A swinging drawbar and drawbar carriage supported on a bail assembly forming lateral abutments engaging the drawbar and carriage to overcome twisting and distorting moments on the drawbar when lateral movement of the drawbar is arrested at its extreme lateral positions.
An implement, such as a baler, has a mobile frame, a forwardly extending tongue attachable at its forward end to a vehicle for towing the baler and connected at its rearward end to the frame for lateral movement relative to the frame and improved apparatus for facilitating the lateral shifting of the tongue relative to the frame. A forwardly protruding flange is disposed on the lower forward end of the bale case of the baler frame. The improved apparatus includes a wear plate which is replaceably attached to the bottom side of the bale case flange and a roller element mounted on the portion of the tongue which underlies the wear plate. The roller element maintains the wear plate in spaced relationship above the tongue while at the same time provides load-bearing rolling contact with the wear plate. The roller element is cylindrical in shape and rotatably mounted on a shaft element. The shaft element is mounted within the hollow interior of the tongue below an opening formed in the upper side of the tongue such that an upper circumferential portion of the roller element extends upwardly through the opening and above the upper side of the tongue to where the roller element makes the rolling contact with the wear plate.
An oscillating rear axle assembly (30) and associated drawbar (40) which oscillates therewith. The rear axle (24) protrudes from an axle housing (32) which is joined to a support structure (34) extending forwardly therefrom. The support structure (34) is oscillatably joined to a rear frame (14) by two axially separated bearings (36,38) disposed therebetween. The drawbar (40) is laterally guided by the rear axle assembly (30) and a pivot support structure (84) and is axially fixed as well as oscillatably joined to the rear frame (14) by a spherical bearing (52) to permit drawbar oscillation with the rear axle assembly (30).
An arrangement of a track laying combat vehicle towing a trailer utilizes a curved rail affixed to the aft end of the combat vehicle and generally tered about a vertical axis passing near the volumetric center of the combat vehicle. The hitch connection between the combat vehicle and the trailer includes a wheeled carriage that rides on the rail. Because of the rail and carriage, the outward swing of the combat vehicle aft end, which is in the opposite direction from the combat vehicle's turn direction, do not appreciably affect the trailer.
A hitch assembly is mounted on a frame of an agricultural tractor. The hitch assembly includes a pair of draft links pivotally mounted on the frame, a drawbar support fixed to the frame between the draft links, and a pair of sway blocks fixed to opposite sides of the frame. Each sway block has an upper end fixed to a side of the frame and extends generally downwardly to a lower free end. The lower free end of each sway block is positioned below a plane defined by a bottom surface of the drawbar support. Each sway block is preferably tapered from a wider front side to a narrower rear side to form an inner surface which faces inwardly and rearwardly. A wedge plate is mounted beneath the drawbar support. The plate extends generally laterally from a left end surface to a right end surface, and each end surface is slanted in order to matingly engage the inner surface of a corresponding one of the sway blocks. The wedge plate is longer than the drawbar support, and projects laterally out from the left and right ends of the drawbar support. As a result, the wedge plate end surfaces engage the inner surfaces of the corresponding inner sway blocks and supports them against side forces applied by the draft links.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a trailer hitch for quickly and easily connecting a trailer to a tractor including a draw bar, a primary pivot device for connecting the draw bar to the tractor, a hitching device connected to the trailer for connecting the trailer to the draw bar, the hitching device having a stabilizer and air cylinder connected thereto for decreasing the downward forces on the rear end of a tractor.