The story of Chet Ott and C&O Manufacturing of Santa Fe Springs, CA.

Zachary Geroux

This is the story of Chester (Chet) E. Ott: a man of integrity, who believed a handshake was a deal. He is one of the most outgoing and inviting people with whom I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking. Even at 90 years old, his memory and witty personality has not faded as he recounts decades-old stories as if they happened yesterday.

I came to know Chet through his old employee and apprentice Dan Huntsinger, who spoke of him as a loving son would his father. I was quite honestly floored when Dan told me Chet was still alive—a rare occurrence throughout my quest to uncover the history of the Southern California refuse truck manufacturers. Often, I have to rely on second or third-hand stories, so to hear it from the proverbial horse’s mouth was a dream come true!

Dan reached out to Chet’s family, gave him my contact information, and a few days later I received an e-mail from Chet asking me to call him. I’ll admit that before I dialed the phone I was nervous and excited, but that all melted to familiarity as soon as we began talking. I felt like I was talking with my own grandfather again as Chet began to reminisce about the past.

We had some great conversations and you will read the details of those below. I want to close this short introduction by saying ‘Thank You’ to Chet for opening up your life to me and I am honored to write the history of your experience in the refuse industry. I only hope it does justice to the legacy you have left and lives you have touched.

 

Pre-C&O

Chester Ott was born in 1924 at Pablo Ranch, NV. He spent every summer on the ranch after his 6th birthday and went to school during the winter in Tonopah. His uncle had a repair, welding and trucking business in Tonopah and taught Chet the trade. When he turned 15, he worked for his uncle as a welder’s helper and burner on jobs in the local area and up on the ranch. By the age of 17, he was driving dump trucks for the mines and by 18 was working for the Nevada Highway Department until his Army enlistment in March 1943.

After his initial training at Ft. Lewis, Washington, he went to New York bound for England in November 1943. His unit made landing at Omaha Beach in June 1944 and he served in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland and Central Europe including the Battle of the Bulge. He spent most of his time in the Army in Rigging and Recovery: “I was issued an M-10 wrecker in England. Wore it out on the continent and was issued a new one toward the end of the war. I had to sign for it, cost $31,000 and when the Germans quit, we went to Marseille and started processing our equipment to go to the Pacific-Mainland Japan. They dropped the bomb on August 6th (my birthday!) and we could go home.”

Chet was Honorably Discharged as a Sergeant on December 6, 1945 at Ft. Logan, Colorado: “I requested discharge in Colorado because my family had moved to Colorado and the chance of good employment was better than rural Nevada. Besides, my new Belgian bride would not survive there in November at that time.”

After the war, Chet worked as a mechanic and truck driver in Colorado for several years before he ventured to California in 1953 where the Mojave Corporation was hiring equipment operators. Under contract from the Air Force, the operators were mining clay out of Rogers Lake for oil drilling operations. During the day they would dig the massive holes, removing the clay, and then at night back fill the holes with sand and gravel for the runways. They stockpiled over 1 million tons of clay from Rogers, which is now the site for the Air Force and NASA testing grounds at Edwards AFB.

Chet started as a truck driver and soon became the mechanic Foreman. In 1956, he was promoted to take over the operations at their Norwalk location where he was to supervise repairs, purchasing and generally just clean up the operation. After 18 months, he had everything straightened out and started going out on construction jobs for Mojave all over Southern California where he managed their fleet of Belly Dumps, Cat Bulldozers, Shovel Scrappers and other construction equipment. By August-September 1959, the oil fields were drilled out and Mojave was slowly going broke due to the lack of crane or oil-field work.

In order for Mojave to pay the debts, they started to refurbish their trucks and equipment for re-sale. In the process they learned a new business: equipment sales, rental and re-conditioning. Chet ended up managing that new operation and paid off all of their debt. In mid-1961, Chet started the H.O.C. Corporation with Daryl Harris and Dean Clark. H.O.C was an independent continuation of the new business he successfully ran at Mojave and it offered repair, welding and rental of heavy equipment for construction companies in the Santa Fe Springs area. They also had local refuse companies use them for repair and maintenance of their front load trucks, which is where Chet learned the mechanics and art of refuse bodies.

“In 1966, I took a hard look at the Corporation and decided that the load I carried in managing the whole thing was not good, especially if you own less than the controlling interest. Mostly it was a dead end with two workers and employees and the controlling interest was a free rider and maker of unprofitable deals. I built the receivables up to twice the payables and told them that I was leaving on a certain date. I guess they didn’t believe me because the H.O.C. Corp. died right then.”

Chet went to the Hood Corporation in late 1966 where he worked on pipelines for offshore oil rigs (that Mojave had constructed years earlier) and built specialty equipment for various construction companies. At 52, Chet decided to semi-retire, collect his pension from Hood and with that money he struck out on his own and started building garbage trucks.

 

Formation in the 1970s

When Chet left H.O.C. and it dissolved, Dean Clark, a good friend of Chet’s, had no idea what to do next. Under suggestion from Chet, Dean took four or five of his best H.O.C. refuse customers and opened up a repair and paint shop.

This advice served Dean well and when Chet decided to start his own company, C&O Manufacturing, in 1970, Dean offered him the unused back lot of his business property on Imperial Highway in Santa Fe Springs. Chet hit the ground running and wasted no time getting the property ready to start building bodies. He did all of the hand labor, electrical, plumbing, cement and steel. Within 30 days he had steel on the property ready to be turned into front loaders. He made Dean a silent partner due to their friendship and use of the property.

Many of Chet’s first customers were the haulers he had developed a relationship with at H.O.C. Never one to cut corners or skimp on quality, once a truck left the C&O property, it rarely came back for repair. C&O quickly adopted the motto “Builds Better Bodies” because he built his trucks to last, reinforced by his character and reputation. With a wealth of knowledge in many aspects of manufacturing and design, Chet could solve the problems any customer brought to him. With many of his trucks special designed to serve his customer’s needs, he quickly became the go-to guy.

C&O offered the standard litany of refuse equipment: top, partial and full pack front loaders, roll-offs, stationary compactors and manual side loaders. They specialized in the residential application for front and side loaders, often doing an in-house Right Hand Stand-Up Drive (RHD) conversion for any cab-over chassis. Chet recalls this story: “E-Z Pack representatives came by one day and wanted to look at the RHD conversion we did to a Ford COE for Cal San or somebody. They asked if they could take measurements and pictures. I asked them why and they replied ‘If we went to our engineer and asked them to come up with this, it would take years! We just want to copy what you’ve done.’”

Throughout the 1970s, C&O continued to grow, as well as increase their customer base and reputation. Dean, an avid private pilot, was killed on a return trip from Reno while flying his kit-built aircraft in 1979.

 

Dempster

The beginning of the 1980s saw change for C&O. Having out-grown their location on Imperial Highway, they moved to a new location off Marquardt Avenue about a mile down the road in Santa Fe Springs. Even though they were doing well in sales, the recession had not left them untouched. Chet made it known that C&O was up for sale in 1983 and got several soft offers from companies like E-Z Pack before Dempster filed a letter of intent, which sealed the deal.

On June 6, 1983 Dempster had finally gotten a foothold into the Southern California market after 30 years of trying to compete using their heavy East Coast bodies and C&O became their West Coast Headquarters. At this time Dempster was owned by Krug International operating as Technology Incorporated.

Former Dempster West Coast division employee, Brent Farlie, wrote Classic Refuse Trucks about the troubles Dempster had prior to the purchase of C&O: “It was our input about the market in California and the local manufacturers that forced Dempster into the lightweight market [the eventual purchase of C & O Manufacturing]. We were getting our brains beat in trying to sell a Dumpmaster against pretty much anything available (Bowles, Bemars, AMREP etc). The main office just couldn’t believe that we were that far off in price and weight, so they stalled far too long in doing anything about it.”

After the sale, Chet became Vice President as part of his four-year contract with Dempster and all of the employees stayed on. For a time, it was business as usual. In advertising, Dempster made the distinction between their East and West Coast divisions, boasting they were a national one-stop shop for the waste industry. The C&O line up stayed the same; however, Dempster didn’t push their full packs in order to mitigate competition with their established full pack line. C&O already had a “heavy-duty” partial pack, which became popular with Waste Management and other companies back East due to dealer market Dempster brought.

The Ultralight Partial Pack was the last truck Chet designed at C&O. It was an idea that he had in his head for several years before coming to fruition. Up unto this time, the technology had not existed to bend the metal to create the rounded edges for the body and not have it snap or break. Jack Samrin, owner of JT Welding in Montebello, figured out how to do it in 1984. Jack was master craftsman and repaired refuse bodies for haulers in the area. He designed a machine that straightened bodies that had become bowed out without having to remove them from the chassis. He also made Over-the-Cab arms for haulers who had purchased front loaders with Over-the-Wheel arms.

The Ultralight was a huge success on the West Coast and became C&O/Dempster’s bestselling truck. With a body weight of only 12,780lbs, it was the lightest front loader available and allowed haulers to carry 10+ tons legally on three axles. There are still several being used today; however, those numbers are quickly declining as emission laws and old age are forcing them to disappear.

By 1986 Chet was un-happy with what Dempster had done with C&O and tendered his resignation. The Reno trade show which debuted Chet’s Ultralight Partial Pack was his final appearance with C&O. Dempster continued under the ownership of Krug International until 1990 when declining profits and labor issues forced them to sell to Waste Equip. Under Waste Equip’s management, the C&O line was discontinued and Kosti Shirvanian, owner of Western Waste Industries, bought what was left of C&O to start Stagg Body. Red Herris, C&O engineer, went on to work for McNeilus and designed their Pacific Series Front Loader.

After he left, Chet went to work in the auto wrecking/scrap industry, built a sand and gravel plant near Palmdale and worked as an independent contractor in the Southern California area before retiring to Nevada. Never one to sit still, Chet still does odd jobs out of his workshop and enjoys the constant visits from his children and grandchildren. | WA

Zachary Geroux is a historian, photographer and owner of Refuse Truck Photography. He lives in Western Washington with his wife where he currently works full time for the Air Force and has been driving garbage trucks off and on for the past nine years. He can be reached at [email protected] or visit www.refusetruckphotography.com.

Visit Refuse Truck Photography to read the complete article under the BUILDERS ARCHIVE with hundreds of pictures from Chet’s personal collection.

 

Ford Partial Pack.
Ford Partial Pack.
First C&O truck for Jackson Disposal.
First C&O truck for Jackson Disposal.
Chet Ott.
Chet Ott.

 

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