Agricultural implements with hinged and floating wings

Abstract

A towable soil pulverizer having a longitudinal center section, and foldable wings mounted by hinges on opposite sides of the center section to fold upwardly or downwardly about substantially longitudinal hinge axes. The wings and center section have ground working rollers. Each hinge has a spaced ball joint and guide roller in roller slot. A wing float axis for each wing extends substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal hinge axis in a transverse direction, each wing also being pivotal about the float axis. The hinge design with the float axis prevents weight transfer between the center section and wing sections when the pulverizer operates over uneven soil, to provide uniform soil conditioning over the width of the pulverizer. The center section rollers are positioned ahead of (or behind or co-linear with) the wing rollers. Components of the ball joint and roller guide in slot are fixedly and non-rotationally attached to the center section.