Rotary Mowing Attachment for a Tractor and the Like

My present invention relates to rotary mowing attachments for tractors and the like, and, more particularly, to a rotary mowing machine which can produce a plurality of swaths or windrows parallel to each other.

Rotary mowing machines can have a transverse support attached by a towing bar to a tractor and oriented at an angle to the travel direction and a plurality of mowing drums, parallel to one another under the transverse support and rotatable on it. They are offset from one another in the travel direction and their working zones overlap.

Rotary mowing implements are used particularly in hay harvesting, wherein the dried hay or crop must be formed in a swath. With the mowing drums driven in the same rotational direction on a bar inclined with respect to the travel direction, the dried hay or crop is conveyed along the entire width of the side-by-side mowing drums and form a swath or windrow beside the final mowing drum. This kind of comparatively large swath or windrow can be picked up subsequently by a transport vehicle. The advantage of a rotary mowing attachment as opposed to a hay harvesting machine with raking wheels is that the once cut hay or crop is carefully handled, because of the elastic structure of the mowing drum, which, for example, can comprise rubber members, and also because of the lack of metal teeth which can be broken off and can damage the subsequent further processing machines and which can ultimately reach the cattle or other animals.

In U.S. Pats. Nos. 4,269,019 and 4,030,275 the structure of such mowing drums is described.

These mowing drums generally comprise a cylindrical portion attached above an outwardly flared skirt which has a plurality of cutting blades. These drums rotate about a central shaft attached to a generally circular slide disk or convex plate positioned below the flared skirt with the cutting blades so as to keep the blades from the ground. Both these above mentioned prior art patents describe inventive structures applicable to a single mowing drum which assist the mower in properly forming a swath or windrow. U.S. Pat. No. 4,269,019 describes a plurality of tines which are attachable horizontally to the cylindrical portion of a mowing drum to help ted the crop. U.S. Pat. 4,030,275 describes a flap or deflection plate attached adjacent the mowing drum to help form a proper swath or windrow and an improved flared skirt having a plurality of ridges which pass adjacent the lower edge of the deflection plate, wherein the ridges form an acute angle with the deflection plate when viewed from above down the rotation axis of the mowing drums. The ridge structure assists in preventing troublesome clogging of crop or hay between the deflector plate and the flared skirt.

A hay or crop harvesting machine with a pair of raking wheels, which are supported by means of rollers movable on the ground, these wheels being mounted at the ends of a cross bar arm swingable in a horizontal plane and driven about vertically oriented axes, is taught in Swiss Pat. No. 499 254.

In this hay harvesting machine a first raking wheel is fixed with respect to the travel path of the hay harvesting machine, while a second raking wheel is shiftable from one side of the first raking wheel to the other side of the first raking wheel by means of a cross bar arm and on each side the second raking wheel is securable in position. So when the second raking wheel is pivoted to the first side position, each raking wheel works independently, that is, it can form at low rotary speed two swaths or bundles or at high rotary speed it turns over the product, while, when the second raking wheel is swung out to the second side position both raking wheels cooperate, so that the crop or hay cuttings are directed from the first raking wheel to the second, whereby a single correspondingly larger swath is formed.

For the shifting of the second raking wheel, however, the entire transverse support, to which both raking wheels are associated, must be pivoted about its pivot axis in a horizontal plane behind the tractor.

Dispensing with metallic teeth, which have several inherent disadvantages, in these known hay harvesting machines, the raking wheels are movable each by a supporting roller on the ground, which with an arm are pivotally supported on a bracket, wherein the rear raking wheel must be provided with an additional trailer roller or caster, which is attached with an attachment member to the bracket. In pivoting of the arm with both raking wheels attached to it, in order that the supporting rollers of the rear raking wheel be put in the new working position parallel to the longitudinal travel axis, the position locking mechanism of the positioning segments of the rear raking wheels on the cross bar arm must be correspondingly changed.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a rotary mowing attachment of the foregoing kind, with which in a careful way both a single comparatively large swath or windrow can be formed as well as several comparatively smaller swaths or windrows parallel to each other and which is convertible between these two working configurations with comparatively few, simple hand manipulations.

It is an object of my invention, therefore to provide an improved rotary mowing attachment for a tractor.

It is also an object of my invention to provide an improved rotary mowing attachment for a tractor with a more versatile construction than earlier mowers and which obviates drawbacks thereof.

These objects and others which will become apparent hereinafter are attained in accordance with my invention in a rotary mower attachment comprising a transverse support attached by a towing bar to a tractor and oriented at an acute angle to the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment and a plurality of mowing drums, which are mounted parallel to each other under the transverse support and are rotatable on it, so that they are offset from each other in the travel direction and their work zones overlap.

According to the invention at least one of the mowing drums is swingable substantially through 180.degree. around the upright axis about which a neighboring mowing drum is rotated, while the angle of the axis of the mowing drum which is swung with respect to the ground is maintained substantially unchanged.

Thus the mowing drums of this invention can be put into at least two configurations: one in which the mowing drums are lined up side-by-side below the transverse support positioned comparatively closely to each other so that they produce one comparatively large swath or windrow, and another configuration in which one of the mowing drums is pivoted from between two adjacent mowing drums to form a gap substantially equal in width to the diameter of a mowing drum so that the mowing drums produce two smaller swaths or windrows. Similarly other mowing drums may be pivotable and a plurality of smaller swaths or windrows may be formed.

According to a preferred embodiment of my invention a first, second, third and fourth mowing drums are employed. All of the mowing drums are driven rotatably in the same rotational direction. The fourth mowing drum is positioned furthest to the rear in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment and the third mowing drum is positioned next to the fourth mowing drum. The second mowing drum is pivotable about the first mowing drum from a position between the first and third mowing drums so as to form a gap between the first and third mowing drums.

In another embodiment of my invention as above a first, second, third and fourth mowing drum are used and all the mowing drums are rotated in the same rotational direction. The first mowing drum is positioned furthest forward of all the mowing drums in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment, the second mowing drum is positioned adjacent the first mowing drum, and the third mowing drum is pivotable about the fourth mowing drum from and to a position between and adjacent the second and fourth mowing drums so as to form a gap between the second and fourth mowing drums.

In yet another embodiment of my invention a first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth mowing drum are positioned side-by-side under the transverse support and the third mowing drum is positioned next to the fourth mowing drum, and the second mowing drum is pivotable around said first mowing drum from and to a position between the first mowing drum and the third mowing drum and the fifth mowing drum is pivotable about the sixth mowing drum from and to a position between the fourth and sixth mowing drums, so that two gaps between the mowing drums and correspondingly two swaths or windrows can be formed.

Further features of my invention include an auxiliary support under which the forward most pair of mowing drums in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment are rotatably mounted. This auxiliary support is generally lower than the transverse support but parallel to it and is conveniently pivoted about the rotation axis of the mowing drum adjacent this forward most pair of mowing drums.

In the configuration in which only one comparatively large swath is formed, this forward most pair of mowing drums mounted lower than those mounted on the transverse support directly is adjacent a smaller amount of crop or grass cuttings, while the higher mowing drums are adjacent the comparatively greater volume of crop or grass cuttings. Adjacent the rear most mowing drum in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment a vertical swath board is mounted and spaced therefrom, which does not need to be detached for shifting to the configuration in which two smaller swaths are formed or its reverse.

Further, of course, when more than four mowing drums are utilized, two auxiliary supports employing two mowing drums can be positioned at each end of the transverse support pivotally. These auxiliary supports provide a convenient means to pivot the pivotable mowing drums.

Further advantageously all of the mowing drums of my invention are advantageously driven rotatably by a V-belt drive, and the direction of rotation of the mowing drums which pivot remains unchanged on pivoting. The V-belt drive of course may derive power from the tractor drive.

It is especially desirable to incline the vertical axes of the mowing drums at a sufficiently acute angle to the ground so that the lower front edges of the mowing drums in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment touch the ground.

It is particularly advantageous that under at least every second mowing drum a centrally oriented wheel is provided, so that after pivoting one of the mowing drums having the wheel thereunder has the same spacing from the ground as before pivoting.

Furthermore the spacing between the swath board and the last mowing drum in the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment is advantageously adjustable.

With my invention the advantage is attained that with few hand manipulations, that is, by a single swing of the auxiliary support about its rotation axis, the rotary mowing attachment is changed to a configuration in which several smaller swaths or windrows parallel to each other can be formed. Thus an enlargement of the operating surface of the rotary mowing attachment is also provided by pivoting its pivotable mowing drums.

The above and other objects, features and advantages of my invention will become more readily apparent from the following description, reference being made to the accompanying highly diagrammatic drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic rear view of a preferred embodiment of a rotary mowing attachment according to my invention having four mowing drums seen in a configuration in which two swaths or windrows are produced;

FIGS. 1A and 1B are perspective views of two drums which can be used in this embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a schematic top action view of the apparatus according to the embodiment of FIG. 1 showing the four mowing drums in a configuration in which one comparatively large swath or windrow is produced, and showing the pivoting mowing wheel in broken lines;

FIG. 4 is a schematic rear view of another embodiment of a rotary mowing attachment according to my invention also having four mowing drums;

FIG. 5 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a schematic rear view of yet another embodiment of a rotary mowing attachment according to my invention having six mowing drums; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic top view of the apparatus according to FIG. 6.

A rotary mowing attachment with four mowing drums 10, 11, 12 and 13 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 being pulled by a tractor 1 not shown in complete detail. The rotary mowing attachment has a towing bar 3 by which it is attached to a hitch assembly 2 of the tractor 1. On the towing bar 3 generally oriented in the direction of travel of the rotary mowing attachment a transverse support 4 oriented at a fixed acute angle to the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment is attached in a horizontal plane, under which in the preferred embodiment four mowing drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 are rotatably attached so as to extend to the ground.

On a rotating power take-off shaft 5 of the tractor 1 is a rotational coupling to an angle drive (bevel-gear drive) 7 positioned on transverse support 4. The angle drive 7 drives a V-belt drive 8, which jointly drives the mowing drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 in the same direction of rotation as indicated by the arrows in FIG. 2.

By the transverse support 4 positioned at an angle to the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment and the mowing drums 10, 11, 12 and 13 arranged as shown in FIG. 3 directly next to each other side-by-side under transverse support 4 spaced from each other a distance much smaller than the diameter of a mowing drum with their work zones overlapping, the crop or hay formed into a swath by the first mowing drum 10, that is, the drum furthest forward in the travel direction in this configuration, and by all the adjacent mowing drums 11, 12, and 13, is conveyed to the rear most mowing drum 13 beside which it is formed into a swath or windrow 25. For better swath or windrow formation a swath board 9 can be provided adjacent the final mowing drum 13, which is positioned with variable clearance from the outer circumference of the final mowing drum 13.

In the configuration shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 instead of a single large swath or windrow, smaller swaths 24 and 25 formed parallel to each other are formed. Thus as shown in the FIGS. 1 and 3 the second mowing drum 11 is swung around the first mowing drum 10 about the axis 17 of the first mowing drum 10, that is, the mowing drum furthest forward in the direction of the rotary mowing attachment. All mowing drums 10, 11, 12 and 13 including the axis 51 of the pivotable mowing drum 11 maintain the inclination of their axes of rotation to the ground constant both before and after shifting from one configuration to the other. The shifting between the configurations of mowing drums is particularly well shown in dotted in action view of FIG. 3, where one sees that a gap of a width substantially equal to the width of the pivotable second rotary mower 11 arises between the original first mowing drum 10 and the third mowing drum 12 so that parallel to the original swath or windrow 25, a second swath or windrow 24 is found lying parallel to it.

The axes of the mowing drums 10, 11, 12, and 13 are inclined at an acute angle a to the ground (FIG. 1A). Thus the mowing drums 10, 11, 12 and 13 are preferably tipped with their rear edges 40, 41, 42, and 43 tipped up and their front edges (11a) in the travel direction are inclined downward to touch the ground.

In order to be able to pivot the second mowing drum 11 along a semicircle around the first mowing drum 10, both these mowing drums 10 and 11 are connected by an auxiliary support 16 positioned below and parallel to transverse support 4, whose pivot joint happens to be coincident with the axis 17 of the first mowing drum 10. Both first and second mowing drums 10 and 11 are attached lower than both mowing drums 12 and 13 so that in the configuration of FIG. 3 in which a single large swath 15 is formed, that is, with the second mowing drum 11 not pivoted around first mowing drum 10 to form the aforementioned gap, both mowing drums 10 and 11 work in the vicinity of a reduced amount of crop or cuttings, in contrast to the third and fourth mowing drums 12 and 13 which work in the vicinity of larger amounts of crop or cuttings.

Another embodiment of my invention is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 having four mowing drums 10', 11', 12' and 13'. In this embodiment the third mowing drum 12' is pivotable around the fourth mowing drum 13' instead of the second mowing drum 11' around the first mowing drum 10' as in the above embodiment. Here the swath board 9 can still be positioned parallel to the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment oriented vertically and attached to and supported by the transverse support 4. Only the configuration of the mowing drums 10', 11', 12' and 13' from which two parallel swaths are formed is shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. As in the previous embodiment the mowing drums 10', 11', 12' and 13' can be inclined at an acute angle to the ground slightly different from 90.degree. so that the front edges of the mowing drums 10', 11', 12', and 13' touch the ground.

A third embodiment of our rotary mowing attachment is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 having six mowing drums 10", 11", 12", and 13", 14" and 15" attached rotatably under transverse support 4" and in the case of mowing drum 11" directly under first auxiliary support 16" and in the case of mowing drum 14" directly under second auxiliary support 18". First auxiliary support 16" is attached pivotally below and parallel to transverse support 4" and pivots about pivot point 17" which coincidently is the axis of rotation of first mowing drum 10". Second auxiliary support 18" is attached pivotally below and parallel to transverse support 4" at the end opposite to the end that first auxiliary support 16" is attached. Second auxiliary support 18" pivots on pivot point 19" which is also coincidently the axis of rotation of the sixth mowing drum 15". Thus in this embodiment both the second and the fifth mowing drums 11" and 14" pivot around the first and the sixth mowing drums 10" and 15" to form three configurations having no gap, one gap and two gaps so that in this embodiment one comparatively large swath, two smaller swaths or three even smaller parallel swaths or windrows 26", 27", and 28" can be formed at will.

Under every mowing drum shown in the drawings or at least under every second mowing drum a centrally located wheel 32' in FIG. 4 and 32 in FIG. 6 is provided (although not shown in the drawing), so that after swinging a pivotable mowing drum 180.degree. about the axis of the adjacent mowing drum, the wheel is again oriented parallel to the travel direction of the rotary mowing attachment. Thus of course the wheels 32 and 32' function to make the travel of the rotary mowing attachment easier and to maintain the distance between the lower edge of the mowing drums and the ground. The wheel 32 is seen in FIG. 1B wherein a portion of a mowing drum has been broken away. The drums can otherwise be constructed as described in the U.S. patents mentioned previously.