Classic Refuse Trucks SICARD

SM-4 Sanivan (continued)

1950 Sicard SM-4 Sanivan on Sicard truck chassis
Like other competitive garbage bodies of the period, Sicard Sanivan packers could ordered as a truck body suitable for mounting on any standard chassis. However, Sicard also built their own cab & chassis for the Snowmaster snow blower, thus buyers could also choose to have their Sanivan mounted atop a heavy-duty Sicard truck. The Sicard truck was a cab over engine design, with a choice of contemporary engines. Though this chassis was not specifically engineered for refuse trucks, Sicard may rightly be considered the first North American company to offer complete refuse trucks, years before the Gar Wood T-100 or Lodal EVO which debuted in the 1960's.

Sicard also built the Master Flusher street cleaner on this chassis. With optional four wheel drive, both the Master Flusher and Sanivan could be equipped with snow plows, performing dual service for municipalities in the northern latitudes.

Fleet of SM-4 Sanivans ready for Buffalo, New York (1950)

Sanivans were built at Sicard's Montreal and Watertown facilities. Records at the latter location show approximately 81 to 100 copies of the SM-4 body were built there from 1952 through 1958, when refuse truck production seems to have been discontinued. No records were available prior to 1952, and the above production figure may not include units built at Montreal. There is evidence that Sicard was building the SM-4 into the mid 1960's. There is also evidence that the old SM-3 was built in Australia, perhaps under a license agreement, even after the SM-4 replaced it in North America. Nonetheless, by end of the 1960's, the influental Sanivan became part of truck history.

In its wake, the Sanivan left a host of achievements in refuse truck design that have had a lasting influence on the industry, both then and now. Sicard and Boissannault's designs are cited in the patents of the Heil Colectomatic, Daybrook Power-Packer and Leach Packmaster. Below is a comparison of Sicard features with some well known North American refuse truck designs:

Feature or Concept	On Sicard	On Others
Ejection panel in a rear loader	1943	Heil Colectomatic Mk.II (1960)
Concept of progressive packing against ejector panel in a rear loader	1943	Heil Colectomatic Mk.II (1960)
Direct hydraulic ejection in a rear loader	1950	Heil Colectomatic Mk.II (1960)
Cross-mount ejection blade cylinders	1947	Used on packing panels of some modern "half-pack" type front loaders (e.g.: EZ Pack Hercules)
Use of guide rollers and tracks to guide oscillating packer blade	1943	Leach Packmaster (1947)
Concept of in-hopper pre-crushing in a rear loader	1947	Dempster Route King (1970)
Pivoting hinged hopper in a rear loader	1950	Heil Colectomatic (1953)
Builder of complete refuse packer truck including cab and chassis (North America)	1940's	Gar-Wood T-100 (1965), Lodal Evo (1968)

This does not take away from the models above, which are superb designs in their own right. It merely emphasizes that while Sicard never became a giant among refuse body builders, they had an important influence on the industry beyond the decade of their involvement in it. Indeed, the SM-4 Sanivan looks strikingly modern even today, closer in appearance to a modern rear loader than any of its contemporaries of the early 1950's. It was perhaps, a classic case of a design being too far ahead of its time!

My sincere thanks to Joan Wells of Sicard, division of SMI-Snowblast, who provided information used in the preparation of this article, as well as the outstanding photograph of the Watertown SM-4 fleet.

11/6/04