Forage harvester with adjustable crop guidance apparatus

摘要

Gathering conveyors of the forage harvesting header deliver upstanding, severed crop stalks by their lower ends to an outlet toward which all conveyors of the header converge. The upper ends of the crop stalks are guided and gathered laterally inwardly by apparatus above the conveyors, and a transversely disposed knock-down bar just forwardly of the outlet leans the stalks back toward the front end of the header as they approach the outlet so that the stalks tend to enter and pass through the outlet in a butt-first condition. The knock-down bar is mounted so as to yield upwardly under the influence of crops passing therebeneath in the event that the volume of the crops is so great that they could otherwise not pass through the restriction formed by the knock- down bar on the one hand and the conveyors on the other hand. The knock- down bar forms part of a generally U-shaped lower guiding unit pivoted at its front end to a similarly U-shaped upper guiding unit, both of which are adjustably mounted on the header in such a way that various adjustments can be made to accommodate tall, short and light or dense crops without adversely affecting performance of the knock-down bar.