Earth compacting equipment

Earth compaction apparatus for attachment to a motor grader having front and rear wheels connected by a frame and a grader blade suspended downwardy from the frame between the wheels, for compacting back fill in deep, narrow ditches, the improvement comprising:

• a. narrow extensible boom means pivotally secured to the frame between the front wheels of the grader at about axle level of said front wheels and spaced closely to the axle, said boom means extending forwardly of said front wheels, and being arranged to pivot upwardly and downwardly below the front wheels, said boom means being sufficiently narrow as to move in a ditch without touching the ditch walls;
• b. means for pivoting said boom means about said pivotally secured attachment to thereby change the angle of the boom relative to a horizontal line, said means for pivoting said boom including a pair of spaced hydraulic cylinders connected between an upper portion of the grader frame disposed generally above said pivotal connection of said boom means with said frame, and a location on said boom means spaced from said pivotal connection, said pivoting means being arranged to pivot said boom means between a retracted, elevated position, and a lowered, operative position wherein the front wheels of said grader are elevated from the ground;
• c. said boom means being formed of at least an outer member and an inner member reciprocably mounted in said outer member;
• d. joining means between said boom means members for reciprocating the inner in relation to the outer member to thereby change the length of said boom means, said joining means and said pivoting means being operable in cooperation with each other to change the angle and the length of said boom means to adjust the moment arm between the end of said boom means and the rear wheels of said grader, to thereby control the compression of material in said ditch occurring because of the weight of the elevated front end of said grader exerted on said boom means;
• and
• e. rotary compacting means mounted at the end of said inner boom member having a width at least as wide as the width of the boom.