The windrow pickup attachment

We want the pickup attachment to be easily attached or removed, to pick up cleanly, to keep itself free of winding forage and to reject stones.

The main part of the pickup is the revolving drum with retracting fingers. The fingers, pointing down, move forward and up carrying the forage with them. As they move up they start to retract into the drum so that they will not draw forage down. Then the conveyor apron moves the material to the feed rolls. A large, high-pickup drum is less likely to convey stones to the apron because they have more chance to be shaken loose before reaching the top.

The steel alloy fingers are retracted by the action of the stationary cams on the bars to which the fingers are attached. Damaged fingers can usually be removed and replaced separately.

The conveyor is usually a part of the pickup attachment, but with some machines it is a part of the basic unit.

The pickup is usually operated by the PTO or engine drive, although some are ground-driven. Ground-wheel drives have not been entirely satisfactory.

To keep the forage in contact with the conveyor, a rubber-tired wheel or steel paddle wheel is used. The rubber-tired wheel may not be driven; it just presses down on the forage and moves with it. In some models it impels the forage only if the forage stops; otherwise the forage and conveyor move the wheel. The paddle-type wheels are always power-driven. They do not rest on the empty conveyor, only on the forage.

In place of a hold-down wheel, some machines use hold-down bars or walker arms.

One machine has a three-speed pickup roll or drum; you can change the pickup speed to fit the tractor forward speed and the crop conditions.

One manufacturer sells the pickup as an attachment to the cutter bar unit. This pickup attachment is lightweight and inexpensive and is readily attached and used with the cutter bar in place.

The cutter bar attachment

This unit consists of a cutter bar and drive mechanism, much like the mower.

It has a reel for pushing long material against the cutter bar and onto the conveyor. The reel may be of closed type, with three or four bats. The reel bats and fingers sweep the forage into the conveyor portion of the pickup. The conveyor may be the same as that used with the pickup.

The reel may be ground-driven or driven by the main power system. In some harvesters it can be adjusted from the tractor seat.

The width of the cutter bar is generally much less than in a conven­tional mower. Accordingly some operators mow their forage with a mower and then pick it up with a windrow attachment. To use your harvester to its full capacity, you should have as wide a cutter bar as possible. You can always cut a narrow swath with a wide cutter bar, but you cannot cut a wide swath with a narrow cutter bar.

One manufacturer sells a low-cost, easily attached cutter bar unit as an attachment to the pickup.

THE ROW-CROP ATTACHMENT

One-row and two-row attachments are used for cutting standing corn. Both chain-operated gatherers and auger gatherers are used in the different designs. The latter type has two almost vertical spirals between which the corn moves as it is cut. One gatherer chain moves the butts while the spirals move the tops.

The chain-type has three or four gathering chains to move the corn into the throat of the harvester; the construction is like that in the corn picker.

The tension bars (or throat springs) are adjusted to hold tall, heavy corn tightly and to hold short, light weeds loosely.

The corn butts travel between two long stationary knives before being severed by the large serrated knife section. The knife is driven by a pitman and flywheel, the flywheel by a universal shaft, belt, or chain.

The butts of the corn are then moved back and up to the cutting reel or flywheel. One machine has a low vertical cylinder to prevent the corn from traveling far up or back before it is chopped.

The gathering points are quite similar to those on the corn picker.

One attachment has a shelf about halfway up and on one side, affording space to prevent ears from being knocked off.

Because cornstalks enter the cutter lengthwise, they are usually cut quite uniformly in length. But many of the leaves go through crosswise.

They may be cut several inches long when the harvester is set for a 1/2-inch cut.

Gathering chains may be driven by universal-joint shafts – as many as seventeen universal joints on one machine. Make sure the universal fittings are well lubricated.

Do not try to pull or push material through the attachment unless the entire machine is stopped.