About Us
Western Power Products' official company history can be traced back over three decades, but the roots of the organization can be traced back to 1936 when the owners'family farm was established in the San Joaquin Valley. The first representation of John Deere products came in the late 1960's when the first of three John Deere Agricultural equipment stores was built.
In the late 1970's Deere decided to establish a network of engine distributors to supply engines to local original equipment manufacturers and provide diesel power units for various agricultural and industrial applications. Western Engine Distributors was established in central California. At about the same time, CN Power Systems was established in northern California and northwest Nevada. A number of engine distributors were set up by John Deere Company during this time.
Many of the early distributors ran their engine operations as a division or department of their equipment operations. They really wanted a source for power units for their retail customer base.
A few distributors in the country realized that the engine business required dedicated efforts and that it was significantly different from the retail equipment operations. Western Engine and CN Power were two such distributors. They concentrated on taking care of their OEM customers and they developed power unit packages that they could provide on a wholesale basis to the smaller distributor and dealers.
Eventually the smaller distributors got out of the business and the territories for the remaining distributors grew. Western Engine covered the southern half of California, the southern tip of Nevada, all of Arizona and Hawaii. CN Power had responsibility for the northern half of California and northwest Nevada.
In the early 1990's Deere developed and began to market John Deere Marine Diesel engines for commercial fishing, work boat and limited pleasure boat applications. At that time, both Western Engine and CN Power began expanding into those applications and started setting up John Deere Marine Engine Dealers to sell and service these new Deere marine products.
In May 2001 John Deere Power Systems approved the purchase of CN Power Systems by Western Engine Distributors. With the joining of the two organizations and the realization that the distributor of the future would be much more than just an engine company, in 2002 the company name was changed to Western Power Products.
Western Power Products has expanded the family to include the Yanmar Industrial engine line. The Yanmar power range extends our capabilities to include small diesel engines down to 5 Hp. In 2006, John Deere Power Systems expanded our offerings to include the Funk Drivetrain products. Now Western Power Products offers complete power train packages for virtually any customer need with engineering, fabrication, sales and product support.
Current Operations
Learn more information about Western Power Products' current operations, including details about each of our locations.