Patent ID: 8920101

Claim:
A tennis ball collection device comprising a cart, a ball pick-up assembly, and a ball basket; the cart comprising a wheeled base having a pair of fixed rotation rear wheels connected to the base and a pair of front swivel wheels connected to the base; the cart further comprising a handle rigidly connected to the base and extending upwardly therefrom; the ball basket comprises connector pins that are receivable in a plurality of hooks on the front of the cart base and on the cart handle for removably mounting the ball basket on the base or on the handle; the ball pick-up assembly being positioned in the base of the cart, wherein the ball pick-up assembly comprises a rotating drum and a drum rail, wherein the drum is a cylinder mounted at each cylinder end across a width of the base and is rotatably connected about an axis to opposite sides of the base; wherein one end of the drum comprises a first pulley wheel fixed to the drum rotation axis, and a second pulley wheel is connected to one of the fixed rotation rear wheels, and a belt is mounted on the first and second pulley wheels, and the first pulley wheel has a smaller circumference than the second pulley wheel; the drum rail comprising a curved plate that is mounted on the base, the curvature of the rail being generally evenly spaced from and substantially corresponding to the curvature of the outside circumference of the drum; the base further comprising a guide ramp from the drum to the front of the base; and the device further comprising a first spring connected on one end to the base of the cart and on the other end to the back of the drum rail, wherein the drum rail is slidably connected to the base, and the spring biases the drum rail to a rest position where the drum rail is generally evenly spaced from the outside circumference of the drum.