Patent ID: RE40611

Claim:
In a machine for mowing crop materials, the improvement comprising: a cutter bed including a series of rotary cutters extending across the path of travel of the machine and rotatable about individual, upright axes, said series of cutters including a plurality of intermediate cutters and at least two outer cutters located outwardly beyond and at opposite ends of the plurality of intermediate cutters, said intermediate cutters including a pair of drive cutters to which driving power is supplied for all of the intermediate cutters; at least a pair of hydraulic motors operably coupled with respective ones of said drive cutters for supplying said driving power to the drive cutters for distribution to the remaining intermediate cutters; power distribution means operably interconnecting all of the intermediate cutters with one another in an unbroken drive line to effect said distribution of driving power from the drive cutters to the remaining intermediate cutters; means for supplying hydraulic fluid under pressure to said motors for operating the motors; and means operably coupling the outer cutters with the hydraulic motors for driving the outer cutters, said means for supplying hydraulic fluid including conduit means communicating said motors with one another during the application of driving power to the drive cutters in a manner to cause the motors to share the load of driving all of the intermediate cutters and all of the outer cutters.