Patent attributes
A clutching mechanism (20) for a cultivating tiller. The tiller has an engine (16) mounted on a frame (12) with a rotatable output shaft (40), a rotatable working shaft (22), and a transmission (18) operatively connecting to the working shaft, the transmission having a rotatable transmission shaft (42) coaxially aligned with the output shaft of the engine. The clutching mechanism includes an upper half pulley (52) attached to the output shaft, and a lower half pulley (54) attached to the transmission shaft, wherein the upper half pulley and lower half pulley are coaxially positioned in a facing but non-contacting relationship such that the upper half pulley is able to freely rotate with respect to the lower half pulley. The clutching mechanism also includes a belt (62) positioned between the upper half pulley and the lower half pulley, and a tensioning assembly (70) configured to selectively tension the belt so that the belt transmits rotation of the upper half pulley to the lower half pulley.
