Patent ID: 6960056

Claim:
In a whole stalk sugar cane loader including a tractor unit supported on ground wheels spaced apart for operating in adjacent furrows on opposite sides of a first cane row located centrally between the wheels, a platform structure mounted on the tractor, a loader boom structure including a swivel mast mounted to the platform structure for swiveling about a support post having a vertical axis located for intersecting a center point of a furrow extending between said first row and a second row located outside said ground wheels, a brace structure coupled to an upper end of said support post, said boom structure further including an inner boom section having a first end pivotally attached to said swivel mast and having a second end attached to a first end of an outer boom section, a grab assembly coupled to a second end of said outer boom section, a first extensible and retractable hydraulic actuator coupled between said swivel mast and said inner boom section for pivoting the inner boom section between lowered and raised positions, a second extensible and retractable hydraulic actuator coupled between said inner boom section and said outer boom section, and a push piler implement mounted to a forward end of said tractor unit and including a pair of transversely spaced tines defining a pocket between them for operating centrally within said furrow, the improvement comprising: said inner boom section, as considered in its raised position, includes a middle portion which extends at least substantially parallel to said axis, and includes a lower end portion joined to said middle portion so as to form an approximate right angle with said middle portion; and said inner boom section being pivotally mounted to said swivel mast at a location on an opposite side of said vertical axis from said second end when said inner boom section is in said raised position.