Hydro E-Z Pack Division
Hercules-Galion Products Inc.
The Hydro E-Z Pack
Hercules-Galion Products emerged following the merger of Hercules Steel Products and the Galion Allsteel Body Co. The Galion E-Z Pack refuse body, announced in late 1954 was replaced by a totally new body by inventors William A. Herpich and John G. Sand, with corresponding patent application filed in April, 1955. The result was an all-hydraulic side loader, dubbed the Hydro E-Z Pack, presumably to differentiate it from the short-lived mechanical-compaction version from Galion Allsteel.
Though it was a quite simple and straightforward design, the Hydro E-Z Pack was nothing short of revolutionary for its time. The massive packing panel was guided on slide shoes to reduce jamming, and a big double-acting ram provided packing power to the tune of 82,500 pounds of force. The heavily reinforced body (16 or 20 cubic yards) and tailgate required no tilting at the dump, since the full travel packer blade simply ejected the load. The Hydro E-Z Pack was not the first hydraulic side loader, but it may rightly be considered the perfection of the design, and was unlike anything in operation at the time. This body foreshadowed the look of front loaders during the next two decades.
Simple plumbing and mechanical layout were key features of the Hydro E-Z Pack
Indeed, while these bodies made outstanding side loaders, loaded manually by crews, they became the platform around which the full-compaction front loader would evolve. By the spring of 1956, the City of Los Angeles had already adapted a fixed-bucket front loader to an E-Z Pack body for hand loading on some residential routes. Lodal of Kingsford, Michigan, marketed their first front-loader system, with detachable containers, around the Hydro E-Z Pack. Shortly after designing this body for Hercules-Galion, William Herpich apparently went to work for Dempster Brothers of Knoxville, Tennessee. Herpich's name appears on several of their patents, many for Dempster's famous front loader system. Looking at the Dempster compaction body used on their 1957 front loader, it appears to be merely a larger version of the one sold as the Hydro E-Z Pack. One can't rule out the possibility that Hercules-Galion and Dempster may have joined engineering forces, if only for a short time. (Dempster had collaborated with the Ernest Holmes Company in developing their 1955 Dumpmaster lift arm) In a few years, E-Z Pack and Dempster would be rivals competing for the newly emerging market for front-loading refuse trucks.
Demonstration of the Hydro's crushing power
One of a fleet of E-Z Packs used by Capello Brothers of Newton, Massachusetts
Twenty cubic yard body with riding steps at rear of body
Special heavy-duty Hydro E-Z Pack built to specifications of the city of Philadelphia.
These low slung 18-yard top-loaders were used to haul incinerator ash.
An early model 1960 Lodal front loader used by Valdosta, Georgia. The body is a 20 cubic yard Hydro E-Z Pack
1965 Ford F-series with Hydro E-Z Pack 20-yard body
24-yard Hydro E-Z pack still in use by Magic Valley Disposal of Hansen, Idaho
