Excavator having adjustable wheels

Abstract

An excavator has its wheels pivotably mounted on brackets which are adjustably secured to the periphery of the under-frame so that the gauge of the wheel track and their distance to each other can be changed.The present invention relates to an excavator of the kind where the under frame is formed like a big, preferably cylindrical vessel with a plane bottom in order to prevent the excavator from sinking deeply into soft ground.When excavators are moved from one working place to another this is usually done on the public road network. Some excavators are moved by their own motor, while others are trailed by truck. The allowed gauge of track for the wheels of an excavator is limited by the regulations of the road authorities, which implies the disadvantage that the gauge of track is often not sufficient.The object of the invention is to provide an excavator of the kind mentioned above where the above mentioned disadvantage is eliminated.According to the invention the object is attained in that the wheels of the excavator are pivotally mounted to brackets which are adjustably secured to the periphery of the under frame, so that gauge of track and distance of wheels can be changed.

Description

Claims

1. An excavator, comprising:

an under frame, said under frame being generally cylindrical and including vertical wall means;

upper and lower circular, continuous rib means forward on the exterior of said vertical wall means of said cylindrical under frame, said upper and lower rib means lying in parallel, generally horizontal planes;

an upper frame rotatably mounted on said under frame, and supporting a boom and bucket assembly, and an operator cabin;

a pair of fore brackets and a pair of aft brackets, all of said brackets being engageable with both of said upper and said lower circular, continuous rib means and being slidable therealong to any desired selected position;

clamp means for releasably securing said brackets to said upper and said lower continuous rib means in selected locations therealong about the periphery of said vertical wall means of said cylindrical under frame;

a horizontally elongated arm pivoted at one end thereof each of said brackets, for pivotal movement in a horizontal plane; and

means for releasably securing said elongated pivoted arms to their associated brackets in a selected pivoted relationship; and

wheel means carried on the free, other end of each of said arms, said brackets being movable about the periphery of said cylindrical under frame to vary the width between said wheel means at the fore end and the aft end of said excavator, and said arms being adjustable relative to their associated brackets to properly align said wheel means.

2. An excavator as recited in claim 1,

wherein said means for releasably securing said arms to their associated brackets comprises:

bolt means carried by each bracket, and arranged to project through an arcuate slot formed in the pivoted arm associated with said bracket, said arcuate slot being drawn on a radius eminating from the pivotal axis of said arm.