Importance

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Abstract

A self-propelled mowing vehicle includes a chassis supported on front and rear pairs of transversely spaced wheels. At least a front-mounted mowing unit is attached to a front end of the chassis and operates to deliver cut crop to a longitudinally extending first section of a flat belt conveyor assembly which includes at least a second section that receives crop from the first section and delivers it transversely. In accordance with a first embodiment, the first conveyor section terminates at the rear sides of the front pair of wheels and the second conveyor section extends perpendicular to a longitudinal centerline of the vehicle and is mounted for sliding movement so as to selectively deliver crop to either side of the vehicle. In accordance with another embodiment the first conveyor section extends to the rear end of the vehicle and the second conveyor section is mounted for pivoting about an upright axis so as to selectively deliver crop to opposite sides of the vehicle or to strew the crop across its full range of movement. In accordance with still another embodiment, the conveyor arrangement includes second and third fixed conveyor sections located transversely to and on opposite sides of the vehicle centerline, with the first conveyor section being divided so as to divide the transported crop into two streams which are respectively deposited onto the second and third conveyor sections. Opposite side mowing units may be used with the front-mounted unit and when so used the second conveyor section operates to lay crop closely beside windrows formed by the first conveyor section so that the double windrows may be gathered by a wide pickup of a machine for further processing the crop.

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First Claim