The Big O

I am an Aficionado and Historian of Oshkosh Truck. I have memorabilia that dates back to the humble beginnings of Oshkosh Truck. With over 6,000 items I would say the most priceless piece is a set of blue prints for the original factory built in March 1920. Oshkosh moved into the current location in December of 1920 and the first production truck rolled off the assembly line in January 1921.

I have a priceless friendship with Clarence Jungwirth. Clarence is 91 years old and has been with Oshkosh Truck since 1945. Clarence was hired by Mr. B.A. Mosling one of the original partners of Oshkosh Truck. Clarence has a breadth of knowledge and love for his Oshkosh Trucks that will never be matched by anyone! I have gained a great deal of knowledge about Oshkosh Truck from Clarence and he has helped me date many items that I have. Clarence is a blessing to me and our friendship is one of those things that has happened in my life that I will always cherish and never forget. Clarence is the real "Mr. Oshkosh"!

I have many other great friends that work for or have retired from Oshkosh Truck and I am very grateful that they too are in my life. All of them have been very instrumental with my memorabilia and with the history of Oshkosh Truck. For now I hope to have my Oshkosh Truck memorabilia on the web in the near future for others to enjoy. I look forward to following my dream someday to open a museum dedicating it to the hard working men and women who helped Oshkosh Truck become what it is today.

I currently own three Oshkosh's a 1925 Model H all wooden cab, a 1937 model fc and a 1952 w-712.

I am dedicated to preserving the History and Heritage of a Great American company. Thank you for taking the time to read this post.

Warm Wishes and Best Regards,

mr.oshkosh@hotmail.com

Mr. O, black is very hard to read on a OD background, I sure like your site

Welcome to the forums Tim, we do not have many Oshkosh trucks in our area. See one occasionally, but they are pretty rare here. Glen

Welcome from michigan , there are few old oshkosh's hiding in the woods around here .

I am sure there is some old Oshkosh in Michigan, I hope next year to drive the countryside of Michigan trying to locate some of those old beauties! I passed on a job offer back in December as the Fire Chief for the Grand Rapids International Airport.

Welcome to the site.

I spent many hours in Oshkosh trucks plowing and blowing snow off of the runway at
Griffiss AFB back in the early 80's. Operated the roll over plows, ribbon and auger type snow blowers.

They are really nice machines.
Karl

mr.oshkosh said:

I am sure there is some old Oshkosh in Michigan, I hope next year to drive the countryside of Michigan trying to locate some of those old beauties! I passed on a job offer back in December as the Fire Chief for the Grand Rapids International Airport.

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There was a 40's or 50's era one up in gaylord that kept poping up on northern michigan craigslist last winter and spring , I don't think it ever sold.

Karl , Thanks for the respnse and the story. Those Oshkosh's are monsters when it comes to plowingand blowing snow. I am the operations manager at the airport and everyone once in awhile I have to jump in one of the Oshkosh just to get in the way of the true professionals pushing all that snow from point a to point b. I bet you have some pretty good stories. Was it a wt-2206, m-series, or the p-series that you were behind the wheel of?
Tim

I was just in oshkosh for EAA Air Venture, I spent 13 days there. I was up there to when the guy went off on the postal worker. I was across the street from the house in Oshkosh's headquarters when it all went down!

So long ago, I believe it was the WT-2206.

We also had the under body scrapers on the roll overs, we could peel and shave the ice right off the runway. At night, watching a string of monster plow trucks go 55 MPH down the runway with a shower of sparks coming out from underneath them was a sight to behold.

However, the auger blowers would not do so well after ingesting one of the parachutes from a B-52. It tried, but just couldn't spit the parachute out past the second impeller and then out the discharge chute.

I once blew a 2 foot long piece of cutting edge thru a ribbon blower while loading trucks. Made lots of noise, but it went in to the back of the dump truck!

I even had a MED EVAC jet follow me down the runway one night. He went right over my truck as I cleared the center line of snow while he was taking off!
Karl

This is my 1925 Model H Oshkosh.

Karl, how cool ! Any pictures of the trucks and the action? Two years ago one of our blowers tried to eat five sets of 757 wheel chocks! Cost us almost $6,000 to fix the blower.

No pictures.
Sure wish I had taken some.

Grade 8 shear pins were a blower operators best friend.

Watching a plow take the arresting barrier was interesting.

And don't stop next to a B-52 loaded with nukes to take a "nature break". The Security Police get a little upset.

Ahhh, the memories of messing with the SP's, those little D-50 Dodge trucks were no match for the mighty Oshkosh trucks. Size does matter.
Karl

Welcome Mr Oshkosh, I love their trucks too! Here is mine:

Stuart sweet! My son loves the MATV and the HET! Oshkosh does build some mean trucks! Thanks for posting!
Tim

And Stuart, do post more, Welcome Mr. Oshkosh, you can post more pictures also, and I will too just as soon as I can. New to my stable a WT-2206 with rollover and under mount blade

I am looking forward to your pictures of your wt2206. They are awesome trucks built to last. I have tons of pictures to post! Thanks

the first picture is my 1937 FC model, the second is my 1952 W-712 and the third is myself, my son Austin with Clarence Jungwirth during an Oshkosh Truck visit!

Hey mr O, spent some time in Korea recently as the wrecker operator for my batallion. My M984 HEMTT was a dream to drive, one of the best experiences in my life.

She could tow a 5 ton through 2 feet of mud without a problem. Navigating the tiny Korean roads in such a giant machine proved to be much more difficult!