That would be this one m8
ramone:
Punchy Dan:
not just a lorryIs that the one that was in our yard the other Saturday Dan , I cant remember if it was a 6 wheeler or an 8
A bit of a looker not happy with the trailer though. Was this the model with the portaloo blue cab interior?
DEANB:
Nice old Foden âcoomseyâ0
For sure Dean although this one looks like sheâs been round the block a few times. I never got a go in one but I know chaps who rated them
nyk473l:
The second one operated, after the first one was stolen when 3 years old.
Good move 
nyk473l:
The second one operated, after the first one was stolen when 3 years old.
They stand well, wouldnât be out of place today I reckon
Whenâs the date for this latest euro 6 nonsense?
Just wondering whenâs it going to mean I canât go anywhere
Moose:
0Whenâs the date for this latest euro 6 nonsense?
Just wondering whenâs it going to mean I canât go anywhere
Why worry ,it just mean that as well Aâs changing number plates like we do currently we have to change the badge too ! 
As Max Bygaves said âI wanna tell you a storyâ and you may be interested and you may not but Iâm going to write one anyway! Some of you will be aware that I rather like the products of Elworth Works, Sandbach, I first rode in a Foden as a kid in the 1950âs and ended up either working on or driving them (or both for a while!) for 27 years. To me they were just about the finest eight wheeler tipper chassis, easy to maintain and repair with no special tools and chassis-wise very little changed for years until the Paccar influence arrived. However the subject of this prose, the first Foden entrusted to me to drive, made me wish for a while that I had never seen the blasted thing!! 
During April 1986 three new Foden tippers arrived at Tilcons Ballidon quarry in Derbyshire, actually the last three new tippers purchased before the transport was sold off although a powder tanker for Ron Tennant who was based at Meriden sandpit arrived later. All three had the Rolls 265Li engine, Fuller nine speed gearbox and Eaton back end. The first two were allocated to a pair of drivers based at Kevin quarry just over the border in Staffordshire, Alan Astley and the Late Colin Critchlow, maintenance would still be carried out at Ballidon though as the central area workshops were there.
At the time I was driving a Sed-Ak 400 with Gardner 201 âpowerâ under the cab, it was almost six years old so coming up for replacement but I rather liked it. However it was too heavy to get a sensible payload (19.50 tonnes was no use when the trucks were costed at 20.00 tonnes per load) and it broke springs for fun. I had it for around eighteen months after its original driver, Bay Spencer, transferred to tankers and it was my first lorry.
Anyway the third Foden stood for a week or two, it got used for towing duties by the workshop staff but speculation was rife as to who was going to be âawardedâ it. Then â â â â Bentley, Transport Manager, called me into the office; âThere is a new Foden up at the garage, I want you to have itâ. Well I didnât expect that! I thought I would get another âhand me downâ from another driver. There was a problem however; âPeter, you are on holiday next week, I want you to cancel itâ. I wasnât going anywhere but told â â â â that I didnât want to cancel my break. âWell Iâm not letting anyone else drive it before you (presumably he didnât know about the towing work!) so talk it over with your wife and let me knowâ and that is what I did. I cancelled my holiday, he gave me the lorry, C433 LHE, and I rebooked my holiday for a week later! He wasnât a happy man but couldnât do much about it.
My first day with it was ârunning in dayâ, a load of selected dust to Forticrete at Glenfield then across to Tilcons Cadeby pit for sand or gravel (canât remember which) for the concrete plant at Ballidon, clean the body out and another load to Glenfield, across to Cadeby again for sand down to Meriden for blending and then sand from Meriden back to Ballidon for the tar plant, an easy day really. Next day though I was back on tarmac to Dudley with it and the load of dust I took to Forticrete had to be collected by another truck as it had been rejected! Some flecks of blue paint had come off of the taildoor with the dust and it wasnât acceptable for block making, oh well, never mind eh!
To be continued later, tea time nowâ
After a week or two I got used to the Foden, I could get around road junctions without a shunt like the Sed-Ak and the heavy Fuller gearchange steadily improved (why are Fuller boxes always heavy when new?) and the torn skin on my left thumb healed from working that plastic slide on the range change! The truck didnât perform as well as others in the fleet, it was a gear down on hills but the Rolls only revved at 1950rpm whereas the others ran around the 2100 mark and it was like that for all its life. Still a nice motor though. And then after four weeks; âwe want your truck for its first service, your old one is still here so take thatâ which I did. Called back that afternoon, âYour truck is back at Fodens, the power steering pump and compressor are both leaking oilâ so I had the Seddon for another week! Foden returned complete with a modified gear linkage, great I could change gear with almost one finger! New compressor and steering pump fitted as well. Three weeks later âWe want your truck for serviceâ so back to the old gal again! Went to collect it that afternoon, âIts back at Fodens again, compressor leaking oil and power steering pump leakingâ so back to the Seddon. A week later got it back again, some different steering linkage fitted as well for some reason and yet another compressor and pump! Away we went again for another three weeks then âwe want it for service blah blahâ so same old procedure! I almost dreaded going to the garage that afternoon but yes âIts gone to Fodens, leaking steering pump and compressorâ and a week later it came back and I thought that all was well at last.
However after my first load I noticed oil dripping from where the compressor fastened to the timing case, I parked it up and a Foden fitter came out from Sandbach. He noticed that the bottom two studs were missing, the fitter (not him) had obviously not tightened them properly. He fitted two studs and the leak was sealed, however rather than getting his mate into trouble he wrote on the job sheet that the gasket was faulty and he had removed the compressor and replaced it which was good of him protecting his pal but it REALLY backfired on him later that day! 
I loaded for Tilcons plant on Attercliffe Road, Sheffield, and dropping down towards the city from Owler Bar I had to stop at Beauchief traffic lights. The engine was running very rough on tickover, I had a look underneath and the injector pump coupling was breaking up! I kept the engine going and made it to the Trumix yard, tipped my load and parked in the corner of the yard, switched the engine off and it wouldnât start again because the broken coupling had upset the timing. Phoned the quarry and was fetched back leaving the lorry there, and it stayed there for a month as there were not any couplings available and the loose bolts had damaged the compressor as well!
Of course Fodens were informed, and the poor lad who had tried to protect his pal was accused of not tightening the bolts properly! He hadnât even touched them but had of course put on the sheet that he had removed the compressor so would have to have done. Apparently he was suspended and put on âsweeping up dutiesâ for a while. 
I got my lorry back and for several weeks all was well until Winter arrived and the next problem arrived with itâŚ
Final part soon.
I wont bore you for long!
Winter arrived, I jumped in the truck at around 5am to back under the tar plant and the steering wouldnât turn! âHurry up, your loads ready and we want the binâ yeah, right! Much heaving on the wheel ensued and eventually a CRUNCH was heard and lumpy steering appeared. To be fair it had never steered as nice as the other ones but I never bothered, just put it down to âone of those thingsâ that happen. Anyway I loaded and delivered the load, I thought that perhaps ice was in a UJ as there were several on the steering shafts. I called at the garage later that day and the Transport Superindendant (below the TM in rank!) wasnât surprised? Apparently mine and Geoff Landâs had been subject to a Foden recall as the chassis numbers were in a list that had faulty steering mitre boxes, they had recieved no lubrication when new and consequently had slowly filled with water. Only mine had frozen though, a new box was fitted and the steering was the best it had ever been.
Next thing to go was a clutch under warranty, usual Lipe problem with the springs breaking out of the plates and jamming. I managed to get back from Meriden with a load of sand and only had to stop once. They fitted two solid clutch plates, they gave no trouble until several years later when the clutch wouldnât clear properly. The solid plates had worn the gearbox shaft splines and the plates couldnât slide to free the clutch but the angle grinder sorted that!!
Apart from a steering box nothing else went wrong really, Tilcon sold the tipper fleet off and the Superindendant purchased them and we carried on just the same running under the STB Transport banner. The crappy seat collapsed as usual and was repaired with wood and weld. The Rolls engine itself was never touched in ten years and a million+ KMâs and was even photographed by two Rolls engineers when I was pouring a gallon of oil into it while having a break at Telford after a run to South Wales. They were impressed with the mileage and the fact that nothing had been replaced, however only a week later it finally expired with oil pouring out of the exhaust! A secondhand unit was purchased, it smoked and rattled but I put up with it until I was presented with a new 3000 series and my âworktoolâ of almost eleven years was bought by Alan Astley (remember he had the sister vehicle to mine) who ran it as an OD for a while but put a â â â â â â â engine in I believe.
I wrote this to show that in a fleet of 30 or so similar trucks there is always a ârogueâ one and it just happened to be mine! However mine was the only one that hadnât had the engine or gearbox rebuilt, most had several years before. Maybe the lower rpm helped? None of the components that failed were made by Fodens, and strangely once out of warranty the steering pump and compressor never leaked oil again!
What became of my old Sed-Ak? It was bought by a lad from Buxton and did several more years working from the quarries in that area.
Pete.
Enjoyed thar ramble Pete. Happy New Year. Mike. 