Classic Refuse Trucks BOWLES DEALER ALBUM

S. Vincen Bowles Company
Dealer Album (Page One)

In the following pages, we will take a trip back in time to the late 1950's, when front loader technology was still in its early stages, and the H.M. Rattle Company of Denver, Colorado, had become a dealer for refuse equipment built by the famous S. Vincen Bowles Company of California. CRT has recently acquired a hand-made "dealer" album produced for Rattle at that time. Though the album contains very little by way of the published literature commonly produced by truck body builders, there were fortunately a wealth of original photos, most of which have probably not been seen in decades ! The majority appear to have been taken at the Bowles factory in Sun Valley, California between 1956 and 1960, and give us a very rare look at some of Bowles earliest compaction front loaders. A few more "gems" were taken by Rattle, showing equipment purchased from that dealership and operating on their home turf in the Denver area.

These fascinating images show a company that while small and relatively new to the business, was building extremely advanced equipment and constantly improving. Bowles, and a handful of other small builders in southern California enjoyed a virtual lock on the western U.S. market for years and survived into the early 1990's. Even today, southern California "micro builders" such as Amrep, Edge and STS carry on this tradition despite the growing might of international "mega builders" who dominate most of the remaining world markets for refuse equipment.

This article is a supplement to the original Bowles Album here at CRT, which contains a more complete overview of the company. Additionally, more information on Bowles important contributions to the refuse body industry may be found in the CRT special, U.S. Front Loader Development also available at this website.

And now, without further ado, here is the Bowles Dealer Album at CRT!

This undated photo shows a 32 cubic yard Bowles front loader in front of an unknown International Harvester dealership. This is the most commonly known early Bowles front loader featuring curved lift arms, which clear the front wheels allowing steering control in the lowered position. This would be important since many of these were used for residential collection at least part time. This truck shows the early style flat fork design with a box-like superstructure connecting the forks to the lift arms. It also features an optional "salvage rack" above the cab, and has "fork stops" on the front bumper.

Bowles' original partial packer system used twin single stage rams inside the body which pulled the flat packer plate rearward, clearing the six yard hopper and compacting the load as the body filled. The trackway for the packer blade and cylinder rod covers are clearly seen on the side of the hopper wall. Emptying was accomplished through the age-old hoist and dump method, with the packer plate giving assistance.

Upon closer examination of the original photo, the California license plate reveals a date of 1956, which if accurate would make this one of the earliest known examples of the Partial Packer front loader ! The International AC180 LCF (Low Cab Forward) truck was also new at that time, and would later become one of the most popular refuse truck chassis in America during the next decade (later badged as the Loadstar). International did not use model year designations until 1973, but the first of this series likely would have appeared in late 1956. It should be noted that California did use stickers to update their plates at this time, so it's also possible this photo was taken sometime later. The truck dealership may even be none other than Ray Gaskin Service, who also built small numbers of their own refuse bodies.

This is probably one of the first pieces of Bowles promotional literature, a picture of a 28 yard model featuring the name of J.E. McDonald Associates, Glendale, who were the distributors of Bowles equipment. This same photo was used in November, 1957 for a small ad in American City Magazine. These were advertised and sold, at least in the early days, as the Econ-O-Packer system. McDonald later relocated further south to San Diego.

Mounted on the venerable International DCO series cabover, the truck is equipped with right hand drive and folding mirrors, but no salvage rack above the cab. The horizontal body brace which forms the top edge of the truck body is a curious feature that rarely shows up on Bowles bodies, for reasons not presently known. The hand-loading bucket appears to be permenantly affixed to the lift arms, which is not a common sight either. The lift arms do not clear the front wheels, and would seem to impair steering control at least partially. This was a problem because of the "set back" axle of the cabover truck design. Bowles offset this problem somewhat by mounting the cross tube above the truck frame, whereas conventional chassis (as on the AC180 above) had the cross tube fixed below the rails.

Here is a rare truck indeed, a 24 cubic yard Econ-O-Packer with and optional Herman Lo-Step forward-control cab. The cab was fitted to the customer's chassis (at extra cost) at the Bowles factory, and was made by the Herman Body Company of St. Louis, Misssouri. (Herman had themselves recently built refuse bodies, briefly producing the Ram-Pak rear loader, which eventually became the Daybrook Power Packer)

This was probably an attempt to market a "one man" refuse collection system and was likely displaced when Bowles came out with their Load-N-Pack drop-frame side loader. The contractor is E.F. Mikkelson Refuse Disposal, probably from the Los Angeles area. Note the arm stops protruding from the front wheel wells, which are not present in the upper left factory photo.

The biggest gun in Bowles arsenal was this BP-22-FL with a whopping 45 cubic yards capacity. These big bodies required a tandem-axle chassis, and additional frame reinforcement by Bowles (as did all of their front loaders). In some cases, the frame also had to be lengthened to handle such large boxes, which cost extra. In the late 1950's, this body cost $6875.00, which included the Partial Packer and lift arms. Other extra cost "goodies" were available including outside controls, automatic hopper door and power retracting mirrors. By 1960, the same body had risen considerably in price to $9650.00, though there were more standard features included.

Bowles also included your choice of forks, either flat or side type in the price. In 1959, containers ranged in price from $104.00 (2 yard) to $198.00 (5 yard) but did not include casters or lids.

A 32 cubic yard Econ-O-Packer used by the City of Oceanside, California equipped with a detachable 2 yard hand-loading bin. The lower photo shows the discharged load from the same truck.

9/3/06