The Johnson brothers from Terre Haute Indiana first offered for sale the Johnson outboard motors in 1922 with their 2 horsepower twin cylinder, water cooled outboard motor that only weighed 35 pounds thanks to the use of many aluminum parts. The cost of the first Johnson ” Light Twin ” was $140.00 which was a lot of money in 1922. They sold over 3,300 units that first year.
Many ground breaking innovations came from their little outboard motor such as a flywheel magneto and rope pull starting instead of a ” knuckle buster ” knob attached to the flywheel that you had to grab and turn and let go of quickly when the engine fired. The carburetor had three settings, choke, fast and slow. You could also rotate the whole engine 360 degrees so you reverse the boat instead of having a reverse shift. This was actually a good idea because boat propellers are designed to use forward not backward thrust. They were so popular they became the world leader in sales almost from the start.
The depression as with most companies hit Johnson Motor Wheel Company hard. Ralph Evinrude, Ole’s son, bought the Johnson firm in 1935 and it became part of the Outboard Motor Corporation in 1936. Over the years Evinrude and Johnson motors became almost the same motors but with the separate names on them.
Johnson outboards were still produced all the way up to 2007. You can still get boat props and other parts for them.
Dan’s Discount Props sells the best outboard propellers for these engines and all other engines at lower discount prices.
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