Abstract:
A nut windrow gatherer for use in organizing and shaping the end of a nut windrow. The present system has a housing with two sidewalls, a rear spoiler plate, and two splayed arms affixed to a front side of the housing. There is a support arm configured to mount the housing to a vehicle and adapted to adjust the pitch and roll of the housing to ensure that the bottom surfaces of the splayed arms are in constant contact with the orchard floor. When the housing is controlled by a vehicle, the sidewalls and rear spoiler plate are configured to gather nuts that are spread out on an orchard floor and transport them in order to reduce the length of a nut windrow, leaving sufficient room for harvesting equipment to maneuver into an orchard throughway.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/157,601 filed on May 18, 2016, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/168,990 filed on Jun. 1, 2015. The above identified patent application is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety to provide continuity of disclosure. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a nut gatherer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a nut gatherer that is configured to collect and transport nuts that have been dispersed at the end of a nut windrow. 
     As with any crop, nuts must be harvested from the field once they have become ripe. After the nuts haven fallen or are shaken off of trees, the nut farmer gathers the produce into a single row called a windrow for more efficient collection. While there are current devices in the prior art that are designed to create this windrow, many of these devices have difficulty in arranging the ends of the windrow due to certain design constraints. One such limitation is that many of the tools designed to shape a nut windrow are mounted onto a vehicle and can only be used in a single direction. If used in the opposite direction, the wheels of the vehicle will overrun and crush the produce. The present solution to this problem is either to manually rake the nuts or use a blower to move the nuts at the ends of the fields back toward the windrow. This is both time consuming and an expensive use of a farmer&#39;s resources. 
     While traditional tractors are designed to move and arrange large objects such as bales, they lack the ability to control large amounts of smaller items, such as nuts that are often gathered in a windrow. Certain tractor attachments exist in the prior art to address this issue, but many require complicated mechanisms, such as winnowing devices and hydraulic devices, which are expensive to both produce and upkeep. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of windrows movers now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a nut windrow gatherer wherein the same can be utilized for providing convenience for the user when the user wishes to organize and shape the end of a windrow. The present system comprises a housing having two sidewalls, a rear spoiler plate, two splayed arms affixed to one side of the housing, and a support arm configured to mount the housing to a vehicle. The housing is configured to collect nuts that are spread out on an orchard floor and transport them to the end of a windrow. The support arm is configured to adjust the pitch and roll of the housing to ensure that the bottom surfaces of the splayed arms and sidewalls are in constant contact with the orchard floor. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Although the characteristic features of this invention will be particularly pointed out in the claims, the invention itself and manner in which it may be made and used may be better understood after a review of the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like numeral annotations are provided throughout. 
         FIG. 1A  shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer. 
         FIG. 1B  shows a perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer with a backplate. 
         FIG. 2  shows a side view of an embodiment of the nut gathering unit. 
         FIG. 3  shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer with a stabilizing link. 
         FIG. 4  shows a perspective view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer with a stabilizing link. 
         FIG. 5A  shows a side view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer hitched to the rear of a vehicle. 
         FIG. 5B  shows a side view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer hitched to the rear of a vehicle. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Reference is made herein to the attached drawings. Like reference numerals are used throughout the drawings to depict like or similar elements of the nut windrow gatherer. The figures are intended for representative purposes only and should not be considered to be limiting in any respect. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 1A and 1B  there are shown perspective views of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer. The nut windrow gatherer  10  comprises a nut gathering unit  20  and a support unit  30  that are adjustably connected with a hinge  40 . The nut gathering unit  20  comprises two sidewalls  22  separated by a space so as to define an interior volume  63  therebetween. The sidewalls  22  have splayed arms  21  disposed on an open front end at an obtuse angle relative to the interior volume  63 , and a spoiler plate  27  disposed on a closed rear end of the interior  63 . The spoiler plate  27  is slanted such that a top portion of the spoiler plate  27  is closer to the closed end of the interior  63  than a bottom portion of the spoiler plate  27 . 
     The nut gathering unit  20  is adapted to be drawn over the floor of a nut field with the open end of the splayed arms  21  facing the direction of movement of the gathering unit  20 . As the nut gathering unit  20  is drawn forward, the splayed arms  21  come in contact with the nuts and act as a funnel to draw the collected nuts toward the interior  63  of the housing. The nuts are gathered within the interior  63  by sidewalls  22  and the spoiler plate  27  and are transported toward the end of a windrow through the movement of a vehicle. 
     Once the gathered nuts have been satisfactorily placed at the end of a windrow, the gathering unit  20  is reversed away from the windrow, causing the sidewalls  22  to create a uniformly shaped pile of nuts at the end of the windrow. The bottom portion of the spoiler plate  27  is positioned father from the ground than the bottom portions of the sidewalls  22  and the splayed arms  21  to permit debris to pass under the spoiler plate  27  while gathering the desired nuts. In some embodiments of the nut gathering unit  20 , there is a backplate  25  that is positioned perpendicular to the sidewalls  22  and disposed at the closed end of the housing. The bottom portion of the backplate  25  is positioned at the same level as the bottom portions of the sidewalls  22  and splayed arms  21  and configured to collect any nuts that have passed under the spoiler plate  27 . 
     In further embodiments of the nut gathering unit  20 , there is a skid plate  29  that is disposed on a lower end of the housing, along the sidewalls  22 , the splayed arms  21  and the backplate  25 . The skid plate  29  is configured to reduce wear on the sidewalls  22 , the splayed arms  21 , and the backplate  29 , extending the useable life of the nut gathering unit  20 . The skid plates  29  are secured onto the housing with fasteners such as screws that allow the skid plates  29  to be easily detached and replaced. The skid plates  29  are made from a durable material, such as steel, and adapted to withstand the physical demands of frequent contact with the ground of an orchard. In a further embodiment of the nut gathering unit  20 , the front ends of the skid plates  29  located under the splayed arms  21  extend outward in an upward curved arc  28 . This curved arc  28  is configured to prevent the front ends of the splayed arms  21  from digging into the topsoil of an orchard. 
     The support unit  30  has a first end that is configured to connect to the nut gathering unit  20 , and a second end that is configured to connect to the hitch of a vehicle, such as a tractor. In some embodiments, the second end of the support unit  30  has three apertures  33 ,  34  configured to be mounted onto a tractor hitch with a fastening device such as a pin. In some embodiments of the support unit  30 , there are support structures  35 ,  37  configured to increase the rigidity of the support unit  30 . 
     The nut gathering unit  20  is connected to the support unit  30  via a joint  40 . In some embodiments of the nut windrow gatherer  10 , the nut gathering unit  20  further comprises a cross beam  23  disposed on the top of the housing and extending between the two sidewalls  22 . The joint  40  comprises a lower hinge  42  that is mounted onto the cross beam  23 , and an upper hinge  41 , mounted onto the first end of the support unit  30 . The lower hinge  42  is positioned perpendicularly to the upper hinge  41 , allowing for movement of the nut gathering unit  20  relative to the support unit  30  in both pitch and roll. In an alternative embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer  10 , the joint  40  comprises a ball and socket type joint allowing for movement of the nut gathering unit  20  relative to the support unit  30  in both pitch and roll. 
       FIG. 2  shows a side view of an embodiment of the nut windrow gathering unit  10 . The spoiler plate  27  is positioned within the housing at an acute angle  61  relative to the ground of a rear space  60 . As the nuts are directed into the interior from the splayed arms  21 , they are blocked by the spoiler plate  27  and begin to pile up, pushing the spoiler plate  27  downward and ensuring that the housing maintains constant contact with the orchard floor. In some embodiments, this angle  61  is within the range of 35 degrees to 65 degrees relative to the rear space  60 . 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , there are shown perspective views of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer with a stabilizing link. In some embodiments of the nut gathering unit  20 , there is a secondary cross beam  24  that extends between the two sidewalls  22 . A stabilizing link  50  is connected at a first end to a bracket  56  mounted onto the secondary cross beam  24 , and at a second end to a support structure  37  of the support unit  30 . In some embodiments of the nut windrow gatherer  10 , the stabilizing link  50  is a turnbuckle device with a length that is configured to be adjusted by rotating a central section  53 , thereby extending or retracting threaded ends  55  of the turnbuckle. This extension or retraction can adjust the pitch of the nut gathering unit  20  relative to the support unit  30  and to the ground. Once set, the stabilizing link  50  prevents the nut gathering unit  20  from movement in both the pitch and the yaw dimensions of motion. 
     Referring now to  FIGS. 5A and 5B , there are shown side views of an embodiment of the nut windrow gatherer hitched to the rear of a vehicle. In a forward drive configuration, the splayed arms  21  of nut windrow gatherer  20  face toward the rear of the vehicle in a forward direction. In a reverse drive configuration, the splayed arms  21  of nut windrow gatherer  20  face away from the rear of vehicle. In either configuration, the splayed arms  21  are faced in the direction of motion, and the spoiler plate  27  will come into contact with the nuts after the splayed arms  21  have collected the nuts into the housing. The wheels of a tractor are positioned farther apart than the width of a standard windrow, allowing the tractor to back into a windrow without the tractor wheel driving over and crushing the collected nuts. 
     It is therefore submitted that the instant invention has been shown and described in various embodiments. It is recognized, however, that departures may be made within the scope of the invention and that obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art. With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention. 
     Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.