Crop retainer unit for a baler

Claim 1

In combination with a tractor drawn round bale forming machine of the type wherein there is a bale forming chamber of fixed size having a horizontal axis and including a wheel mounted main frame, a pick-up reel across the lower front, a bottom conveyor incorporating side-by-side belts entrained on transversely extending rollers rotatably mounted in the main frame, there being means for driving both the bottom conveyor and the pick-up reel, the upper part of the machine including a subframe on which is mounted a plurality of serially arranged conveyors which enclose and generally define the circumferential periphery of the baling chamber, there being a space between the last of the serially arranged conveyor elements and the uppermost surface of the bottom conveyor forming thereby an inlet throat to the baling chamber; the improvement comprising: a crop retainer unit mounted in said entrance throat, said gate including a shaft spanning the length of said chamber at a location directly below and adjacent to the downstream end of the last of said serially arranged conveyors, said shaft having secured thereto at spaced intervals one end of each of a plurality of rod-like elements, all elements being positioned in line and extending radially outward from said shaft in the same direction, said shaft being mounted for rotation in the sidewalls of said machine, rotational motion of said shaft being restricted so that the second ends of said elements can readily swing inward into the baling chamber but motion in the outward direction is stopped at the angle wherein the elements are tangentially in line with the circumferential periphery of the baling chamber.