WITZCO Thrives for More Than 70 Years

Tue November 18, 2014
Truck and Trailer Guide

For three generations over the past 76 years, WITZCO Challenger trailers have been manufactured with the promise of excellence. How can a business last for more than seven decades and continue to be successful?

WITZCO Trailers Inc., named after its founders Israel and Rebecca Witzer, was founded in 1938 in Philadelphia, Pa., under the name IR Witzer Company. It began as a simple steel workshop that produced artistic sculptures and small household items. As time progressed, with their dedication to their work, Israel and Rebecca Witzer began to construct bigger and better projects to expand their business.

Later, their children joined the family business and in 1979, the family relocated to Sarasota, Fla., bringing the steel profession with them. It wasn’t until the 1980s, during hard economic times that the Witzer family decide to narrow their production to lowboy trailers. In 1997, the company changed its name to WITZCO Trailers Inc. and finalized its product as the WITZCO Challenger trailer.

Today, the third generation of this family business continues to produce the excellent work of Israel and Rebecca Witzer through the dedication of their grandsons, Sam Witzer, president, and Josh Weinstein, vice president.

WITZCO Trailers Inc. is a true manufacturer as each and every trailer is made completely on the property. From mill to finished product, all aspects of the trailers are designed, engineered and fabricated by WITZCO. Components for the trailers are ordered from the most respected companies in the industry. Steel is ordered from Nucor, axles and air rides are ordered from Hendrickson, spring suspension are from Hutchens Industries, pony motor engines are from Briggs & Stratton and Honda, lighting is from Peterson MFG, wire harnesses are from Sealco and oak wood is from the southeast United States.

The WITZCO Challenger trailer consists of a variety of series: removable gooseneck (either ground bearing or non-ground bearing), rigid neck, drop deck, rolling tailboard, tag and hydraulic tail. Popular options include: front flip ramps, articulating stinger, rear bucket well, beaver tail with hydraulic ramps, gooseneck fenders, flip axle and many more.

WITZCO also is recognized for building special, high capacity, custom designed trailers. The trailers are painted to customer satisfaction either in the seven offered colors or in a custom design.

WITZCO sells to a great distributor network. Such distributors reside in North, Central and South America, South Africa, Nigeria, Iceland, Russia and the Ukraine. WITZCO Trailers Inc. also supports the United States Military by selling artillery tag trailers and tank retrieval trailers over the past several years. One example of the relationship between WITZCO and the United States Military was during the Desert Shield operations, when 120 HET RN-60 trailers were built for Track vehicles.

WITZCO is dedicated to ensuring customer satisfaction with the equipment they produce. This attitude was evident during the catastrophe of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 when WITZCO donated a 40-ton (36 t) drop deck trailer to the cause. It also was evident when WITZCO aided the Holocaust Museum by building a trailer for a mobile memorial exhibition. Other projects include constructing trailers for the Panama Canal project and manufacturing a trailer to be a mobile nuclear lab for the Atomic Energy Commission. WITZCO has manufactured trailers for numerous federal, state and local governments, fish and wildlife associations, border patrols and the Bureau of Interior Affairs, among others. Also, trailers were specifically made for the mining industry, hurricane and flood recovery programs, mobile jailhouses and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

For more information, call 888/922-9900 or visit www.witzco.com.