Classic Refuse Trucks E-Z PACK

Hercules Steel Products Company
Galion Allsteel Body Company
Galion, Ohio

HERCULES STEEL PRODUCTS COMPANY

Hercules open dump truck body used for refuse collection

Hercules Steel Products would have seemed to be the company well equipped to build a refuse packer body. Since the 1930's, the firm had produced hydraulic hoists, power take-off (PTO) units and dump bodies. However, aside from making some dump type garbage collection bodies (as shown above, from the mid 1940's), the firm seems to have steered clear of this segment of the truck body market. To be fair, the demand for mechanical refuse packers was not always overwhelming in the years after the second world war, and the open refuse truck would remain a common method of collection for years to come, especially in smaller cities.

Hercules enclosed garbage collection body with front salvage compartment

Hercules power take-off advertisements from the late 1930s

GALION ALLSTEEL BODY COMPANY

Early Galion mechanical hoist dump truck body

Galion Allsteel was an early manufacturer of dump truck bodies, first mechanically operated and then later fully hydraulic. The company was a major supplier of dump bodies for the Ford Motor Company of Michigan. Following the war, Galion did produce a mechanical refuse loader, very similar to the Heil Colecto-Pak bucket loader.

GALION AUTO-SANI-I-PAK

The Galion Auto_Sani-Pak bucket loader was non-compacting, and relied on gravity to consolidate the load. A single hydraulic hoist simultaneously raised the bucket and tilted the body, so the contents fell toward the back and away from the opening. To discharge the load, a pair of chains on the bucket were clipped on to the tailgate. As the bucket ascended, the chains unlatched and raised the tailgate, allowing the load to empty out the back of the body. The production status of the bucket loader during the early 1950s is unknown.

Early-model Galion Auto-Sani-Pak bucket loader in operation in 1946

City of Mansfield 1949 Auto-Sani-Pak

Hoisting and dumping operation

GALION E-Z PACK SIDE LOADER (MECHANICAL)

By the fall of 1954, Galion was advertising an all-new mechanical refuse collection body. The new body was called the Galion E-Z Pack, and the specific details on this design are not currently known. Galion merged with Hercules Steel Products the following year to form Hercules-Galion. The E-Z Pack name would soon appear on an all-new design, which would be of great significance to the refuse body industry.

From October, 1954; an advertisement for the Galion E-Z Pack mechanical packer. The fact that a brochure was published would seem to indicate that this body was in limited production in late 1954, more than one year before the famous hydraulic version arrived for 1956. As of this writing, neither the brochure, photos or patent information have yet surfaced.

7/5/09 (updated 5/29/22)