One Sunday morning early seventies I was working on something, can’t remember what, half in half out of the workshop door. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something move, looking up saw one of the Albion CD21 tippers slowly trundling across the yard, which was on an incline. Just managed to run across, jump in and pull the ratchet hand brake on before it hit something. Seems it had been parked up on the Saturday and left on the dead man brake. The air pressure had dropped overnight letting the brakes off. Driver got a bollocking first thing Monday morning.
hi Tyneside,obviously the driver didn’t heed one of the first rules of truck driving.when parked up leave the vehicle in 1 st or reverse gear depending on slope of road or land. 
sorry about the use of names d.d. regards, jack preston.
Well, if I don’t admit to it, Gonzo will be on here telling everyone about his know-it-all mate, so here goes:
I had parked the unit the previous night with the back end against the warehouse wall and the front facing down a slight incline. Next morning I unlocked the cab, threw my dinner bag over the driver’s seat onto the engine cover and turned the key to let the engine warm up while I yawned my way to the coffee machine. Half a cup of mud later I sauntered out into the yard to find my pride and joy buried in the chainlink fencing opposite the warehouse. In my haste I had managed to hook the strap of my bag around the handbrake and, as the air built up, the old girl decided she didn’t want to wait for her driver.
Red face, or WHAT?
When on for a VOLVO agent got sent to Barrow from Preston for an F10 with a fuel pump drive gone / when I arrived I found that the drive had gone (To the rear axle as propshaft was on the floor)
Another run to a Bog roll factory at Barrow and the usual Broms brake saga on a new FL10 of a truck rental company. (Other drivers in yard stood about and nobody told the VOLVO virgin about the button)
Best till last, N. Ireland F12 with a cab fire ■■? at Blackburn near Killingbecks yard on Xmas eve morning.
Arrived to find small fire under dash had done the wiring etc and battery earth now switched off.
Operator instruction over the phone on ringing him up, Get it running son I don’t care about the electrics I just want it on the boat at Heysham today at dinner / the driver will give you a good drop (£) .
So cab up, stop cable in and power to the starter and fire her up and by this time we now have 2 more N.Ireland trucks with us.
Cab down, paperwork being signed, at this point one of the other drivers cuts a spud in half and smears the screen. (I belive it is supposed to make rain water run off the screen)
They then roar off round the Blackburn by-pass towards M6 with the vehicle with no electrics in the middle of the others.
(Cant do that with a 600 BHP plus I shift 
)
Just a few of my memories
I do remember one of our Foden powder tanker’s grinding to a halt just after loading at our quarry late one afternoon, I went out to it and there was no fuel coming from the lift pump even though the tank was full. I slapped a new pump on (Gardner 201) but still nothing came up the pipe, looked underneath and found that the n/side front spring had snapped its main leaf which had then flipped up and chopped through the fuel pipe! Got me an hour or two’s overtime though! 
Pete.
hi pete,did you ever have prolems with engine mounting brackets on fodens with gardner.they kept snapping and we found the only bolts good enough for the job were caterpillar made ones. jack.
wheeltapper:
When on for a VOLVO agent got sent to Barrow from Preston for an F10 with a fuel pump drive gone / when I arrived I found that the drive had gone (To the rear axle as propshaft was on the floor)Another run to a Bog roll factory at Barrow and the usual Broms brake saga on a new FL10 of a truck rental company. (Other drivers in yard stood about and nobody told the VOLVO virgin about the button)
Best till last, N. Ireland F12 with a cab fire ■■? at Blackburn near Killingbecks yard on Xmas eve morning.
Arrived to find small fire under dash had done the wiring etc and battery earth now switched off.Operator instruction over the phone on ringing him up, Get it running son I don’t care about the electrics I just want it on the boat at Heysham today at dinner / the driver will give you a good drop (£) .
So cab up, stop cable in and power to the starter and fire her up and by this time we now have 2 more N.Ireland trucks with us.
Cab down, paperwork being signed, at this point one of the other drivers cuts a spud in half and smears the screen. (I belive it is supposed to make rain water run off the screen)
They then roar off round the Blackburn by-pass towards M6 with the vehicle with no electrics in the middle of the others.
(Cant do that with a 600 BHP plus I shift
Just a few of my memories
The things drivers keep in their pockets…potato!!!..love it!
David 
shirtbox2003:
hi pete,did you ever have prolems with engine mounting brackets on fodens with gardner.they kept snapping and we found the only bolts good enough for the job were caterpillar made ones. jack.
Not with the Gardner Jack, but plenty of mounting problems with the Rolls engine! The bolts used to shear on the rear mounting and the first thing you knew was that the gearchange became heavy, the engine on mine nearly dropped out when I had to give it some ‘welly’ to extract the truck from a construction site but I found the spacer block that had fallen out in a heap of brick rubble and we drilled the holes out oversize. Problem solved.
Pete.
As lad where i worked went up the yard to look at a ex brake fault on a old f86 volvo,tipped the cab wire had come off the connector,only had a screw driver in my pocket,was also pxxsing down,so tryed to strip the wire with my teeth,the bloody ign was switch on,shock went down my throat then jumped up and bashed my head on the wing.did not know which was the most painful,keith 
Keith do you remember me and you flat out down the M621 in one of A.Ones F12s which was good fun until we came off the slip road at the side of The Scania workshops and there wasnt any brakes whatsoever . Good job it was early Saturday morning with no traffic about ,
What about you and your weak stomach lol. Taking you out on road test and ■■■■■■■ in the cab , you was gipping like mad and I was ■■■■■■■ myself cos I’d taken the passenger side window winder handle off 
Non start - Flat batteries = Master switch turned off
Non start - Dead on key - Has electrics = Knocked into gear ( Renaults have a gearbox inhibitor)
The “driver” from the 4th emergency service that at silly o’clock in the morning cannot drive it as its speed limiter won’t work and its dangerous to drive = Do not go into the “expert” mode and change the speedo from mph to km/h and yes at 50 mph he really thought he was doing 80
Major electrical fault - smell of burning and lights come on when the vehicles running = Again do not go into " expert" mode and select daytime running lights.
Smell of burning and front fog lights stuck on ( O/D vehicle) = Replace relays with 24v ones not 12v as they won’t last and melt.
Call out for 3 faults Broken mirror - air leak and radio inop. - Fixed first 2 but the radio has an internal short - Motor parked up and insisted we order radio VOR.
Gearchange/ Gearbox fault = Managed to back into someone’s driveway but now cannot get it back out - Just wanted someone else to drive it out for them.
M40 Junc 4 - Had a slight accident requires n/s headlight and wing taped up = Intercooler and radiator pierced - N/S cab mount knocked off - Complete n/s headlight brackets wing etc missing. Both alloy Intercooler pipes from engine to Intercooler sheared off etc etc 3 Hours wasted until go ahead given to recover it.
Steve
Rubbing noise and try’s to stop when changing gear = Don’t strap the load on with the straps under the propshaft otherwise this is what will happen.
Steve
I got called out one night,pretty late and I was tired,Volvo FH12 wouldn’t build air.
I pulled the head of the compressor to find the reed valves were worn out and were not working properly,so I called the parts guy out and collected some new reed valves,I should have got a complete compressor and fitted that.
All this was done with only a torch with a pretty sad battery,I also had to drop the coolant because the compressor had a water cooled head. So it was taking a while.
It was a single pot compressor with sandwich plate between the block and head,one bolt to hold the sandwich plate to the head and four bolts to hold the head to the block. It all went back together,coolant back in,fired it up and it built it’s air no worries.
Job done,tools back in the van and home to bed.
About a week later the truck turned up at the workshop with the driver saying there was oil coming out of all the air valves and the air tanks also had oil in them. One of the other fitters had a look and pulled the head off the compressor and discovered my boo boo,I’d put one of the longer bolts that held the head to the block in the centre to hold the sandwich plate and it was too long and had punched a hole in the piston.
Oops what a f##k up,it cost me a dozen beers and a hard time from all the boys. I was not at my best that night,tired in the dark with a crap torch. It pays to check your work when you have finished the job.
Hi ,Folks , We had a lad at our place he drove a Foden S40 artic , Phones off the North Circuler diff hass gone making a banging noise ,So sent the fitter out with another unit he gets there swaps motors driver on hyou cis way ,Found the falt flat tyre on the rear he had lost the split rim other one running round the wheel sorted now on my way home ,ten mins after the driver phones this unit wont pull only doing 22 mph , isaid its just done 200 miles no prob ,Had a think then remembered we had altered the engine stop so it was up to go in to stop the engine ,Said to him were haveput your over night bag he said chucked on top the bonnet ,You can imagen my few select words i said take it off and pull up the stop and phone me back never heared off him till he got back ,Some Drivers a ,Cheers Barry
we are still waiting for some owners to respond on this topic as without fitters your favourite drivers could,nt work.i always found bosses felt they were paying us for nothing when the garage was empty and all we got was have you nothing to do fitter get the brush out and clean up.these sort of remarks cost the bosses money in the long run as the speed of work was relevant to their attitude.they could never accept that an empty workshop meant all was well and should have been paying a bonus for it.(fat chance).
shirtbox2003:
we are still waiting for some owners to respond on this topic as without fitters your favourite drivers could,nt work.i always found bosses felt they were paying us for nothing when the garage was empty and all we got was have you nothing to do fitter get the brush out and clean up.these sort of remarks cost the bosses money in the long run as the speed of work was relevant to their attitude.they could never accept that an empty workshop meant all was well and should have been paying a bonus for it.(fat chance).
Oh so very true.
Trouble is fitters are seen as a necessary evil, they don’t “earn” the firm any money they just save it and that is ignored. How many times have we heard " No don’t do that the lorry’s going soon"? or “Haven’t you got one (a new engine) in your toolbox?”
We rarely had an empty workshop, mores the pity! 
With around 40+ eight leggers there was usually an MOT each week for starters which kept us busy from monday until thursday which was test day, plus at least two for service each day as well with the associated running repairs. At one time I was rebuilding a Gardner engine each fortnight and then there was the occasional (! ) gearbox or clutch to tackle. When we did get a spare minute we set about relining brake shoes for stock or building a spare gearbox or diff, and of course at one time we repaired the quarry dumper’s and block plant machines as well. There was the 50 or so company cars/Land Rovers/minibuses/ works vans etc but a couple of fitter’s dealt solely with those. We all slept well…
Pete.
The potatoe tale makes me smile a few years ago the now son in law was taking local football team and committee to Whitley bay for the weekend he rang from Hawes to say drivers wiper had fallen off so I told go into local veg shop get 2 spuds get them cut in two then smear on windscreen and off he went with the help of one of my mates at the roadside p stops wiping the screen with the detached arm n blade I still get ribbed about that as I’m club president
I remember a driver on a firm I worked for phoning in to the office and telling the gaffer that the engine in his wagon had just made a very loud noise & stopped & wouldn’t start, The gaffer got the fitter to the phone & he said to the driver are you sure that it wont start, Have you got plenty of fuel ? He said yes I have plenty of fuel, The fitter then said well why wont it star, The driver replied because there is a conrod sticking out of the engine, Oh dear, Regards Larry.