DIESEL WORLD MAGAZINE BY JIM ALLEN
The 1130 was Massey Ferguson’s first turbo-diesel tractor. Dale Fredritz’s ‘69, fitted with duals, looks just about invincible. It didn’t have the biggest displacement engine in the market, but it was plenty big and heavy to put all of it’s 120 hp to work. Maximum ballasted weight for the 1130 was around 18,500 pounds. In ‘72, a tractor like this cost $11,500. This is the Rowcrop model is equipped with adjustable tread front and rear, as well as a 3-point hitch. It was also ordered with the Multi-Power 12-speed gearbox. This consisted of a three speed main box, with a mechanical over/under. A hydraulically operated planetary gearset allowed any gear to be further split high or low. It was a variation of similar systems offered by other manufacturers.
The early 1960s marked the beginning of the large scale application of turbocharging to diesels in the tractor world. Massey-Ferguson’s (MF) first big turbo diesel tractor was the 1965 1130 and it ga ve them a big, powerful six-cylinder tractor for market parity with the other players.