Abstract: A bucket mounted ground-raking and rock-gathering attachment is picked up off the ground following rock-gathering, by operation of hydraulic cylinders on the tractor provided for lifting and lowering the bucket. The tractor is then driven to a dumping site whereat a passive tension strap, interconnected between a top portion of the attachment and an upper portion of the bucket support frame, holds the attachment in a substantially level position. Then, hydraulic cylinders on the tractor are operated to rotate the bucket, for dumping the debris, while the attachment is substantially maintained in position. A passive tension strap, interconnected between the top of the bucket and the top of the attachment to limit the extent of downward pivotal movement of the attachment relative to the bucket, bends to permit such dumping rotation of the bucket.

Abstract: A rock picker has a plurality of high capacity conveyors, one of which is used for storing rocks during the picking operation. The conveyors quickly unload the stored rocks into a truck or at some other desired location. The storage conveyor is arranged so that it does not take up any substantial amount of space greater than the rock picker frame, but yet is sufficiently large in capacity so that it can store a large number of rocks as they are picked. Loading conveyors are sequentially placed so that first and second normally continuously operating conveyors load into the third storage conveyor in sequence. A storage hopper is provided at the input end of the storage conveyor, and the conveyor is intermittently operated to carry the rocks from the hopper in a layer along the length of the storage conveyor. When the storage conveyor is loaded with rocks, the storage conveyor is run to discharge the rocks off one end.

Abstract: A rock picker of the floating rotating reel type has the following features: (1) An intermediate pinion is provided for the drive of the reel at the pivot point for the reel assembly. This enables the reel to pivot to clear obstacles without per se changing the relative driving relationships; center-to-center distances can remain constant regardless of the pivoting of the reel. (2) Loosely attached grille teeth permit rocks to wiggle out from between grille teeth. Each grille tooth is provided with a receptacle and shoulder which bears against an angle-iron transversely located on the frame. Clearance between the receptacle and the angle iron permits wiggling of the teeth to occur. A bolt passing through a spacer flange attached to each tooth prevents the tooth from sliding off the angle iron.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a rock extractor apparatus and method of using the rock extractor for removing rocks embedded in the ground and/or for removing rocks partially embedded in the ground. The invention is particularly directed to removing rocks from soil suitable for farming. The rock extractor consists essentially of a digger unit, a grate unit and a conveyor unit, all of which cooperate to efficiently and effectively extract rocks from the soil and to render the soil suitable for cultivation. The rock extractor is attached to a draft machine such as a tractor and pulled through the soil.The tractor pulling the extractor through the soil causes rock and soil to be dug up and moved over the digger unit. The grate unit and conveyor unit cooperate to forcefully drive the conveyor unit downwardly and forwardly into the pile of rock and soil that is moved from the digger unit onto the grate unit and to rapidly move the rock and soil rearwardly along the grate unit.

Abstract: A stone picking machine is disclosed. The machine comprises a frame having a draft tongue adapted to be attached to the drawbar of a tractor, a cross-axle with a pair of wheels supporting the frame, a box mounted on the frame, means for picking up stones in the field while the machine is being hauled by a tractor and for loading the stones in the box, and means for raising the box upwardly and for tilting it sidewise to dump the stones into a truck or a pile of stones.

Abstract: A rock picking apparatus has a fork and reel assembly and a stone bucket. The reel assembly includes side plates supporting batts which are biased to an operative position by compression springs.

Abstract: This rock picker invention is a towable farm implement which is capable of removing rocks from a farm field. A plurality of buckets scoop up quantities of soil as the rock picker is towed by a tractor. The buckets are mounted on a pair of cables which pass over guide wheels. The cables are forced to move by a power source so that the buckets are forced into, across and out of the ground. The guide wheels are mounted on axles on a conveyor frame which allows the buckets and cables to be lifted to a transport position and which allows the angle of attack between the buckets and the ground surface to be varied. The buckets are equipped with openings and shaped such that soil falls from the buckets when the buckets are lifted. The cables are guided such that the buckets are caused to invert and dump the rocks collected into a hopper. The hopper is equipped with a lifting linkage to allow transfer and disposal of rocks collected.

Abstract: A tractor hitch mounted combination stone rake and ground conditioning machine including a frame and rotary member having mounted thereon a plurality of resilient tines in combination with a means for raising and lowering the rotary member with respect to the ground to allow a penetration of said resilient tines into the ground from about 1/8 of an inch to 3 inches to provide a resilient stone raking and ground preparing action which removes small stones, sticks and other materials that would otherwise interfere with a finished landscape for planting of lawn seed or other crop. The novel combination stone rake and ground conditioning machine not only removes stones at or near the surface of the ground, but also breaks up and aerates the soil while removing weeds and other plant growth that might otherwise interfere with planting operations.

Abstract: Apparatus for mounting on the front of a tractor, combine or other land vehicle which is useful for gathering chunks, twigs, branches or other debris from the soil. The apparatus, constituting a chunk gathering machine, is comprised generally of the combination of a rotary rake mechanism and a collection means, or pan, into which chunks, twigs, branches or other debris is swept by the rotary rake mechanism as well as means for dumping, or discharging, the collected debris.

Abstract: The ground sweeper has an endless screen movably supported upon a screen carrier which is attached to a wheeled trailer chassis such that the screen run makes an acute angle to the ground. A hydraulic motor powered hydraulically from a hydraulic pump run by the power takeoff unit of the pulling tractor rotates the screen drive roller. Hydraulic cylinders actuate a pivotally mounted rear hopper such that it may be hydraulically tilted to dump its load from the screen on the ground. The trailer ground sweeper carries its own hydraulic fluid tank and its hydraulic system has controls operable from the driver's position on the drawing tractor. A scoop at the front of the sweeper adjacent the lowest portion of the moving screen has a scoop blade which is reversible with respect to the run of the belt, such that the blade may be reversed to maintain a keen edge.

Abstract: A rock picker in the form of a wheeled vehicle for travel over a field that has rocks scattered superficially and/or near superficially therein, comprises a wheeled chassis that supports two coacting, endless chain conveyors of draper chain type having their working runs in confronting relationship and widths extending transversely of the chassis. One of the conveyors is elongate and disposed below the other, which is relatively short. The short upper conveyor has its working run of widespread, substantially V configuration, with the vertex of the V extending transversely of the lower conveyor at or near its lower end, which is disposed at or near ground level, thus forming entry and exit bights therewith. The forward, entry bight receives rocks lifted thereinto by a scraper blade, which is mounted on the frame immediately in advance of the conveyors as a ramp leading substantially smoothly into the throat between the two conveyors.

Abstract: A trash picking device including a self-propelled vehicle having a receiving tank therein with an entrance for receiving litter from a conveyor belt litter picked up by spiked rollers mounted on a support tower by the vehicle and communicating with the conveyor belt by means of a flexible chute. Preferably, two side rollers are pivoted to a central roller journalled directly below the conveyor belt. A pair of transporting wheels are pivotally mounted below the central roller. This roller drivingly engages the bottom roller of the conveyor belt.

Abstract: An improved rock windrower which includes a frame assembly, a reel adapted to be rotated within the frame assembly and having a plurality of windrowing teeth extending therefrom. The frame and reel are adapted to be angularly disposed relative to the draft direction of a towing vehicle. The improved windrower features disposition of the implement teeth in a direction substantially parallel to the draft direction of the towing vehicle upon impact of the teeth with the ground. Such an angle results in a full opening between adjacent teeth which in turn permits cleaner rock windrowing and further provides additional strength. Another feature of the improved windrower includes the provision of a pair of wheel assemblies that are angularly disposed in the draft direction of the towing vehicle and which may be placed at any desirable position on the rear frame of the windrower during a windrowing operation by means of a pair of easily secured bolt hole plates.

Abstract: This invention relates to a machine for harvesting market-size worms from their bedding that lays in the bottom of a flat-bottomed trough-like bed. The machine is self-propelled and travels lengthwise of the beds riding atop their side walls. A novel digger is provided on the front end of the unit made up of a rotating reel with rake-forming tined shafts, the tines of which remain in parallel relation at all times due to a pair of independently rotating eccentrically positioned hubs that rotate in unison therewith and are operatively connected thereto by a series of parallel links. The digger rakes the bedding along with the worms contained therein back onto a conveyor belt that carries the mixture upwardly and rearwardly and deposits it onto a shaker screen inclined downwardly and rearwardly above the open trough.

Abstract: A mobile processing machine for shredding a package of forage material such as a large cylindrical bale comprising a planar elevating member pivotally supported adjacent one edge in a frame and operated by hydraulic cylinder units from the under-surface to elevate the leading edge upwardly and having slidably related plate mechanism to prevent passage of said products at the pivoted area of said member and also provide a downwardly and inwardly directed surface for a bale of said products to urge the same against a pair of rotatable shredding members which direct the shredded product material to an auger for discharge from one end of the machine.

Abstract: A ground-raking attachment adapts bucket-equipped tractors for raking a ground surface free of rocks, refuse, roots, sticks and other debris. The attachment includes a frame and means for pivotally mounting the frame on a tractor bucket. The frame mounts at least one pair of motor driven, rotatable shafts mounting a plurality of rake teeth arranged for raking debris from the ground and progressively advancing it into the bucket. A frame drive is connected to the bucket for angularly adjusting it to selected positions relative to the ground.

Abstract: An apparatus for collecting objects from a surface by grasping the objects between a plurality of discs having resiliently deformable segments. Rotation of the discs with the objects therebetween transports the objects from the surface to a separate portion of the device where they are extracted by arcuate members between the discs and collected.

Abstract: The present invention relates to rock and root pickers. The picker disclosed in this application consists of a mobile vehicle with a fork table mounted thereon for movement between a picking position wherein it skims rocks from a surface over which the vehicle is moving and a dumping position wherein the fork table is positioned upwardly from the surface. A rotary reel is also mounted on the vehicle forwardly of the fork table to engage small rocks and roll them rearwardly onto the fork table. A dump bucket is mounted on the vehicle rearwardly of the fork table and receives rocks from the fork table when it is raised. In a preferred embodiment the vehicle is a self propelled swather and the rock picker is an attachment that is mounted on the vehicle in place of the header thereof.

Abstract: A beach cleaning apparatus comprises a forward assembly operatively connected to a trailer member, the forward assembly having a body portion rollably supported on a pair of spaced wheels and adapted for connection to a towing vehicle. A vertical member rotatable about a vertical axis extends upwardly from the body portion and has a rearwardly extending lever arm assembly pivotably secured thereto for movement about a horizontal axis. A winch on the forward assembly is connected to the lever arm assembly for effecting pivotal movement thereof. The free ends of the lever arm assembly are connected to the forward end of the trailer member, which consists of a rectangular container having a bed which comprises an interchangeable screen member adjacent its forward end and an interchangeable ground engaging blade member extending outwardly of the forward end.

Abstract: An elongated frame is provided including front and rear ends. The rear end portion of the frame includes rear wheeled transverse axle structure supported from the frame for adjustable angular displacement in a horizontal plane relative to the frame. The front end portion of the frame includes towing structure supported from the frame for adjustable shifting transversely thereof and operative, in conjunction with the adjustable axle structure, to establish an angularly adjusted towed relationship of said elongated frame behind a towing vehicle to which the towing structure is attached. The frame further includes longitudinally extending and traversely facing rake structure.

Abstract: Conventional rock pickers usually consist of a rotary rake or a fixed prong assembly. The present device incorporates both systems and provides further for raising and lowering both the prong assembly and the rotary rake relative to the ground and secondly, it provides an hydraulic drive for the rotary rake so that both the speed and direction of rotation of the rotary rake can be controlled by the operator.

Abstract: A beach cleaner vehicle is drawn across sand. A scraper blade shaves a layer of sand and debris from the sand surface. A continuous conveyor transports the sand and debris over sifter bars within the chassis of the beach cleaner. A foraminous sifter separates debris and permits sand to fall back to the beach. The sifting process is enhanced by a system adapted to vibrate the foraminous sifter during operation of the beach cleaner. Debris is deposited in a trash basket which is hydraulically dumped.

Abstract: Liquid manure from an open pit is swept into the tubular housing of a loader by an impeller that rotates adjacent the housing inlet in close proxmity to one stretch of the housing wall that is in concentric relationship with the impeller. Stones larger than a predetermined size are screened from the manure by an arcuate grid that overlies the impeller in concentricity therewith. Thus, instead of ricocheting wildly within the housing following their separation from the manure, the stones are guided smoothly around the impeller and back out the inlet opening.

Abstract: A pin cylinder litter collector for picking up litter by wedging or piercing action comprising a frame, a first shaft rotatable in the frame, and rods secured spacedly radially of said first shaft with said rods having sharp pointed free ends and sleeves of resilient material mounted on them a distance from the sharp pointed ends in order to pick up litter by piercing and wedging respectively. A second shaft is mounted rotatably in the frame and cooperates with the first shaft. On this second shaft is mounted a device for removing litter from the points and in between the sleeves of the rods on the first shaft consisting of first sections which are cylinder brush sections which are aligned for removing litter from the sharp points of the rods and second sections which may be made of metal, plastic, or other suitable material, which are aligned to remove wedged litter from in between the sleeves of the rods.

Abstract: A rock gathering machine for picking rocks up off the ground comprises a vehicle movable over land. A conveyor mounted on the vehicle transports rocks from the front of the vehicle to an elevated point at the rear of the vehicle. A rock catcher mounted at the front of the vehicle picks up rocks lying in the path of the vehicle and deposits them on the conveyor. A removing device mounted at the rear of the vehicle removes rocks from the conveyor and deposits them in a desired area relative to the vehicle.