发明授权
US3942666A Bale trailer 失效
捆包拖车

Bale trailer
摘要:
An agricultural vehicle designed to be towed behind a farm tractor for lifting and transporting large cylindrical bales of hay. An inverting fork loader is provided for picking up a bale from the ground and depositing it at the front of the vehicle, which has endless conveyor means for transporting the bales rearwardly. The loader and conveyor are both actuable hydraulically. The vehicle has a tongue or draw bar which may be displaced laterally in either of two directions to cause the vehicle to follow the tractor in an offset fashion. One embodiment of the invention has two conveyors, and the loader may be displaced laterally to deposit a bale on either conveyor. Lateral displacement of the loader is reversely coordinated with lateral displacement of the tongue in this embodiment of the invention.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to the field of agricultural machinery, and particularly to apparatus for facilitating the handling of hay in the form of large cylindrical bales about 5 feet in diameter and 4 feet long, as produced by newer hay harvesting machinery. The baling operation is considerably more efficient, tying and so forth being performed once instead of say 25 times for the same weight of hay, and subsequent handling involves one twenty-fifth as many units, but the cylindrical bales weigh about 1500 pounds apiece, are left lying on their sides on the ground by the baler, and do not lend themselves readily to transportation or handling by heretofore conventional means.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONMy invention comprises a vehicle, adapted for towing behind a conventional farm tractor, by means of which the tractor operator can load and transport a plurality of these heavy bales without leaving the tractor, and without the help of other workmen. In one embodiment of the invention the vehicle has a central partition and transports up to ten of the bales in two rows of five bales each carried coaxially. The bed of the vehicle has two longitudinal conveyors actuable to transport rearwardly material resting on them: these conveyors are actuated hydraulically. At the front of the vehicle a loader in the form of an inverting fork lift can be positioned to raise a bale from the ground and deposit it on a selected conveyor at the front end of the vehicle: the conveyor then moves the bale rearward by a bale length. The lift is also actuated hydraulically. The tow bar or tongue connecting the vehicle with the tractor is arranged to be offset, and the loader operation is coordinated with the direction of the vehicle offset. A simplified embodiment of the invention provides a narrower vehicle which can receive 5 bales coaxially along its length, and in which the position of the loader is fixed although the tongue is still displaceable to either side.A principal object of the invention is thus to provide a new and improved agricultural vehicle. Another object is to provide such a vehicle which lifts bales from the ground and deposits them at the front of a conveyor which moves them rearward, all at the control of a single operator. Another object is to provide such a vehicle which will travel offset from the towing vehicle on either side thereof, so that the tractor moves beside the bale to be loaded while the loader engages it. Another object is to provide such a vehicle with a plurality of conveyors on which the loader can selectively deposit the bales. A more specific object is to provide such a vehicle in which displacement of a tongue in one direction to cause offset following by the vehicle automatically displaces the loader in the opposite direction.Various other objects, advantages, and features of novelty which characterize my invention are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part hereof. However for a better understanding of the invention, its advantages, and object attained by its use, reference should be had to the drawing which forms a further part hereof, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there are illustrated and described certain preferred embodiments of the invention.
信息查询
0/0