Oskosh: This Is a Truck, B’gosh

While some people may get geeked by a four-door pickup with a bed big enough to swallow plywood paneling, feast your eyes on this, a PLS A1 from Oshkosh Corp.’s Defense Div.

This vehicle is more mere 4 x 4: it is a 10 x 10, featuring five axles and full-time all-wheel drive. It is 425-in. long without the demountable cargo bed, or flatrack, and 445 in. with it. It has a 225-in. wheelbase. It is 96-in. wide, and 129-in. high.

The PLS, which has proven itself in front-line resupply missions in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, has a CAT C-15 600-hp diesel engine under the hood and a six-speed Allison transmission.

There is an Oshkosh TAK-4 independent front suspension (above) that facilitates off-road driving.

The PLS can climb a 60% grade with a full payload—and it has a 16.5-ton payload capacity.

Oshkosh has just received an order worth more than $290-million from the U.S. Army for some 725 of these vehicles. Production will begin in April 2010 and will be complete by September 2011.