Patent ID: 7775296

Claim:
An improved portable, ground stabilized, drop hammer assembly for impacting a ground surface and adapted to be removably coupled to a driven host transport apparatus and comprising a drop weight, a frame assembly including a sidewall, a bottom plate, a host transport apparatus engagement assembly, and a power assembly for vertically reciprocatingly moving said drop weight from an upper position within said frame assembly through an opening in said bottom plate and then downward to impact said ground surface, the improvement comprising: a shock absorbing elastomeric element carried by said frame assembly close to said ground surface and extending from against the sidewall of the frame assembly and substantially along said bottom plate to about the opening for the drop weight such that any lateral deflection of said drop weight as is moves downward will strike said shock absorbing elastomeric element to protect said frame assembly or said shock absorbing elastomeric element carried by said drop weight at its end close to the ground and when said drop weight is in its lowermost position said shock absorbing elastomeric element extends from against the sidewall of the frame assembly and substantially along said bottom plate to about the opening for the drop weight such that any lateral deflection of said drop weight as it moves downward will result in said shock absorbing elastomeric element striking said frame assembly, wherein any lateral movement by said drop weight into said frame assembly close to the ground surface will be absorbed by said shock absorbing elastomeric element to prevent damage to the frame assembly.