Patent ID: 7065947

Claim:
A brush rake for a grooming vehicle for smoothing loose, granular material, which comprises: (a) a center brush having a hitch for connecting to the vehicle such that the center brush can be towed behind the vehicle; (b) a pair of side brushes pivotally connected to the center brush by a pair of pivot connections with a first side brush being pivotally connected to one lateral outer end of the center brush and a second side brush being pivotally connected to an opposite lateral outer end of the center brush; (c) wherein the center and side brushes have flexible brush bristles that are the only portion of the brush rake that engage the loose granular material; (d) wherein the center brush is longitudinally offset relative to the side brushes such that the bristles of the center brush are not aligned end-to-end with and do not engage the bristles of the side brushes to permit the side brushes to pivot freely with respect to the center brush without any interference between the bristles of the center and side brushes; (e) wherein the side brushes have laterally innermost ends that overlap the lateral outer ends of the center brush so that the center and side brushes groom an unbroken swath in a surface formed of loose granular material; and (f) wherein the pivot connections each comprise a longitudinal pivot pin that is fixed to one of the lateral outer ends of the center brush with at least a portion of the pivot pin being longitudinally extended relative to the center brush such that the longitudinally extended portion of the pivot pin is positioned substantially directly above the laterally innermost end of one of the side brushes to journal the side brush for pivoting relative to the center brush substantially at the laterally innermost end of the side brush, whereby a force acting on the bristles of the side brush tending to lift an outer end of the side brush will lift the outer end of the side brush without causing the laterally innermost end of the side brush to dig down into the loose granular material surface.