Field crop harvesting and loading machine

A field crop harvesting machine comprising:

• (a) a vehicle body;
• (b) said body defining a generally flat loading bed having a central longitudinally extended container area with a low friction floor and a longitudinal standing area extended along both sides of said container area;
• (d) a crop collector conveyor system mounted on said vehicle body having wing conveyors extending generally horizontally over the field to permit easy loading of the crops from the field therein, and also having elevator conveyors for delivering crops from said wing conveyor to said sorter conveyors;
• (c) a pair of generally horizontal longitudinal sorter conveyors mounted to said vehicle just outboard of the respective standing areas to load harvested crops from said sorter conveyors to a container in said container area;
• (e) the rear end of said vehicle body being adapted to mate with the rear end of a shuttle vehicle having a low friction receiving bed whereby said machine can be driven through the fields, crops placed in said wing conveyors by field workers and conveyed into said sorter conveyors, loaded into containers in said container area from both sides by workers in said standing areas, and when containers in said container areas are full, smoothly sliding said containers straight back into the receiving bed of a shuttle vehicle;
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• (f) a ground sensor mounted beneath each of said wing conveyors and wing conveyor elevation means actuated respectively by the ground sensors to raise or lower said wings to within predetermined tolerances of an established height above the field.

A harvesting, palletization, containerization and local transport system for field crops comprising:

• (a) a harvester truck having a loading bed;
• (b) a plurality of shuttle trucks each having a loading bed and a rear end mateable with the rear end of said harvester truck such that when mated said beds establish mutual continuity;
• (c) each of said beds being dimensioned to accept at least one longitudinal row of palletized containers and each having a conveyor means to permit the free longitudinal movement of palletized containers therealong;
• (d) said harvester truck having a conveyor system to bring harvested crops picked from the fields alongside said loading bed, whereby harvested crops can be loaded into palletized shipping containers in the loading bed of said harvester truck, and the containers thus filled can periodically be drawn into the bed of a shuttle truck mated to the rear thereof, taken to a freight depot, slid out of the shuttle truck and shipped directly in the palletized containers.

A harvesting and local transport system for field crops utilizing a plurality of substantially identical trucks any one of which is adaptable to become a field crop harvester with the balance of the trucks being shuttle trucks, said system comprising:

• (a) a plurality of substantially identical trucks each having a loading bed with conveyor means therein disposed at substantially the same height and having mateable rear ends for facilitating the free longitudinal movement of containers therebetween;
• (b) one of said trucks being designated a harvester truck and the rest of said trucks being shuttle trucks, said harvester truck having a pair of longitudinally extended sorter conveyors removably mounted along opposite sides of the bed;
• (c) a pair of conveyor assemblies removably mounted to said harvester truck on opposite sides thereof and having wing conveyors extending laterally outwardly from said harvester truck over the field and also having elevator conveyors for delivering crops from said wing conveyors to said sorter conveyors;
• and
• (d) powered means for translating containers from the loading bed of said harvester truck to the loading bed of the respective shuttle truck whereby said conveyor assemblies and sorter conveyors can be removed from said harvester truck and installed on one of said shuttle trucks such that the latter becomes the harvester truck.