A long time coming, here's a bit of a tribute video to the old Crown Disposal of Sun Valley, CA, now Recology Los Angeles.
We start with a personal favorite, the Smart Trucks Systems (STS) K7000. The body certainly lives up to it's name, a very smart design. Low profile, light weight, and quick. It features a half height packer blade with follower panel like the venerable Amrep Octo, a clever packer slide/track setup, a generously curved, brace-free body built with just regular high-tensile steel, I could wax lyrical for days. And it looks really really REALLY cool to boot. Hopefully I'll have a more in depth video featuring an STS in the near future. This particular example was found bombing around Sun Valley, not too far from the Crown Disposal yard. The driver's skills were seriously impressive, just look how he checks the empty bin at 0:28.
The second truck only makes a brief appearance but is noteworthy nonetheless. This Wittke bodied Crane was formerly a demo truck for Crane Carrier. For a while Crane Carrier was selling Wittke front and manual side loaders as package deals mounted to the LET chassis, sort of in the tradition of their old Integrated Front/Rear/Side Loaders. This truck still proudly displays the all important tare and legal payload figures on the side of the body. The tailgate had the faded remains of graphics advertising Crane Carrier's demonstration program, even an old 1-800 phone number. We found this truck even closer to the Crown yard in Sun Valley.
Last but far from least is one of the many custom Bridgeport Top Pack bodies Crown Disposal is so fond of. It's hard to go through Beverly Hills on a weekday before noon without seeing one (or five) of these featherweights at work. The packer blade on these top pack bodies spans the full width of the hopper, starting at the top of the body and extending downward roughly 1/3 of the hopper height. A single telescopic packing cylinder is mounted on the cab shield. Each rapid stroke of the packer only clears the upper third of the hopper, with very little in the way of actual compaction. Lower compaction forces allow for a lighter weight body construction, which translates to a very respectable legal payload. You'll notice the body volume is made larger to compensate for the lower density compaction. A full packer cycle takes place at 4:01, the occasional body lift like at 4:26 further helps move trash to the rear of the body. Crown Disposal is/was pretty much the last holdout still running top pack front loaders, and went as far as to build their own custom version in-house just before the Recology buyout. Given the oddity of these top packs and Recology's penchant for mainstream equipment (*cough* Heil *cough*), the fate of these Bridgeports and the custom Crown builds remains to be seen.
All three trucks in the video are on a typical Southern California style front load route. For those unfamiliar with the concept, the vast majority of bins need to be pulled out to the truck. The first two trucks had a single man crew with the driver left to do all the heavy lifting. Outside arm controls alleviate the need for the driver to keep climbing in and out of the cab and make for faster route times. The Beverly Hills routes have 2 men per truck, along with a scout truck/bin spotter pulling bins out of apartment parking garages. After emptying a bin the helper on the front load truck would wheel the bin back underground.
A massive thanks goes out to Zach (0:59) and Bill (1:06) for having me tag along for a week of filming back in February of 2013. These guys went out of their way to make sure I got the ultimate SoCal garbage truck experience. Also as always thanks to all the drivers, Crown's guys are some of the best in the business. Filmed February 11, 2013.
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