Patent ID: 7624562

Claim:
A mower having a rotary cutting deck with a side discharge opening along one lateral side of the cutting deck for discharging grass clippings laterally from the cutting deck, wherein a side discharge chute overlies the discharge opening and extends laterally outwardly beyond a peripheral sidewall of the cutting deck, the discharge chute comprising a front wall that extends laterally outwardly, a rear wall that extends laterally outwardly with the rear wall of the discharge chute being located further rearwardly on the cutting deck than the front wall of the discharge chute, and a top wall that extends laterally outwardly with the top wall of the discharge chute joining the front and rear walls of the discharge chute to provide the discharge chute with a generally U-shaped configuration that is open at a bottom thereof with the open bottom of the chute facing the ground laterally outwardly of the peripheral sidewall of the cutting deck, which comprises: (a) only a single pivotal gate that pivots within the discharge chute beneath the top wall of the discharge chute and between the front and rear walls of the discharge chute, the pivotal gate pivoting on the one lateral side of the cutting deck about a substantially vertical gate pivot axis relative to the discharge opening between a closed position in which the gate substantially blocks the discharge opening and an open position in which the gate substantially clears the discharge opening, thereby providing discharge and non-discharge modes of operation respectively; (b) an L-shared pivotal handle that can be pivoted by the operator about a substantially vertical handle pivot axis defined by a vertical shaft of the handle to move the gate between the closed and open positions thereof, wherein the handle has a substantially horizontal hand grip atop the vertical shaft with the hand grip pivoting within a substantially horizontal plane during pivoting of the handle, wherein the gate pivot axis and the handle pivot axis are two separate axes that are separated from one another along a fore-and-aft direction; (c) at least one elongated connecting member extending in the fore-and-aft direction, wherein the connecting member operatively links the vertical shaft of the handle to the gate for causing the pivoting motion of the handle to be translated into pivoting motion of the gate; and (d) wherein the position of the hand grip relative to the mower mimics the position of the gate relative to the discharge opening such that the operator can observe the hand grip of the handle and set the hand grip in the same relative position on the mower as a desired setting of the gate relative to the discharge opening on the cutting deck.