Classic Refuse Trucks NORCAL

Norcal Waste Equipment
San Leandro, California

    Otto Ganter joined Western Body & Hoist of Los Angeles as an engineer in 1960. He worked with founder George Morrison through the 'glory years' of the sixties. Western was one of the premier refuse body builders in Southern California, churning out landmark designs like the Shu-Pak, Wesco Jet and Scottsdale 'Godzilla' automated side loader (ASL). Shortly after Western was bought out by Maxon Industries, he moved north to the San Franciso Bay-area to establish his own company. With help from Morrison, Ganter's Norcal Waste Equipment Co. was soon producing refuse equipment, including a perfect copy of the Western Full-Pak front loader. Another notable design was for a side-loading half-pack body suitable for adding an ASL arm from proprietary suppliers such as Ebeling and Rapid Rail. These Norcal bodies were the base for some of the first "factory" ASLs in the southwest, including the City of Scottsdale, the very birthplace of the concept.

    Various recycling bodies were also produced, especially as the front loaders were phased out during the 1980s. An advanced-design drop-frame side loader was also built, with a radiused body very similar to the Smart Truck Systems K7000. Roll-off and dead-lift frames were a big part of Norcal's business, as well as container transporters and a number of manual side loader types.

    Norcal is truly a company with deep roots in the refuse equipment industry, a direct descendent of one of the most influential micro-builders of the golden era. As of this writing, they are approaching their 50th year in operation, at Oakland and San Leandro, building custom Roll-Offs, compactors and container haulers.

We wish to sincerely thank Mr. Ganter for providing most of the old photos and information used in this article. Zachary Geroux has the complete photo archive posted at Refuse Truck Media and Consulting, which is linked in the references below.

An early example of Norcal equipment; Roll-off on an International Harvester Cargostar for Turlock Scavenger Co.

Norcal full-pack front loader

Norcal full-pack featured horizontal pack cylinder, like the Western Body & Hoist design it was patterned after

Rear view showing the bustle tailgate, on Mack MR cab-forward

Tandem-axle Norcal on a White Xpeditor 2, about 40-yards capacity

Before there was ever such a thing as a factory-built ASL, you could purchase this Norcal partial-packer on a dual-drive
International Cargostar, and simply bolt-on a loader arm made by EMCO, Litter Lift or Rapid Rail

Norcal with EMCO loader owned by the City of Scottsdale, Arizona, which had first blazed the ASL trail. The city had five such vehicles
in operation by August, 1978. Five more arrived in early 1980, thus completely replacing the original fleet of custom-built "Barrel Snatchers"

Norcal satellite side loader

Multi-compartment bucket loader for recycling, with individually side-dumped sections.

Unusual variant of the Norcal ASL body, adapted as a manual loader with shallow-height packer blade

The fantastic Norcal drop-frame manual side loader with curved-body construction

REFERENCES

Norcal Builder Gallery at Refuse Truck Media and Consulting
(Complete photographic history from the archives of Norcal Waste Equipment)

Western Body & Hoist Album at Classic Refuse Trucks

9/15/2019 (revised 11/28/21)