Heil Retriever Heil Retriever Satellite Side Loader     Restructuring continued at Heil during the mid-80s, with the split of Heil Trailer in 1984 as separate division from refuse and dump truck body manufacturing. The original home factory at Milwaukee closed the following year, ending what little manufacturing had been left there, mainly Load-Lugger/Huge-Haul which would eventually be sold off completely. All corporate offices were now located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Since the mid-1970s, refuse bodies manufacturing was done at the Fort Payne, Alabama facility.     Heil's next acquisition came in 1998 with the purchase of Oregon Western Industries (OWI) of Tigard, Oregon. OWI made the Retriever, a small satellite collection body which could be adjusted to discharge into most standard rear loaders. The Retriever was designed by Melvin Ray Parks in 1977, and sold through Bison Industries and then Peerless Corporation before OWI took over the line in 1994. The packer was a side-loading sliding-drawer type, with a shallow full-eject plunger used to pack and eject the load incrementally. Tilt cylinders raised the rear edge of the body to adjust to the receiving vehicle hopper, and the partially-hinged rear door was raised straight up by a pair of long-stroke cylinders. Heil Retrievers remained mostly unchanged from the Peerless models, in 6 or 12 yard versions, until DuraPak curved bodies were adapted. Heil added 12 and 14 yard models as conventional side loaders, for dumping at transfer stations or landfills. The Heil Retriever looks like a conventional small side loader... ...but the tailgate lifts straight upward, and the rear edge of the body lifts to transfer into rear loader The Heil Retriever RT12 compact side loader with DuraPak curved shell body 14-yard compact side loader; this version is a conventional side loader REFERENCES Oregon-Western Industries page at Classic Refuse Trucks RELATED: Peerless page at Classic Refuse Trucks Bison Industries page at Classic Refuse Trucks Heil acquires inventory and product lines of Oregon Western Industries World Wastes, September 1998, page 9 5/29/17 (revised 4/14/24) © 2017 All Rights Reserved Photos from factory brochures/advertisements except as noted Logos shown are the trademarks of respective manufacturers