a forwardly facing protector 22 and a rear wall 23 merging into a bottom wall 24 the bottom wall 24 terminates in a forwardly positioned lip 25 the sidewalls and lip form a leading edge to the bucket this is of course simply one example of an excavator which can be provided with a wear assembly in accordance with the present invention the present invention could be used with other kinds of buckets or other digging equipment e g dredge cutterheads the lip 25 is equipped with transversely spaced apart excavating teeth generally designated 26 see the lower right each of which preferably includes an adapter 27 fixed to the lip 25 and a point or tip 28 releasably mounted on each adapter 27 the portions of the lip 25 between the teeth are protected by wear members 30 mounted to the lip through cooperation with upstanding bosses 29 see the lower left as can be seen in fig2 the wear member 30 is generally u shaped having a longer upper or inner leg 31 in confronting relation with the upper or inner face 25 a of the lip 25 and a lower or outer shorter leg 32 in confronting relation with the lower or outer face 25 b of the lip 25 of course the upper leg could be shorter or have the same length as the lower leg in the illustrated example the legs 31 32 are connected by a forwardly projecting connecting portion 33 which is generally aligned with the lip 25 and preferably includes a cutting or penetrating edge as at 34 see also fig1 in fig1 the upper leg 31 of shroud 30 is split so as to include two branches each adapted to.