Patent ID: 9730383
Date: 2017-08-15
CPC Classifications: A01D,B60Y,F16H

Claim:
1. A lawn care device comprising: a cutting deck housing at least one blade; an engine configured to selectively provide for rotation of the at least one blade responsive to selective coupling of the engine to the at least one blade; and a PTO switch that is operable to engage or disengage a PTO clutch to provide the selective coupling between the engine and the at least one blade via a belt drive system, wherein the belt drive system comprises: at least one blade pulley operably coupled to the at least one blade; a drive shaft operably coupled to the engine; a drive belt configured, responsive to engagement of the PTO clutch, to couple the drive shaft to the at least one blade pulley; a tension adjustment assembly configured to operably couple to at least one component of the belt drive system to adjust a position thereof to modify tension of the drive belt; and a control unit configured to receive an indication of engine RPM and blade RPM to provide electronic control of the tension adjustment assembly to define a slip value to be applied to the drive belt, the slip value being selected based on a comparison between the engine RPM and the blade RPM.