Patent ID: 8037814

Claim:
An agricultural round baler comprising: a ground-supported main frame adapted for movement in a forward direction of travel; an expandable bale forming chamber defined in a space between opposing side walls by a plurality of side-by-side belts trained around a plurality of spaced-apart elongate guide rolls extending transverse to said frame, said plurality of guide rolls having at least a first guide roll and an adjacent second guide roll configured with said plurality of belts spanning therebetween, the first guide roll positioned above the second guide roll; and a belt staggering arrangement having first and second belt staggering rolls disposed outside of said bale forming chamber and extending transverse to said frame, said first and second stagger rolls positioned between said first guide roll and said second guide roll, said first stagger roll offset in a first offset direction from a belt line extending between said first and second guide rolls, said second stagger roll being offset in a direction opposite said first offset direction, at least one of said plurality of belts trained around said first stagger roll following a first belt offset path having a first belt travel length and at least one other of said plurality of belts trained around said second stagger roll following a second offset path having a second travel length wherein a length of belt in said first and said second offset paths spanning between the first and second guide rolls is substantially equal, and wherein said at least one of the plurality of belts on the first offset path and said at least one of the plurality of belts on the second offset path do not travel through a longitudinal gap between the stagger rolls and do not travel directly from the first stagger roll to the second stagger roll, whereby debris is allowed to pass through the space between the first and second offset paths.