Entering the the 1960's, Hercules-Galion's Hydro E-Z Pack side loader had broken barriers to high-compaction refuse bodies, but much of its success lay in the fact that it was an ideal packer body for a front-loader system. E-Z Pack had no such specialized front loader package of their own, and Dempster was virtually unchallenged in that market segment, at least in the eastern United States. William A. Herpich, who had designed the Hydro, had officially joined the staff at Hercules-Galion in 1959. In the intervening years, he had also worked extensively with Dempster, his name appearing on several patents for their Dumpmaster. However, what would become the first E-Z Pack front loader came not from Herpich, but from a little known inventor and a Washington, D.C. refuse contractor.
Little is known about Milton Clar, except that he was from Silver Spring, Maryland, and had some sort of relationship with Shayne Brothers, Inc., a refuse hauling company based in nearby Washington. Albert Shayne had himself been the first president (1954-1955) of the Detachable Container Association (DCA), a group of haulers advocating modern containerized refuse collection. (The DCA was also to spin-off the National Solid Wastes Management Association in 1969). Whatever his background, Clar would design a revolutionary container lift arm mechanism, one of the few to ever seriously rival the Dempster front loader in the eastern United States.
When Clar filed his first patent in 1961, the Dempster over the cab (OTC) lift arm was the industry standard, and was securely patented. The OTC arm was so-called because, unlike earlier designs, the arms curved upward from their pivot mounts on the packer body to completely clear the doors of the truck body. Bill Herpich had himself contributed to several of those patents for Dempster. Any firm seeking to market a front loader would have to either pay Dempster royalties on their OTC arm patents, or use straight arms, which were far less desirable. Milton Clar managed to come up with a completely new and eminently practical design, and added a self-leveling container feature as well.
Clar's revolutionary design started by affixing the loader arms to the packer body at the top end, well above the cab, instead at the bottom as had been industry practice for decades (see drawing below). Additionally, Clar's arm was articulated, with a joint forward of the truck cab where a vertical member (red highlights) was affixed. A common hydraulically actuated rock shaft then held the fork assembly at bumper level. Inside the horizontal arm, a roller chain (ref. A) connected sprockets affixed to each pivot point. The rear sprocket (ref.B) was fixed, while the front was pivotable (ref. C), and connected to the vertical lifting member.
The roller chain arrangement kept the pivotally connected vertical arm upright throughout the entire lift cycle. Once elevated, the container would be inverted by cylinders which rotated the rock shaft. With this original design, Clar had hit upon a brilliant concept, but in hindsight, the roller chain leveling feature would appear to be a weak spot. Rights to this patent were assigned to Clar-Shayne partnership, and it may have been intended that Shayne Brothers were to build the body. However, there is no evidence that this particular version was ever in production.
In April of 1962, Clar filed a second patent (see drawing below) for a similar loader, which substituted a solid rod (green highlights) in place of the roller chain to achieve the automatic leveling. The main lift cylinder was relocated to the top of the body, pulling the arm from above, rather than below. With these two improvements, the concept materializes for what we know as the E-Z Pack front loader.
How the design came to be made by Hercules-Galion is not known for certain, but most likely it was due to the fact that Shayne Brothers had no manufacturing capability, and that the Washington area had no industrial base, especially when compared with the midwestern states. Hercules-Galion had the capability to build it, needed to expand their product line, and (best of all) had the patent for a superior packer body, the Hydro E-Z Pack. On September 30, 1962, the all-new E-Z Pack front loader officially debuted at the APWA show in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Initial body offerings were in 20, 25 or 30 cubic yards capacity, with container sizes available from 1 through 8 cubic yards. The Shayne Brothers became the east coast distributor, trading under the name Dumpmor Systems and based in northeast Washington, D.C., and by 1964, the name was changed to Shayne Brothers Equipment Co. As an established refuse hauler with a fleet of fifty trucks, they were more than able to demonstrate the capabilities of the new system. There can be little doubt that the Clar front loader was central to the establishment of E-Z Pack as a major manufacturer of refuse equipment. It would be the mainstay of the product line well into the 1980s, when it was gradually phased out in favor of the Hercules series front loaders.
E-Z Pack front loader from a 1970 brochure
Action diagram showing the self-leveling lift sequence
The packer was a full travel plate with telescopic cylinder; essentially an enlarged version of the Hydro E-Z Pack design of 1955
Dumpmor/Shayne Brothers ads from the early 1960s
The EcnoTrain System was E-Z Pack's version of the popular 1960s satellite trailer method
Spartanburg, South Carolina: The 'Mother' truck lifting and EconoTrain container...
...and then dumping
Big E-Z Pack body mounted on BrockwaY Huskiteer cabover chassis
By the early 1980s, model FLD was introduced with a lighter body which shaved 5000 pounds of unladen weight. It used a 7-inch diameter packing cylinder.
The original high-compaction version, with 9" cylinder, was then designated as model FLHC. Note the lighter bracing on the FLD's shown above
This 1983 FLHC model is near the end of the production run for the Clar-designed articulated arms, yet looks almost exactly like the original model of 1962.
This is a 33-cubic yard body, with a ten yard hopper for a total capacity of 43-cubic yards.
This 1986 E-Z Pack FLHC body is still in use in Florida by P.H. Waste Collection Service, and nicely demonstrates the operation of the flex-arm loader. Many thanks to Alan Blanchard, Bill Tetreault, and Lenny at P.H. Waste for the demonstration.
