Smiths Bletchington bought the 4000th 4000 series; 6wheeler G160 BLM. It had a Cat 300 engine and was one of their best ever lorries. The 2 men in the middle are ■■■■ Pollard (being presented with the model of G160) who was workshop manager, and the late Godfrey Smith receiving the commerorative brass plaque which was fitted to the dashboard.
wardg:
This one was first owned by v festa and sons of loughborough. My dad had it from new it was a very troublesome truck at first
What was up with it Wally? I had a 6w that liked cooking alternators-It’d go through 1 a year for the 3 I drove an S reg for. Me and dad modified the door linings with draght excluder rubber as they didn’t shut properly.
if i remember right it went through a few alternators, the steering was set up wrong it only had about 1.5 turns and it would be on full lock, it had doors with draughts on aswell. suspension was useless my dad went 2 a site and his mate had the twin lorry and that went up the slope 2 the site straight away my dads couldnt get up the slope because the bottom of the cab was grounding out on the top of the tyre. the engine computer liked to say that the truck was 99mph all day(inc. wen my dad was on a break) it took time get it all sorted but it got there in the end. but apart from all that it was a decent truck and pulled like a train untill the boss had the emissions sorted to meet euro3.
My foden S20 two strke
Nice Oxo3, here’s another;
A few more Fodens…
Showman’s S83 last night - the show must go on! (and it was going on while I took the pic)
S40 - needs some cab work but drives well
A mix of slightly older trucks
Dad had an 8wheeler like that A reg one; Gardner 270 turbo, Eaton Twin Splitter and Wilcox alloy tipper body-still the best lorry he’s ever had in 32 years on Smiths and resigned to the fact nothing will surpass it (says a lot more modern trucks).
Some of Dave Neville & Sons from Hereford
A lot of our drivers slated the 3000 series; now, nearly 3 years on from the last going (and some iffy replacements) a lot realise they weren’t a bad motor by any means.
John Pearson’s work in progress:
Some pictures that might be of some interest to some of you older lads 
Something I had the fortune to get photos of yesterday!!
Now some pictures of the ‘newer’ fodens that I got pictures of yesterday 
Enjoy!
If anyone would like to see anymore I have stacks of them. But I hope you like this little collection 
Cheers
Jonny 
I feel old Jonny; your modern Fodens that are on the fair are the sort I’ve driven 
I’ve got plenty more back at college on file. 
My teacher was a bit shocked at me taking 13 pictures short of 500 yesterday, she didn’t think you could take that many pictures of trucks but I found a way
You shouldn’t feel old anyway, I prefered the older fodens in my opinion they had more grunt and a hell of a lot more pulling power. and looked the part too even if they do look like boxes on wheels some of then
cheer
Jonny
They didn’t all pull like hell, trust me…our firms still embarassed about the 202bhp Gardner 8 wheelers they bought in 1980
A good few did.
When I got pictures of that green foden, the bloke told me it’s got 900k’s on it and it’s still on it’s first clutch 
So there must be some that are bullet proof and some that have been shot to pieces out the production line ready
I still remember my dads ERF E14 from when I was a little kid, that had a 320 gardner I think it was a gardner engine, that pulled like a train and sounded the part too It was the truck that got me hooked into the haulage industry
Cheers
Jonny
jonnytruckfest:
A good few did.
When I got pictures of that green foden, the bloke told me it’s got 900k’s on it and it’s still on it’s first clutchI still remember my dads ERF E14 from when I was a little kid, that had a 320 gardner I think it was a gardner engine, that pulled like a train and sounded the part too
Cheers,
Jonny
Keep them, coming Jonny,great pics.
Cheers Dave.