Crane with gantry backhitch and boom hoist assembly removable as a unit

Claim 1

In a crane having a rotating bed carrying an upper machinery cab and a boom pivoted for vertical movement, a subassembly for vertically positioning said boom comprising, in combination, a gantry secured to said bed and pivoted for movement between an upright working position and a transport position overlying said cab, a backhitch pivotally secured to said bed and said gantry to resist movement of the gantry toward said boom, said backhitch being selectively collapsible so that said gantry can be pivoted to said transport position with the backhitch lying beneath the gantry, a boom hoist assembly removably mounted on said bed within the cab and including a motor and a drum, said motor being coupled to said drum, boom rigging including a pair of equalizer assemblies secured respectively to said gantry and said boom and a line wound on said drum and running between said equalizer assemblies, means intermediate the ends of the gantry for locking the gantry and backhitch together when the former is in said transport position, and means including a link for locking said hoist assembly to the locked gantry and backhitch, said gantry, said backhitch and said boom hoist assembly being selectively releasable from said bed so that the interlocked gantry, backhitch and hoist assembly can be separated from the bed and cab and handled as a unit without unreeving the boom rigging.