Harold G. Alexander was a hauler and inventor from Portland, Oregon. He designed and built one of the first roll-off trucks for his own hauling business. His first roll-offs used the winch-and-cable system, which required the operator to leave the cab in order to pull out the lift cable from the winch spool, and manually connect it with the container. An improved version replaced the winch with hydraulic motors and roller chain. The roller chain operated a carriage and hook assembly, which allowed the operator to couple the truck to a container without ever leaving the cab. He later licensed this design to Gar Wood Industries during the 1960s, which marketed it as the Dispos-Haul System.
The Dispos-Haul featured automatic box locks and a hydraulic powered 50-inch front boom for spotting empty containers. Boxes were available to 40-cubic yards capacity. Although the Gar Wood Dispos-Haul would be short-lived, Harold Alexander continued to design new roll-off systems into the 1970s and 1980s, which were sold through independent companies in the western United States.
See Also: Alexander
Center image: note the rearward-facing box lock (hook), which automatically secured the loaded container.
The entire 32-second container loading cycle could be controlled from inside the cab.
With cab-over-engine truck chassis, container-spotting hook made positioning of empty boxes easy.
VIDEO: 1979 INTERNATIONAL DISPOS-HAUL/ALEXANDER ROLL-OFF
