McCulloch Motors Corporation is an American manufacturer of

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable gasoline-, electric-, or battery-powered saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. It is used in activities such as tree felling, limbing, bucking, pru ...

s and other outdoor

power tools A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed a ...

. The company was founded in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

, Wisconsin, in 1943 by Robert Paxton McCulloch as a manufacturer of small

two-stroke gasoline engines A two-stroke (or two-stroke cycle) engine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes (up and down movements) of the piston during one power cycle, this power cycle being completed in one revolution of t ...

and introduced its first chainsaw in 1948, the Model 5-49. McCulloch and its brand are owned by Husqvarna.

History

McCulloch moved its operation to California in 1946. In the 1950s, McCulloch manufactured

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operational ...

engines, which were sold to RadioPlane in the 1970s. These McCulloch 4318 small four cylinder horizontally opposed two-stroke engines were also popular for use in various small

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...

s, such as the

Bensen B-8 The Bensen B-8 is a small, single-seat autogyro developed in the United States in the 1950s. Although the original manufacturer stopped production in 1987, plans for homebuilders are still available as of 2019. Its design was a refinement of t ...

M and Wallis WA-116. McCulloch also started

Paxton Automotive {{Third-party, date=March 2021 Paxton Automotive is a United States-based manufacturer of superchargers for automotive use. The company is the major proponent of the centrifugal type supercharger. Early products were offered under the McCulloch ...

, manufacturing McCulloch-labeled superchargers like the one fitted to the Kaiser Manhattan, the 1957

Studebaker Golden Hawk The Studebaker Golden Hawk is a two-door pillarless hardtop personal luxury car produced by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, between 1956 and 1958. Styling The last automobile until the Avanti to have styling influenced by in ...

, and

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird (colloquially called the T-Bird) is a personal luxury car produced by Ford from model years 1955 until 1997 and 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was pr ...

. In 1959, they produced their first

kart Kart racing or karting is a road racing variant of motorsport with open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on ...

engine, the McCulloch MC-10, an adapted chainsaw two-stroke engine. Bill Van Tichelt of VanTech Engineering designed and produced one of the first specialized and most successful intake manifolds for the McCulloch kart engine, along with mufflers, conversion kits, throttle linkages, air stacks and bottom slopers.

Lake Havasu City

In 1964, McCulloch founded Lake Havasu City,

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, with a factory and housing for its workers. The company founder Robert McCulloch was involved in buying the London Bridge at auction in the 1960s, and reassembling it in Lake Havasu City by 1968.

Product lines

In 1967, McCulloch discontinued its line of outboard boat engines which it began after the 1956 purchase of Scott-Atwater Manufacturing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota - the manufacturer of Scott-Atwater outboard boat engines. In the 1970s their range was expanded to add generators, hedge trimmers, string trimmers, and

leaf blower A leaf blower, commonly known as a blower, is a device that propels air out of a nozzle to move debris such as leaves and grass cuttings. Leaf blowers are powered by electric or gasoline motors. Gasoline models have traditionally been two-str ...

s, but started a narrow focus on lawn and garden equipment.

Corporate changes

By 1978,

Charles Hurwitz Charles Edwin Hurwitz (born 1940) is an American businessman and financier known for his role in the 1980s savings and loan crisis, and his takeover of Pacific Lumber Company, a logging company active in Humboldt County, California. His other hol ...

had 13% holdings in the company.

Black and Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...

bought McCulloch on 4 October 1974, and sold the company to a private group in November 1984. In January 1999, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sold its European division to

Husqvarna AB The Husqvarna Group () is a Swedish manufacturer of outdoor power products including chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the oldest continuously runnin ...

. In October 1999, its North American operation was acquired by the Taiwanese company Jenn Feng Industrial Co. Jenn Feng added electric power tools and pressure washers to the product line. In March 2003,

MTD Products MTD Products is an American manufacturer of outdoor power equipment for the mass market. Headquartered in Valley City, Ohio, the company began in 1932 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Stanley Black & Decker. Prior to Stanley Black & Decker's a ...

signed a distribution and licensing agreement with Jenn Feng in which MTD would exclusively produce McCulloch products in North America. In March 2008, Husqvarna acquired the outdoor products division of Jenn Feng, gaining access to the McCulloch brand in the North American market.Sweden's Husqvarna buys Taiwan outdoor assets
- Reuters, 17 March 2008 McCulloch is since a brand within the

Husqvarna Group The Husqvarna Group () is a Swedish manufacturer of outdoor power products including chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the oldest continuously runnin ...

Related companies

* McCulloch Aircraft Corporation * McCulloch Oil Corporation *

* Scott-Atwater Manufacturing Company

References

External links

McCulloch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcculloch Motors Corporation Garden tool manufacturers Power tool manufacturers Lawn and garden tractors Chainsaws Agricultural machinery manufacturers of the United States Marine engine manufacturers Companies based in Tucson, Arizona Tool manufacturing companies of the United States