Introduced in 1983, The E-Z Pack "Straight Arm" front loader was only in production for a few years before the curved-shell Hercules arrived
Production of the original front loader continued even after the debut of the Hercules Half-Pack. However, the original Clar-designed lift arm was being phased out (since 1984) in favor of the industry-standard over-the-cab (OTC) lift arms.
Undoubtedly one of the rarest of E-Z Packs, the Olympian was a reduced-weight full-pack front loader. With optional aluminum packer panel and top door, a 42-cubic yard model weighed in just a shade under 16,000 pounds. One of last new designs of the Peabody era was the 1990 Enviro-Pack 1000, a split-body recycler in 29 and 33 cubic yard sizes. It had partial pack blades for the top and bottom compartments and tilt-to-dump unloading. E-Z Pack automatic tailgate locks were standard.
Mid-1980s shot showing the transition from the Clar articulated lift arms (left) to the conventional curved lift arms (right).
With the new arms, these FLHC series bodies would remain in production alongside the all-new Hercules series until the end of the decade
42-yard E-Z pack Olympian front loader
Enviro-Pack 1000 recycling body from 1990
THE McCLAIN ERA 1992-2003
In July of 1992, Peabody International sold its Peabody Galion division to McClain Industries of Sterling Heights, Michigan. This included the entire E-Z Pack refuse line and Galion dump truck bodies, plus factories in Galion and Winesburg, Ohio. McClain eventually added plants in Oklahoma City and Macon, Georgia.
McClain had started out as a steel fabricator, one its products being refuse containers, eventually entering into the refuse equipment business in 1973. (Note: McClain products prior to this period are listed separately within CRT) Following the purchase by McClain, Galion Solid Waste Equipment (as it was to be called) basically functioned as a separate division. The E-Z Pack product line remained intact, anchored by Goliath and Hercules, along with drop-frame side loaders and recyclers. During this time, these were sometimes referred to as McClain E-Z Pack bodies.
The division fared well during the 1990s, though troubled economic times loomed going in to the twenty-first century. The under-perfoming dump truck body division was first let go in 2000, at a substantial loss. Then, after a little more than a decade of ownership, McClain agreed to sell the E-Z Pack product line to Clean Earth Kentucky LLC in July, 2003.
A McClain E-Z Pack Hercules front loader from 1999
The old HCSL received new sheetmetal during the McClain era
HERCULES AUTOMATED FRONT LOADER (AFL)
Video courtesy of FormerWMDriver
The rarest of the McClain-era E-Z Packs was the Hercules Automated Front Loader (AFL), a design licensed from Alpine Engineering, and also sold as the FAUN Easypress in Germany. The Hercules AFL was only briefly in production during the mid-1990s, with McClain reportedly instituting a buy-back program rather than continuing the product. The only known surviving example resides in Oregon, discovered by Zachary Geroux in 2012:
THE CLEAN EARTH ERA 2003-2006
With E-Z Pack on the verge of extinction, credit Clean Earth with keeping the famous marque on life support. This was no small task, which involved moving production from Galion, Ohio to Cynthiana, Kentucky, about fifty miles south of Cincinnati. Clean Earth intended to add E-Z Pack refuse bodies to their existing line of street sweepers, vacuums and excavators.
By 2005, both E-Z Pack Hercules front loaders and Goliath rear loaders were once again in production, the latter now fitted with an all-new curved shell body (the G-370C). However, the side loader and recycler never returned, and in January, 2006, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Once more, the future of E-Z Pack was in doubt.
2005 advertisement for the new E-Z Pack line from Clean Earth
Peabody-Galion factory at Galion, Ohio, circa 1980. A half century of refuse truck production ended here when McClain sold E-Z Pack division
