![]() Somewhat better received were models that emerged from Cook Brothers, a company known for construction equipment and concrete mixer bodies. Method (with arrester hooks atop the body) was incompatible with more popular fork systems Unfortunately, their trunion container coupling Towner packer body looked like a model from the future back in 1955. Only a handful of Towner bodies were made, with several sold off to movie studios, doomed for use as background vehicles in films. Unfortunately, Towner's unique method of coupling to their container was incompatible with the popular Bowles fork system, and never really caught on. This front loader is most notable for being one of the first full-pack models, with an advance-design reinforced body and a packer, which delivered 24,000 pounds of pressure. Seemingly out of nowhere, a company that had specialized in farm implements fielded the "Nu-Way-Pak Sanitary Van" in 1955. Towner Manufacturing of Santa Ana was an early (and unlikely) entry into fledgling industry. In the wake of the first Bowles front loaders, other Los Angeles-area companies also began to market their own specific designs. The packer blade is little different from first models produced nearly a half-century earlier. Video of a Bowles Pull-Back type packer as used on a 2000 model Compaction Control Industries front loader. The Bowles front loader with pull-back type packer blade dominated the west during the 1950s However, the pull-type packer maximized payload by virtually eliminating the dead space ahead of the packer panel. Push packers were less susceptible to cylinder damage, since the rams were not operating in the refuse load as on the pull type system. Push packers would quickly become the industry standard, as manufacturers could easily make a half-pack or full-pack model by simply changing the stroke of the packing ram. This patented design was never duplicated by later competitors, who instead opted for "push type" packers, with vertically mounted rams located ahead of the blade. This cleared the hopper area for incoming refuse, and compacted the entire load as the body became filled. The Bowles "Pull-type" packer system was something unique to his front loaders in that horizontal, single stage cylinders were located inside the body, pulling the blade from front to back over the length of hopper. With the Bowles loader, the die had been cast, and refuse collection practice would never be the same. In fact, it was common practice to completely remove the doors from the cabs of refuse trucks in the early days. Of course, in actual practice, the driver did exit the truck quite frequently, mostly to roll containers into position and other tasks. A single driver with a high-capacity packer truck could now service multiple, large containers and theoretically never have to exit the vehicle. This was a truly revolutionary breakthrough in the collection of refuse. These containers could be left on-site at any business or residence. More importantly, the fixed bucket had given way to a forklift type coupling method, for handling detachable containers of different sizes. Evolution quickly took hold of their brainchild, and by late 1954 Bowles was manufacturing front loaders with fully enclosed dump bodies, equipped with a hydraulic-powered packer blade. These were mostly used for residential and bulk waste collection. ![]() The first ten trucks created had a fixed bucket, permanently attached to a pair of articulated lift arms that emptied into an open dump body. and Samuel Vincen Bowles designed a special truck in Sun Valley, California for Gentile's refuse company United Rubbish. The birth of the front loader, purpose-built for refuse service, can most likely be traced to the year 1952. It features an articulated lift arm with a fixed refuse trough for hand-loading ![]() One of the first front loaders built by Bowles for United Rubbish. ![]() The Ever Expanding History of the Front Load Refuse Truckġ952-1959: Humble Beginnings and Radical Ideas ![]()
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