Vegetable harvester

A vegetable harvester for loading hand-picked vegetables onto a truck, the harvester comprising:

• a conveyor arm having a conveyor belt for conveying the vegetables;
• a bucket loader pivotally coupled to the conveyor arm, such that the bucket loader freely pivots from a lowered position to a raised position, the raised position emptying the vegetables from the bucket loader onto the conveyor belt;
• a transfer pad, the transfer pad being made of a resilient material and being arranged at a transfer location where the vegetables are transferred from the bucket loader to the truck, such that at least some of the vegetables are transferred first to the transfer pad, reducing bruising or damage to the vegetables during the transfer;
• a raising and lowering mechanism coupled to the conveyor arm, the mechanism having a cycling contact arm, and during a portion of a cycle of the contact arm, when the contact arm is in contact with the bucket loader, then the contact arm raises the bucket loader to the raised position and lowers the bucket loader to the lowered position, and during another portion of the cycle of the contact arm, the bucket loader rests against a stop in the lowered position, wherein the mechanism pivotally rotates the contact arm in a first rotational direction, during raising of the bucket loader, and reverses the rotational direction of the contact arm, during lowering of the bucket loader, and the contact arm of the mechanism is not in contact with any portion of the bucket loader during a loading delay period of the cycle of the contact arm;
• wherein the bucket loader is one of a plurality of bucket loaders and the contact arm is one of a plurality of contact arms, each of the bucket loaders being raised and lowered by a respective one of the plurality of contact arms, each of the plurality of contact arms being pivotally rotated by the raising and lowering mechanism of the harvester;
• a longitudinal conveyor arranged at an angle to the conveyor arm and coupled to the conveyor arm such that vegetables conveyed by the conveyor arm are transferred to the longitudinal conveyor for delivery to the truck, the longitudinal conveyor includes a plurality of segments coupled to each other and arranged, such that the length of the longitudinal conveyor may be extended or shortened by displacing one of the plurality of segments in relation to another of the plurality of segments, and wherein the conveyor arm is pivotably coupled to the harvester such that, when the plurality of bucket loaders are not operational the conveyor arm is collapsible along a longitudinal direction of the longitudinal conveyor, such that the harvester may be driven along roadways;
• an electrical generator, wherein the electrical generator provides electric power to an electric drive that drives the raising and lowering mechanism;
• and
• a recording device capable of recording the number of buckets of vegetables picked and loaded by a worker using the harvester.