Patent ID: 8857140

Claim:
A harvesting header operable to harvest a crop, said harvesting header comprising: a header frame; a flexible cutterbar assembly extending lengthwise in a lateral direction relative to the normal direction of travel of the header; a draper assembly supported behind the cutterbar assembly for conveying severed crop materials received from the cutterbar assembly; a plurality of laterally spaced apart support arms being attached to and cooperatively supporting the flexible cutterbar assembly at laterally spaced cutterbar locations, each of said support arms being pivotal about a laterally extending axis so that the flexible cutterbar assembly is operable to flex along the length thereof in response to changes in terrain as the header is advanced; and stop structure corresponding with each of the support arms, with the stop structure being operable to releasably contact the corresponding support arm at a location forwardly of the laterally extending axis along each support arm during flexing of the cutterbar, said stop structure defining a limited range of angular movement of the corresponding support arm and an associated range of generally vertical movement of the flexible cutterbar assembly at a respective one of the cutterbar locations.