Patent ID: 6105699
Filing Date: 2000-08-22
Classification: B62D,E02F,Y10T

Abstract:
A heavy equipment apparatus that includes an undercarriage with a mobile, tilting working upper that supports a boom and its working end portion, comprising:a) an undercarriage that includes a frame with a deck and a pair of spaced apart, generally parallel powered endless tracks for moving the undercarriage from one location to another;b) a tower assembly mounted on the deck of the frame;c) a ball support attached to the tower assembly so that the ball and tower assembly define a rigid, support with the frame;d) an upper having a boom that is movably mounted to the undercarriage at the ball support with a tilting connection that enables the upper to tilt with respect to the undercarriage so that the upper can be maintained in a generally upright position when the tracks are engaging an incline such as the side of a hill or mountain;e) a rotary bearing attached to the bottom surface of the upper for enabling the upper to rotate with respect to the undercarriage;f) a flange assembly forming an interface between the rotary bearing and the ball support, the flange assembly including an inner spaced curved surface that conforms to the outer surface of the ball support, the inner surface extending over sufficient area of the outer surface of the ball support so that the ball support and flange assembly do not separate during use;g) a plurality of powered extensible supports extending between the undercarriage and the flange assembly for articulating the upper relative to the undercarriage during use, enabling a powered tilting of the upper relative to the undercarriage by extension and retraction of the extensible supports;h) an anti-rotation mechanism that prevents rotation of the flange assembly relative to the ball support during use.