I believe pound for pound, Fodens’ built some of the finest tippers, ever.From the famous “Mickey Mouses’” to the Daf cabbed Alphas with a 12litre Caterpillar purring away underneath. Powerful, tough and lightweight, there’ll never be a substitute for 'em.
KTH first new Foden eight wheeler.
One of Ken Watkins Foden Alpha’s.
One of Ivor Duggan’s Cat engined 400 bhp tippers.
The facelifted 4000 series with the high roof is probably my all time favourite tipper; Under the seats was the cubby-hole for storing gloves, spanners, lump hammers etc…The wrap around dashboard wasn’t intrusive, cross cab access was excellent…The storage nets on the back wall could hold some serious clutter…Overhead compartments could hold more clutter and a cb…Visibilty was amazing even if, like me you used the windows for flags and Foden scarves.
Now the inevitable criticisms; Why were the doors draughty? A couple of 8leggers I drove, you’d skim your knuckles on the handbrake lever when you changed into 3rd if you weren’t careful…Ah and the heavy clutches; This was solved on the Smiths wagons by the time the W reg versions appeared.
Still, I could fit draught excluders, alter where I put my hand during gearchanges and the heavy clutch just encouraged me to practice/perfect clutchless changes.
Don’t know whether these count as Foden tippers but they were built in Sandbach and virtually unbreakable. The first one I had dealings with had a 6LW Gardner with 12 speed Foden box and 2 gearsticks but the later ones had ■■■■■■■ 220 engines still with 12 speed gearbox but only one gearstick and an air valve for the range changes.
Sharples Foden was over 25 years old and still working when this pic was taken for a lorry magazine.
I think Corgi should make a 1:50 model of that Sharples 8legger.
i’ve only ever driven one foden and wasnt very impreesed with it,
although it was about ten years old,it was a 3000 series on a M plate,only used it for a few days when mine was being mot’ed
it had a 325 ■■■■■■■ in it i think,seriously heavy clutch so i didnt use it(thank god for fuller gearboxes lol)
it had the turning circle of a supertanker,but i think it was just badly abused previously,it might have been great when it was a bit newer although the regular driver loved it.
the same firm had a pair of L reg scania 113’s with 320 engines and one of them became my regular motor and i loved driving that,and although ten years old aswell it was a superb drive,even if very cramped with a P day cab.given the choice it would be the 113 every time i’m afraid.
Andrew S is right about the 3000 series having a bad lock. Steering was heavy on the earliest models, they must’ve sorted them as my N reg was pretty light.
I cant understand the complaints about heavy clutches, they were air assisted? The old S39’s had direct clutches but I believe that everything after them had air packs on them, never had a problem myself and the S80 and 83’s had a clutch that you could press with your hand standing by the door! Mind you I never drove anything else so maybe I was conditioned to them? 
And regarding turning circle you should have tried a Sed Ak 400, you needed a shunt to get around some road junctions! The only real complaint I had, being tall, was the steering column was low on the S39/40/50 so I had to bend my left leg around the gearlever to work the clutch, of course when the height adjustable columns came in that was no longer a problem. I wasn’t keen on the Haulmaster cab either as the door pillar got in the way when leaning out of the window, but I didn’t drive one regularly but had a Sed Ak at that time.
Certainly a good six and eight wheeler though, the rubber back end gave a good ride and wasn’t bad off road if it had the diff lock and X locks fitted, Tilcons didn’t as they only specced the basic chassis and cab without X locks and no air seat etc hence we got stuck alot!
Pete.
To make aFoden get an ERF and add water.
the one i drove was pretty good off road (much better than the scania-that would get stuck in a puddle,but i could live with that)
we also had an L reg MAN which was my regular motor until i got the scania-that MAN would go anywhere off road,it was superb,it had a 13 speed fuller(my favourite box ever) everyone else hated driving it cos of the box(so called professionals lol).it was very highly geared and the limiter didnt work,and we were on log books (utility company)so no tachos to worry about,at the upper end of the green band on the rev counter was about 75mph!! it would go off the clock with ease !!
strangely enough,this was 10 or so years ago,and i’m on roughly the same money now!! it was VERY good at the time,i used to commute nearly 50 miles each way it was that good!!
I owned this old S21 & had a fold up bunk in it as I did some distance work when the local Quarries were slack, Frazerborough, Angelsea,Grimsby,Glasgow, Birmingham, It was a greta old motor to drive It had the 12 speed Foden box which of course as I have said before with a gear for every hill, Happy days, Regards Larry.
From what Windrush said about clutches, the 3000s I drove were fine, it was the S and V reg 4000s that had heavy clutches. The W reg ones were as good as the Alphas.
There are two types of clutch used in Fodens, Spicer and Lipe…I have always fitted the Lipe ones in mine and had 7 years out of one, they are not what I would call heavy and shouldn’t be anyway as all the 3000 and 4000 models have air assisters fitted, if the clutches are adjusted properly so the clutch stop works then there shouldn’t be any grinding from neutral into gear.