Well, here’s something you don’t see every day on Barn Finds, or ever – until now. We’ve covered almost every vehicle type here over the last decade or so, including industrial trucks. But, a garbage truck? I guess, a refuse truck would be a friendlier term these days. This 1989 Crane Carrier Company (CCC) Garbage Truck is posted here on craigslist in Oakland, California and the seller is asking $8,800. Here is the original listing, in case this stinker goes away in the next few days.
Crane Carrier Company from New Philadelphia, Ohio, was founded in 1946 and is now Battle Motors, a company known for making work trucks, including electric trucks. CCC started out making crane-carrying trucks for the oil industry from war surplus vehicles and they were known early on as crane-carrying chassis manufacturers, hence their name. Their truck cabs were typically cab-beside-engine (CBE) in order to carry the crane boom next to the cab for a lower profile. In 1953, they offered the first trucks of their own design. The Century Line followed in the 1960s for the cement mixer market and then came the Centurian Line.
CCC first offered two-seater, low-entry, forward-control Centurian cabs in 1974, mainly for the garbage industry, but they also made chassis and cabs for construction, logging, mining, and other industries. This rig is known as a CCC Centurian integrated rear loader, but the company also made side and front-loader trucks starting in the early-1980s. CCC basically started the garbage collection industry on its current path with its integrated (body, cab, and frame as one unit) front loader. They weren’t the first, but they nailed the design and reliability to become the industry leaders. We’ve all seen front-loading garbage trucks pull up to a dumpster and have watched as the hydraulic lift arms latch onto the dumpster, lift it up and over the cab, and dump it into the rear of the truck. Most of us have rear-loading or side-loading trucks for our weekly garbage collection company visits – ours are side-loading both for garbage and recycling.
As a two-seater low-entry cab, the CCC Centurian cab for the residential collection market was introduced in 1979. Known as the Low Entry Centurian, they lasted until just after the turn of the 21st century. With a cab floor height of only 18 inches, it was about half of what other collection trucks offered for a floor height. In the same era, the company designed its own semi-circular compaction body, or packer body, making them even more desirable for customers and municipalities. Given the low-entry cab height, the packer’s hydraulic cylinder was able to be located above the cab, which was another innovation.
There were also dual controls or exterior controls, and some trucks offered dual-steer cabs so a crew of two could go all day without being overworked. The seller gives almost no information on this truck other than that it’s in “good condition” and is strong and reliable. There’s no way of knowing what mid-mounted drivetrain is in this truck, although the seller lists it as a six-cylinder diesel. They typically had an Allison automatic gearbox and a CCC tandem axle with a short driveshaft. With rear drive and a mid-mounted engine, weight distribution was around 50/50 between the axles for a very balanced truck.
Here’s what the business end looks like, still filled with other people’s stuff and looking almost like the garbage trucks of our youth. Most of us grew up with these rear-loading garbage trucks running around the neighborhood, usually filled manually by a guy who would jump out of the passenger door and empty your metal garbage cans in the back, put the cans back in your driveway, and then they’d move on to the next house. Did any of you ever think you’d see a 34-year-old garbage truck on Barn Finds?
Another reason why I enjoy Barnfinds. You never know what you will see next. Keep up with.the great stories.
My Dad was a G-Man in London,Ontario,Canada for 25 years from 1944-1969. He brought home copper,zinc,to make sinkers from,car parts, other metals that he could sell at the scrap yard,broken toasters and small appliances that he would fix and sell. He would give my Mother his paycheque every week and would always walk around with hundreds of dollars in his pocket. …. He also fixed motorcycles and cars of my friends. Great memories !
I’m totally starting a garbage collection company. Will this fit in my garage?
Interestingly enough, I happened to be walking the dog earlier this week when our modern-technology garbage truck was servicing the neighborhood. It had the claw which would latch the household dumpster then lift it to the top of the bin to dump the contents. I remember thinking, what an awesome piece of equipment, engineered to purpose. And wondering how many zillion dollars it cost. The week before, we had the old school rear-load guys-handling-the-dumpster unit; maybe the modern unit was being serviced?
Fun write-up Scotty, I learned some things.
Bob.. I know the truck you saw. In certain counties in NY it’s for recycling. Special can is used. I just remember the old Mack garbage trucks in the Bronx. Two guys in the back one guy driving. And those things look like they got into a demolition fight 😂 but kept on working. 😄
I grew up in Providence, RI where municipal garbage collectors drove International Harvester rear-loading trucks, which in winter also doubled as snow plows. Collection occurred twice weekly, on my street at about 6:00 A.M. In the truck’s wake, all were–well–AWAKE. The penetrating squeal of brakes, the roar of engines, and the slamming of galvanizing garbage cans (quite deliberate, I still maintain) guaranteed it.
Our town invested heavily in these trucks and bins many years ago. It was great – you have a recycle bin and garbage bin and they had 2 different trucks to pick them up.
And then a few years back, the town issued a statement that they would no longer be picking up recyclables – apparently it is too expensive and there are no buyers. Residents can still bring their recyclables to the transfer station.
Now, they pick up both bins and dump it into the same truck. So, what started out as a great idea and heavy investment turned into a losing proposition.
We used to have 3 garbage men pick up our trash, one driving and two physically dumping the trash in a rear bin. Then the company supplied us with special plastic receptacles (one for trash, one for recyclables, and one for ‘organics’. Now there is only one driver and the truck mechanically picks up the garbage ‘can’ and empties it. (I wonder how long it will be before the trucks are self-driving.)
I’m sure you would be the only one at a cruise night…
I never thought I would see the day when BF would cover this kind of trash.
🤣🤣
Nothing “minty” about this one.
I can almost smell that picture of the back of it.
Would this be called a Centurian GT?
CCC evolved from the old Available truck company of Chicago and post war started rebuilding old military trucks and evolved to CCC & moved to Tulsa .
I only clicked on this vehicle to see what the 1/4 mile times would be.
I love the “pewtina” on this vehicle…
🗑 🚮
I’ll be shocked if this thing doesn’t have less than a million hours or more on it’s dial because these garbage trucks are run hard and few companies really take good care of them and swap them out for something new within a few years. Still, nice to see an original CCC unit from the late eighties that I assume was well taken care of as far as a garbage truck goes.
My last job before retiring was driving for a garbage collection company and I drove both a front-loader cab over Mack and a rear loader Freightliner. I really enjoyed the front-loader as it required a certain level of skill to operate. I’d average 70-80 stops a day but on my busiest day I’d have to grab 114 dumpsters. I actually picked up only cardboard dumpsters, so I didn’t have to deal with the nasty smell of actual garbage. However, after a while, I got really tired of getting up at 2:00am to start at 3:00 and working until 1:00pm. I then switched to a rear loader because then I didn’t have to start work until 7:00am. This Centurion looks very different to the Freightliner I drove, but the basic principles are the same. One thing you really have to look out for is rust in the floors and the frame as the “juice” from garbage is highly corrosive. I’ve seen some of our trucks get whole new floors (meaning the floors of the body) and the trucks weren’t that old. That was a big job but necessary at some point. Frame rot couldn’t be repaired so you had to stay on top of rust before it got to that point. These trucks are very expensive when new, over a half a million dollars these days, but a used one as old as this Centurion, doesn’t have much of a market. Model specific parts may be unattainable after 30 plus years as this rear-loader doesn’t seem to be a more common Labrie or a Heil. Anyway, I actually enjoyed the rear loader as I hopped out of the cab a lot and helped my guy(s) chuck stuff into the hopper. It kept me in pretty good shape. I was a less active driving a front-loader, as you pretty much sat on you a$$ all night except for opening a few corrals. Best part was the money was really good. There’s a lot of money in garbage!
I also enjoy these types of posts.
That’s why I like to look through the Municibid.com website.
Some of the “Barn Find” car owners could use this.
Finally something I know about! These didn’t have a frame like a normal rear load. Everything was hung off the body. They were heavy though. CCC made tough trucks.
Didn’t Road and Track run a “GT COMPARISON “test in the late 60’s or 70’s that pared a GARBAGE TRUCK (G.T.) against a real Gran Turissimo class car (Like a Ferrari)….0r maybe it was a Pontiac GTO?It was likely an April (fools) issue.
I vaguely remember the graphic grid with the accelleration numbers, which were understandably dismal. (as in zero to 60= NEVER!)
(I probably still had the issue until about 3 years ago: My Vintage car magazine collection ,unfortunately, didn’t survive the last move.
She’s a beauty, Clark! One man’s trash truck is another man’s treasure. But, I’d drive it to Washington D.C. on a sightseeing trip.
OK, Let’s use the “Patina” word on this gem, Yes siree for some reason it wasn’t used in this listing, especially when you can see this rig has some original trash “Patina”.
Meanwhile this listing caused me to nostalgia flashback. Remember when we had galvanized trash cans and the guys picking them up each week would grab a handle and swing them up into the back of the “packer”. In a single motion they would empty the can and with a Michael Jordan slam dunk toss the empty can about 20 feet into the curb, causing it to bounce across the sidewalk onto the front lawn. After about 8 months service our cans looked like they had a bad case of the mumps. Yes, those were the days.
Used to know someone who did it the old school way, collection can on shoulder, would hold about 3 or 4 residential cans before a trip back to the truck, massive torso, and right arm bigger than the left!
This is the car hauler for that 57 Chevy yard art the other day. It might even have enough room for VW powered Camaro knock off.
So does that garbage in the back come with it?
And don’t forget the”whistle” from the guys in back when it was time to move on to the next one!!!
Hey BarnFinds, this is NOT your first – you frequently feature GTs and this most definitely is a GT!
Great writeup, Scotty! Who knew? Not me, that’s for sure…
If we could arrange for the GOP & DNC in one location this vehicle would be as busy as a fly on a fruit bowl
Thanks so much for my morning laugh.! Not sure what I could use this for.
My 1st full time job after high school was hanging on the back of one of these. Summertime was not fun. especially the pick-ups at the fish house. I can smell the memories.
It will fit one time!