McNeilus Pacstar RL     McNeilus Truck & Manufacturing is perhaps the most amazing success story in the history of the modern refuse truck body industry. The family-owned company had already been in business for about twenty years when they decided start building refuse packers in the late 1980s. A major producer of mobile concrete mixer bodies, McNeilus was looking for a product to keep their large factory busy during seasonal lulls in the mixer market. Starting essentially from scratch in an industry with very long tradition, McNeilus has become today one of the biggest refuse body builders in North America.     A prototype rear loader was built a early as 1989, and the next year saw McNeilus exhibiting products for the first time at Waste Expo 1990. The Pacstar RL debuted in 17, 20 or 25-yard capacity with a host of standard features, as well as some interesting options. The Pacstar employed the slide-sweep packing method, with a 2.3-yard hopper and overhead-mounted slide rams. A unique "swing ejector" panel could be ordered, which added an extra 2-cubic yards capacity by using more of the dead space at the front of the body. All ejectors were telescopic, and housed within a trough at the bottom of the body.     The Pacstar helped McNeilus establish a foothold in the industry, and introduce haulers to their products. From this rather inauspicious beginning, there would be big changes coming soon. The refuse packer that nobody had heard of before would eventually become one of the biggest names in the industry. A 20-cubic yard Pacstar-RL; with optional swing-ejector, it became a 22-yard The standard elector was an angled blade Features of the tailgate; Floor construction was 1/4" 100,000 lb. yield-strength steel Body and hydraulic features; crankshaft-driven pump meant Pacstar-RL could "pack on the move" Right-side view showing oil reservoir and plumbing, truck is a Ford LTS 8000 with set-back axle Pacstar-RL with overhead reeving hoist and kick-bar container lift This early McNeilus was over 20-years old when it was listed for sale State-of-the-art production facility at Dodge Center, Minnesota Some of the very first McNeilus rear loader bodies on the production floor in 1990 Early Pacstars in primer, almost ready for work 1990 Mack Midliner with a 20-yard McNeilus Pacstar-RL body on display at Waste Expo 2016. McNeilus completely restored this truck for their 25th anniversary SELECTED PATENTS Patent # Description Inventor Assignee Date US5067868A Swing ejector for rear loading compactor Boda McNeilus June 8, 1990 US5158340A Tailgate mechanism for rear loading compactor Boda McNeilus September 5, 1991 9/24/17 © 2017 All Rights Reserved Photos from factory brochures/advertisements except as noted Logos shown are the trademarks of respective manufacturers