Franklin Treefarmer

The Green Machine.

Don't know any details, can only say they were widely used and well thought of in the wilds of Maine in the late 70's. Hmm, that's not a lot to go on:/:
 
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  • #3
Haha, it's all good Brother. They seem to have been well thought of everywhere. Loads in France running double winch / camox setups
 
I thought this was gonna be about a guy named Franklin who grew trees.

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Here in Canada their called CanCar Tree Farmer skidders. The C5D being the most popular in the late '70s early '80s. They turned from orange color to lime green in 1974. The year I started logging fresh off the farm at 16.
 
Lotta farmers make good loggers.;)
Yeah pushing and pulling those levers and pedals with all 4 hands and feet keep us in shape and don't forget pulling out that stiff mainline......and then along came the Clarke Ranger 664D:dancin:
 
I know the Clarks but what are you saying, was that a grapple machine?
 
I know the Clarks but what are you saying, was that a grapple machine?
The Clark Ranger cable skidders 664, 665, 666 were the Cadillacs compared to the Tree Farmers , auto trans, one lever controls steering and blade.........................
The old C5'S were bare bones and hard on the operators bones.....nothing glorious about them, ha
 
I myself hate franklins but that's only because I cut my teeth on Deere machines. Deere are plush.
 
The Tree Farmers like the C5 are one if not the easiest to service and get parts, prices are reasonable . Bare bones machine and they do have one of the strongest 20T winches out there, just hard to pull the mainline out compared to others like the TJ's and Clarks. But the Tree Farmers has 6 levers and 3 pedals to operate it....I think I missed 1 more lever there somewhere.

Clarkes , Deeres, Cats with their powershifts and strong drive trains and operator friendly are the Cadiallacs. Deere had the cool locking control diffs but not cheap if you buy commercial parts, you can save money by buying farm tractor parts [a lot of the Deere tractor parts interchange with Deere skidders]
The Cat 518 cable skidder was a deluxe machine but the price definitely could make or break you.
 
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  • #16
I'm looking at a Q80. 17 tonne machine, 200hp cummins, powershift, single lever control etc.

This is the machine I'm looking at -

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Q-80%20(7).jpg
 
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  • #20
I think they all come with winches as standard. The Franklin is a higher spec, newer, and lower hours.
 
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  • #22
Cummins is always top of my list for powerplants.

On 20 meters of big poplar, it's going to need 200hp.
 
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