Dave the Renegade:
Paul and Clarence Griffiths with one of their Fodens.
I remember J100BFO i think it ran ont of AI Ivonbrook a few years ago orange with name rubbed off.
Hi Dan,
Yes soon after these pics were taken C W Griffiths & Sons along with a lot of other hauliers painted their vehicles orange which was Nash Rocks colours…These days they are mostly in Tarmac livery,except the newer one’s which will probably have the new logo of the joint venture Lafarge-Tarmac coming together.
Cheers Dave.
Here’s a theory; I’d say 7/10 people who say Fodens are crap have never driven them. Of the other 3 I’d say 1 might’ve had a dud/badly maintained one and the other2 would take a pay cut to drive something covered in spotlights.
Putting this into context, I’d say 9/10 people who say “Hinos are crap” have never driven them.
Well thanks to Paul (Moomooland) I now have a pic of the last truck that I drove! It was sold new to ARC at Abergavenny and later bought by a Mr Hallam who was a haulier for Tarmac based at Topley Pike quarry near Buxton (now CAMAS) until the company that I worked for, Gough Transport Ltd of Matlock, purchased it from a vehicle breaker between Leek and Buxton around 1998/9. Gough’s replaced the worn out small 8 litre ■■■■■■■ and syncromesh gearbox with a 250 L10 opened up to 270 and the larger 9 speed Fuller constant mesh gearbox, it was also repainted in blue and grey and uprated to 26 tonne gross which gave it a payload around 16.90 tonnes.
I had very little trouble with it apart from the small body made it a struggle to get a full load of stone on, I used to tip the body up to level it and then do some shovelling to get the sheet across! It was also very high geared and could do 55 mph in 8th but struggled reversing up inclines. I had a turbo, heater rad and waterpump go as well. I worked it hard and no doubt tarmac and ARC did as well, it went back to a haulier in Buxton when I was made redundant in December 2002, a decent truck and one of the best I drove.
Moose:
Remember this one pete,i had the job of insulating under the body floor
Yes I remember Tony’s four wheeler Moose, in fact I was talking to Mick Walker who drove it last week in Matlock, he now drives an artic for Machine Mart at Somercotes.
Moose:
Dave this one came from down your way,it was in tarmac livery
Ex C W Griffiths Moose.Can’t get a clear view of the number,it looks like this one on the right.
Cheers Dave.
thats the one dave, cat c12 430
if you click the pic it gets larger, or is that just my end? lol
have you got any pics of the volvo on the left,as the firm i do a lot of work for had one of them as well as the foden, think it was 03…acf? reg
moose
Moose:
Dave this one came from down your way,it was in tarmac livery
Ex C W Griffiths Moose.Can’t get a clear view of the number,it looks like this one on the right.
Cheers Dave.
thats the one dave, cat c12 430
if you click the pic it gets larger, or is that just my end? lol
have you got any pics of the volvo on the left,as the firm i do a lot of work for had one of them as well as the foden, think it was 03…acf? reg
moose
Hi Moose,
I can’t recall C W Griffiths running any of their Volvo’s on an 03 plate,most are on a Radnorshire F0 plate and are only put back onto a year plate when sold.
Cheers Dave.
it looks more like the one on the left in your middle pic as it had the proper type easy sheet, the type thats been around for years!
it was a quite short w/base 380 s/cab
Moose:
Dave this one came from down your way,it was in tarmac livery
Ex C W Griffiths Moose.Can’t get a clear view of the number,it looks like this one on the right.
Cheers Dave.
thats the one dave, cat c12 430
if you click the pic it gets larger, or is that just my end? lol
have you got any pics of the volvo on the left,as the firm i do a lot of work for had one of them as well as the foden, think it was 03…acf? reg
moose
Hi Moose,
I can’t recall C W Griffiths running any of their Volvo’s on an 03 plate,most are on a Radnorshire F0 plate and are only put back onto a year plate when sold.
Cheers Dave.
The sheet going over the load from side to side looks to be more effective than the way they do it here with the sheet going from front to back with nothing holding the sides.
Moose:
it looks more like the one on the left in your middle pic as it had the proper type easy sheet, the type thats been around for years!
it was a quite short w/base 380 s/cab
Most of the 03 reg Volvo’s would have been gone a few years,but Paul Griffiths looks at this thread and will bring me up to speed when I see him in a couple of days time.
Cheers Dave.
Moose:
it looks more like the one on the left in your middle pic as it had the proper type easy sheet, the type thats been around for years!
it was a quite short w/base 380 s/cab
Most of the 03 reg Volvo’s would have been gone a few years,but Paul Griffiths looks at this thread and will bring me up to speed when I see him in a couple of days time.
Cheers Dave.
i am sure the foden came first, it’s got to be 10+ years ago now, the chassis had just been painted in the pic, i was running the red fl7 in the background at the time
cheers moose
Moose:
it looks more like the one on the left in your middle pic as it had the proper type easy sheet, the type thats been around for years!
it was a quite short w/base 380 s/cab
Most of the 03 reg Volvo’s would have been gone a few years,but Paul Griffiths looks at this thread and will bring me up to speed when I see him in a couple of days time.
Cheers Dave.
i am sure the foden came first, it’s got to be 10+ years ago now, the chassis had just been painted in the pic, i was running the red fl7 in the background at the time
cheers moose
The FO7400 reg Foden which C W Griffiths are still running is an 06 plate.They did have an 07 reg,but it was written off in a accident about four years ago.
Cheers Dave.
This was my charge from May 1986 until October 1996. It was the last new Foden tipper that Tilcon had at Ballidon quarry, the TM told me that it was going to be mine but I was due a weeks holiday so he insisted that I postpone that as it was due to be licensed that week and he didn’t want to lose a weeks work with it! So I cancelled my holiday that week…and took it the week after!
Fitted with the Rolls 265 Li engine and Fuller nine speed box with an Eaton back end, I was a little worried about the Eaton diffs as our Sed Aks regularly knocked teeth off of the crownwheel but they seemed to be problem free in the Foden’s. In the first four months I had three compressors and three power steering pumps but as soon as the warranty expired it had no more problems. It did return to Sandbach to have the warranty work done and while it was there they fitted a modified gearchange which was much lighter and also cut the rpm on the engine down from 2100 to 1900 which left me a gear down on hills compared to the rest of the fleet. The engine was untouched for ten years, no injectors or such like, but was absolutely knackered finally so was replaced by one from a scrap yard which was no better. Goodness knows how many miles the original engine did, I got through three different tacho heads and lost count at 1.2 million KM’s. I had one clutch under warranty, the springs dropped out, so it was replaced with a solid disc type which eventually wore the gearbox shaft splines instead of the clutch plate, that lasted for around eight years. It also had a replacement steering box fitted when it started to steer itself!!!
When it was replaced with the 3000 series that I had new in 1996 it was taken off the road and repainted for more service with a fresh driver, however one of the ex Tilcon o/d’s took a shine to it and bought it. It did good service with him for a couple of years.
It was sold new to ARC at Abergavenny and later bought by a Mr Hallam who was a haulier for Tarmac based at Topley Pike quarry near Buxton (now CAMAS) until the company that I worked for, Gough Transport Ltd of Matlock, purchased it from a vehicle breaker between Leek and Buxton around 1998/9. Gough’s replaced the worn out small 8 litre ■■■■■■■ and syncromesh gearbox with a 250 L10 opened up to 270 and the larger 9 speed Fuller constant mesh gearbox, it was also repainted in blue and grey and uprated to 26 tonne gross which gave it a payload around 16.90 tonnes.
It was also very high geared and could do 55 mph in 8th but struggled reversing up inclines. I had a turbo, heater rad and waterpump go as well. I worked it hard and no doubt tarmac and ARC did as well, it went back to a haulier in Buxton when I was made redundant in December 2002, a decent truck and one of the best I drove.
Goodness knows how many miles the original engine did, I got through three different tacho heads and lost count at 1.2 million KM’s. I had one clutch under warranty, the springs dropped out, so it was replaced with a solid disc type which eventually wore the gearbox shaft splines instead of the clutch plate, that lasted for around eight years. It also had a replacement steering box fitted when it started to steer itself!!! 
