Oshkosh Truck Corporation

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Oshkosh Truck Corporation

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P.O. Box 2566
Oshkosh, Wisconsin (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/wisconsin) 54903
U.S.A.
(414) 235-9150
Fax: (414) 233-9624
Public Company
Incorporated: 1917 as Oshkosh Motor Truck Manufacturing Company
Employees: 2,400
Sales: $641 million
Stock Exchanges: NASDAQ
SICs: 3710 Motor Vehicles & Equipment
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Oshkosh Truck Corporation is a major manufacturer of specialized truck and transport equipment. Based
in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the company produces a broad range of products designed to meet the needs of
speci c market niches. The three major markets to which Oshkosh sells its products, both domestically and
internationally, are defense, municipal, and commercial. Included among the heavy-duty vehicles Oshkosh
produces are military transport vehicles, aircraft re- ghting equipment, snow removal vehicles, stripped
chassis for motor homes, buses, and walk-in delivery vans, and various types of trailers. The company’s
main Oshkosh plant houses its corporate headquarters, as well as machining, fabricating, and subassembly
facilities. Also located in Oshkosh are an engineering test and development center, a truck subassembly
and nal assembly plant, a parts distribution center, and a paint and nal test plant. Oshkosh operates one
of the world’s most modern chassis manufacturing plants, which is located in Ga ney, South Carolina
(/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/south-carolina). The chassis plant features a 650-
foot-long moving assembly line (/science-and-technology/technology/technology-terms-and-
concepts/assembly-line). The company’s trailer division’s headquarters and manufacturing plant division
are located in Bradenton, Florida (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/ orida) and
Mans eld, Texas (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/texas).
Oshkosh Truck was founded by William R. Besserdich and Bernhard A. Mosling in 1917. The two men had
received patents in 1914 and 1915 for improvements on four-wheel-drive capability. Besserdich and Mosling
approached several established automobile manufacturers—including Ford, Packard, and Studebaker—
about using their designs to produce a four-wheel-drive vehicle. After a series of rejections, they decided to
start their own company. Handling the business end of the operation, Mosling sold stock in the new
company, raising $250,000 in capital. Meanwhile, master engineer Besserdich was busy coming up with a
prototype vehicle design. In May of 1917, the Wisconsin Duplex Auto Company, located in Clin-tonville,
Wisconsin, was incorporated. Besserdich was the company’s president, and Mosling was listed as its
manager and secretary. The prototype vehicle was a four-cylinder, three-speed, , -pound truck called
Old Betsy. The success of Old Betsy’s four-wheel-drive components attracted investors. Since many of the
investors were based in Oshkosh, 47 miles south of Clintonville, the company relocated there toward the
end of 1917 and changed its name to Oshkosh Motor Truck Manufacturing Company.
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The rst Oshkosh truck to hit the market was the two-ton capacity Model A, at a price of about $3,500. After
the Model A, Oshkosh began o ering the Model B, which could carry 3.5 tons, and soon afterward, the ve
ton Model F. The four-wheel-drive ability of the Oshkosh trucks quickly set them apart from conventional
trucks already on the market. Sales grew from seven trucks in 1918 to 54 in 1919, to 142 in 1920. The
company, however, hit a slump immediately following World War I (/history/modern-europe/wars-and-
battles/world-war-i). A postwar depression, combined with a government program that donated surplus
trucks to municipalities, resulted in sales that shrank from 62 trucks in 1921 to 16 in 1923. In 1922 Mosling
replaced Besserdich as company president.
In 1925 Oshkosh introduced the Model H, a powerful truck with a six-cylinder engine. The Model H proved
to be useful for road construction and snow plowing, and therefore sold well to municipalities. Sales of the
Model H kept Oshkosh in business through the second half of the s. The company fell victim to the
Great Depression (/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/great-depression), however, and in 1930 was
forced to reorganize. It re-emerged as Oshkosh Motor Truck Company. R. W. Mackie was president of the
company’s new incarnation, while Mosling concentrated on improving the company’s sales. Oshkosh
introduced two new trucks in 1932, Models FC and FB. Both new models had six-cylinder gasoline engines.
Their transmissions ranged from four- to twelve-speed, and their hauling capacities were as high as 44,000
pounds. In 1933 Oshkosh unveiled Model TR, the rst earthmover to appear with rubber tires. The four-
wheel-drive TR was designed to be used with dozer blades, bottom-dump trailers, or self-loading scrapers.
Major buyers of the truck included airport construction contractors, dam and canal builders, and mining
companies.
Oshkosh diversi ed its product line further with the introduction of the J-Series in 1935. The J-Series trucks
had capacities from two to three-and-a-half tons, and they had the classic rounded styling of s
automobiles. Oshkosh experimented in the s with rear-wheel-drive vehicles, but the erceness of
competition from mass-production companies forced a quick withdrawal from that market, leaving
Oshkosh to continue focusing on four-wheel-drive equipment. Many of Oshkosh’s best customers in the
s were located in dairy states such as New York (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-
geography/new-york) and Wisconsin, as well as parts of New England (/places/united-states-and-
canada/miscellaneous-us-geography/new-england). In those areas, prompt plowing of roads was required
throughout the winter to enable delivery from remotely located dairy farms. In 1930 the prices of Oshkosh
trucks ranged from $2,885 to $13,500.
In 1939 Oshkosh introduced its W-Series truck, which marked Oshkosh’s rst signi cant entry into
production for military use. The Army Corps of Engineers selected the company’s Model W- for a variety
of operations, including snow removal from Air Corps runways and general wrecker work. Toward the end
of World War II (/history/modern-europe/wars-and-battles/world-war-ii), production began on Model W-
1600. The W- , driven by all three of its axles, was designed for o -road use in oil elds and for pulling
heavily laden trailers. Mosling stepped back into the company’s presidency in 1944. Under Mosling
Oshkosh continued developing the W-Series of trucks, introducing the W- in 1947. The W- could
run on either a gasoline or diesel fuel and was virtually unmatched in the size of plows or wings with which
it could be equipped. Large numbers of the truck were purchased by mining companies for hauling ore and
by sugar companies for plantation to processor transportation.
Production of the W- ended in 1955. The same year, Oshkosh began making the Model 50-50, the rst
truck speci cally built to carry concrete. It was an immediate hit in the ready-mix concrete industry on
account of its four-wheel-drive ability at work sites and its greater capacity compared to previous models.
The postwar building frenzy helped fuel brisk sales of the 50-50, particularly in the major ready-mix
concrete markets of Florida, Indiana (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/indiana),
Michigan (/places/united-states-and-canada/us-political-geography/michigan), and Ohio (/places/united-
states-and-canada/us-political-geography/ohio). The truck’s immediate success led to the creation later that
year of a diesel-powered version, the Model 45-55, with a rear axle capacity of 23,000 pounds, slightly
higher than the 18,000 pound capacity of the 50-50.
Bernhard Mosling was succeeded as president of Oshkosh by his son John Mosling in 1956. Oshkosh came
out with Model 1832 that year. Model 1832 was the company’s rst tandem-axle ready-mix truck and was
based on the design of the 50-50. During the s, variations of Model 1832 were created to better contend
with federal brake standards and certain state’s weight distribution requirements for bridges. In the early
s the F-Series was developed by pushing the front axle forward, in contrast with the “long-nose”
appearance of the 1832. Models with set-back axles evolved into the C-Series. As demand increased for
larger concrete carriers to accommodate the booming construction industry, F-Series trucks were made
available in 6×6, 8×6, 10×6, and 10×8 drives. Eventually, a need arose for a variation with tandem×driving
front axles, and this became the D-Series.
Oshkosh’s rst major defense contract after World War II (/history/modern-europe/wars-and-battles/world-

war-ii) was for more than 1,000 WT- vehicles. The WT- was a large, heavy-duty truck capable of
plowing snow at much higher speeds than conventional equipment. The Air Force purchased the trucks for
clearing runways at its northern-most bases. Their ability to plow while moving at 55 miles-per-hour was
well-suited to the quick-response needs of the Distant Early Warning system that was created in the thickest
period of Cold War (/history/united-states-and-canada/us-history/cold-war) tensions. In 1968 Oshkosh began
building the U.S. Navy MB- , an aircraft rescue and re- ghting (ARFF) truck capable of carrying 400
gallons of water. The water could expand to 5,000 gallons of extinguishing foam when combined with a
special concentrated form of the foam.
The U- was also designed and built by Oshkosh for the Air Force in 1968. The U- was an aircraft tow
tractor designed to tow the C A cargo aircraft. Another tow tractor, the smaller MB- , went into production
that year as well. Forty- ve of the U- and 72 of the MB- were built in all. In 1971 the Navy ordered 73 MB
—Is. The MB- was an ARFF similar to the MB- , but had a capacity of 1,000 gallons. These were followed
throughout the s by a progression of larger crash-rescue trucks. These included the P- , a x truck
with a 1,500 gallon capacity; a variation of the P- called the P- A; and the gigantic -ton P- . The U.S. Air
Force bought more than 500 P- s in the early s. P- As were also purchased by both the U.S. Navy and
the Australian Air Force. The P- , which rst appeared in 1977, could carry 6,000 gallons of water,
expandable to 60,000 gallons of foam re-suppressant. Oshkosh received its rst U.S. Army contract in 1976.
The contract called for 744 tractors to be built that could pull trailers full of heavy equipment or tanks.
Oshkosh responded with the M- Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET). The M- MET design was based
on the company’s F-Series truck, and was still being produced 15 years after the initial contract was
awarded. In 1979 the Air Force contracted Oshkosh to deliver more than 100 aircraft loaders. The aircraft
loader designed and built by Oshkosh was called the K because of its ability to lift 40,000 pounds.
Meanwhile, on the civilian side, Oshkosh was introducing a number of new trucks in the s. The B-
Series, rst produced in 1975, was a forward placement concrete carrier. The B-Series truck allowed the
operator, seated in a one-person cab over the front axle, to drive to the precise location the concrete was to
be discharged, and control the chute without leaving the cab. As the ready-mix business provided
increasing revenue for Oshkosh throughout the decade, products were presented for other uses as well. In
1974 a new J-Series (which was not related to the J-Series of the s) emerged as heir to the F-Series
legacy. Two models, the Desert Prince and the Desert Knight, were built for use in oil- eld operations. The
two six-wheel-drive trucks had 325 to 485 horsepower diesel engines and large balloon tires to travel over
sand. A large number of these trucks saw action in the Middle East (/places/asia/middle-eastern-physical-
geography/middle-east) and in China (/places/asia/chinese-political-geography/china). The R-Series was
also launched during this period. The R-Series was a line of heavy-duty x trucks and tractors designed to
withstand the more challenging road conditions of the Middle East (/places/asia/middle-eastern-physical-
geography/middle-east), Africa, and Australia (/places/australia-and-oceania/australian-and-new-zealand-
political-geography/australia). The E-Series was also designed for the international over-the-road truck
market. The E-Series cab was located over the engine. Both the E- and R-Series trucks were powered by
Caterpillar engines.
Despite the company’s civilian products, defense contracts continued to provide the majority of Oshkosh’s
growth through the s. In 1981 Oshkosh was awarded its largest contract yet, a ve-year deal from the
U.S. Army to produce Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks (HEMTT). The contract called for delivery
International Directory of Company Histories
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10/22/2019 Oshkosh Truck Corporation | Encyclopedia.

Oshkosh Truck Corporation

Views 3,477,855 Updated Oct 05 2019

Oshkosh Truck Corporation

Oshkosh’s rst major defense contract after World War II (/history/modern-europe/wars-and-battles/world-

f 2 140 k l d $242 illi i h i h f h d i f 5 350 ddi i l

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