Before I headed into long distance artic work I was a tipper driver mainly on 8 leggers, drove a few various British built ones ranging from Leyland Constructors to ERF E10’s to Foden 3325 and 3380’s. They were all good in their various ways eg the Constructor had amazing off road ability as well as a fair old top speed, the ERF a nice roomy cab,the Fodens could fly and carried some payload ( leaked like a sieve when it rained though!!) but my favourite all round tipper was the Irvine assembled Volvo FL10 320. It was excellent to drive, had a decent turn of speed, good fuel economy, good payload and was extremely reliable. When I was in holiday in Cuba I saw plenty of Chinese built FL10’s working away and the cab makeover looked very good on them. I also from time to time see these excellent Volvo’s working away long after the production of them ended. I wasn’t so keen on the FL7 as it was seriously underpowered compared to the FL10 so over to guys for some memories of your favourite British built 8 wheelers!!!..
These were as good as anything in their day. I suppose like everything else,its down to choice and what experiences owners and drivers had with vehicles.
Cheers Dave.
Dave the Renegade:
These were as good as anything in their day. I suppose like everything else,its down to choice and what experiences owners and drivers had with vehicles.
Cheers Dave.
Good looking motor Dave, never had the privilege of driving an 8 wheeler one though my mate has a 6 legger he does the vintage scene with, wish I had a £1 for every ton it has shifted!!!
Got to be Foden for me as well, cracking payload, virtually rot free cab, rubber rear suspension on the later ones (off road traction suffered a little then) and comfortable to drive. Drove them for 20+ years, my avatar one did me 11 years and was then sold on, did have a Sed Ak400 for a while but the Eaton diffs on those shed teeth (the Eaton diffs in the Fodens didn’t for some reason!) and springs were broken at an alarming rate, one chassis snapped in half and the things could only carry 19.50 tonnes! Plus side was a decent cab, until it rotted away after around eight years. The Leyland Constructor etc was better on site though, but again the cab had tin worm after a few years.
Don’t know where it would rate for payload, fuel, etc. but the nicest eight wheeler to drive has, for me,
to be the Octopus 2. After coming off a Scammell Routeman it was like driving a car.
Deffo from the driver’s point of view. Comfortable, decent road holding, decent amount of power. One of the best in their day.
But then, I was always an AEC fan!
windrush:
Got to be Foden for me as well, cracking payload, virtually rot free cab, rubber rear suspension on the later ones (off road traction suffered a little then) and comfortable to drive. Drove them for 20+ years, my avatar one did me 11 years and was then sold on, did have a Sed Ak400 for a while but the Eaton diffs on those shed teeth (the Eaton diffs in the Fodens didn’t for some reason!) and springs were broken at an alarming rate, one chassis snapped in half and the things could only carry 19.50 tonnes! Plus side was a decent cab, until it rotted away after around eight years. The Leyland Constructor etc was better on site though, but again the cab had tin worm after a few years.
Pete.
This is interesting, to a twit like me, anyway. It suggests that the chassis on the 400 had more torsional rigidity than the Foden. On uneven ground, this would put more load onto individual “corners” of the vehicle, which would therefore load individual springs, hangers and the surrounding part of the chassis rail more. With diff locks engaged, the torque through the half-shaft driving the highest-loaded wheel would be higher, until the point when the whole axle would lose traction.
Are there any ex-Foden engineers on the forum, who could confirm or deny this?
[zb]
anorak:
This is interesting, to a twit like me, anyway. It suggests that the chassis on the 400 had more torsional rigidity than the Foden. On uneven ground, this would put more load onto individual “corners” of the vehicle, which would therefore load individual springs, hangers and the surrounding part of the chassis rail more. With diff locks engaged, the torque through the half-shaft driving the highest-loaded wheel would be higher, until the point when the whole axle would lose traction.
Are there any ex-Foden engineers on the forum, who could confirm or deny this?
Well I was a fitter on both makes before I went driving full time and the 400 had a more rigid chassis (a lot more X members) but the Foden chassis tended to suffer small cracks in the X members which we would weld up for test but would soon crack through again! This was the old Foden chassis, not the Paccar one. The Paccar one used Kenworth alloy flitch plates that would corrode against the steel chassis frame after several years, but they were easily replaceable as they were bolted. The SedAk 400 chassis seemed strong but we did have one break in two at the tipper ram brackets. Springwise the Foden’s were better, later of course they had the rubber back end and taperlight springs on the front which were better, Sed Ak had multiplate both front and rear and would break at the spring eyes, I had two break in one journey, and were blooming heavy which possibly explained the high tare weight amongst other things. I believe the Seddon was cheaper, we (TILCON) only had them when Foden were unable to meet demand but they didn’t run many and I THINK that only the Midland area quarries had them both in 4, 6 and 8 wheeler form.
Just to add as well, the Fodens we had at that time were not fitted with diff locks (worm and wheel diffs) but the Sed Ak was so it gained on site, the later Eaton or Rockwell equipped Fodens DID have diff locks (cross locks were an option but ours were not fitted with them) but the lack of articulation with the rubber suspension didn’t help traction much.
Hi All
I, like quite a few on here have driven a cross section of British 8 wheelers,to me one of the all time greats was the AEC Mammoth Major MkV.
It really was a good allround truck and I will never know if it’s successor the Ergo was superior or not because I didn’t experience driving one.
The last British 8 wheeler I drove was the ERF EC,fitted with the proverbial ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ driveline and rubber rear suspension. At the time I felt that that truck couldn’t have been improved on , I drove ERF 8 wheelers of all marks from the KV to the EC and they only got better with each successive mark. I wonder ,if, and can MAN carry on with ERF’s ground work and will we view them along with Volvo ,Scania Renault in the same light as the traditional 8 wheeler.
truckfing:
Don’t know where it would rate for payload, fuel, etc. but the nicest eight wheeler to drive has, for me,
to be the Octopus 2. After coming off a Scammell Routeman it was like driving a car.
i came of a Daf 2500 artic onto an Octopus 2…and my thoughts were opposite to yours…WTF am i doing driving one of these nails grew to sort of love it though.ive posted a pic of mine elsewhere on the forum.
Is there a real answer to this ,it really depends on what your using it for my family have had ERF a series on scrap ,MAN on coal and coke with the body almost touching the tyres ,fathers Atki Defender on quarry work and scrap at the time each lorry was what they saw as best for the job.
Plus side was a decent cab, until it rotted away after around eight years. The Leyland Constructor etc was better on site though, but again the cab had tin worm after a few years.
grew to sort of love it though.ive posted a pic of mine elsewhere on the forum.
