A great engine dies after 25 years and 4.7 million units

Briggs & Stratton Opposed Twin Engine

By Ross Winklbauer

I can still remember the first day I started to work on the Opposed Twin crankshaft in the old 168 department. Little did I know back then that I would be one of the several thousand Union members who would help create nearly 4.7 million Opposed Twin engines – during a 25 year history.

I think of how hard our Union brothers and sisters worked, and the dedication they showed to make this one of the best engines ever built. Our members took pride in knowing they built a quality engine. An engine, that even today is 2nd to none.

I would like to thank Kent Pfeifer (MED North Quality Manager) and Barbara Meyer for supplying me with the following list of "Great Dates in the History of the Opposed Twin."

	On Monday June 10th, 1977 the first pre-production Opposed Twin was built on assembly line 12 and a great product was born. That same year on December 5, 1977, the first customer production build took place, and the customers like M.T.D. anxiously awaited the first multi cylinder engines Briggs & Stratton ever built in its 68-year history.
	On September 17, 1992 the Plant 5 Focus Factory built the 2,000,000th Opposed Twin, which showed it, was still going strong, with great acceptance of the engine by our customers and the final product consumer.
	On June 10th, 1997 the Opposed Twin celebrated its 20th anniversary, meaning the engine had lasted the test of time with engine horsepower ranging from 161/2 to 21 HP.
	On April 24th, 1998 The Opposed Twin Factory along with the rest of what was known as the UED received its ISO Certification. This was a major step in route of not only being a good supplier of engines, but an excellent quality supplier too.
	During the year 2000, the Opposed Twin in its 23rd year of production, the product is recognized as a leader in quality at our customers. Comments from our three major customers M.T.D., Fridgidare Home Products, and Murray, like we don’t have problems with the Opposed Twin are common and took the hard work and dedication of everyone in this plant to get us there.
	May 2000, the engine is eventually going to go out of style because of emissions and the side valve design. It is not going away easy however, because with the end in sight we accomplished another milestone. This month on May 22, 2000, we surpassed the previous Opposed Twin high yearly build total of 324,898 engines. This means there are 4,349,274 of them produced as of that date, and still counting.
	Nearly two years later, on May 3, 2002, the Opposed Twin Factory built its last engine and a great engine has now gone away. Over its almost 25 year history, 4,688,823 engines were built.

Knowing that the Opposed Twin was being replaced by the V-Twin, the Union tried to get the Company to build it with the same dedicated, quality minded workers here in Milwaukee but management wanted to build it cheap…er down South.

As I wrote this article, I couldn’t help but to think of the members that I had the privilege to work along side of.