 
COBEY: LATE 1970s
Cobey Brute High-Compaction Rear Loader
A heavy-duty, high-compaction rear loader known as The Brute was introduced by Cobey in 1979, and looked remarkably similar to the Load-Master LM-400. The 25-yard Brute differed from LM-400 in that the packing rams were mounted offset to the plane of the roller tracks, and the sweep cylinders were reversed, with their rod ends mounted upwardly. The same year saw a semi-trailer version of the standard Cobey rear loader join the lineup.
The Cobey rear loaders longtime similarity to rival Load-Master did not go unnoticed, however. Unlike their earlier LM-100 series, City Tank Corporation had patented the LM-400, and filed an infringement lawsuit against Cobey. The court ruled for Cobey, and the ruling was upheld in a 1978 appeal. As is common in patent cases, the court found several sections of the LM-400 patent invalid, in that they were deemed 'prior art', which means methods of construction already used within industry.
The original Cobey Route-Master rear loader was mostly unchanged, but switched from a single sweep cylinder to twin cylinders for 1976
25-cubic yard Route-Master semi-trailer
Also little changed during the 70s was the Fork-Tainer front loader.
Cobey also continued to offer their original Pak-Tainer system through the end of the decade
1977 Cobey front loader with the pintle-hook Pak-Tainer style lift arms.
It is not known whether this was made by Cobey or custom-fabricated
A Cobey Helix Tite-Pak performed clean-up duty at Soldier Field in Chicago after a 1978 rock concert. First, the stadium crew swept the refuse into windrows. Then, using a vacuum-equipped Cobey side loader, the whole mess was cleaned up in two hours and twenty minutes, in one load....with room to spare.
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With the addition of transfer stations in 1977, the Cobey lineup was at last complete. Despite assembling a diverse, high-quality product line of refuse equipment, Cobey fell victim to the dismal realities of the U.S. economy at the end of the 1970s. Harsco closed down Cobey, selling their refuse truck designs to Athey Products Corporation in 1981. Most of he former Cobey line was thereafter built under the Athey name at their Raleigh, North Carolina factory. This included the Helix-based automated side loaders.
1/8/12 (revised 2/7/21)
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Photos from factory brochures/advertisements except as noted
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