Patent GB-1211213-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to agricultural loading, transporting and unloading vehicles
IPC: A01F7/00
Filed: 1967-11-17
Abstract: 1,211,213. Harvesting machines. TEXAS INDUSTRIES Inc. 17 Nov., 1967 [25 Nov., 1966], No. 52525/67. Heading A1F. [Also in Division B8] An agricultural vehicle can function as a pick-up vehicle, a crop drier, or a mowing and threshing machine and is provided with detachable means for driving the cropworking members through universal joints at both ends of a shaft the members being detachably mounted on the vehicle. The front vehicle, Fig. 1, of a pair, connected by a draw bar to a trailer, is supported on driven front ground wheels 1 and steerable rear ground wheels 2. Mounted on the front of the frame of the front vehicle is a supply channel 10 extending obliquely upwards, mounted in bearings in the side walls of which are crank shafts 14 and 15 carrying support bars 16 secured to which are sets of teeth 17, above a perforated plate 18. These teeth convey the crop into a charging space of the front vehicle. The cranks on shafts 14 and 15 are angularly displaced by 120 degrees. An endless conveyer 21, supported by shafts 19 and 20 and mounted below the plate 18 can be removed and replaced through an aperture as required. The housing 22 of a ventilator 24, provided with a fan 23 to blow crop material towards the rear, is mounted below the conveyer channel 10. Support members 27 are pivotally mounted on arms 25 on either side of channel 10 and can be raised to the inoperative position by means of rams. A tined drum 33 rotatably mounted at the front of supports 27 can pick crop from the ground and feed it to another tined drum 44 mounted on the supports. At the rear of the supports, tines 53, pivotally mounted eccentrically on coupling wheels and pivotally attached to supports 49 by a linkage 55, move between curved plates 59 and convey crop to the lower part of floor 18. Ground wheels 39 can be adjusted to alter the height of the pick-up drum 33 from the ground. The tines of this drum pass between U-shaped plates 41, and a spring loaded plate 36 is provided in front of the drum. A horizontal conveyer 62, which can move crop rearwardly in the charging space, passes over shafts 61 mounted near the vehicle floor, and a similar conveyer is provided on the trailer. A gutter carries crop to the trailer when the front vehicle is full, and a pivotable wall 69, mounted at the rear of the front vehicle, can be lowered when it is required to discharge the vehicle. A plate (77), Fig. 4 (not shown), may be provided in front of drum 33 in conjunction with a cutter bar, so that crop material may be mown. The appliances for the various embodiments of the invention are introduced into the charging space supported on rollers rolling on two pairs of horizontal rails 63 and 64, Fig. 7, and can be driven by telescoping shafts 94 and 98 through universal joints 95 and 99 respectively. In the embodiment for crop drying, a conveyer at the top of the charging space, consisting of oscillating supports 88, with sets of depending teeth 87, mounted on crank shafts 86 carries some material to crushing rollers (92), Fig. 6 (not shown), at the rear, whilst other materal falls through holes in a corrugated perforated sheet 83 below the oscillating supports 88. The teeth 87 have a serrated lower edge which is wider than the top of the teeth. Crop material falls successively on a set of conveyers 89, Fig. 5, running longitudinally throughout the charging space and is eventually carried to the rear by conveyer 62 and spread on the ground by a worm conveyer. The air blown by fan 23 is preferably preheated by heat from the engine 66 and possibly by an additional source.  In the harvester-thresher embodiment, supports 27 and attached pick-up devices and conveyers 89 are removed from the vehicle, but conveyers (87), Fig. 6 (not shown) and sheet 83 remain. Supports 27 are replaced by supports 117, carrying the usual cutter bar, reel, conveyer 120 and threshing drum 121 of a combine, and inside the charging space a sieve and cleaning mechanism can be introduced by means of rollers rolling on the rails 63. Crop material is introduced by the conveyer in the supply channel 10 to the conveyer (82) above the charging space, in which is mounted an oscillating sieve 123. Grain falling through the threshing drum is elevated by conveyer 21 to the sieve. Material reaching the end of perforated sheet 83 collects in a gutter 131, connected with a gutter 132 having an opening above the threshing mechanism at 130, Fig. 16, and so is reintroduced to part of the threshing process. Separation of grain is assisted by air blown by fan 23. At the rear below sheet 83, two parallel gutters 125, 126 are arranged, the front end of the lower of which extends above the rear of sieve 123. A worm conveyer 128, arranged below an opening at the rear of gutter 126, communicates with a delivery part (129), Fig. 15 (not shown), which also delivers material back to the threshing drum at 130, Fig. 16. The sieve and conveyers are driven by the detachable drive used in the crop drying and loading embodiments.