Two piece crop harvesting header and flotation mechanism therefor

In a crop harvesting machine having a wheeled frame and a crop harvesting header forwardly suspended from said frame for generally vertical movement relative thereto, said header being operable to engage crop material on the ground and initiate a crop harvesting action with harvesting apparatus mounted in said header, said header being floatingly supported from said frame by a header flotation mechanism operable to counterbalance a portion of the weight of said header to permit said header to more easily follow changes in ground contour, an improved header comprising:

• a first header section mounting a portion of said harvesting apparatus and being pivotally connected to said frame by a first linkage to permit vertical movement of said first header section relative to said frame;
• a second header section mounting the remaining portion of said harvesting apparatus and being pivotally supported from said first header section by a second linkage to permit a generally vertical movement of said second header section relative to said first header section within a first range of movement, movement outside of said first range of movement being accomplished in conjunction with the generally vertical movement of said first header section;
• a first resilient means interconnecting said first header section and said frame for floatingly supporting said first header section;
• and
• a second resilient means interconnecting said first header section and said second header section for floatingly supporting said second header section relative to said first header section.