Method of staggering belts in a round baler

In an agricultural round baler having a ground-supported main frame configured for movement in a forward direction of travel, an expandable bale forming chamber defined in a space between opposing side walls by a plurality of side-by-side belts trained around a plurality of elongate guide rolls extending transverse to the frame, and a crop pickup for lifting crop material from the ground and conveying the crop material to the bale forming chamber, the improvement comprising:

• a first guide roll and an adjacent second guide roll configured with said plurality of belts spanning therebetween, the first guide roll positioned above the second guide roll;
• and
• a belt staggering arrangement disposed outside of said bale forming chamber between said first guide roll and said second guide roll, said belt staggering arrangement having a first stagger roll and a spaced apart second stagger roll, at least one of said plurality of belts trained around said first stagger roll following a first offset path and at least one of said plurality of belts trained around said second stagger roll following a second offset path wherein the distance of travel of the belt along said first and said second offset paths running from the first to second guide rolls is generally equal, and wherein said at least one of the plurality of belts on the first offset path and said at least one of the plurality of belts on the second offset path do not travel through a longitudinal gap between the stagger rolls and do not travel directly from the first stagger roll to the second stagger roll, whereby debris is allowed to pass through the space between the first and second offset paths.

A method of removing debris from a plurality of side-by-side belts trained about a plurality of spaced-apart guide rollers in an agricultural round baler and directing the debris to an infeed of crop material comprising the steps of:

• providing a first guide roll and an adjacent second guide roll configured with said plurality of belts spanning therebetween, the first guide roll positioned above the second guide roll;
• providing a belt staggering arrangement disposed outside of the bale forming chamber between the first guide roll and the second guide roll and generally above the crop infeed, the belt staging arrangement having a first stagger roll and a spaced-apart second stagger roll;
• training at least a first of the plurality of belts around the first stagger roll creating a first belt offset path between the first and second guide rolls;
• and
• training at least a second of the plurality of belts around the second stagger roll creating a second belt offset path between the first and second guide rolls, lengths of belt spanning between the first and second guide roll on both the first and second belt offset paths are generally equal, wherein said first of the plurality of belts on the first belt offset path and said second of the plurality of belts on the second belt offset path do not travel through a longitudinal gap between the stagger rolls and do not travel directly from the first stagger roll to the second stagger roll, whereby debris is allowed to pass though the space between the first and second belt offset paths.