Typical rotary mowers have a horizontally oriented mower deck mounted on wheels for movement along the ground and a horizontally oriented rotating blade mounted under the deck and driven by a gearbox mounted on the deck and connected to the power take-off of a towing tractor.
Wider rotary mowers typically include a center deck with right and left wing decks pivotally attached to the center deck about horizontal wing pivot axes oriented substantially in alignment with an operating travel direction of the mower. For transport the wings are pivoted up about the wing pivot axes to a generally vertical transport position. One or more rotating blades are mounted under each wing deck.
In such mowers with multiple blades the blades must be oriented to overlap somewhat so that vegetation across the entire width of the mower is cut. This is typically addressed by having each blade mounted forward or rearward of adjacent blades so that the circle described by the path of one blade extends laterally beyond the circular path of the adjacent blades, as illustrated for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,640 to Colistro, U.S. Pat. No. 7,513,095 to Hofmann et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,302 to Caldwell.
The three section Colistro mower has a center deck and right and left wing decks. A single center blade is mounted rearward on the center deck and each wing deck has an inner blade mounted forward of the center blade, and an outer blade mounted rearward of the inner blade so the blades are staggered forward and rearward across the width of the mower. The wing decks fold up to a generally vertical transport position.
Similarly the five section mower of Hofmann has a center deck and right and left inner wing decks pivotally attached to the center deck, and further has right and left outer wing decks pivotally attached to outer edges of the corresponding inner wing decks. A single center blade is mounted forward on the center deck. Each inner wing deck has an inner blade mounted rearward of the center blade, and an outer blade mounted forward of the inner blade. Each outer wing deck has a single blade mounted rearward of the outer blade on the inner wing deck. Thus as with Colistro the blades of Hofmann are staggered forward and rearward across the width of the mower. For transport the outer wings fold up about outer wing pivot axes with respect to the inner wings, and the inner wings then fold upward about inner wing pivot axes with respect to the center deck.
The five section mower of Caldwell similarly has a center deck and right and left inner wing decks pivotally attached to the center deck, and further has right and left outer wing decks pivotally attached to outer edges of the corresponding inner wing decks. A single blade is mounted under each deck. In contrast to the above mowers however, the blades of Caldwell are swept back from the center blade with the inner wing blade rearward of the center blade and the outer blade rearward of the inner blade. For transport the wings fold upward in a manner similar to the Hofmann mower.
As is commonly found with many implements, wider mowers are desirable to provide increased mowing capacity economically and efficiently.