Well Im a Foden Man, I had 4 of them in the 70s, The only one I didnt care much about was the S80 tractor unit with the 220 ■■■■■■■ engine, I prefered the good old Gardner engines, Smokey but tops on miles per gallon, I did have an S 36 tractor unit with the Leyland 680pp engine which was good on fuel running at 32 tonnes with a payload of 22 tonnes, This was a tipper outfit with a Cranefruehaugh tipper trailer, I used to do local and long haul work all the time with this good old Foden , Never let me down at any time, The good old days Eh. 
, Regards Larry.
Well Lads I’m sorry but Fodens were/are a bit like Marmite ! you either “lurve them” 
or ■■■■■■■ hate them 
and all I would say is if I had to choose I would have chosen 1) Atkinsons, 2) ERF’s 3) Seddon 32/4’s 4) Big J’s, Sed Atks ugh ! and finally surpassing all those previously listed SCANIA ! In conclusion I would say that more people hate Marmite than like it, well it is ■■■■ isn’t it ? 
Bewick. 
Happy Birthday Larry! Ps. I have to agree with Dennis on this one, I’m no lover of Foden, although I confess I’ve not had much to do with them. Regards Kev.
windrush:
Carryfast:
Steel obviously has its predictable issues.But at the end of the day a plastic shed and the justified fears over the integrity of that in a bad motorway collision for example,was never really the answer.As the foreign opposition had long decided.To be fair we had several S39 and S80/83 cabbed trucks that were involved in serious accidents and in all cases the cabs were a write off but the drivers were not badly injured. They tended to ‘explode out’ rather than trap or crush the occupants, I’m sure that Bewick would have had similar experience with the Atkinson cabs? The most seriously injured driver, Bert Weston, had a ‘coming together’ with a portable toilet being carried on an artic that hit his S80 cab and Bert ended up with a loo seat over his head which bruised his face, neck and shoulders badly!
Pete.
Re “plastic” cabs, Waugh’s had one turn over on the M62 on " Windy Hill". The driver was badly hurt but survived, he was trapped in the incident, the fire brigade said, as the cab had disintegrated it probably saved his life. I think he’s a mate of yours Larry, Keith “Taffy” Jaines?
Regards Kev.
kevmac47:
Happy Birthday Larry!
Haha! Says it all really, most folk who knock them have never owned, driven or worked on them but for some reason they don’t like them? 
Now Sed Aks: Dennis doesn’t rate them but we ran a few so I can comment on them and they were virtually identical to the Atkinsons Dennis ran apart from the cab, same chassis/engine/box/axles, yet he loves those? Compared to Fodens they were rubbish for our work chassis wise but quite pleasent to drive.
I’m not a lover of foreign built trucks purely because they aint British and I scroll past many things about them on here apart from the vintage ones. I have never even sat in one, or worked on one, yet they are obviously excellent trucks as everyone runs them nowadays! So my ‘downer’ on them is solely based on them being foreign, if they were built here I would possibly like them! 
Pete.
Bewick:
Well Lads I’m sorry but Fodens were/are a bit like Marmite ! you either “lurve them”
Blimey the Atki Gritters at least were as primitive as the old 1940’s Matador compared to the S85.
windrush:
kevmac47:
Happy Birthday Larry!Haha!
I’m not a lover of foreign built trucks purely because they aint British and I scroll past many things about them on here apart from the vintage ones. I have never even sat in one, or worked on one, yet they are obviously excellent trucks as everyone runs them nowadays! So my ‘downer’ on them is solely based on them being foreign, if they were built here I would possibly like them!
Pete.
Well Pete I was involved in the Industry during the period that the various British manufactures all launched “new” products to compete with the Foreigners offerings. Not all the imports were successful in fact many were Crap and it was really only the Scanias and Volvos that stormed the Market Place as it were ! Now as for the “new” British offerings in particular ( as far as I was concerned) Seddon Atkinson and ERF “B” Series well it was painful to have admit that they couldn’t “hold a candle” to the Scandinavians. However, I continued to purchase both British and “Scans” and the Home produced product was, if anything, slightly dearer than both Scan offerings ! Probably this was because of my preference for the 8LXB/C engines ! BUT I never ever considered either Leyland or Foden and I still maintain that it was the correct decision from whichever way I looked at it.
I freely admit I have no experience of running 8 wheel tippers so no comment Mate !
Cheers
Dennis.
windrush:
kevmac47:
Happy Birthday Larry!Haha!
I’m not a lover of foreign built trucks purely because they aint British and I scroll past many things about them on here apart from the vintage ones. I have never even sat in one, or worked on one, yet they are obviously excellent trucks as everyone runs them nowadays! So my ‘downer’ on them is solely based on them being foreign, if they were built here I would possibly like them!
Pete.
I never owned one Pete, I have driven them on the odd occasion, I found them less comfortable to drive and certainly the older “Micky Mouse” cab with domed roof was the noisiest thing I’ve ever driven, it was like an echo chamber! 
. I didn’t have much time.on the Foden twelve speed but I was beginning to like that. When I looked around to buy my own tractor it was the second last one the list. “Adolphs Revenge” holds that trophy. 
Over the years I bought Man, Daf, then Scania. The last being the best of all. Regards Kev.
I have read that article before Dean, a pic of one of our quarries powder tankers in it as well. The late Ian Slater drove that, he sadly passed away quite young while at work and Nick Hall had it then. Rear hub seals: twin seals were no better than the single ones but fitting Stemco ones, and building the worn bearing surface on the axle tube up with Belzona, did cure the problem. Part of the problem was bronze from the crown wheels damaging the rubber seals and also not tightening the bearing retaining nuts up enough, they needed to be really tight. The S83’s did use a spacer tube and shims to set the bearing pre-load, we chucked those away and tightened them by feel! I agree that the steering was an improvement on the S80, the truck didn’t try to straighten up cornering hard into bends like the S80’s did.
Pete.
windrush:
I have read that article before Dean,
Interesting observations on the in house v assembly production model.Arguably in the case of Foden being a case of it wasn’t really broke in that regard,being a sort of assembly/in house hybrid,so why did Paccarr try to fix it.
rigsby:
Horses for courses Dennis . There were 7 quarries round Buxton at one time and 5 of them ran Foden fleets . Rough , rugged lorries that never went far , Liverpool was long distance . They had to cope with the Peak District terrain mostly , and the work they coped with would have killed an ERF . The only ERF fleet was flats for lime bag deliveries . Once Tarmac took over most of the quarries , they got whatever Tarmac got a good deal that week .
Spot on Rigs. I was too young so never saw ‘old’ Hillhead in action but heard tales of the old Fodens Tarmac took over and their throttling down the quarry approach road and rostering the roundabout at the side of the football pitch at the back of the college.
Shame the place shut in the early 70s as it was as busy as the Pike I’ve heard with as many Fodens running out of there as all the other wagons at the Pike combined!
kevmac47:
Re “plastic” cabs, Waugh’s had one turn over on the M62 on " Windy Hill". The driver was badly hurt but survived, he was trapped in the incident, the fire brigade said, as the cab had disintegrated it probably saved his life. I think he’s a mate of yours Larry, Keith “Taffy” Jaines?
Regards Kev.
I they said it was the steering column that saved him GTY 160L it ended up as a shunter Mr G fearns had it -
8LXBV8BRIAN:
kevmac47:
Re “plastic” cabs, Waugh’s had one turn over on the M62 on " Windy Hill". The driver was badly hurt but survived, he was trapped in the incident, the fire brigade said, as the cab had disintegrated it probably saved his life. I think he’s a mate of yours Larry, Keith “Taffy” Jaines?
Regards Kev.I they said it was the steering column that saved him GTY 160L it ended up as a shunter Mr G fearns had it
Hello Brian, nice to see you back, hope your well? Regards Kev.
BonkeyDollocks:
rigsby:
Horses for courses Dennis . There were 7 quarries round Buxton at one time and 5 of them ran Foden fleets . Rough , rugged lorries that never went far , Liverpool was long distance . They had to cope with the Peak District terrain mostly , and the work they coped with would have killed an ERF . The only ERF fleet was flats for lime bag deliveries . Once Tarmac took over most of the quarries , they got whatever Tarmac got a good deal that week .Spot on Rigs. I was too young so never saw ‘old’ Hillhead in action but heard tales of the old Fodens Tarmac took over and their throttling down the quarry approach road and rostering the roundabout at the side of the football pitch at the back of the college.
Shame the place shut in the early 70s as it was as busy as the Pike I’ve heard with as many Fodens running out of there as all the other wagons at the Pike combined!
Hillhead was a busy place when I started in the garage in '59 . They had Fodens dating back to the 30s with rod and vacuum brakes , the newest was a pair of s20 8 leggers , one with a 12 speed box . It was 1st gear down the hills , they used to stop on the Market Place and creep down Terrace road . I remember old Edgar Fletcher doing his regular job , Castleford glassworks , it took him 12 hours and paid 14 . First driving job I had was subbing out of Hillhead I think I’m the last man standing from that era .
Hi Brian, Gordie Ferans thats a blast from the past, I worked with him at Baxters in the 50s, He was a great lad, But he had his own way off roping & sheeting, His hitches were terrible, In fact thats when the old rope spanner was invented, I remember him loading a trailer for me two drops London in 1966, It rained all the way, And when I got to my first drop in Edmonton I couldnt loosen the old Sisal ropes, Even the sheet tiers were double knoted, But apart from that he was a good lad to work with strong as two horses, Regards Larry. He looks good at Jimmy Lawsons retirement party in 1986.
Wonder how many this crowd run over the years?
Nigeria according to form
Bumped into this advertisement, apparently there was a assembly line for Fodens in Holland, near Arnhem.
