffin