Classic Refuse Trucks RAND

Rand Automated Compaction Systems, Inc.
Raleigh, North Carolina

Rand Automated Compaction Systems was a conglomerate formed from established body builders EMCO and Truxmore in the late 1980's. The unchanged EMCO automated side loader bodies became the Rand Champion series. Similarly, the old Truxmore manual side loader was carried over as the the Rand Classic. A rectangular ASL called the Rand Challenger rounded out the lineup, and was most likely acquired from Athey Products. The Challenger will be discussed further below.

The new venture was short-lived, lasting only through the early 1990's. After that time, Classic/Truxmore vanished forever, while Champion/EMCO design survived. It is currently produced by Pendpac of Fairview, Oklahoma, and has been renamed the Impac. The rectangualr-bodied Challenger series appears to have had a brief reprieve from extinction, possibly being produced by Load-Master for a while (pictures of one such example exist).

Left to right; Rand Champion (EMCO), Classic (Truxmore), and Challenger

Truxmore survived briefly as the Rand Classic, virtually unchanged since the 1960's

Under Rand, the old EMCO became the Champion. It is now sold as Impac by Pendpac

THE RAND CHALLENGER

The fully automatic Challenger side loader could handle round 90 gallon curbside cans or 400 gallon alley containers interchangeably, without manual conversion. Cycle time was 6-10 seconds, with manual or continuous operation of the packer blade. The packer body featured a generous five cubic yard hopper, which was swept by a low partial-pack blade. A secondary panel provided full ejection unloading. Body sizes were 20 or 25 cubic yards.

ORIGINS OF THE RAND CHALLENGER
Rand literature makes no mention of the origin of the Challenger ASL, but it is almost certainly a version of an old side loader called the Tite-Pak. The Tite-Pak was first introduced in 1971, made by the Helix Corp. of Crown Point, Indiana. In 1973, Helix was bought out by Harsco Industries, parent company of Cobey, becoming a division of the latter. By 1981, the remains of the old Cobey lineup (including the Tite-Pak) were being produced by Athey Products of Raleigh, North Carolina, a longtime road-sweeper manufacturer. The Athey product line included a gripper arm ASL version of the Tite-Pak. By mid-decade, Athey had dropped the Cobey-designed rear and front loaders, but kept the Tite-Pak side loader (in MSL configuration) in production through the early 1990's. This closely coincides with the introduction of the Rand Challenger.

Tite-Pak lineage; Was the Rand Challenger next in the chain?

The fact the Rand Automated Compaction systems and Athey Products were both located in Raleigh during the 1980's is also supporting evidence. Athey may have had a partnership with Rand, perhaps providing the Athey MSL side loader bodies to Rand for conversion to ASL. Additionally, there was, as mentioned previously, evidence of this body being sold in ASL form under the Load-Master badge, which is the last known incarnation of the Challenger.

4/5/09