Refuse collection system

An apparatus for collecting refuse comprising:

• (a) a truck body having a forward end and an aft end and a maximum width mountable to a truck frame and extending longitudinally therealong and enclosing a material receiving volume;
• (b) an offset charging hopper having upward extending sides and a top opening and being mountable to the truck frame forward of said truck body and adapted to receive material through the top opening and charge material into said material receiving volume and wherein at least one side of said charging hopper is an offset side recessed a sufficient amount to accommodate the full width of a loading bucket within a maximum width of said truck body, said loading bucket being generally vertically operable along said offset side;
• (c) said loading bucket carried by said charging hopper and having an extended inner wall and an outer wall flanked by a pair of end walls, and the bucket describing a loading compartment for receiving refuse material, said extended inner wall extending above the level of said outer wall, said loading bucket being generally vertically moveable along an initially outward extending path along said offset side of said charging hopper between a lowered position and a raised, at least partially inverted, discharge position;
• and
• (d) wherein said path along which said bucket moves is fixed relative to said loading hopper and includes a pair of spaced forward and aft shaped elongated recesses having lower segments that are outwardly directed each adapted to receive a pair of upper and lower follower members generally vertically spaced with respect to said bucket and being attached to a corresponding forward or aft wall of said bucket, said followers being slightly offset, the upper follower being outside the lower follower such that in cooperation with the outward directed lower segments of said recesses said bucket is initially vertical but tilts toward said offset side of said charging hopper when said followers are in a vertical path, said path further including an arcuate upper dumping portion and wherein said offset followers cooperate to increase the degree of inversion of said bucket at a fully up or discharging position.