Patent ID: 8240117

Claim:
A crop pickup assembly for a round baler, the baler having a frame-supported bale chamber with a crop inlet opening defined by a floor roll, a generally parallel and spaced apart starter roll, and a pair of generally spaced-apart side walls, the crop inlet opening configured to receive a mat of crop material from the pickup assembly, the pickup assembly having a width bounded by generally opposing outboard ends that is greater than the inlet opening, the crop pickup assembly comprising: a crop pickup apparatus forwardly connected to the baler, said pickup apparatus configured to lift crop material from the ground and convey a mat of crop material rearwardly toward said crop inlet, said pickup apparatus having a pickup width greater than said inlet width; a feed table rearward of the crop pickup apparatus and configured to receive and support the crop mat, wherein the feed table includes a generally planar surface extending toward the inlet opening; right and left side crop convergers arranged on a transverse axis, one said converger positioned adjacent each outboard end of said pickup assembly and configured to urge the crop mate generally laterally inwardly; and an elongate feed assist roll arranged for rotation on a lateral axis, the lateral axis located beneath the feed table and transverse axis of rotation of the crop convergers and longitudinally positioned between said tine reel and the crop inlet opening rearward of the axis of rotation of the crop convergers, said lateral axis and said transverse axis being non-collinear, wherein a portion of said feed assist roll extends at least to the plane of the feed table when the roll in in a first position and configured to urge, by rotation of said feed assist roll, crop material from said tine reel and said right and left crop convergers toward said crop inlet opening.