Press Release
History becomes the Future – 2/1/2005
The evolution of United States Motor Power started back in 1946 with the West Bend Company producing outboard engines primarily under private label brands. The West Bend Company really got things going in 1951 with an offspring of a 1 1⁄4 horsepower, air cooled outboard power head. The first use of these engines was for brush cutters and chainsaws. In the mid 1950’s McCulloch came out with a twin, side by side rotary lawn mower power by the West Bend engine. The machine was not engineered well and fell apart, but the engines ran great leaving over 30,000 for the surplus market. In 1956 Art Ingels developed the world’s first go-kart using one of the surplus West Bend engines.
In the late 50’s and early 60’s karting boomed and production of the kart engines actually surpassed the production of outboards. In 1965 Chrysler took over and continued on into the 70’s and early 80’s. Through this time the industrial engine now known as the Chrysler Power Bee really took off. The industrial engine was being used in a wide variety of applications such as: tampers, pumps, rescue tools, recreational vehicles, ground augers, and others.
In the 80’s Chrysler sold the small engine line and outboards to Brunswick, who also owns Mercury Marine. Brunswick then changed the name from Chrysler to US Marine. In 1991 Brunswick sold the US Marine Industrial Power Bee line to Wisconsin Oven Corporation who renamed the current company United States Motor Power. U.S. Motor Power moved from Hartford, WI and can now be found in East Troy, WI and on the Internet!!
