One of the first style of compactor front loaders to emerge in the 1950s, top packs dominated the west coast market for more than 30 years.
Zachary Geroux
Welcome to the first installment of Vintage History Corner. I鈥檓 excited to talk to you about one of my favorite subjects: front loaders. I鈥檒l be the first to admit, when it comes to garbage trucks, no other style of truck ignites my interest quite like a front loader. It was the front loader that caused me to fall in love with garbage trucks as a child. Out of all of the different variety of trucks used in the waste industry, they are the most versatile, able to conquer residential, commercial and industrial routes with a single driver in a manner that is not only efficient but safe.
Hailing from the West Coast, I鈥檓 extremely proud of the innovations my coast has brought to the industry over the years. The East Coast has the rear loader; we have the front loader. However, there is one style of front loader that I really want to focus on this month that I guarantee 99 percent of you will have never heard of before today.
What if I told you there was front load design that was lighter, quicker, simpler and safer than any other truck on the market today? A truck where there was no blade for the driver to enter the body to clean behind and could offer haulers a 10+ ton legal load on three axles? Crazy is what you would call me. Well let me introduce you to the Top Pack front loader.
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A Brief Bit of History
Top Packs were one of the first styles of compactor front loaders to emerge after Vince Bowles and Phil Gentile built the first Non-Compaction/Open Top Front Loader in 1952. As far as my records indicate, Top Packs were first created by Pico Body in Pico Rivera, CA and this was the only kind of truck they built. A simple and cheap design, it comprised of a thick sheet of metal, 12-18鈥� tall which was fitted into guide tracks at the upper front portion of the body. The blade was driven all the way to the back of the hopper by a single cylinder that rested on the cab shield. If material came over the blade it would simply fall back into the hopper. Many early non-compaction front loaders were given this modification after the advent of packer bodies in order to keep them relevant for the hauler.
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Advantages
Excellent for residential, recycling and commercial trash routes, the short packer continually cycled the top portion of the material dumped in the hopper toward the back of the body. As it filled up, the driver would occasionally lift the body to help move the material toward the back of the truck; not only would you get the load to turn over in the tailgate, but also in the hopper. Partial and Full Pack trucks rely on pure compaction force to make the load tighter and turn over in the back of the body, which puts great stress on the walls and tailgate. Top Packs packed via 鈥渇luff鈥� using the weight of the load to pack itself tighter. Often, builders would put a small cut out at the front of the hopper under the blade so the driver could see when the hopper was filled up enough to run the packer.
Advantages of the Top Pack, besides being 2,000 to 2,500lbs lighter than a Partial Pack, is that the builder could make them wider as there was no need for a division between the hopper and body. They didn鈥檛 have to worry about high compaction forces bowing out the sides so they could use a lighter gauge steel which was passed to the hauler through weight and cost savings. Case and point: Haig Altunnian, owner of Beverly Wilshire Disposal, informed me that the tare weight of his three axle, 45yd Cougar Top Pack was 14.3 tons. With a GVWR of 51,500lbs, his legal net was 11.45 ton and he often reported rolling on the scale at 14+.
Any full blade body would eventually need a floor replacement due to the extreme constant pressure exerted by the packer cylinders as they compacted the load. This was another key feature haulers loved about Top Packs鈥攖he maintenance and upkeep was simple. There was no need for a mechanic to enter the body as every cylinder was located outside.
Most Top Pack bodies were a simple box design until John Germain, owner of Spartan Truck Equipment in Sun Valley, CA cut the front of the hopper off at a 45 degree angle. This not only helped the material move back toward the body as it was being loaded and facilitated the load turn over at the front of the body, but it also gave a better weight distribution between the axles.
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Modern Examples
Top Pack’s saw popular use from the mid 1950s up until the late 1980s, offered by most body manufacturers in the Los Angeles area. They never really made it outside of Southern California even though several C&O/Dempster literature pieces suggest it was offered nationwide in the early 1980s. Once the big national waste companies started moving into the Southern California market in the mid 1970s, they brought with them their East Coast influences and philosophy. Because of this, we saw a decline in the purchase of new Top Packs in favor of Full and Partial Packs and by 1990, there were no manufacturers offering this style in their literature.
Now a rare and almost extinct style of Front Loader, there was only one company left in Los Angeles that bought new ones. Crown Disposal (now Recology Los Angeles) in Sun Valley had to special order them from听Bridgeport Refuse Trucks听in Texas. Before they sold to Recology, Crown Disposal made their own custom Top Pack with a tare weight of 34,000lbs.
Today鈥檚 industry is focused on driver safety and ease of work while trying to get the maximum legal load in a strictly enforced weight environment. The front loader has stabilized into a full pack flavored, high compaction truck where the average body weight comes in around 17,000 to 18,000lbs. On a three axle chassis, the hauler would be lucky to get 7 tons legal and often you find them forced to add tag axles to compensate. Hoist bodies are still standard on most side loaders and with many haulers using transfer stations; the rollover concern from the past is now negated as the technology has caught up with the times. I would argue that if a manufacturer wanted to build the safest and lightest body on the market, they should look to the past at the Top Pack. Not only do you keep the driver out of the body and eliminate worry of the load spilling over the blade, but maintenance is easy with this simple, cost effective truck designed to maximize your time and profit.
Zachary Geroux is a historian, photographer and owner of Refuse Truck Photography. He lives in Western Washington with his wife where he currently works full time for the Air Force and has been driving garbage trucks off and on for the past nine years. He can be reached at [email protected] or visit .
Visit Refuse Truck Photography under the Waste Advantage section to see more pictures and video of Top Pack Front Loaders and be sure to stop by the Refuse Truck Photography Facebook page to join the conversation on this month鈥檚 article.