franklin 130xl

[ford62783]

i have a chance to buy a franklin 130 xl for 9500 i beleave it is comprable to a 208 or 225 timberjack if i am mistaken please correct me im just wondering if that is a good deal and if anyone has owned one before and if they had many faults thank u

[mad murdock]

Do you know what year it is?  My Brother and I owned and operated a Franklin 132 Pak-a-back, It had a Hawk Loader with an Allis-Chalmers Turbocharged engine, I think it was like 130 HP.  Was a big machine.  I do not know how it compares to a 130XL, but as for the 132, it was built like a tank, really tough!  Was fairly easy on fuel, and was very stable on uneven ground, even with the ROPS mounted loader on top.  I don't remember the exact tire size but I know that they were at least 23" wide.  The overall width of the machine was like 10' 3" and it weighed about 22,000 lbs empty.  Franklin built some good machines, if it starts, runs, has decent power, and doesn't pump oil out the exhaust, and the winch/other equip is in reasonable working order, it could be a good buy.  If a guy had more details on engine, and other equip, I am sure that you could get some more definite feedback from those who know here on F F.

[ford62783]

it seems to be a mid 70s machine great frame center pins are excelent germatic winch a 353 detroit operated well i tested it out and seems as tough as any treefarmer or timberjack ive run it is roughly the same size as a 240 timber jack maybe a lil wider motor has an estimated 2000 hours on it tires r 70 oercent and a 90 percent set of ring chains was told it has a allison tranny rebuilt 3 years ago 1 owner machine and was told before he changed the motor it had a 353 turbo detroit in it if i remember correctly a 353 has around 130 horse and the turbo has around 173 hp can i convert that back to a turbo with out changeing the hole motor

[mad murdock]

sounds like a fair price.  The Detroit 53 series are real tough engines, and not too bad on fuel.  You can read posts on here under someo other skidder topics, like triple 6 clark, and old jd 440, and you will get the feel for what others think about the detroit.  It is loud, but that can be fixed with good earplugs.  As I said in my first post, from my experience with the franlkin, it is one tough machine.  We ran that machine for several years, typical day was 3-4 truckloads of wood a day.  We never had to do any heavy maintenance on it during  the time we owned it.