Ozinga's Merry Mixer Truck Lights up the Holidays

Who doesn’t love sparkling lights during the holidays? One Chicago-area fleet is generating holiday spirit and goodwill with a specially-decked-out mixer truck that's touring the area with its animated holiday show.

For the second year in a row, Ozinga outfitted one of its signature red-and-white mixers with more than 32,000 programmed lights (up from the first year’s 20,000-plus) to create the Merry Mixer. It features animated light sequences and 45 minutes of Christmas tunes.

The Merry Mixer is a 2019 Kenworth T880 McNeilus Bridgemaster ready mix truck fitted with custom-fabricating speaker brackets mounted to the back fenders. More than 100 feet of speaker cable is used to connect two JBL outdoor speakers that deliver 250 watts of power each—and the driver can control all of this right from the cab.

This year’s Merry Mixer also includes a new custom-wrapped bumper. Not only does the ready mix truck run on compressed natural gas, but Ozinga also made the following updates and changes since last year to make it petroleum-fuel-free:

• Installed a 3000-watt power inverter hooked up to three deep cell batteries
• Batteries are hooked up to the truck’s alternator to continuously provide power to the lights
• All wires and computer equipment are welded inside a custom-made barrel
• Show can also be powered by two lithium-powered generators

The truck was scheduled to appear in 30 events this year – Christmas parades, tree lightings, visits to children’s hospitals and nursing homes – starting Nov. 10 all across the Chicagoland area.

A video on Ozinga’s YouTube shows the truck at the Illuminated Christmas Parade in Whiting, Indiana.

It showed up at Chicago’s WGN Channel 9 toy drive, where a fourth-generation Ozinga family member talked about how the company is celebrating its 90^th anniversary with 90 acts of kindness, including donating toy Ozinga mixer trucks and children’s books to the toy drive.

And Ozinga opened up its Mokena, Illinois, location so friends and family could take a picture with Santa and dance along with the Merry Mixer.

Ozinga, founded in 1928 as a coal and coke yard, has been producing ready mix concrete for almost 70 years, and in recent years has been a clean-energy leader, converting its trucks to natural gas and opening up a division to help other fleets do the same. It was honored for its efforts as an HDT Truck Fleet Innovator in 2015.

You can find more Ozinga Merry Mixer videos on Ozinga's YouTube channel.