McCulloch Motors Corporation is an American manufacturer of

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...

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 air ...

. The company was founded in

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

, 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 Thermodynamic power cycle, power cycle with two strokes of the piston, one up and one down, in one revolution of the crankshaft in contrast to a f ...

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 operation ...

engines, which were sold to RadioPlane in the 1970s. These McCulloch 4318 small four cylinder

horizontally opposed A flat engine is a piston engine where the cylinders are located on either side of a central crankshaft. Flat engines are also known as horizontally opposed engines, however this is distinct from the less common opposed-piston engine design, ...

two-stroke engines were also popular for use in various small

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...

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 The Wallis WA-116 Agile is a British autogyro developed in the early 1960s by former Royal Air Force Wing Commander Ken Wallis. The aircraft was produced in a number of variants, one of which, nicknamed ''Little Nellie'', was flown in the 1967 J ...

. 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 McCulloc ...

, manufacturing McCulloch-labeled

supercharger In an internal combustion engine, a supercharger compresses the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to produce more power for a given displacement (engine), displacement. It is a form of forced induction that is mechanically ...

s like the one fitted to the

Kaiser Kaiser ( ; ) is the title historically used by German and Austrian emperors. In German, the title in principle applies to rulers anywhere in the world above the rank of king (). In English, the word ''kaiser'' is mainly applied to the emperors ...

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 ind ...

, and

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...

. In 1959, they produced their first

kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performance ...

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 Lake Havasu City (, ) is a city in Mohave County, Arizona, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 57,144, up from 52,527 in 2010. It is served by Lake Havasu City Airport. History The community first started dur ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, with a factory and housing for its workers. The company founder Robert McCulloch was involved in buying the

London Bridge The name "London Bridge" refers to several historic crossings that have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark in central London since Roman Britain, Roman times. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 197 ...

at auction in the 1960s. It was then reassembled in Lake Havasu City and opened in 1971.

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-s ...

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 ho ...

had 13% holdings in the company.

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

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 robotic lawn mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the old ...

. 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 Modern Tool & Die, sometimes referred to as 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 ...

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 robotic lawn mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, brushcutters, cultivators, and garden tractors. Founded as a firearms manufacturer in 1689, it is one of the old ...

Related companies

McCulloch Aircraft Corporation __NOTOC__ The McCulloch Aircraft Corporation was the aircraft division of the McCulloch Motors Corporation. The McCulloch Motors Corps. was founded in 1943 by Robert McCulloch. The company was moved from Wisconsin to California. History Aircraft E ...

* 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 American brands