Parks & Sons was a family-run refuse hauling business based in Boise, Idaho. Father and son Melvin Ray and Melvin Hal Parks designed and patented what became known as the Retriever in 1977, to address issues with existing transfer-type satellite packers. The Parks body was mounted on flanged pins inside elongated slots, allowing the body to automatically slide rearward as it was raised to meet the tailgate of the receiving truck or compactor. This eliminated the need for 'dead space' between the vehicle cab and the front of the body to accommodate the tilting action. Another feature was the vertical-sliding rear ejection door, with a unique hinged lower flap, which automatically unlocked as soon as the door was raised. The flap allowed full discharge opening clearance without raising the door its entire height above the body.
Bison Industries was founded 1980 by Johnn Knapp and a group of investors. Knapp had been designing and building roll-off and stationary compactors since 1968, under the name Grenco Associates. Having acquired the rights to build the Retriever, this became the first product to be introduced by the new company. The Bison Parks Retriever 6 was announced in 1981 as "A System Whose Time Has Come", and was built in their factory at Sandy, Oregon. Initially configured as a 6-cubic yard model, Bison later added a 12-yarder to the line.
Bison parks Retriever on IVECO Zeta compact tilt-cab
The side-loading packer was a fairly typical shallow-blade type, with a follower plate allowing the platen to fully penetrate the length of the body. This made for excellent 'circular' compaction and provided means for ejection of the load. During ejection/transfer, the packer blade was cycled repeatedly until all refuse was discharged from the body. The vertically-sliding rear door could be used as a "meter" to control the discharge into the receiving unit. The Parks Retriever is believed to be the first of this type of packer body designed for use as a satellite unit, while their competition mostly featured packers with a full-height blade. Bison Industries marketed it as a complete system, the packer being mounted on a compact diesel truck chassis, and paired with a stationary "transfer compactor" roll-off box. Of course, it could also be ordered as a single unit for use with any rear loading packer.
Other Bison products were added, including their own non-compacting recycler body, introduced years ahead of the recycling-mania that swept America in the late 1980s. There was also the Wrangler, which was a small stationary packer that had an integral ram, operated by a remote power source called "The Tower of Power". The Wrangler could be emptied by a front loader without detaching the compactor unit. In a unique collaboration with a specialist vehicle builder, Bison provided the compactor body for the Malamute, perhaps the world's first and only refuse collector purpose-built to work in the Arctic tundra. At least seven were built, and Bison added special features such as a constant-circulation hydraulic system to prevent icing, and special hoses rated to minus 60-degrees Farenheit.
The Retriever slotted body pivot (ref. 14) allowed it to both tilt and slide
In 1984, Johnn Knapp sold Bison Industries to Peerless Division of Lear Seigler Inc., which had its headquarters in Tualatin, Oregon. Knapp stayed on as Vice President and General Manager of the new Bison Products Group. Peerless was an established builder of refuse transfer trailers, and also had additional facilities in Arkansas and Canada. With this greater manufacturing capacity, the new owners were well positioned to bring the Retriever to a much larger North American market. The Bison name remained for a while, but within a few more years the Peerless identity alone would be adopted.
See the PEERLESS page in the links below for more Retriever models.
In the loading position, the rear door is closed and the hinged flap nests below the floor line
Discharge position with body tilted and door raised, unlocking the hinged lower flap
Crewman loading a Bison Retriever 6 in a rural New Jersey route
One the first Retrievers, owned by Consolidated Disposal Services Inc. (CDSI photo)
Bison provided the packer body for the Malamute, a specialized vehicle for collecting refuse above the arctic circle
The Wrangler stationary packer with self-contained packing ram and the "Tower of Power"
The Wrangler could be emptied by a conventional front loader with detaching the compactor section
Multi-stream non-compacting recycling body sold by Bison Industries in 1983
Myrtle and Melvin Ray Parks, from an ancestry web site. The couple lived in Idaho, Utah and Arizona during their lifetimes. It is believed that this is the same Melvin Ray Parks who co-invented the Retriever refuse body, and lived in Boise, Idaho in 1977.
The successor to the Parks Retriever, now made by Heil, gives a demonstration
Video courtesy of MrBillT
1983 advertisement showing the Retriever 6 packer mated with their "portable transfer station" option
