LAND-CLEARING CULTIVATOR FOR BRUSH AND THICKETS |
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申请号 | US13842966 | 申请日 | 2013-03-15 | 公开(公告)号 | US20140262364A1 | 公开(公告)日 | 2014-09-18 |
申请人 | David Clifton Townsend; | 发明人 | David Clifton Townsend; | ||||
摘要 | A cultivator for efficient clearing of overgrown land to prepare for planting, especially suited to operating in remote, or hard-to-maneuver-in areas, including towing by a light vehicle, comprises a frame interconnecting to hold a drum with protruding gusseted rods at right angles to the forward movement of the frame. A pair of wheels is mounted to the frame such that when the frame is flipped over, the wheels keep drum and rods from contacting ground and vegetation. A height-adjustable, removable grader bar is connected between the wheels. A trailer hitch is connected to the frame by a removable pin, reversible for towing the cultivator with the drum and rods engaging the ground for land clearing and preparation for planting, or alternatively with wheels engaging the ground for leveling ground with the grader bar or transportation. The drum's weight can vary by filling with solids or fluids. | ||||||
权利要求 | I claim: |
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说明书全文 | Research and development resulting in this invention were not federally sponsored. Yard work or small scale cultivation often requires the use of narrow width equipment to be pulled by smaller vehicles such as the ATV which has developed a wide market in recent years. In particular, cultivating on remote plots of land, that are difficult to access and that are overgrown with vegetation into a thicket needs equipment purposefully built. Specialized designs have been developed for pull-type mowers, blades, and other equipment for use with the ATV, including equipment for aeration of the soil. Many of these devices are very complicated and it should be noted that bolts and all bolted connections, pins etc. are subject to vibration, loosening, ruining of the threads and the holes and or parts falling off. Typically multiple pieces of equipment such as rotor tillers, bush hogs, discs, expensive tractors, operating separately in a series of operations are required to prepare the land for planting. Previous cultivation devices have included wheels integral to the design in various configurations (adjustable attachment or flip-over design) to be utilized for transportation and/or as part of the cultivation operation. Some previous cultivation devices have combined multiple equipment on the same basic frame. Previous cultivation devices with discs have required cleared land in order to cultivate the soil; if discs were utilized on overgrown thickets and brush they would skip across the mounds of vegetation, and even a reasonable number of multiple passes would not cut through to the soil. Rotor tillers similarly require cleared land to operate efficiently, with the problem of bogging down and possibly breaking when in heavy vegetation, including roots. Bush hog solutions basically cut away the vegetation but do not remove it, and therefore yet another operation is required before using a disc or rotor tiller. Previous disclosures have provided the possibility of using a spiked cylinder arrangement limited to aeration of the soil. However, no cultivator has been proposed which provides an effective, simple, maneuverable, and inexpensive design for attachment to a light vehicle (e.g., ATV) that is useful in clearing overgrown land in remote, difficult to access, hard-to-maneuver areas to a condition where the land could be planted. Embodiments of the land-clearing cultivation apparatus disclosed comprise a simple, small profile system and apparatus having essentially one moving part when engaged in the operating position, a drum with protruding rods with gussets and chopper bars which will tear and pulverize vegetation such as briars, vines, tall weeds and grasses, saplings, etc., while also tearing and pulverizing the ground/soil, and the root systems of all vegetation. A second set of moving parts are the wheels utilized during land-leveling operations or transport to the site. The third moving part is the grader bar, which is height-adjustable. The fourth moving part is the detachable trailer hitch. In order to accomplish the same results, the prior art systems require use of a separate brush-clearing devices, separate disc, separate leveler blade and separate roller with a series of spikes than can also be provided for aeration of the soil. These multiple pieces of equipment in the prior art will not individually provide, and are not designed to, and will not work to provide the same results on the same vegetation i.e. briars, vines, tall weed and grasses, saplings, etc., and will not tear and pulverize the ground/soil, and the root systems of all vegetation as is accomplished by the disclosed embodiments. This embodiment eliminates the need of first clearing overgrown land to prepare the land for planting. It needs no motors to function other that a use of a vehicle to pull or push it. It saves significant time, labor and the use of, and the changing of multiple pieces of equipment when tested against known traditional equipment and methods. It has only 2 bolted-on bearings that can wear out. The down-force of the drum can be adjusted for local conditions and efficient cultivation by adding or removing material such as water from the hollow core through a fill plug opening. It is economical, portable, and quick to attach to a vehicle and easy to operate. The embodiment is pulled or pushed with a motorized vehicle such as an ATV, four wheel vehicle, tractor, side by side, etc., where the drum is rolled over the ground and forward movement is maintained the rods puncture, rip, tear the soil and roots, breaking up all vegetation being rolled over. After multiple passes (approximately 2-7 total passes, based on the amount of existing vegetation) with the apparatus over large or small areas of land, with various types of vegetation, with or without thickets, briars, vines, grasses, bushes, saplings, etc., the result is soil and vegetation that is pulverized, ready to be planted. This embodiment can be disconnected from the vehicle hitch, and a pin on the trailer hitch on the frame can be removed, hitch can be rotated 180 degrees, pin reinserted. Then by lifting up the tongue of the frame, the device can rotate over on the 2 wheels and wheel axle. Reconnect to the vehicle and invention is ready to transport, and/or allow use of adjustable grader bar. The device is easy to maneuver on trails and around trees to get to isolated and difficult areas and is very easy to maneuver while preparing the ground/soil. One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: The embodiment of the cultivator shown in Overall dimensions of this embodiment of the cultivator are approximately 60″ in width and 78″ in length, allowing for storage and transportation in the bed of a pickup truck, as well as providing a small, maneuverable design either for getting to the site or for maneuvering around obstacles such as trees while clearing the land. The frames and drum assemblies are welded together from metal parts, resulting in a durable design that has few moving parts or bolts that could come loose. The main frame 1 is removably connected to a trailer hitch 5, utilizing a pin 6 retention device whereby after the pin 6 is removed then the hitch 5 can be removed and be rotated 180 degrees, reinstalled, and pin 6 reinserted. The towing vehicle (e.g., ATV, four wheel vehicle, tractor, side by side) is presumed to have a compatible connectable trailer hitch. The main frame 1 is strengthened against flexing by the addition of frame gussets 10 attached to the frame between the arms that hold the drum axle 12 and is connected to the adjacent frame member that is parallel to the drum axle 12. Opposite to the side of the main frame 1 where the drum axle 12 attaches to the wheel frame 14, each wheel frame 14 is rotatably connected to a wheel 13 such that the wheel 13 is on the opposite side of the main frame 1 from the drum 2 in such a manner that the wheels 13 raise the drum 2 so it or the rods 3 do not interact with the ground during transportation or leveling operations. On this same side of main frame 1 there is a wheel frame gusset 11 extending between main frame 1 and the wheel frame 14. Additionally, a grader bar 15 is height-adjustably connected by means of an adjustment device 16 and is removably connected by means of removing a pin 18 to the cylinder/drum wheel frame 15 located on the same side of main frame 1 as the wheels 13. The grader bar 15 is intended to ride at a height relative to the wheels 13 such that the ground may be leveled at various levels or such that it does not interact with the ground during transportation. Techniques and advantages over currently available apparatus known to the inventor are illustrated in the following non-limiting example: The traditional method of cultivating land that has grown up into a thicket is to:
The two acre land clearing estimated example shown results in the present embodiment being very much more efficient and cheaper than utilizing either set of equipment from the traditional method (tractor with disc or ATV with disc). The estimates show that the Tractor method is 195% as expensive and takes 240% of the time of the present embodiment. The ATV method is estimated to be 147% more expensive, and take 340% of the time of the present embodiment. It should be noted that another advantage is that this embodiment can accomplish in one setting what takes previous devices two separate uses separated over a week apart requiring equipment to be carried out to the site twice, or stored on site for a week. This could be a significant savings especially if the distance were long, or if the equipment were rented. The foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrative and explanatory thereof, and various changes in the details of the illustrated method may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. |