US3808715A

US3808715A - Snow thrower with rotatable snow spout

Info

Publication number: US3808715A
Application number: US00279924A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Haban
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-08-11
Filing date: 1972-08-11
Publication date: 1974-05-07
Anticipated expiration: 1991-05-07

Abstract

A snow auger rotates within a horizontal housing and has throwers which discharge snow out of an opening in the top of the housing. A cylindrical snow conduit is attached to the housing around the snow discharge opening and a snow-directing spout with a downwardly-projecting cylindrical collar is swivelingly attached around the snow conduit in overlapping relationship with the latter. A plurality of dimples are formed in the cylindrical collar in the area where it overlaps the snow conduit to space the two members sufficiently apart to prevent particles of foreign matter from lodging therebetween to interfere with swiveling. A spindle is rotatably attached to the housing and a cable has spaced portions wound around the spindle and extending in diverging relationship therefrom to pass around the cylindrical collar for causing swiveling of the latter. A member including a pair of spaced parallel arms is mounted for movement parallel to the axis of the spindle and engages the spaced cable portions to prevent improper winding of the cable around the spindle.

Description

[ May 7,1974

[ SNOW THROWER WITH ROTATABLE SNOW SPOUT [76] Inventor: Joseph Haban, Mound & Marquette Sts., Racine, Wis. 53404 [22] Filed: Aug. 11, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 279,924

[52] US. Cl. 37/43 R, 302/34,'242/l57.1,

302/61, 138/113 [51] Int. Cl E0lh 5/00 [58] Field of Search 37/41-43, 12;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 656,679 8/1900 Sweet 302/10 3,273,942 9/1966 McFarland... 302/34 X 3,512,116 6/1950 Siebels 138/113 2,634,759 4/1953 Twickler l 138/113 1,400,658 12/1921 Brown 302/34 3,648,978 3/1972 Ratcliff 242/157 R 3,262,742 7/1966 Sipe et a1. 302/34 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 652,425 11/1962 Canada 37/43 R 634,485 2/1962 ltaly 6,607,982 12/1967 Netherlands 302/34 573,383 3/1959 Canada 37/43 D Primary Examiner-Robert E. Pulfrey Assistant Examiner-Eugene'1-I. Eickholt Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Arthur L. Morsell, Jr.

[5 7] ABSTRACT A snow auger rotates within a horizontal housing and has throwers which discharge snow out of an opening in the top of the housing. A cylindrical snow conduit is attached to the housing around the snow discharge opening and a snow-directing spout with a downwardly-projecting cylindrical collar is swivelingly attached around the snow conduit in overlapping relationship with the latter. A plurality of dimples are formed in the cylindrical collar in the area where it overlaps the snow conduit to space the two members sufficiently apart to prevent particles of foreign matter from lodging therebetween to interfere with swiveling. A spindle is rotatably attached to the housing and a cable has spaced portions wound around the spindle and extending in diverging relationship therefrom to pass around the cylindrical collar for causing swiveling of the latter. A member including a pair of spaced parallel arms is mounted for movement parallel to the axis of the spindle and engages the spaced cable portions to prevent improper winding of the cable around the spindle.

5 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures msmmm 1:924 3.808715 I SHEET 1 (IF 2 PATENTEDIIAY 1 2974 SHEET 2 [)F 2 SNOW THROWER WITH ROTATABLE SNOW SPOUT BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to snow throwers of the type having a snow-directing conduit system in which a cylindrical collar is swivelingly attached around a cylindrical snow conduit in overlapping relationship with the latter. This swivel connection is used for the purpose of turning a snow-directing spout which is attached to the end of the cylindrical collar.

In the past, difficulties have arisen in such snow throwers due to the fact that sand and other particles sometimes are picked up along with the snow and become lodged in the relatively small space between the cylindrical snow conduit and cylindrical collar where they overlap. This causes the swivel connection between the two members to bind and makes it difficult or impossible to turn the snow-directing spout.

Another difficulty with the prior art snow throwers relates to the means for causing the snow-directing spout to rotate. This function is performed by means of a manually-controlled rotatable spindle and a cable which is wrapped around the spindle and extends around the cylindrical collar attached to the snowdirecting spout. A manually-operated crank rod is coupled to the rotatable spindle. When the spindle is ro-. tated by the crank rod, the cables cause the cylindrical collar to swivel, which adjusts the direction of the snow-directing spout attached thereto.

When the spindle is rotated, one portion of the cable winds itself up on the spindle and the opposing portion of the cable unwinds. When the direction of spindle rotation is reversed, the winding action of the cable reverses itself. In the past, difficulty has been experienced because the portion of the cable which was being wound up often became unevenly or improperly wound, i.e. instead of being evenly spaced along the spindle, the cable winding became objectionably overlapped or otherwise wound in a troublesome manner. This placed a strain on the mechanism, which tended to cause the spindle to bind and also tended to interfere with the swiveling adjustment of the chute.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention, the above-noted difficulty with respect to foreign matter becoming lodged between the cylindrical collar and the cylindrical snow conduit is overcome by providing spacing means between the overlapping portions of the collar and conduit of such size as to space the two members sufficiently apart to prevent particles from lodging thereinbetween. This allows the particles to drop between the two members without becoming lodged between them.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the spacing means is a plurality of flat dimples formed in one of the two-cylindrical members in the area where they overlap. The dimples are preferably arranged in two axially-spaced rows and also serve as bearing surfaces for the swivel connection between the two cylindrical members.

The above-noted difficulty with respect to the cable being improperly wound around the spindle is over come by providing a cable control member including a pair of spaced parallel arms mounted adjacent to the spindle for movement parallel to the axis of the spindle. The spaced parallel arms engage the portions of the cable which extend from the spindle and prevent the cable portions from becoming improperly wound on the spindle. In the preferred embodiment, the spaced parallel arms are part of a U-shaped bracket which is slideably mounted in slots in a housing that supports and partially surrounds the spindle.

Accordingly, one object of this invention is to provide an improved snow thrower of the type having a snow-directing conduit system in which one cylindrical member is swivelingly attached to another.

Another object of this invention is to provide a snow thrower of the above-described type having spacing means incorporated in the swivel connection between the two cylindrical members thereof to prevent particles from loding thereinbetween.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved cable drive apparatus for rotating the spout of a fan, useful in any type of fan with a saddle; and particularly in a conventional snow thrower, or in a two stage unit.

An additional object of the invention is to provide winding control means to prevent improper winding of the cable in the cable drive apparatus of a snow thrower of the above-described type.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one illustrative snow thrower of this invention attached to the front of a small tractor to be operated thereby;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the snow-directing spout and cable apparatus for turning the snow-directing spout of the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view, partially in section, of the swivel connection between the cylindrical collar and snow conduit portion of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2; j

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view of the rotatable spindle and cable for the snow spout turning apparatus of the embodiment disclosed in FIGS. 1 through 4, parts being broken away and shown in section; and

FIG. 6 is an end view of the spindle, cable-and spindle housing shown in FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION FIG. 1 shows one illustrative embodiment of the invention attached to the front of a small tractor. This embodiment of the invention includes a snow auger 10 which is journalled within a housing 12 and is rotated therewithin by a suitablepower source. As the auger 10 rotates, it forces snow inwardly from both sides toward the center of the housing 12 and then throws the snow upwardly through a snow discharge opening 14 (see FIG. 2) which is formed in the top of the housing 12. A cylindrical snow conduit 16 is attached to the housing 12 around the snow discharge opening 14 and extends upwardly therefrom. A snow-directing spout I8 is swivelingly attached to the snow conduit 16 by means of a collar 20 which projects downwardly from the snow-directing spout l8 and overlaps the upper portion of the snow conduit 16. The snow-directing spout 18 is made of several sections and is arcuate in shape so as to direct the snow in an arcuate path toward either side of the housing 12, or in any desired direction, depending upon the rotary orientation of the collar 20.

FIG. 3 shows the swivel connection between snow conduit 16 and collar 20. A ring 22 is welded to the outer surface of the snow conduit 16 for supporting a shoulder 24 which is formed in the lower end of the collar 'and rides upon the top surface of the ring 22. A skirt 26 depends downwardly from the shoulder 24, and four bolts 28 pass through openings in the skirt 26 and extend below the ring 22 to keep the collar 20 from being lifted over the ring 22.

In the past, difficulty has been encountered in having sand or similar particles drop down between the snow conduit 16 and collar 20 and lodge thereinbetween, thereby interfering with the swiveling motion of the collar 20 about the conduit 16. Such interference is prevented in this invention by providing spacing means between the snow conduit 16 and the collar 20 of such size as to space the collar sufficiently apart from the conduit 16 to prevent particles from lodging thereinbetween. In this particular embodiment of the invention, the spacing means comprises dimples 30 which are formed by external indentations in the collar 20, the dimples projecting inwardly a predetermined distance which is substantially larger than the dimensions of the sand or other particles that might be picked up by the snow thrower. The dimples 30 have flat bottoms 32 which bear against the outer surface of the snow conduit 16 without appreciable friction due to their relatively small area. The dimples 30 are spaced at approximately thirty degree intervals around the inner periphery of the collar 20 and are arranged in two axially spaced rows, one row engaging the conduit 16 near the top of the area in which it is overlapped by the collar spacing between the cylindrical snow conduit 16 and the cylindrical collar 20 and allow the sand or other particles to drop down to a safe position without becoming wedged between the conduit 16 and the collar With the spacing means of this invention, any sand or other particulate matter that drops down between the snow conduit 16 and the cylindrical collar 20 falls down and is caught by the ring 22. If a small amount of sand or particulate matter falls through the space provided by this invention, it merely rests out of the way against the upper inner surface of the ring 22. If the sand orparticulate material accumulates on top of the ring 22, the motion of the shoulder 24 eventually works the particulate material out of an opening 34 in the ring 22.

In some embodiments of the invention, the snowdirecting spout 18 may be manually rotatable, but in the disclosed embodiment of the invention, the snowdirecting spout 18 is rotated by a cable 36 which extends around the cylindrical collar 20 and is looped at its end portions over a bolt 38 (see FIG. 4) which is attached to the collar 20. The looped ends of the cable 36 which fit around the bolt 38 are secured by metallic sleeves 40. When the 'cable 36 is moved in one direction or the other, it applies a rotary force to the cylindrical collar 20 through bolt 38 and causes it to swivel around the snow conduit 16, thereby rotating the snow discharge spout 18.

The other end of the cable 36 is wrapped around a spindle 42 (see FIG. 5) which is rotatably secured within a spindle housing 44. Housing 44 has an end member 46 welded to its lower end. End member 46 has a slot therein which is not shown in the drawings for admitting a bolt 48 in order to bolt the housing 44 to a bracket 50 (see FIG. 1) which is attached to the housing 12 opposite the cylindrical collar 20. The bolt 48 and nut 49 hold the housing 44 in position against bracket 50. The housing 44 is open on one side and closed on the other side. A round partition 52 is welded to the interior of the housing 44 to rotatably support the spindle 42. A hollow cylindrical spacer 54 extends through the partition 52 and is welded thereto. The spacer 54 rotatably receives an eye bolt 56 through the center thereof and the spindle 42 rotates around the outer portion of the spacer 54. The eye bolt 56 is rotatably secured to the end of the spacer 54 by means of a flat washer 58, a conical washer 60, and a nut 62. At the other end of the spindle assembly, the spindle 42 is pinched down at 64 to rigidly engage the eye 66 of the eye bolt 56. The eye 66 of eye bolt 56 is also engaged by a hook 68 which is formed in the end of a crank rod 70 (see FIG. 1). The crank rod 70 is supported by a bracket 72 on the tractor shown in FIG. 1 and has a handle 74 for being manually turned thereby. When the handle 74 is rotated, the crank rod 70 and hook 68 rotate, which in turn rotates the eye bolt 56 and the spindle 42.

The cable 36 is passed through an opening 76 in spindle 42 (see FIG. 5) and is wrapped around the spindle 42 on both sides of the opening 76. Portions of the cable 36 extend from spindle 42 in diverging relationship, as best shown in FIG. 2, extending around the cylindrical collar 20, and engaging the bolt 38 therein. As the spindle 42 rotates, one portion of the cable 36 which is wound around the spindle 42 winds up, and the other portion of the cable 36 which is wound around the spindle 42 unwinds. When the direction of rotation of the spindle 42 is reversed, the action of the cable portions is reversed. In thepast, difficulty has been encountered with respect to the cable portion which is being wound up. This cable portion had a tendency to overlap turns of the winding and otherwise wind improperly and thus put tension in the cable 36 which tended to cause the rotatable connection of the spindle 42 to bind and interfere with the swiveling of the cylindrical sleeve 20. In accordance with this invention, however, this drawback is overcome in a simple manner by providing a cable control member having a U-shaped member 78 with spaced parallel arms 80 which is slideably mounted in slots 82 cut in housing member 44. The arms 80 extend transversely to the axis of spindle 42 and are movable parallel thereto. The U-shaped member 78 is secured within the slots 82 by means of a tie bar 84 which extends between the ends of the arms 80 and has openings therein for engaging the ends of the arms 80. The tie bar 84 is adjustably pressed against the sides of the housing 44 by means of nuts 86. t

The slots 82 in housing 44 are positioned so as to provide sliding movement of the parallel arms 80 in a direction parallel to the axis of the spindle 42. The sliding movement is caused by the cable 36 engaging one of the arms 80 and pushing against it. The nuts 86 on the ends of the arms 80 adjust the amount of pressure that is required to move the arms 80.

From the foregoing description it will be apparent that this invention provides an improved snow thrower, an improved swivel connection for the snow-directing spout thereof, and an improved cable drive apparatus for rotating the snow-directing spout. And, although this invention has been described in connection with one illustrative embodiment thereof, it should be understood that the invention is by no means limited to the disclosed embodiment, since many modifications can be made in the disclosed structure without changing its fundamental principles of operation. For example, although the rotatable spindle 42 has been disclosed as being driven by a hook 68 which engages an eye bolt 66, it will be clear to those skilled in the art that many other mechanical connections are possible for linking the rotatable crank arm 70 to the spindle 42. This and other modifications of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and this invention includes all such modifications that fall within the scope of the following claims.

l claim:

1. In a snow thrower of the type having a horizontal auger housing provided with a top snow discharging opening, said housing having a cylindrical snow conduit attached thereto around said opening and having a snow-directing spout with a downwardly projecting cylindrical collar swivelingly attached around said cylindrical snow conduit, and having a spindle rotatably mounted on said housing and having spaced cable portions wound in opposite directions on said spindle and extending in diverging relationship therefrom to pass around said cylindrical collar for swiveling the latter in response to rotation of the spindle, the improvement comprising a control member including a pair of spaced parallel arms adjacent to said spindle positioned so that said spaced cable portions pass between said parallel arms, said control member being mounted for movement parallel to the axis of the spindle in response to winding of said cable around said spindle to control said winding.

2. A snow thrower as defined in claim 1 wherein said spindle is rotatably mounted in a spindle housing which is attached to said horizontal auger housing, said spindle housing being open on one side and closed on the other side, there being a plurality of slots cut in said spindle housing near the open side thereof for receiving and guiding said spaced parallel arms, said spaced parallel arms being movably engaged in said slots, and said slots being oriented substantially parallel with the axis of said spindle.

3. A snow thrower as defined in claim 2 wherein said spaced parallel arms comprise the parallel arm portions of a U-shaped member, the ends of said U-shaped member being threaded to receive nuts, the threaded ends of said U-shaped member being engaged in two of said slots, a nut screwed onto each threaded end of said U-shaped member, and said nuts being pretensioned to provide a predetermined amount of drag to the movement of said parallel arms within said slots.

4. A snow thrower as defined in claim 3 and further comprising a tie bar extending between the threaded ends of said U-shaped member and positioned between said nuts and the exterior surface of said spindle housing, said tie bar being pressed against the exterior surface of said spindle housing by said nuts so as to provide a predetermined amount of drag to the movement of said parallel arms within said slots.

5. In a snow thrower of the type having a horizontal auger housing provided with a top snow discharge opening, said housing having an upwardly-projecting, cylindrical snow conduit member attached thereto around said opening and having a snow-directing spout with a downwardly-projecting, cylindrical collar member swivellingly attached to said cylindrical snow conduit member, an annular supporting element surrounding the exterior of said upwardly-projecting snow conduit member, said downwardly-projecting collar member being larger than the upwardly-projecting cylindrical conduit member and overlapping the latter for a substantial distance, and there being an annular space between the overlapping members accessible at the upper end of said snow conduit member, means at the lower end of said downwardly-projecting collar member for coaction with said annular supporting element for swivellingly supporting the downwardly-projecting collar member thereon, said annular supporting element being located between the overlapping members, and a plurality of spacing elements between the overlapping portions of said collar member and conduit member located above said annular supporting element, said spacing elements being carried by one of said overlapping members and being separated axially and laterally from one another to maintain the spacing throughout the length of the overlap between said overlapping portions, and said spacing elements being of such size as to space the collar member sufficiently far I from the conduit member to prevent particulate matter which may enter said annular space from interfering with the rotatability of said collar member and of the snow-directing spout attached thereto, the annular supporting element which is on the upwardly-projecting cylindrical member being an annular ring, and the cooperating support at the lower end of the'downwardlyprojecting collar member being a skirt having an annular shoulder portion seated on said ring, there being means carried by said skirt and engageable beneath said ring for detachably connecting the downwardlyprojecting collar around the snow conduit member for swivelling movement therearound, and the ring having a gap therein through which particulate matter which has entered said annular space between the snow conduit member and the downwardlyprojecting collar member may escape.

Claims

5. In a snow thrower of the type having a horizontal auger housing provided with a top snow discharge opening, said housing having an upwardly-projecting, cylindrical snow conduit member attached thereto around said opening and having a snow-directing spout with a downwardly-projecting, cylindrical collar member swivellingly attached to said cylindrical snow conduit member, an annular supporting element surrounding the exterior of said upwardly-projecting snow conduit member, said downwardly-projecting collar member being larger than the upwardly-projecting cylindrical conduit member and overlapping the latter for a substantial distance, and there being an annular space between the overlapping members accessible at the upper end of said snow conduit member, means at the lower end of said downwardly-projecting collar member for coaction with said annular supporting element for swivellingly supporting the downwardly-projecting collar member thereon, said annular supporting element being located between the overlapping members, and a plurality of Spacing elements between the overlapping portions of said collar member and conduit member located above said annular supporting element, said spacing elements being carried by one of said overlapping members and being separated axially and laterally from one another to maintain the spacing throughout the length of the overlap between said overlapping portions, and said spacing elements being of such size as to space the collar member sufficiently far from the conduit member to prevent particulate matter which may enter said annular space from interfering with the rotatability of said collar member and of the snow-directing spout attached thereto, the annular supporting element which is on the upwardly-projecting cylindrical member being an annular ring, and the cooperating support at the lower end of the downwardly-projecting collar member being a skirt having an annular shoulder portion seated on said ring, there being means carried by said skirt and engageable beneath said ring for detachably connecting the downwardly-projecting collar around the snow conduit member for swivelling movement therearound, and the ring having a gap therein through which particulate matter which has entered said annular space between the snow conduit member and the downwardly-projecting collar member may escape.