60 miles up the road from my house lies the City of Granger, WA, a small community, with a population a little below 3,500. The city's slogan is "Where The Dinosaurs Roam" and as you drive through the main roads, many of the city's parks, schools, businesses, and public facilities are decorated with life-like giant metal statues of all kinds of dinosaurs, hand-built by the city's Public Works Department. At the south end of town lies the city's Public Works Department, and parked in the back corner of the Public Works lot is this absolute beauty: a 1982 American LaFrance CTC with a Heil Formula 7000 refuse body!
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of the folks at the city's Public Works Dept., myself along with fellow YouTubers Mike, Alan, and Alex, were able to come out to film and photograph this beautiful truck in October of 2016, being kindly demoed for us in the Public Works yard! At that time, we were also told that the truck ran every year during the city's clean-up week. Alan and I were able to return in May of 2017 to check out the truck again during the clean-up! The clean-up was a treat to watch; residents bring unwanted household junk out to the streets, and city crews sort out all of the scrap metal, appliances, and brush. The remaining debris is loaded up into 300-gallon refuse containers that are then collected by the American LaFrance/Heil 7000! It was an experience that I won't soon forget!
As for the truck itself, it was originally built as a Formula 7000 demo unit for the Heil Co. In 1984, the City of Granger purchased the truck as the city's first automated garbage truck, making them one of the first cities in Washington to adopt automated collection! The American LaFrance CTC (Commercial Truck Chassis) was produced only for a short time in the early 1980's in order to try and expand the business beyond fire apparatus. Most CTC's were paired up with refuse bodies, and as far as I'm told, this may be the last fully operational CTC in existence!
I definitely cannot even begin to thank the folks at City of Granger Public Works enough for the overhwelming kindness, generosity, and hospitality we were shown over the two days we spent there. The amazing wealth of knowledge I absorbed from speaking with everyone is beyond priceless, and words cannot even express my gratitude!
I really hope that everyone enjoys my perspective of this unique truck! All shots in the Public Works yard were filmed in October 2016, all clean-up shots were filmed in May 2017.
