Crawler-mounted machine for travel over natural terrain

In a self-propelled, four-way tilt, off-road vehicle for use over a natural terrain, said vehicle of the type having:

• a mobile carrier including a pair of laterally spaced ground-engaging traction means and a central body to which said traction means are connected for displacement of said carrier over the natural terrain,
• a work base mounted over the central body of said mobile carrier, and,
• a tilt mechanism joining the work base to the central body of said carrier for relative tilting movement between said work base and said central body about a pair of orthogonal axes to hold said work base level, said tilt mechanism having a crown mounted beneath said work base for rotation of said work base relative to and about an axis normal to said crown,
• the improvement wherein the tilt mechanism comprises:
• a pedestal fixedly secured to the central body of the carrier so as to be solid therewith;
• a rigid tilt member mounted between the pedestal and the crown;
• means for pivotably joining said tilt member to the pedestal secured to the central body of the carrier about a second pivot axis perpendicular to the first axis, said first and second pivot axes defining said pair of orthogonal axes of the tilt mechanism;
• and
• power means for tilting the work base relative to the central body of the carrier about both of said orthogonal axes of the tilt mechanism, said power means comprising at least two power jacks and means for pivotably mounting opposite ends of said at least two power jacks with respect to the central body and the pedestal of the carrier, and to the crown, respectively, said power jacks being extensible and retractable in directions intersecting the orthogonal axes of said tilt mechanism respectively, so as to tilt the crown and the work base as a unit about said orthogonal axes with respect to the central body of the carrier.