On-Trux Roll-Off Systems, in Ayr, Ont., just west of Kitchener, has been putting just about everything on to a roll-off truck, including washrooms fit for a garden party.

“The washrooms have been a hit–frankly, it surprised us,” says On-Trux President Craig Oliver.

The rolling bathrooms are just one of the minor quirks of Oliver’s clever operation.
On-Trux has created 45 separate bodies that all fit the same standardized decks and rail system. So, in addition to washrooms there are flatbeds, stake and dump bodies, mobile offices, sander/salters, welding decks, and even ice fishing huts. In fact, what goes on the truck is limited only by your imagination.

In the early ’90s, Oliver was working with a welding truck on pipelines
in Western Canada. One day when he
and his father needed to borrow a truck to deliver firewood, the elder Oliver remarked that his truck would be a lot more useful if they could easily take the welding deck off and replace it with a standard box. Soon after, they built their first roll-off system for their own use. But, like many good ideas, as soon as someone saw how it worked he wanted one.

In the beginning the biggest problem was the lack of suitable medium-duty trucks. But in the past few years, GM has rejoined the market, Freightliner, Hino and even Peterbilt started building more medium-duty trucks. These trucks lend themselves to easy conversion because of their clean back-of-cab frame rails and reliable easy-to-operate transmissions and controls.

The heart of the On-Trux system is a twin-hoist hydraulic cylinder configuration. A winch at the head of the frame draws the body on/off and holds it in place. In addition to powering the roll-off system frame the hydraulics can achieve a raised angle of up to 52 degrees for work with dumps. A retractable pair of stringers (for adjusting bed length) also acts as the lead frame edge for switching bodies off and on. A dual set of controls (one outside and one inside) provides flexibility, safety and protection from the weather.

On-Trux fabricates the system to a single standard and will do installation at their shop; recently they have also begun to sell the whole setup as a kit to customers who prefer to do their own installation. s