Earth handling apparatus

Claim 1

An earth handling apparatus for handling loaded earth materials comprising frame means, walled enclosure means having at least a bottom wall and a pair of oppositely disposed sidewalls extending perpendicularly to engage said bottom wall, said enclosure means having at least one open-ended portion disposed forwardly thereof, and said bottom wall including cutter means adjacent to said open-ended portion, a movable end wall actuable to move forwardly and rearwardly of said bottom wall and being supportedly positioned for transverse extension between said side walls with the edge portions thereof depended in closely spaced relationship with and free of attachment and engagement with said side walls and bottom wall, means for actuating said end wall to move forwardly and rearwardly of said enclosure means, improved guide means supportingly positioning said end wall and comprising pairs of telescopically engaged inner and outer post members, said outer post members thereof fixedly supported on said frame means in parallel spaced alignment with said side walls, said inner post members thereof being supportedly received within said outer post members, respectively, and slideably engaged thereby, said inner post members being supported solely by said outer post members during sliding engagement therewith, said inner post members including free end portions thereof, respectively, being attached to said end wall substantially interiorly of said edge portions thereof and being disposed on an opposite side of said end wall from loaded earth materials, both said inner and outer post member pairs being free of attachment to and spaced substantially interiorly of said side walls, and said end wall being supported solely by said inner post members with said end wall in both forward and rearward positions thereof, whereby said guide means are protected during the excavating of said earth materials.