Oliver outboard dealers

One piece of equipment that some people are surprised to see wearing the Oliver name are outboard motors. Although it was a short lived endeavor, the farm and Industrial equipment manufacturer was willing to make anything they thought could be a profitable piece of equipment.

The Oliver Corporation entered the outboard motor business when it purchased Chris Craft's outboard motor line, consisting of the tooling and rights to two motors, in 1954.  Oliver debuted its improved design of the outboard motor in 1955. It continued to make improvements with upgraded models in 1956.  This division of Oliver operated out of Battle Creek, Michigan.  The outboard business was extremely tough to gain market share in which led to Oliver selling off its outboard division to Perkins in 1960 who moved production overseas. Some Oliver Farm Equipment dealerships picked up the outboard products while new Outboard Dealers were added primarily near rivers and lakes with existing boat and outboard repair shops.  The map shows Outboard Dealers that are currently known. If you know of any other Oliver Outboard dealers, use the Contact Us form to get them added to the map.

The original series of Oliver Outboards - the Challenger and Commander models - still used a blue color scheme carried over from the Chris Craft era. The following year, Oliver switched to a white and teal green color scheme.