Lodal

Lodal Lodal manufactures the Lodal Evo series refuse trucks and other products used in the refuse industry.

We are manufacturing in the old Ford Motor Company Plant located in the beautiful Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I found these the other day when I changed the cover photo. Looks like they had a lot of orders to fill back then. I eve...
05/14/2025

I found these the other day when I changed the cover photo. Looks like they had a lot of orders to fill back then. I even noticed what looks like some of the early LAM bodies in the back ground.

It will be interesting when I find time to see what is on all those movie reels. I am really hoping there is footage of the old Lodal buildings and people assembling the GT Bucket Loaders.

I finally found the actual title/statement of origin in some paperwork I recently moved. I am very positive this is the ...
05/14/2025

I finally found the actual title/statement of origin in some paperwork I recently moved. I am very positive this is the very first truck Lodal built and shipped out to a customer. I love that it says on the title "Return to Lodal" to verify that it is. Serial number 001 was not in the pile of titles I found. This one box had copies of titles from serial number 002 up to 6431 dated 12/15/2000.

Serial numbers 003 through 006 were sold to Container Systems in Daytona Beach Florida.

I also found that the City of Kingsford was the first local customer to purchase S # 101 in May of 1972. They still run 2 Lodals to this day to pick up garbage 4 days a week.

How lucky was I to find it sitting in a junk yard 17 miles away.

While I was cleaning out the really old offices in the back of Lodal I moved some moldy boxes into my pole barn. I didn’...
05/10/2025

While I was cleaning out the really old offices in the back of Lodal I moved some moldy boxes into my pole barn. I didn’t want to bring into my office because of how bad they smelled. Today I am sorting through some of them and came across Ray Brisson’s expense receipts from the late 50’s very cool to look back in time and see how much he traveled to sell Lodals. At that time it was mainly the GT Bucket Loader. This is just a very small part of what I found. I would bet I’m the first person to look at these in 60 years.

Handed in the keys to the Lodal buildings yesterday and I was sad and glad at the same time. I’ve been working steady ov...
05/06/2025

Handed in the keys to the Lodal buildings yesterday and I was sad and glad at the same time. I’ve been working steady over the last 3 months to remove everything I needed/wanted. The final step was to remove the name that has been on the buildings since 1964. Nothing but a ghostly reminder left behind on the front of the building.

This nice 1988 Evo D pulled out in front of me this morning on my way to work. It was purchased by Breitung Township 1/1...
05/06/2025

This nice 1988 Evo D pulled out in front of me this morning on my way to work. It was purchased by Breitung Township 1/14/88 and sold to the dealer for $65,857.00 and had a list price of $70,675.00. I found a news article stating they paid $69,960.00

I was told they currently use it for yard waste. Hard to believe that a 37 year old Lodal is still out working.

This was on the drawing board when we closed. I wonder how many of these we could have sold😂😂
04/13/2025

This was on the drawing board when we closed. I wonder how many of these we could have sold😂😂

Found a couple more cool artifacts while cleaning out the Lodal buildings. Some maps listing all the Lodal Dealers Newe...
04/13/2025

Found a couple more cool artifacts while cleaning out the Lodal buildings. Some maps listing all the Lodal Dealers Newer one has 1987 but can’t find the date on old one.

Happy New Year everyone!! Cheers to everyone following me along my crazy Lodal life. Hard to believe another year gone b...
01/02/2025

Happy New Year everyone!!

Cheers to everyone following me along my crazy Lodal life.

Hard to believe another year gone by so fast. I’m doing my best to make 2025 a year to remember. 😎

12/27/2024

I digitized some older Lodal advertising videos and this is a decent one showing the GT Bucket Loader and how it works. It has pictures for the first 7 minutes then has videos of it working. This was made in the mid 80's in Kingsford and Iron Mountain MI. At 5:17 you will see Pizza Oven at it's previous location, does anyone remember that location?

December 17th 2019That is the day I started my new job at Lodal as the General Manager and here I am 5 years later still...
12/17/2024

December 17th 2019

That is the day I started my new job at Lodal as the General Manager and here I am 5 years later still doing everything I can to keep the Lodal customers supplied with parts. It was not an easy task to do all by myself after Lodal closed in July of 2021. I look back and think about everything that has happened over the past 5 years. I wonder how in the world did I do this and will what I have accomplished be worth it?

I have been very fortunate to still be able to use the Lodal buildings to store everything I was able to save from the dumpster and scrap yard. Currently all 3 of the Lodal buildings are for sale and my biggest fear is I will lose storage for everything I have saved. Losing the buildings if they sell will not prevent me from supplying parts to customers but will most likely prevent Lodal from ever being restarted and will be a sad day for Lodal.

So this is what I have been up to for the last 3 1/2 years. I have reinvested some of the money I have made in purchasing inventory so we can supply the fast moving parts. We also purchased some welders and other equipment to be able to keep manufacturing the parts that Lodal made. I don't have a fab department so I currently rely on other fab shops to cut and bend parts for me then have them welded. I can weld the smaller parts but anything big I have a qualified welder help with those parts. I also purchased a building that is mainly used as my office and storage for small parts. I had other plans for the building but supplying parts for current Lodal owners takes up more time than anticipated. So I decided to spend all my time making sure I could keep up with the demand. I do wish I could have afforded to buy one of the Lodal buildings instead as it would have been a better investment to keep doing what I do.

While cleaning out the buildings I did find some very cool historic Lodal items. I wish I had more time to post them on this page but keeping up with parts orders can be time consuming. I should be working on some manufactured parts that need to be made now but I just wanted to post something on my 5 year anniversary.

This summer I purchased the first Lodal truck that was built in 1968. It needs a little TLC to get it road worthy again..... I was able to get some free tires for it this past weekend so that will be the first thing done so I can roll it around easier. It has a straight six 292 Chevy gas engine in it so it is no hot rod but maybe drop a big block in it and bring it to the drag strip someday.

What's next for Lodal?

My goal is and always will be to keep supplying parts for current Lodal owners. I have contacted a couple different companies in the industry but it seems like everyone is to busy with keeping up with the products they already make. Lodal needs an investor or maybe an investor needs Lodal? Who knows but all I can do is just keep everything going until that happens. Maybe after reading this you know someone that would be interested in learning more about Lodal. Just let me know.

Address

620 N HOOPER Street
Kingsford, MI
49802

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