Patent ID: 8522517

Claim:
A gang reel mower, which comprises: (a) a frame having a pair of front ground engaging wheels and a pair of rear ground engaging wheels, one wheel pair being drive wheels and the other wheel pair being steerable wheels; (b) a plurality of laterally spaced front reel cutting units providing at least one lateral gap therebetween with each front reel cutting unit providing a width of cut, the front reel cutting units being located in advance of the front wheels of the frame, each gap being covered by a rear reel cutting unit having a width of cut that spans the gap ahead of each rear reel cutting unit and that extends beyond opposite sides of the gap to also overlap by an overlap distance a portion of the width of cut of the spaced front cutting units that form the gap such that all the front and rear reel cutting units collectively cut an unbroken swath of grass during a single pass of the mower, each rear cutting unit being located between the front and rear wheels of the frame; (c) a plurality of lift arms for individually coupling the front and rear reel cutting units to the frame to permit each reel cutting unit to be dropped down relative to the frame into engagement with the ground to mow grass or to be lifted up relative to the frame off the ground into a raised, non-operative transport position; and (d) wherein the width of cut of each rear reel cutting unit is wider than the width of cut of each front reel cutting unit.