Another Tidy motor, belonging to my mate, Ned, he ran it for four years.
Sharples ran about 25 lorries in the 60’s and 70’s and bought two new Fodens every year.
This one with a Rolls 265 is for sale.
Here’s the yellow one Andrew,they still have it if you want it.
Cheers Dave.
I have to agree with all that has been said, I either repaired or drove (or both!) Fodens for 27 years and can honestly say that I never had a serious breakdown in one (apart from punctures etc) and found them easy to work on and comfortable enough for the job in hand. Around Derbyshire/ Staffs area they must have been the predominant eight wheeler for tipper/tanker work, light weight and parts were easily obtainable, one downside was the factories reluctance to listen to the customer or the dealers regarding items that required improving. Reg Knowles was a prime example, he was a local Foden agent and designed his own gearbox using Foden parts, it was even better that the twelve speed but apart from a few used by Longcliffe and Charcon were not taken up by the factory. Reg also designed a twin headlamp assembly to replace the useless 11 inch ones fitted to the S80/83 ranges, again the factory declined to fit it. He got so fed up with the reps coming round each year and asking what could be improved, then not acting upon it, that he swapped from selling Foden to deal in Fiat trucks as he said that they DID listen! I guess that the end was inevitable, but it was a sad day when it finally happend.
Now I dont know how the tractor units compared with other makes, but plenty of large fleets ran them.
Pete.
ERF1:
Foden Alpha 8 wheelers are a decent tipper,They have however inherited from Daf the high spares prices of the European makes and some of the other common Daf faults.
Here are some Smiths have experienced;
Header tanks leaking and being replaced (some after less than 5 years)
ABS Warning sensors (Mainly the front wheels where the wiring was “clumped” together and allowed to swing to an extent where dirt can damage it)
this was sorted…just in time for when our last ones arrived on 06 and 56 plates.
Coolant Level sensor Defect (mine’s having a spell on this…no water leak though)
Less than perfect driving position (awful sunvisors that only stop the sun in high summer)
Brake actuators leaking air (mine’s done this on and off for most of it’s 7 years)
Brakes seizing in winter/lift axles and air suspension playing up; Dad’s expecting this to start up again any frosty day soon on his 02 reg Alpha
The late (and much missed by the “old school” drivers) Godfrey Smith (second from right) receiving a brass plaque commemorating Smiths buying the 4000th 4000 Series. Cat powered 4300 6wheeler that was only sold off in early 2005 (when mine replaced it) and regarded as being the most reliable lorry Smiths ever operated…Nobody I’ve spoken to can recall it ever breaking down. Absolute disgrace this one was sold instead of being restored 
Featured in Truck & Driver mag in the 90’s.
This ones parked in a shed on a farm near hertford where we tip on a regular basis.
I always have a mooch round her and sit in it when i get 5min 
Hats off to the lads that used to handle these is all i can say.
Still a class act in its self tho’.
One thing puzzles me is, i always thought the early foden mickey mouses had 150 gardners in 
.
gunnerheskey:
This ones parked in a shed on a farm near hertford where we tip on a regular basis.
I always have a mooch round her and sit in it when i get 5min
Hats off to the lads that used to handle these is all i can say.
Still a class act in its self tho’.
One thing puzzles me is, i always thought the early foden mickey mouses had 150 gardners in
That looks like an ex Breedon and Cloud Hill Foden to me, if so it MIGHT have later been owned by Paul Hyman (an Ex Cloud Hill driver) who would have re-engined it like most of his heavily modified Fodens? Paul and his family now run a travelling fairground and attend a lot of Steam Rallies with it.
Pete.
Was there ever a Foden Falcon built or was it just talk? The closest thing Ive seen is an xl cabbed 4000 series…
I just wanted to add a couple of pictures showing a couple of Foden’s.
I was only a passenger in these but from what I heard weighing in just under 10 tonnes was making the drivers very happy. As for comfort I never had any complaints and thought they were great to ride in! R.I.P. 
I know they may have been used on this site before but I thought they fit in here…
Not for the first time do i regret not taking pics of all the stuff i’ve driven over the years.
My first artic as an S39 with Gardner 180, followed by a S40 again with Gardner and still no power steering, then i got throughly promoted and was issued with an S80 with 220 ■■■■■■■ and thanks the good Lord power steering.
I hated the first two, but the S80 was a good truck, all when i worked for WG Eales, Wellingborough in the 70’s.
One thing about those old Foden 12 speed boxes, once you learned to drive one of them it didn’t matter what gearbox you came across it would be a doddle, so really i’m glad i had the experience…plus no power steering soon taught you how to manoeuver properly.
Never drove a Foden tipper** but during the late 70’s early 80’s i worked on a contract job for Bucks CC, running rubbish out of High Wycombe to two seriously bad rubbish tips in Denham area, using Seddon Atki and sometimes Leyland Constructor Hooklift skip motors.
The many Irish firms that came in to the tip often ran Foden 8 wheel bulkers and without fail they made easy work of the tips, the Sed Atkis were way out of their depth literally, no way were they designed for such hard off road work and it showed with serous suspension damage often resulting.
The Leyland Constructor was a match for the Fodens in traction but not durability, in fact almost anywhere the track layer would go that Contructor would go too, never seen axle articulation like it good engine too, however the ride quality was something i never want to repeat and the bulkead above the driver head housing the radio??i think, had dents in it from mine and other drivers heads as much of a bumpy road trip would be spent airborn, seriously down some undulating roads you would spent 50% of the time off the seat and hanging on to the wheel for dear life.
That same Constructor truck saved a motorcyclists life in Gayhurst one day, my now sadly passed mate Alex was driving it at the time, the motorcyclist had overtaken me badly coming out of Newport Pagnell and he dropped the bike on Gayhurst bends straight in front of Alex coming the other way, luckily the brakes on the Constructor were the best truck brakes i’ve ever used (still applies to date) and the skid marks showed how quickly Alex stopped with the from bumper touching the rider…who had been drinking, but his mates came round the corner and picked him up before the old bill got there and whisked him to the pub and put some ‘nerve steadiers’ into him sharpish…lucky feller, thats how it was in those days…if it had been my SA that came round the corner that rider would not have lived, he was only wearing a T shirt so left a fair amount of his skin on the road mind…happy days, better days.
**I lied, i forgot that having been made redundant one of the two times i was in '81, i got a job for a few months driving off road tippers on building the new A45 dual carriageway between Northampton and Wellingborough, had a Haulmaster 6 wheel tipper, brand new but untaxed for the road, some of the small identical fleet twisted the props up during that work but mine never did, met some good lads on that job, many Irish fellers and good blokes all.
We we urged to drive them flat out on site by the biggest reddest faced Irish site foreman i’ve ever known, they stood it though and he was a decent stick despite his appearance putting the fear of God into you, H&S didn’t apply quite so much then.
Muckaway:
Was there ever a Foden Falcon built or was it just talk? The closest thing Ive seen is an xl cabbed 4000 series…
The Falcon was to have been the XF cabbed replacement for the 4000 Series.There were supposedly two built, powered by 625 Signature ■■■■■■■■ Once the management at DAF realised what a formidable machine it would have been an amount of Paccar infighting began resulting in them being shipped off to Seattle never to see the light of day.
One of A E Gough & Sons loading at Tower Colliery.
Limey:
Muckaway:
Was there ever a Foden Falcon built or was it just talk? The closest thing Ive seen is an xl cabbed 4000 series…The Falcon was to have been the XF cabbed replacement for the 4000 Series.There were supposedly two built, powered by 625 Signature ■■■■■■■■ Once the management at DAF realised what a formidable machine it would have been an amount of Paccar infighting began resulting in them being shipped off to Seattle never to see the light of day.
i bet that was some machine 
so were they shipped to seattle to be broken up or are they stored in shed.
cheers
gaz
Limey:
Muckaway:
Was there ever a Foden Falcon built or was it just talk? The closest thing Ive seen is an xl cabbed 4000 series…The Falcon was to have been the XF cabbed replacement for the 4000 Series.There were supposedly two built, powered by 625 Signature ■■■■■■■■ Once the management at DAF realised what a formidable machine it would have been an amount of Paccar infighting began resulting in them being shipped off to Seattle never to see the light of day.
I would say that all the rest of the european manufacturers would have been right behind DAFs veto of it
cheers Johnnie 
Surely it wouldn’t be that difficult for Paccar to reintroduce the Foden brand? You can get Paccar engines for Dafs and the LF can be specced with a ■■■■■■■ engine.
Dave the Renegade:
One of A E Gough & Sons loading at Tower Colliery.
If I had a pound for every load I’ve got from under that belt Dave, I’d be a rich man.
cheers
John.
altitude:
Dave the Renegade:
One of A E Gough & Sons loading at Tower Colliery.If I had a pound for every load I’ve got from under that belt Dave, I’d be a rich man.
cheers
John.
Only drove up by there John,then on up over the Black Rock and over the top down into Treherbert in the Rhonda Valley.
Cheers Dave.