Seal-Press and Tampo Seal-Press was bought by Tampo Manufacturing, also of San Antonio, Texas, in 1964. Tampo made road construction equipment, and had been in business since 1939. Seal-Press became an autonomous division of Tampo, and retained its original trade name, at least initially. Few changes occurred within the Seal-Press line until about 1968, when a rear loader was offered. The new body was badged as a Tampo product, and had a rotary sweep panel, as first used by Gar Wood on their 1957 LP-500 series. The new Tampo rear loader had a 1.5 cubic yard hopper, and electric packing controls. Body sizes available were 15, 20 and 25 cubic yards capacity. The rotary sweep panel was conventional enough for its day, being driven by a hydraulic motor. However, the packing panel arrangement was in fact quite unique to the Tampo. As can be seen above, the sweep panel is suspended by four swinging links, instead of the usual fixed pivot bearings as used by Gar Wood and Pak-Mor. The uppermost links are mounted just outside of the tailgate side walls. Massive vertical hydraulic cylinders connect to these links, imparting motion to operate the panel. With tailgate latches released, the cylinders extend further to raise the tailgate for unloading. Thus, only three cylinders were used on the entire body; two packing/tailgate cylinders, and a third for the ejector panel Bubble tailgates, and body capacities of up to 35 cubic yards were offered by 1972, at which time even the side loaders began to wear the Tampo badge. The Tampo/Seal Press refuse bodies appear to have been dropped from production altogether by mid-decade. 4/5/09 © 2009 Eric Voytko All Rights Reserved Logos shown are the trademarks of respective manufacturers Photos from factory brochures/trade advertisements except as noted