Occasionally, we do let the Bishop out of his Creator’s Pod to wander around outside, even if that means a solid half hour of tedious disconnecting of nutrient tubes, waste removal tubes, filters, and catchbladders, neural stimulator wires, and various IV lines. But it’s worth it, because legally we have to and sometimes he encounters interesting things while he’s being dragged around town in the cart. This most recent outdoor drag-about was no exception, as he brought back pictured from his ocular-cam of a very strange modified Ford F650 truck. I thought perhaps we might try to figure out what the hell the point of this is? It’ll be fun, right? Sure it will.
The truck in question was being sold nearby the facility where the Bishop is housed, and appears to be a Ford F650 chassis cab. It has sealed-beam headlights, so I’d say that would probably make it from around, oh, 2007 or so. Oh wait, there’s actually a for sale sign on the windshield: it’s a 2011 and the seller wants just under $15,000 for the truck.
So, what’s weird about this truck? Well, look:
See that strange addition to the cab? It sort of looks like a phone booth has been grafted onto the side, complete with a folding door and a big extra triangular window to help it fit onto the rest of the cab and provide good visibility out the passenger’s side.
As you can see from the rear, the addition is basically a big rectangular vertical box jammed into the factory cab. It’s tall enough to allow a pretty normal-sized human adult to stand up in there easily.
So… what’s the point of this thing? There also appears to be a folding seat inside that extended passenger’s side, for, I suppose, decadent comfort. But what is it for?
The part of the truck that did the actual work is missing, of course, and was once mounted to all that chassis you see behind the cab. Were that still in place this would all make sense, of course, but as it is, this thing feels like quite a puzzle.
What’s the application for a heavy-duty truck like this that requires half of its cab to be modified in such a way?
I think you should make lots of guesses in the comments, and speculate and give evidence. I will tell you that I know the answer, but as of yet I have not been able to find another example of this sort of vehicle that has a similar modification, which is odd. I can find other sorts of vehicles that do the same basic job that have some similar traits, but nothing exactly like this.
At the same time, I have trouble believing this was some one-off. The parts needed to make this feel like something that’s already been figured out, designed, and sold.
If you’re ready for the answer, you can click here to see it. If you’d rather hear than see, you can click here to hear.
It sorta makes sense after you know, but I’m not sure I’d have guessed it!
I knew it was a garbage/recycling truck. I see them when they pick up the trash or recyclables
This type of truck is known as a Dingle Hopper. First created in 1947 by Winthrop Dingle, with the main purpose of allowing ladies of loose virtue to quickly hop in and out of a truck without having to stop. There have been a few different variations based on the needs of the trucker, but can have basic box, refrigerated, or open air configurations. Today many of these trucks are being refit into porch pirate trucks, where undelivery men can quickly jump out and back in with their haul.
Garbage or recycling truck, every Tuesday randomly between 7 am and 6 pm.
That’s my best guess too.
The company uses three different trucks. They have a garbage unit, and plastic and paper recycling units alternate weeks. They randomly show up between 7 am and 6 pm which requires me to take the garbage and recycling out before 7 or leave it out overnight for the scavengers (animals not people to try to get into. Trash pandas are very clever beasts). The company usually does its recycle pickups about 11 am and garbage at 4 except the two or three times a year when the actually show at 7.
We have the blue and green plastic bins, and I live in rural Canada and have never had trash pandas go for my garbage. I did trap one once that tried getting to my chickens. They are mean little buggers. It scared the crap out of me when is was fighting to get out of the trap/cage. I brought it in the woods and released it.
I’m rural too. We have all manner fauna roaming about including black bear, wolves, coyote, skunk and racoons. Occasionally the crows and vultures will go after a garbage bag. Started using metal cans a few years back to keep out the racoons. Had the same problem with them when we lived in Ottawa. They used to come right into the yard and tip over the cans.
+1 came here for this
One of the many things that fascinates me is the workings of the modern refuse collection system. I like to watch the garbage trucks back up the alley to collect the trash every night because I have nothing better to do, and in preschool I told my whole graduating class that I, in a sea of future doctors and teachers, wanted to be a garbage man, because they get to ride on the outside of the truck and it looks like a ton of fun.
Anyways, I have seen this style of cab on garbage trucks before. The one that I’ve seen has a steering wheel on the passenger side, so the driver/operator was one person and the waste management company could save labor costs.
And I still want to ride on the outside of the garbage truck.
I recently read about a kid who wanted to be a garbage man. Why? The trash at his house got picked up on Thursday, so he assumed garbage men only worked on Thursday.
That logic is far more sound than what comes out of politicians mouths.
No who can argue with that! I loved watching the garbage truck as a kid.
This was known to trash collectors as the Newman Edition.
“work in the rain?” lol.
Trash truck?
(ETA: have read some of the other comments and clicked the answer link and feel vindicated, even though no one was claiming I was wrong and so there was no vindication to be done.)
I had an inkling of what it was, but I’m glad I clicked through to hear the answer.
Fun fact: this 7th generation of Ford medium duty trucks (which were actually produced through a JV with Navistar in Mexico) all had sealed beam headlights for their entire 2000-2015 run.
Fascinating, any 2024 models of anything with sealed beam lights?
Reminds me of this article:
https://www.theautopian.com/look-at-these-mind-scrambling-examples-of-sealed-beam-headlight-holdouts/
I’ll only buy varsity-made products. Can’t have any of these newbies working on my truck.
It’s an introvert school bus.
I call garbage truck. One of those side-walk things.
Before clicking through: crane or cherry picker?
Edit: damn
Garbage truck evolution has produced a lot of strange and specialized platypus-style species. Enthusiast site Classic Refuse Trucks has documented many of them; for example: https://www.classicrefusetrucks.com/albums/albumpool/CS.html
That was genuinely fascinating, and I’m surprised that Mercedes or David haven’t already written a deep-dive on the subject.
Typically these trucks have a flatbed rear and are designed to drive right next to a Sandra-Bullock-Piloted bus that can’t drop below 55 without exploding and offload passengers. It can only be used when the bomber’s camera has been fooled with a looped video so be careful.
The Girl From The Bus!
OMG The long fabled, never before seen, first half ass attempt Cybertruck!
A Tesla “showroom” and service center opened up 1/4 mile from me back when they only had the model S, and for the first year I saw more on Tesla signage Ford Superduty rollbacks than on the road. That was when they were self milling their reduction gearboxes. It had me wondering if there was some kind of hookup between the two. Now This!
It’s (was) a white trash truck, although those are more commonly Ram pickups. .
I see what you did there.
Even Stevie wonder sees what he did ther
Memaw laughed at that. She said don’t be late for supper.
There’s a refuse company named White Trash around me. Their containers and trucks are black with the company name in white. Good on them to use what’s presumably the family name for the double entendre.
Gotta love it. There’s a small clean up service near me run by a couple of women. They named it Trashy Gurls.
Around here we’ve got a removal company called 2 Girls, 1 Truck.
Not sure if joking. Family name is White.
I have a friend whose family name is Negro. He was running for the council of his town, and his election motto was “On this elections vote a Negro”.
He is blonde, pale, green eyes: the banner was hilarious.
He did well in the elections, I guess.
I guess autopian doesn’t have a way to report hate speech
Pope mobile truck?
It’s a mobile Superman changing station.
shu-pak sideloader for recycling
http://www.shu-pak.com/DSC00398_op_800x600.jpg
We have a winner!
Whatever it served, I am guessing this chassis lived a very short, very hard life.
Obligatory xkcd
https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/hyphen.jpg
A city spec garbage truck. Depending on your city’s policy on disposal of trash, this is garbage truck used to pickup yard waste and bulk pickup. The driver and passenger have to have easy access in and out. Many passenger workers stand up because they are constantly in and out of the truck. The extension on the back of the cab is for storage for the guys or women to store all kinds of winter, spring, summer, fall, rain, snow clothes and probably a large quantity of “regulations equipment”.
Yep. Used to see ones just like this all over Minnesota and Wisconsin. Kept the folks warm in the stupidly cold winters.
Transporting Hannibal-Lecter-class criminals?
Garbage truck would be my guess.
Agreed. Like a mail deliverer working the curb, they’re driving from the wrong side of the car, but mail can be delivered through an open window whereas waste collection requires constant egress/ingress. They shouldn’t have to climb down and up at each household, so this lets them stand closer to the ground. Plus a swinging door is generally just in the way, but they shouldn’t just rip it off, so this way they can open up for the route and close it for the trips from/to the dump.
Assuming we’re correct, of course.
I haven’t seen one in years, but I recall when home recycling first became a thing, they used trucks with onboard sorting setups until they realized they were paying teamster wages for menial labor. This looks like a truck set up for one of those. Or maybe just a small garbage truck.
Short bus conversion?
Or some kind of shuttle van, like the ones they use to transport you from the airport terminal to the rental car lot, or a short-hop corporate shuttle from some kind of transportation terminal to an office park out in the ‘burbs.