Abstract: A heavy equipment apparatus such as a feller buncher includes a mobile tilting undercarriage and a working upper that supports a boom and its working end portion. The undercarriage includes a frame and a deck with a spaced apart, generally parallel powered endless tracks for moving the undercarriage from one location to the other. A tower assembly is mounted on the deck of the frame and has a ball support rigidly attached thereto to define a rigid support with the frame. An upper 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. A rotary bearing attached to the bottom of the upper enables the upper to rotate with respect to the undercarriage. A flange assembly forms the interface between the rotary bearing and the ball support. Extensible cylinders extend between the undercarriage and the flange assembly for articulating the upper relative to the undercarriage during use.

Abstract: A slip clutch and cutter blade apparatus for cane stalk harvesters provides a machine frame with a cutting mechanism in the form of cutter shafts powered by hydraulic motors. The cutter shafts have a plurality of knives thereon that pinch the cane therebetween as the shafts rotate to chop the cane wholestalks into billets. A flywheel is mounted on a flywheel shaft. A gearbox interfaces the flywheel and cutter blades. A flywheel clutch is used as a overload protection device for the chopper system. If overloading occurs, the flywheel slips and therefore limits the torque. The flywheel is placed on the bushing and clamped between the friction linings with the aid of the thrust plate, the cup springs, brake plate, brake plate cover, and bolts. The more the cup springs are compressed by the bolts; the higher the torque at which the flywheel slips.

Abstract: Wholestalk sugar cane loading apparatus includes a movable carriage having fore and aft wheel bases and a basket supported by the carriage generally between the wheel bases and along the longitudinal central axis of the carriage, the basket defining a load carrying surface for holding harvested wholestalk cane in a generally parallel bundle fashion and at an elevational position spaced vertically above the underlying cane field surface.An inclined transfer device is positioned forward of the basket for movement the during gathering of windrowed wholestalk cane for lifting individual wholestalks of cut cane from a resting position upon the cane field ground surface to an elevated discharge position generally above the load carrying surface of the basket, so that cane stalks discharged by the transfer device can fall into the basket.

Abstract: A sugar cane harvester has a base cutter elevation control system that compensates for changes in terrain such as ruts, small hills, etc. by raising or lowering the base cutter. A forwardly positioned slipper assembly gives feedback as to upcoming changes in terrain. A sensor also monitors tire position as when the harvester sinks into soft spots, muddy spots and the like wherein base cutter position is adjusted to compensate for sinkage of the tires.

Abstract: A sugar cane harvester primary extractor apparatus is provided for separating cane crop leafy trash material from a harvested stream of conveyed cut billets. The apparatus is used with chopper cane harvesters wherein cane billets are fed continuously into a cleaning chamber in the form of a hollow housing interior of the extractor and a powered extractor fan directed air and leafy trash exiting the cleaning chamber upwardly. Air intakes are in the form of a plurality of side air intake openings each having correspondingly placed vertically extended louver plates angled inwardly of the housing outer wall, each of the side openings and louver plates being spaced along the housing wall beginning at a first position adjacent the cane billet feed inlet and extending rearwardly therefrom toward the middle of the extractor housing.

Abstract: A wholestalk sugar cane loader apparatus for picking up and accumulating windrowed cane wholestalks from a cane field ground surface having heap rows and furrows includes a wheeled movable carriage adapted to travel along a path defined by the carriage longitudinal center axis, generally parallel to the longitudinally extending elongated heap rows. The carriage has wheels tracking in parallel furrows and an elevated platform surface positioned adjacent the carriage for movement therewith during gathering of windrowed wholestalk cane, for accumulating wholestalk cut cane from a resting position on the cane field ground surface into a heap. An elongated boom pivotally mounted at a rotary connection to the carriage extends away from the rotary connection along a radial line defining a boom longitudinal axis.

Abstract: A wholestalk sugar cane loader apparatus is provided for the picking up and accumulating of windrowed wholestalk sugar cane from a cane field ground surface using a boom and grapple configuration that skews the grapple jaw travel path with respect to the longitudinal axis of the boom. This configuration allows use of a shorter boom and a shorter travel path. This configuration also allows greater spacing between the loader and the cane cart to improve cane quality by eliminating both cane rollover and the muddying of the cane which typically occurs by splashing of tires because of the close proximity of the cane loader and the cane cart.

Abstract: A sugar cane piler system comprising a standard push piler with attached, rotating, multipointed star wheels which rotate about fixed but adjustable points. The rotary piler assists in rolling the cane in front of the push piler and dislodges dirt, mud, and other foreign matter from the cane in the heap row being push-piled for loading. Also, by increasing the rolling action of the pushed pile, a large pile of cane can be pushed for a fuller grab in the loading operation.

Abstract: A sugar cane harvester having at its front end a topper section for cutting off the tops of the cane stalks and upper and lower sets of cane gathering arms which gather up the cane and bring it into the harvester for harvesting at its base and topping at its top. The topper section is carried on a vertically moveable base riding on vertical tracks for varying the height of the topping cuts, to which base is also pivotally connected the harvester ends of the upper set of cane gathering arms, thus interconnecting the topper cutter entry or harvester ends of the upper arms and the topper section for combined movement together. Variable length, telescoping bracing arms are pivotally connected between the left, upper and lower arms and the right, upper and lower arms, respectively, to provide stabilizing bracing to the upper sets of arms when they are vertically varied with the topper section.