Classic Refuse trucks COBEY

COBEY PAK-TAINER (TILT-DUMP)

1960 Cobey Pak-Tainer one-armed front loader

    Hot on the heels of the Liftainer, Cobey introduced the Pak-Tainer front loader system in 1960. The first version was the truck shown above, a fantastic one-armed front loader available in 27 or 30-cubic yards capacity. The Pak-Tainer could handle 1-6 cubic yard containers, using open-jawed self-catching hooks on that engaged lifting ears of the container. The Cobey front loader was built under license, being the creation of Robert Lee Aldredge (1927-2020) and Howard D. Aldredge (1919-1980) of Dayton, Ohio. The story of the Aldredge front loaders, one of the first such designs in the country, is story marked with industry intrigue. As Bob Aldredge told it, he first got the idea for his refuse truck while working at the Delco Products factory in Dayton.

" They had five buildings, six stories high, connected by tunnels under the street. 2-yard trash containers were on all floors, serviced by a mule tractor, 6 or 8 containers in a train. Full containers were brought to the loading dock, where an overhead hoist picked up the containers and dumped them into a 20-yd open-top dump truck. About the same time, The city bought a Holmes-Owen front-loading, over-the-cab truck dirt scoop. I wrote Holmes, asking them to price me a loader with 2 ft. added to the lift arms. They said no, it would have to be re-engineered. My brother was a tool-die draftsman, so we teamed up in 1953. We built the first prototype, two more design changes and we were ready for the market."

    The brothers incorporated Container Service Company at Dayton, Ohio in March of 1954. The refuse hauling business doubled as an engineering 'proving grounds' for their front loader designs, and most of their patents were assigned to the new company. What Bob Aldredge claims happened next is where the story takes a strange twist.

"We made three major improvements over the years. George Dempster invited me down to Knoxville in 1956. They picked me up at the airport, showed me through the plant, and then up to the office. George said 'who needs [these] small containers?' I replied, 'Everyone that has a cash register.' He like[ed] that...took a 6-month option on a license agreement. William Herpich, Dempster chief engineer, came to Dayton [and] rode the trucks. We talked shop, I gave him the horse shoe arm idea, much better them the straight arms. Six months came and gone, no reply from Dempster Brothers. One year later, [Dempster] rolled out their new horse shoe arm loader."

"I had a poor patent attorney, he left out many patent claims. I knew I had a hot invention...told the patent attorney to drag out the issuing of patent, stall as long as you can ( 3 years) while I look for a manufacturer. The attorney called me one day, said he received a letter from the Patent Office to speed up the application. He said in thirty years, first time to get this request. George Dempster [was] next door neighbor [of] Senator Estes Kefauver. I talked to patent examiners, and they said Senators check up on patent applications all the time. George wanted to know my patent claims, so they could design around them for their front loader."

    By 1960, the Aldredges had licensed their patents to Perfection Cobey, which were built as the Pak-Tainer front loaders shown here. When Cobey was sold a few years later, the new ownership eventually went with alternate designs. However, there is evidence that Cobey still built some of the original jaw-type loader arms as late as 1977. The Aldredges eventually sold Container Service Co., and all of their patents. Bob Aldredge relates his memories of the early days of the front-loader in commercial refuse hauling;

"Think about it; everything is sold by the gallon, pound, cord, bushel, yard, truckload, etc. Commercial trash had no set price, it was what you could get for your service. The trash container changed all this. You can order a 2-6 yard container dumped 1-7 days a week. It was a win-win for everyone. The customer can increase or decrease his service as needed saving money, the hauler has one man in the truck dumping 100-plus containers a day. The health department is smiling; no burning barrels, trash sheds, rats running in and out, the back of stores looked much better....as a hauler, I liked when the customer throwed [sic] waste into the container, that was like throwing it into the truck. The system went worldwide, the timing was right, the waste stream was growing 20% a year"

"Now here comes the big boys; four or five large haulers in a northern city went together and formed one large company. They went on the stock market with their IPO stock offering raising hundreds of millions of dollars. They went out picking up [companies] in cities where they could buy or build a landfill. Landfill is the key to controlling the waste business in the area. On average, it cost 30% of your gross income to dispose of your waste. You buy out the haulers that are smart, and know what's coming; this big company brings in new front loaders, paid for with stock money, they turn loose their sales people in town with hauling prices 20-30% below current rates. News of this operation gets around...haulers sell out while they have a chance. Look around your area see who owns the landfill; they are controllers of the waste business in that area (they are dumping their trash at other haulers expense). The American way."

" In 1970, I sold the trash hauling company and patents to Service Corporation of America (SCA) for three million. Waste Management later bought SCA."

    The Aldredge brothers, as well as Dempster, Herpich and Kefauver are all deceased now. Thus, it is up to the reader to draw their own conclusions regarding Bob Aldredge's claims. There is little doubt that the Aldredges were among the first to develop a front-loading container system. Furthermore, Dempster apparently did build the early Dumpmaster front loader under the Aldredge license during 1956. However, claims regarding the so-called "horse shoe" or over-the-cab lift arm design are not supported by the patents on file. Also, west-coast manufacturers were independently designing and building their own front loaders before 1953 (see Western Body & Hoist). Dempster's own patents were, for all intents and purposes, nullified by the early 1960s, as courts found the technology to be too common to claim ownership. The story of the Dempster patent wars has been detailed by the author in S. Vincen Bowles; Father of the Front Loader.

1961 PAK-TAINER TWIN-ARM FRONT LOADER

The 1961 model Pak-Tainer reverted to twin lift arms, with 4,500 pound capacity and Level-Matic stabilizing. Both of these early models utilized a unique enclosed packer body with a bottom-hinged, 'Jaw-Crusher' packing panel, which was also designed by Howard Aldredge. A single telescopic cylinder operated the packer panel and raised the body to a full 50-degree dump angle. A top-hinged tailgate was opened hydraulically.

JAW-CRUSHER PACKING PANEL

Above Left: Cut-away view of hopper showing Jaw-Crusher panel (green highlights) and combination packing/hoist cylinder (blue highlights). Dotted-line position shows cylinder partially extended to pack refuse from hopper into body. Note the protrusion in the panel to accommodate the upper mounting of the cylinder. For dumping the body, the Jaw-Crusher panel was latched to the body sides to immobilize it, and the cylinder fully extended, which raised the body. Above right: A hinged kick plate (red highlights) at the bottom of the panel helped roll refuse upwards during the packing cycle.

REFERENCES

Commentary by Robert Aldredge, Classic Refuse Trucks Members Area discussion board (August, 2010)
Page no longer available. Original transcript available upon request

Container Service Co. profile at Open Corporates

The Death of Estes Kefauver by Ray Hill (The Knoxville Focus)
References George R. Dempster's 1963 comments to the press about the death of Kefauver

Robert Lee Aldredge obituary

S. Vincen Bowles; Father of the Front Loader by Eric Voytko and Zachary Geroux
Classic Refuse Trucks, January 17, 2010
See Chapter 1 "Early Years", and Chapter 8 "Over-the-Cab Lift Arms"

Western Body & Hoist: A History by Eric Voytko
Classic Refuse Trucks, September 9, 2018
See Chapter 1 "Early Western"

SELECTED PATENTS

Patent #	Description	Inventor	Assignee	Date
US2885101	Material Handling Device	Aldredge, et.al.	Container Svc. Co.	January 19, 1955
US3085702	Material handling device	Aldredge, et.al.	Container Svc. Co.	February 21, 1958
US3064835	Truck Body	Aldredge	Container Svc. Co.	April 13, 1959

1/8/12 (revised 6/12/22)