IN FOCUS / FRANNA PICK AND CARRY
The Terex Franna team celebrate their 5,000th Franna – an AT40 for RAR Group.
FRANNA CELEBRATES MAJOR MILESTONE In November, Franna rightly celebrated a milestone event as its 5,000th unit was driven off the production line. The 5,000th Franna was an AT40 model S/N 400081 proudly owned by RAR Group, in Queanbeyan, New South Wales. DANNY BLACK, FRANNA’S GENERAL manager has been with the organisation for over 30 years and has been part of the team contributing to the success of the Franna brand. He spoke to us about the development of the Franna pick and carry range during his tenure. Black joined Franna in 1989 as a graduate engineer. It was his first job out of university, where he studied mechanical engineering. “The business was called Franna Cranes Pty Ltd and it was privately owned by Lou Parolin and Brian Hain. When I joined it was a fairly small production, we had built just over 200 cranes and were producing around 80 machines a year,” said Black. 34 / CAL January 2022
The first Franna crane was built in 1978 by Dave Francis. He was a genuine innovator. He owned a steel fabrication workshop and was using ‘Wobbly’ tractor cranes of the day to assist in the erecting process. This was at times quite difficult and even dangerous – the operator sat in the rear articulation of the crane, which did not pivot with the boom, making visibility very much impaired. The rear articulation also had a tendency to flop to one side when approaching the stability limits (hence the nickname ‘Wobblies’). It was during one of these operations that Francis decided: “There must be a better way.” So, in 1978, he began building a crane with similar lifting capacity as the tractor
cranes but with the driver centrally located at the front of the crane for better visibility. He also decided that the crane should have a higher road speed and sprung suspension to be more suitable on the roads. Hence the evolution of crane serial number 1001. The machine was of 8t capacity with a rear-mounted Ford four-cylinder engine and torque converter, driven synchromesh manual transmission driving only the front axle and capable of about 60km/h. As credit to the quality of design and manufacture, this machine is still in use for QEC at Calide some 43 years later. Furthermore, as credit to Franna’s product support – in 2009 it built and www.cranesandlifting.com.au
