GB2165566A

GB2165566A - Scraper boxes

Info

Publication number: GB2165566A
Application number: GB08524130A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Samuel Paul Harper
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1984-10-01
Filing date: 1985-10-01
Publication date: 1986-04-16
Also published as: IE842488L; GB8524130D0

Abstract

A transport or link box attachment for a farm tractor or the like, especially rear-mounted, is disclosed which provides the dual function of carrying small loads in an open box member (1) and of pushing material such as silage or fodder to one side or both sides of a feeding bay aisle, for example, using sides (6, 7) to push material along the ground when the box is lowered. Alternatively, a scraping or sweeping function can be provided when the box has a depending skirt portion with a ground-engaging rubber strip or brush secured thereto. The box (1) is advantageously provided with an inbuilt counterweight, such as detachable weights (20) mounted on a transverse bar (18), to counterbalance another attachment. To facilitate low loading of the box, one or more of the sides (6, 7) can be opened or temporarily removed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to attachments for farm tractors and the like The present invention relates to improvements in farm attachments for tractors, in particular to rearmounted attachments adapted for carrying small loads, such as transport or "link" boxes.

One of the difficulties encountered with known rear-mounted link boxes, which may for example be three-sided, being open to the rear for convenient low loading and to act as a scoop, is the fact that these have to be detached whenever a different attachment is required. This is time consuming and is all the more so in the case of a frequently used attachment such as a link box. It would of course be an advantage if such an attachment were to provide more than one function, and this constitutes an object of the present invention. Many tasks to be performed on the farm involve the movement or redistribution of material such as silage, fodder etc.; manure, slurry, etc.; sand, fertiliser etc.; from one place to another by pushing or scraping such material along the ground with the aid of a tractor front-end loader or dozer attachment, or by manually shovelling material.

The present invention firstly seeks to provide an attachment for a farm tractor or the like characterised by having both a small load-carrying capacity and a pushing, scraping or sweeping function.

When a tractor is fitted with a front-end loader or other load-bearing attachment, it is necessary to secure a counterweight to the rear of the tractor to prevent the danger of the tractor overbalancing when a load is extended in front of the tractor.

Various types of counterweight are known, for example of the type described in British Patent Specification Nos. 1,466,449, and 1,519,104, comprising demountabie weights which hook onto a bar, but a disadvantage of these when rear-mounted is that the weights tend to protrude from the rear of the tractor and interfere with the three point linkage structure, making it difficult to use a rear-mounted attachment when the counterweight is in place.

Normally, the weight of any rear-mounted attachment is not sufficient in itself to provide an effective counterweight.

The present invention also seeks to overcome these problems by providing an attachment for a farm tractor including an inbuilt counterweight means for example including removable counterweights for use in conjunction with another extensible load-bearing tractor attachment such as a frontend loader or silage grab.

According to the invention there is provided an attachment for a farm tractor or the like comprising an open box member adapted for transporting small loads and to be lowerable to or near ground level in use and which member is adapted to define or support means for pushing, scraping or sweeping material along the ground when in a lowered position. The box member may be provided with a substantially upright side or sides which define a pushing means. Alternatively the box may be provided with depending sides and/or a depending skirt which define a scraping or sweeping means. The depending portions may advantageously be detachable from the box member.

Advantageously, the box member has at least one of its upright sides arranged at an acute angle to the direction of travel in use and is thus adapted as a material redistribution plough.

According to another aspect of the invention there is provided an attachment for a farm tractor or the like comprising an open box member adapted for transporting small loads as defined above incorporating counterweight means such as a transverse bar adapted to receive at least one detachable counterweight.

Suitably, the tractor attachment of the invention is adapted to be rear-mounted upon a three-point linkage, and may be raised or lowered to ground level by utilizing the tractor hydraulic system in a manner known per se.

It will be appreciated that when the box member is adapted as a material redistribution plough, for example as a silage redistribution plough, only one upright side arranged at an acute angle to the direction of travel is necessary to push silage to one side of the plough in a feeding bay aisle. For feeding bays with wide aisles, two upright sides arranged in a V with respect to the direction of travel may be used to push silage to either side simultaneously, wherein one or both of the sides may be opened or removed for better access to the transport box, during loading.

Preferred embodiments of attachments for a farm tractororthe like, in accordance with the invention will now be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 shows a perspective view from above of a rear-mounted tractor attachment adapted as a transport box and a silage redistribution plough in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, showing one access door in an open position, Figure 2 is a plan view of the transport box of Figure 1, showing detachable counterweights in dashed outline, Figure 3 is a side elevation of the transport box of Figure 1, Figure 4 is a front elevation of the transport box of Figure 1, Figure 5 is a perspective view from above of a rear-mounted tractor attachment adapted as a transport box and detachable slurry scraper or farmyard sweeper in accordance with a second embodiment of the invention, Figure 6 is a side elevation of the slurry scraper (detached) of Figure 5 when viewed in the direction of arrow A-A of FigureS, and Figure 7 is a side elevation of the slurry scraper or farmyard sweeper of Figure 5 showing an alternative method of attachment of the scraper.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4 of the drawings, an attachment for a farm tractor or the like comprises a transport box 1 having a triangular floor 2 with upstanding side walls 3, 4, 5. Front wall 3 is fixed but side walls 4 and 5 have hinged gate portions 6 and 7 pivotable about a common pintle 8.

Sides 4 and 5 are smooth on the outside and are arranged at an acute angle, for example 60 , so as to provide the transport box 1 with the dual function of a silage redistribution plough, when gates 6 and 7 are closed by means of bolts 9 which engage corresponding holes 10 in the floor 2 of the box. It is important that gates 6 and 7 should close flush with sides 4 and 5. Horizontal sliding bolts on the inside of the gates could be employed if desired, instead of the drop bolts illustrated.

As seen in dashed outline in Figure 2 strengthening ribs 11 extend across the underside of the floor 2.

Strengthening ribs 12 are also provided on the inside of gates 6 and 7 which may be of lighter construction than floor2 and front wall 3.

As seen in Figure 4, the front wall 3 has upstanding angle irons 13,13', 14, 14' welded to its outside to provide for a three-point linkage to a tractor comprising pins 15,15' mounted in lugs 15a projecting forwardly from uprights 13,13' and a series of holes 16 in uprights 14, 14'. Two small brackets 17, 17' made from pieces of angle iron are welded to the inner facing sides of uprights 13, 13' to support a cross-bar 18, also made of angle iron, which lies against uprights 14,14'. A rod 19 is welded to the inside edge of cross-bar 18 so as to form a lip facing the front wall 3. The rod 19 is bent around at each end in a U-shape as seen in Figure 2. Weights 20 having handles 20a which are commercially available are hooked onto the cross-bar 18 and retained in place by the lip formed by rod 19.Any number of weights 20 may be hooked on to provide a counterweight when the attachment is mounted on the rear of a tractor fitted for example, with a front-end loader. Two protruding lugs 21, 21' are welded to uprights 14,14' below cross-bar 18 which lugs are provided with holes through which a retaining pin may be passed, such that when weights 20 have been hooked onto cross-bar 18, a retaining pin 22 is passed through a corresponding hole in the weight or weights 20 and through the hole in lugs 21,21' to lock the weights in position against front wall 3.

Thus, the attachment is provided with a counterweight bar and weights which are independent of any counterweight provided on the tractor itself.

In use the attachment illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 may be mounted on the rear of a tractor having a front-end loader or front-end silage grab attached thereto, and fitted with an appropriate counterweight. Thus the farmer can, for example, perform the following operations without the need to change attachments, which is both time-consuming and labour intensive: (a) move silage from a silage pit to a cattle feeding bay (using front-end attachment), (b) carry bagged meal to feeding area (using transport box), (c) reverse tractor down aisle in feeding bay and push silage to both sides in proximity to adjacent feeding stalls (using transport box as a silage redistribution plough).

It will be readily appreciated that if a sufficiently heavy load is to be carried in the transport box, it may not be necessary to attach more than a few, if any, weights 20 to the bar 18 as the load itself will have a counterbalancing effect.

Figures 5 and 6 illustrate a second embodiment of the invention wherein a rectangular transport box 31 is provided having four upstanding side walls 32-35 wherein the front wall 34 is somewhat higher than the rearwall 32.

Box 31 is provided with hollow section box iron pieces 36 on the outer side of each sidewall 33 and 35, and each side also has two laterally projecting pins 37,37' close to the bottom of the box. A slurry scraper or farmyard sweeper attachment 41 may be detachably mounted below the box attachment 31 by means of hooks 42,42' which engage pins 37,37' and by means of placing a locking pin (not shown) through box iron piece 36 and through a corresponding box iron piece 42a on each side of the scraper.

Conveniently, a tractor is reversed (with box 21 in a raised position above ground level) over the detached scraper to engage pins 37,37' with hooks 42, 42' before engaging the locking pins. The scraper attachment 41 illustrated is of a standard construction apart from the modification of the hooks 42,42' and box iron piece 42a. It comprises a rigid transverse plate 43 with a strip of thick rubber skirt 44 or similar resilient material bolted thereto to engage the ground with depending sides 45, 46, each of which may also be fitted with a rubber skirt.

The box attachment 31 illustrated in Figure 5 has the same configuration of uprights and cross-bars providing a three point linkage attachment means and counterweight means on its front side 34 as described above with reference to Figures 1-4.

Figure 7 shows an alternative method of attaching the slurry scraper/yard sweeper unit to the transport box 31 and securing it thereto by means of a clamp instead of the locking pin arrangement described above with reference to Figure 5. An enlarged plate 52 includes a hook which together with hook 42 engages pins 37,37' as before, but also provides a mounting for an over-centre clamp with screw adjustment. The clamp comprises a yoke 50 with handle 51 which hinges about bracket 55. A bolt 53 threads into a hinge pin 54 disposed between the arms of yoke 50, and is provided with an eye at its free end which may appropriately be adjusted to engage over pin 37'. Thus the handle 51 can be swung inwardly to secure the over-centre clamp in place, and quickly released again.

A system of detachable weights is preferred to provide the counterweight means, because it may not always be desired to use a counterweight, but if desired a fixed weight may be provided on the attachment instead. Alternatively, suitable weights may be placed and secured in position if necessary on the floor of the transport box to provide a counterweight means, or the whole floor may be a weighted floor, if desired.

Claims

1. An attachment for a farm tractor or the like comprising an open box member adapted fortransporting small loads and to be lowerable to or near ground level in use and which member is adapted to define or support means for pushing, scraping or sweeping material along the ground when in a lowered position.

2. An attachment as claimed in claim 1,wherein the box member is provided with a substantially upright side which defines a pushing means.

3. An attachment as claimed in claim 2, wherein the said side is at an acute angle to the direction of travel in use.

4. An attachment as claimed in claim 3, in which the box member is a three-sided box wherein two sides of the box are arranged in a V in the member of a plough for pushing material along the ground.

5. An attachment as claimed in claim 1, wherein a skirt portion depending from the box member defines a scraping or sweeping means.

6. An attachment as claimed in claim 5, wherein the said skirt portion is detachable from the box member.

7. An attachment as claimed in claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the scraping means comprises a strip of resilient material secured to the skirt portion.

8. An attachment as claimed in claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the sweeping means comprises a brush secured to the skirt portion.

9. An attachment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims further comprising counterweight means.

10. An attachment as claimed in claim 9, wherein the counterweight means comprises a transverse bar to support detachable weights.

11. An attachment as claimed in claim 9, wherein the counterweight means comprises a fixed weight, or wherein the floor of the box member is a weighted floor.

12. An attachment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims adapted to be rear-mounted on a farm tractor or the like.

13. An attachment as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 11, adapted to be front-mounted on a farm tractor or the like.

14. Atransport box/silage redistribution plough for attachment to a farm tractor orthe like, substantially as described herein with reference to Figures 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

15. A transport box/slurry scraper for attachment to a farm tractor or the like, substantially as described herein with reference to Figures 5 and 6 or 7 of the accompanying drawings.

16. A transport box/farmyard sweeper for attachmentto a farm tractor or the like, substantially as described herein with reference to Figures 5 and 6 or 7 of the accompanying drawings.