The Dempster Dumpster had been born in the quarry pit, so it's no surprise that the company unveiled a self-propelled shovel in 1949 called the Dempster Diggster. The GRD-100 series Diggster was a rubber tired loader with a rear engine and 15-foot shovel reach, which was later joined by a crawler-tractor version dubbed the CR. The latter version seems to have been Dempster's shovel attachment mounted on a commercially available crawler such as International Harvester or Allis-Chalmers. A high-lift version of the rubber-tired Diggester was dubbed GRD-100-HL, suitable for loading material into railroad box cars.
By 1954, the Diggster was being phased out, but morphed into a completely different vehicle that would mark Dempster's move towards the exclusive manufacture of refuse handling equipment. This was achieved by removing the shovel from the GRD truck and adding a telescopic lifting mast, similar to those used on fork-lift trucks. The mast carried Dempster Dumpster container handling equipment, and was renamed the GRD-304. This new truck was designed to carry pre-filled Dumpsters from apartments or businesses to a central collection point, and then lift and dump them into larger trailers for transport to the disposal site. It was one of the worlds first mass-marketed refuse transfer systems, and was tailor-made for cities already using the popular Dumpster system for refuse removal.
The Diggster GRD-100-HL "High Lift" construction dumper would evolve into a refuse handler
The new GRD-304 container handler with enclosed cab was introduced in 1954
The GRD-304 was equipped to handle pre-loaded Dempster Dumpster containers, and load them into transfer trailers
Mobile transfer station of 1955 in Knoxville. Tennessee: A GRD-304 lift truck feeds a 32 yard Pak-Mor compaction trailer, designed specially for this application.
City of Atlanta, Georgia was among the first to use Dempster's new refuse handling system in 1955. Pak-Mor was the ideal partner for the GRD-304: The Texas manufacturer pioneered the design of large-capacity compaction trailers
Dempster was always looking for ways to increase the versatility of their Dumpster System. In conjunction with Elgin Sweeper, they created this custom Dumpster which formed the catch box for the unit. When detached from the sweeper, it was carried off by a Dempster hoist truck, which also delivered a replacement.
