Riding mower with grass collecting system

Abstract

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.