Classic Refuse Trucks E-Z PACK

From Hostile Takeover to Peabody-Galion

    By the mid sixties, E-Z Pack division now had a modern product line, a crack engineering team and solid patents for front, rear and side loader bodies. Stationary compactor units and roll-offs were eventually added to fold. But a financial firestorm was brewing unbeknownst to the team at Galion, which would seriously jeopardize the young company.

    During 1963-1964, a hostile takeover of the publicly-traded Hercules-Galion Corporation was achieved by Chicago-based capital corporation. Following this takeover, an attempt was made to deliberately drive the price of the stock upward, in the hopes of merging or selling the company. With its innovative E-Z Pack refuse equipment line, Hercules-Galion held great potential, and was generally seen as a promising investment. The plan began to go awry when, after initially driving the price up, some shareholders began to liquidate their stock (as the high price made doing so profitable). The plan exploded when squabbling among the parties involved culminated in the sell-off of 8,000 shares by a single investor in March of 1966. This caused the stock price to drop so steeply and rapidly that trading was suspended. By the end of the decade, sixteen persons, including some of the directors and their family members, would be convicted of stock manipulation and conspiracy.

    This turmoil at Hercules-Galion undoubtedly led to the sale of the company to Peabody International Corporation in 1970. The truck body arm would henceforth be called Peabody-Galion Division, and other variations on that theme. The E-Z Pack name still identified the individual refuse products, as it would during the next 22 years under the new ownership.

    The acquisition by Peabody was evidently good for E-Z Pack, which now had steady corporate support for its excellent product line. Bill Herpich remained, and the company expanded into the manufacture of refuse transfer trailers and transfer station equipment. Production of the front loaders continued unchanged, but the rear loaders would be redesigned twice during the 1970s. The old Hydro E-Z Pack side loader would eventually be phased out as well.

Early E-Z Pack roll-off utilized drum winch to hoist container

E-Z Pack roll-off on International Harvester CO chassis

E-Z Pack Long Hauler 75-cubic yard transfer trailer

11-cubic yard transfer packer coupled to a Long Hauler trailer

Bi-Co Transfer station near New Albany, Indiana, used E-Z Pack equipment (1974)

E-Z Pack packaged transfer station

Front loader remained the stalwart of E-Z Pack line in the 1970s

A bubble tailgate kit was available, adding 5-cubic yards to any E-Z Pack front loader body

7/5/09