Petersen Industries Journey

John Petersen, the founder, introduces the first Lightning Loader® for lifting baskets of bulk citrus fruit for cannery processing.

Petersen introduces a knuckleboom grapple loader for installation at sand mine scales for topping and balancing loads.

Petersen introduces new citrus design to accommodate pallet boxes of fresh fruit. Petersen has sold over 3,700 “Goats” since 1958, thousands of which are still working today.

Petersen enters the trash loading market with the model TL1. To our knowledge, this was the first knuckleboom designed specifically for municipal trash collection applications.

Petersen designed the model TL3 twin boom trash loader, which was to become the industry standard.

Built model PL3 skid mounted trash loader and body, designed for use on cable style rolloff trucks.

Designed model HL3 Lightning Loader® for use with hooklift trucks.

Lee Rathbun, Petersen Industries’ past Vice President, introduced the Lightning Rear Steer®, which is driven backwards to load haul trucks.

Introduced model BL3 trash loader for use with rolloff truck. This unit is a favorite of large waste companies.

Petersen moves to new 70,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility located on 50 acres in order to increase production capacity.

The DL3 high capacity debris loader is designed for storm cleanup and high volume collections.

Petersen designs a knuckleboom system for transporting front-loading containers called the CP3.

Petersen Industries acquires patent for QUADSTICK® Mechanical Controls