US-20260123574-A1 - WALK REEL MOWER WITH SIDE PLATE CUTOUTS FOR DROP OUT REEL

US20260123574A1US 20260123574 A1US20260123574 A1US 20260123574A1US-20260123574-A1

Abstract

A walk reel mower has a reel cutting unit carried by the frame, wherein the reel cutting unit comprises a laterally extending cutting reel rotatably journalled between a pair of laterally spaced inserts for rotation about a substantially horizontal rotational axis, the cutting reel having a plurality of blades. The reel cutting unit is removably mounted to a pair of laterally spaced side plates of the frame, wherein the pair of inserts are located on opposite ends of the laterally extending cutting reel such that the pair of inserts are at least partially received within the cutouts located on the pair of laterally spaced side plates when the reel cutting unit is mounted to the pair of laterally spaced side plates.

Inventors

Gerald E. Goman
Robert D. Patton

Assignees

THE TORO COMPANY

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20260105

Claims (20)

1 . A walk reel mower, which comprises: a) a frame supported for rolling over the ground by a plurality of rotatable ground engaging members carried by the frame; b) a rearwardly and upwardly extending handle assembly on the frame to allow a user to stand behind the frame in a walk behind position and to grip the handle assembly and operate the mower from the walk behind position; c) a reel cutting unit carried by the frame; d) a prime mover carried on the frame, the prime mover having a throttle that provides the prime mover with a variable rotational speed depending upon a position of the throttle within a range of throttle motion between a low idle speed of the prime mover and a nominal maximum working speed of the prime mover; e) a traction drive system operatively connected to the prime mover for driving at least one of the ground engaging members to self-propel the frame over the ground at a ground speed that is proportionally related to the rotational speed of the prime mover; and f) a ground speed control system, which comprises: i) a user movable throttle control; ii) a user movable throttle reducing control; and iii) a mechanical cable assembly operatively coupling the throttle control and the throttle reducing control to the prime mover throttle, wherein the mechanical cable assembly is configured to allow the user to operate the movable throttle control to mechanically set and maintain the prime mover throttle in a desired position within the range of throttle motion to establish a desired nominal ground speed for the frame, to allow the user to operate the throttle reducing control independently of any movement of the throttle control to temporarily reduce the ground speed of the frame below the nominal ground speed for so long as the user maintains the throttle reducing control in an actuated condition, and to permit the ground speed of the frame to return to the desired nominal ground speed once the user no longer maintains the throttle reducing control in its actuated condition.
2 . The walk reel mower of claim 1 , wherein the throttle reducing control is carried on or forms part of the handle assembly and is automatically placed in the actuated condition thereof through the user pushing downwardly on a hand grip of the handle assembly to lift a front of the frame at a beginning of a turn of the frame and is automatically released from the actuated condition through the user releasing the downward push on the hand grip of the handle assembly to permit the front of the frame to lower at a conclusion of the turn of the frame, whereby the temporary reduction in ground speed of the mower automatically occurs during user initiated turns of the frame.
3 . The walk reel mower of claim 2 , wherein the throttle reducing control comprises a pivotal mount of the hand grip to a remainder of the handle assembly, wherein the hand grip mount permits pivotal motion of the hand grip about a substantially horizontal pivot axis relative to the remainder of the handle assembly.
4 . The walk reel mower of claim 1 , further including a lock that is selectively deployable by the user to prevent the user from placing the throttle reducing control in the actuated condition thereof to thereby disable the throttle reducing control for so long as the lock is deployed.
5 . The walk reel mower of claim 1 , wherein the prime mover is an internal combustion engine.
6 . The walk reel mower of claim 1 , wherein the reel cutting unit is fixed to the frame during a grass cutting operation such that the reel cutting unit is able to follow ground contours only through ground contour following provided by a front roller and rear traction members carried by the frame.
7 . A walk reel mower, which comprises: a) a frame supported by a plurality of rotatable ground engaging members; b) a rearwardly and upwardly extending handle assembly including a main beam assembly and an operatively attached handle grip; c) a reel cutting unit carried by the frame in a fixed position relative to the frame; d) a prime mover carried on the frame, the prime mover having a throttle control that provides the prime mover with a variable rotational speed depending upon a position of the throttle control within a range of throttle control motion between a low idle speed of the prime mover and a nominal maximum working speed of the prime mover; e) a traction drive system operatively connected to the prime mover for driving at least one of the ground engaging members to self-propel the frame over the ground at a ground speed that is proportionally related to the rotational speed of the engine; and f) a ground speed control system including a mechanical throttle reducing control that is actuated to automatically lower a speed of the prime mover upon movement of the handle grip relative to the main beam assembly to result in a temporary ground speed reduction of the mower.
8 . The walk reel mower of claim 7 , wherein a downward movement of the handle grip relative to the main beam assembly actuates the ground speed control system.
9 . The walk reel mower of claim 7 , wherein the prime mover is an internal combustion engine.
10 . The walk reel mower of claim 7 , wherein the ground speed control system includes a mechanical cable assembly operatively coupling the throttle control and the throttle reducing control to the prime mover throttle, wherein the mechanical cable assembly is configured to allow a user to operate the throttle control to mechanically set and maintain the prime mover throttle in a desired position within the range of throttle control motion to establish a desired nominal ground speed for the frame.
11 . The walk reel mower of claim 10 , wherein the ground speed control system is configured to allow the user to operate the throttle reducing control independently of any movement of the prime mover throttle control to temporarily reduce the ground speed of the frame below the nominal ground speed for so long as the user maintains the throttle reducing control in an actuated condition.
12 . The walk reel mower of claim 11 , wherein the ground speed control system automatically permits the ground speed of the frame to return to the desired nominal ground speed once the user no longer maintains the throttle reducing control in its actuated condition.
13 . A walk reel mower, which comprises: a) a frame supported by a plurality of rotatable ground engaging members; b) a rearwardly and upwardly extending handle assembly; c) a reel cutting unit carried by the frame; d) a prime mover carried on the frame; e) a traction drive system operatively connected to the prime mover for driving at least one of the ground engaging members to self-propel the frame over the ground; f) a throttle control that allows a user to select a nominal ground speed setting of the frame; g) a ground speed reducing control that, when activated, allows the user to temporarily reduce the speed of the frame without changing the nominal ground speed setting, wherein the ground speed reducing control is entirely mechanical.
14 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein the ground speed reducing control is provided on the handle assembly.
15 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein the ground speed reducing control is configured to be activated independently of any movement of a throttle control associated with the prime mover to temporarily reduce the ground speed of the frame below the nominal ground speed for so long as the user maintains the ground speed reducing control in an actuated condition.
16 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein the ground speed reducing control includes a control cable associated with the handle assembly.
17 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein the ground speed reducing control is activated by a downward movement of a component of the handle assembly.
18 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 wherein the prime mover is an internal combustion engine.
19 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein the reel cutting unit is fixed to the frame during a grass cutting operation such that the reel cutting unit is able to follow ground contours only through a ground contour following action provided by the front roller and rear traction members carried by the frame.
20 . The walk reel mower of claim 13 , wherein each of the plurality of ground engaging members includes a pair of wheels.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 18/758,241, filed Jun. 28, 2024. U.S. application Ser. No. 18/758,241 is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/203,366, filed Mar. 16, 2021, now U.S. Pat. No. 12,022,771. U.S. application Ser. No. 17/203,366 is a Division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/765,882, filed Apr. 4, 2018, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,959,372. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/765,882 is a U.S. National Stage Application of PCT/US2016/056759, filed Oct. 13, 2016, which the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/241,458, filed Oct. 14, 2015. TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates to a walk reel mower having a rotatable cutting reel that sweeps grass against a sharpened bedknife for shearing the grass against the bedknife. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Walk reel mowers are known for mowing grass at extremely low heights of cut on the greens of golf courses and at low, but somewhat higher heights of cut, on the tee boxes of golf courses. Traditionally, in order to maintain quality of cut and effective power usage when cutting, two different reel mowers have typically been employed for these two different but related uses, one reel mower being optimized for cutting grass on the greens and another reel mower that is optimized for cutting grass on the tee boxes. The need to purchase, maintain, and have on hand both types of reel mowers is obviously more costly to the operator of the golf course. It would be an advance in the art if a single reel mower could handle both cutting tasks without having its cutting or power performance be degraded in either task. As reel mowers are used, either walk reel mowers or reel mowers comprising one or more reel cutting units that might be propelled by a common traction frame, the diameter of the cutting reel decreases over time as the reel wears. This decrease in diameter is undesirable in terms of the ability of a grass shield that partially surrounds the cutting reel to properly direct the grass clippings being generated by the operation of the reel. In the past, a typical reel mower grass shield has included a vertically adjustable lip that could be moved downwardly as the reel diameter became smaller in an attempt to maintain a constant spacing. However, such a lip then presents a surface on which grass clippings often impact and collect, thus degrading the grass clipping directing performance of the grass shield when the lip is deployed to compensate for the wear of the cutting reel. It would be a further advance in the art to provide a better solution to the problem of compensating for a reduction in the diameter of the cutting reel due to wear without any diminishment in the ability of the grass shield to direct and discharge grass clippings therefrom. U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,443 discloses a walk reel mower having an automatic slow in turn system that automatically slows the ground speed of the mower during turns of the mower as when the user is swinging the mower around approximately 180 to make a cutting pass in a direction opposite to the direction of the preceding cutting pass. However, such a system works by detecting the change in orientation between the reel cutting unit and the frame of the mower that is caused when the user pushes down on the handle assembly to initiate such a turn. This system would not work on a fixed head reel mower in which the reel cutting unit does change its orientation relative to the frame. Moreover, some embodiments of this system utilize a switch or sensor of some type to detect the change in cutting unit orientation and complicated electronic controllers to reduce the ground speed in accordance with such detection. A simpler slow in turn system applicable to fixed head greensmowers and/or having simple mechanical components rather than electrical components is needed in the reel mower art. Finally, many reel mowers have kickstands that can be selectively deployed by the user to elevate the rear end of the frame of the reel mower in order to allow the installation of transport wheels on the axles of the split drum halves of the typical traction drum. However, the deployment of such kickstands requires the user to put the kickstand into engagement with the ground and then pull up and back on the handle assembly to muscle the reel mower back up and at least partially over the kickstand. This is difficult for many users, particularly smaller users, to do. Thus, a more easily deployable kickstand in which the user would have more leverage in deploying the kickstand is desirable. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION One aspect of this invention relates to a walk reel mower which comprises a frame supported for rolling over the ground by a front roller and a pair of rotatable rear traction members carried by the frame. The rear traction members are powered by a prime mover carried by the frame to self-propel the frame over the ground. A rearwardly