Agricultural implement having a set of ground working tools
AssigneeKverneland Klepp AS
InventorsHans P. Langbakk, Torstein Salte
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An agricultural implement is towed behind a tractor or other propelling vehicle and is mounted on a lifting mechanism at the rear of such vehicle so that the forward part of the implement is supported by such mechanism. In one embodiment the agricultural implement includes a seed drill that introduces seeds into the ground at a substantially constant depth below ground level, despite possible undulation in the surface profile of the field which is being seeded.
Claims11
A towable agricultural implement having a set of ground-working tools which are required to penetrate and to be pulled through the ground at a controllable depth, said implement comprising:
- a main frame on which said tools are mounted;
- a mounting assembly at a forward end of the main frame and adapted to be mounted on a lifting mechanism of a propelling vehicle, said lifting mechanism comprising a fixed top link and a pair of lower links which are adjustable upwardly and downwardly in order to control the height of a forward end of the implement, and said mounting assembly comprising a pair of mounting brackets mounted on the main frame and engageable each with a respective one of said lower links of the lifting mechanism, and an upstanding frame;
- and
- a weight transfer mechanism which forms part of said mounting assembly and which is operative to transfer part of the weight of the propelling vehicle to said main frame in order to increase downward loading applied to the groundworking tools:
- characterized in that the weight transfer mechanism comprises:
- i) a lever arm having one end which is adapted to be coupled with said top link of the lifting mechanism, and an opposite end which is supported by said upstanding frame of said mounting assembly;
- ii) a weight transfer device which is coupled at its lower end with said main frame and at its upper end with said lever arm so as to have a line of action passing through the lever arm at a location closer to said one end than to said opposite end of the lever arm, whereby a downward force F.sub.1 applied through the weight transfer device, and derived from the weight of the propelling vehicle, is much greater than an upward force F.sub.2 applied at said opposite end of the lever arm, so that a net downward force (F.sub.1 -F.sub.2) is transferred to the main frame in order to apply a downward biasing force to the ground working tools, wherein a support frame is pivotally mounted at its lower end on the main frame and includes an adjuster device which is operative to vary pivotal adjustment of the main frame relative to the support frame in order to adjust the attitude of the main frame.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.