Cummins originally bought Onan. Robin have been around a long time and used to be distributed by Teledyne/Wisconsin, hence Wisconsin Robin. They are very good engines! Subaru is part of Fuji heavy industries that also makes the Robin engines. When the Teledyne partnership ended, Fuji decided to market Robin engines/power equipment on their own in N. America and added the Subaru name to add brand recognition. Some JD power equipment is built by Robin, ie/ generators. I would bet the engine in a 2005 Miller welder would be a Robin since I'm pretty sure they had stopped using Onan engines by then. What could throw a person off is if they bought a Miller tune up kit. The kit for the Robin is also the kit for an Onan but they might be almost the same engine? It seems bizarre that they would stop making a very popular and highly regarded brand of engine. Tecumseh is another one. They had some not so good engines as well as some very good engines used in millions of snow throwers. Can't understand why they would stop making something that is the market leader. :confused3:
Here's some info I found:
Onan is out of the engine business.
Here is a brief history.
# 1920 - Onan started in business.
# 1925 - They purchased 25 model FE engines from Briggs & Stratton.
# 1927 - They built a ten light generator.
# 1930 - The first engine was built.
# 1932 - The first Gen Set was produced.
# During World War II, Onan supplied 85% of the military generators.
# 1946 - The Onan Corporation was formed.
# 1960s - Studebaker purchased Onan and introduced the J series air-cooled engine.
# 1975 - Hawker Siddeley bought 33% of Onan.
# 1979 - McGraw Edison bought 67% of Onan from Studebaker.
# 1985 - Onan now has 92.3% of the Recreational Vehicle market.
# 1986 - Cummins Engine Co begins the acquisition of Onan Corp.
# 1992 - Cummins Engine Co completes the acquisition of Onan Corp.
# 1997 - Onan closes its Huntsville engine manufacturing plant and sells their tooling and technology to Linamar Corp of Canada.
# 1997 - Linamar starts producing Performer and Elite engines for Onan in a new plant in Guelph, Ontario.
# 2000 - Onan contracts with Fuji/Robin to manufacture their OHV EH64 Horizintal V-twin engine for Onan for the welder industry.
# 2003 - Linamar stops producing Performer engines for Onan and Onan exits the small gasoline engine business.
# 2004 - Fuji/Robin stops making Onan branded engines for the welder market and transitions to making Suburu/Robin engines for the welder industry.
# 2005 - Linamar stops producing two cylinder Performer engines sold under the Linamar name.
# 2011- Cummins/Onan continues to manufacture major and many minor replacement parts for Onan engines going all the way back to the 60's. They did stop making new engines but never stopped supporting the millions of Onan's still out there on the job.
Note: Nearly 100% of those replacement parts are still made here in the U.S.A.
onanparts.com is offline
