Patent ID: 8037668

Claim:
A crop accessory apparatus for attachment to a cutting header, the cutting header having a knife mounted along a lower front edge thereof and guards attached to the lower front edge with guard bolts such that guard fingers of the guards extend forward from the header, the apparatus comprising: a header latch member adapted for attachment to a guard bolt on the header such that a proximate end of the header latch member is adjacent to the header, and such that a sloping rear wall of the header latch member slopes from a distal end of the header latch member rearward and toward the header; a crop accessory with an accessory latch member at a rear end thereof, the accessory latch member adapted to move rearward, when the header latch member is attached to a header, into latching engagement with the header latch member such that the rear end of the accessory is maintained in substantially fixed vertical and lateral relationship to the header; the accessory latch member comprising a spring element defining an aperture therein, wherein the distal end of the header latch member moves into the aperture when the accessory latch member is engaged with the header latch member, and wherein the spring element is urged toward the header by a bias force such that a rear edge of the aperture is urged down the sloping rear wall and rearward, and such that the accessory is urged rearward into closer engagement with the header; a lateral retention groove in the sloping rear wall in proximity to the distal end of the header latch member, the retention groove operative to prevent the rear edge of the aperture in the spring element from sliding up and off the header latch member.