GB1103612A - Improvements in and relating to potato-harvesting and similar agricultural machines and tractors for driving same - Google Patents

Abstract

1,103,612. Root-crop harvesters. C. MOFFETT, 17 March, 1965 [28 Jan., 1964], No. 3489/64. Heading A1F. [Also in Division B7] A potato or beet harvesting machine comprises a tractor 1 suitably modified by mounting the rear axle 3 and final drive mechanism 4 in reverse fashion beneath the gearbox 2 with the final drive input connected to the gearbox output by a chain drive within a casing 6, a cleaning drum 20 mounted at the rear of the machine and driven from a power take-off shaft 7 extending rearwardly from the gearbox 2, crop lifting means disposed forwardly of the axle 3, and means driven from the power take-off shaft 7 for transporting the crop from the lifting means to the cleaning drum 20. The front wheels 9 of the tractor are mounted on a transverse member 10 at the front of a frame 12 attached to the tractor, and are steered by the steering wheel 14 through links 17. A haulm cutting device 57 adjustable vertically on links 58 by a linkage 59, 60, 61 includes knives or flails on a shaft 62 driven through chain drives 63, 64, a shaft 66 and chain drive 67 from a shaft 34 connected by a chain drive to the power take-off shaft 7. A sub-frame 35, 36 suspended by shackles 37 from the casing 6 and adjustable vertically by a linkage 39, 40, 41 connected to a hydraulically-actuated crank 42 carries coulters 48 and a tined disc 47 driven by a universally-jointed shaft 49 coupled to the shaft 34. The sub-frame 35, 36 is displaceable rearwardly against the resilience of a spring 43 (Fig. 4, not shown) to avoid damage upon meeting an obstacle. Potatoes lifted by the coulters 48 on to the tined disc 47 are delivered by a conveyer 53 to the cleaning drum 20 which is rotated by a rubber-tyred wheel 25 driven through chain drives 27, 30 and a gearbox 28 from the power take-off shaft 7. The potatoes are raised by vanes within the drum 20 and discharged upon a cleaning device 68 comprising intermeshing ribbed rollers 69 driven by a flexible drive from the shaft 66. A conveyer 70 receives the potatoes from the cleaning device 68, and a rotating roller 88 diverts the larger potatoes to one side of a fence 90 for delivery to a shoot 92 which fills sacks attended by an operator on a platform 93. Small potatoes or stones which pass below the roller 88 or are thrown over the fence 90 by operators on a platform 85 fall to the ground at the end of the conveyer 70. Both the cleaning device 68 and the conveyer 70 are tiltable to compensate for ground inclination, about a longitudinal axis by a lever 78, and about a transverse axis by a hydraulic ram 81 (Fig. 4, not shown). The conveyer 53 may be replaced by a ladder of ribbed rollers acting as a cleaning device, and the conveyer 70 may be divided into more than two channels.