Sod Cutter

Overview

A sod cutter lifts strips of established turf cleanly off the ground, roots and all, so the grass can be removed or relaid elsewhere. It does this with a wide horizontal blade that rides just below the surface and slices the roots while the machine creeps forward. This model is a self-propelled petrol unit: one engine both drives the cutting blade and propels the heavy machine at the slow, steady pace a clean cut needs.

The Petrol Engine is a 208 cc air-cooled overhead-valve petrol unit. A float-bowl Carburetor meters the fuel-air mixture and the Spark Plug ignites it; the crankshaft drives both the blade and the wheels through separate belts.

How it works

The Cutting Blade Assembly is the heart of the machine. A wide Cutting Blade sits horizontally under the front of the chassis. Rather than spinning, it is driven back and forth by the Eccentric Drive: a belt turns a Eccentric Shaft whose offset throw is converted by a Pitman Arm into a rapid linear stroke. That sawing action lets the blade shear through dense root mat with far less push force than a fixed blade would need.

The Drive System propels the machine forward on driven Wheel Assembly wheels through a Drive Belt and a Transmission that gears engine speed down to a crawl, so the blade has time to cut cleanly under the turf.

Construction

Sod thickness is set by the Depth Control, whose Depth Lever and linkage raise or lower the blade carriage. The operator runs the machine from the Handle & Controls, using a Throttle Control for engine speed and a Clutch Lever for the traction drive. Everything mounts on a deliberately heavy Chassis Frame, the weight presses the wheels down for traction against the cutting reaction. The eccentric and shafts run on sealed Ball Bearing supports, with a worm Helical Gear Pair in the drive.