Sailing on the road with the new Foden Fleetmaster
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OW that the Boat Show has osed its doors to the public, e task of removing the :hibits from Earls Court has, all intents and purposes, !en accomplished, writes ('EVE GRAY.
As always the boats, some of em massive affairs, are carsd back to their boatyards on irious types of vehicles.
These range from Land avers with trailers for the 'miler craft to tractive units id low loaders for the larger To find out what it's like to ansport a boat and also to ive the new Foden Fleetaster with a sleeper cab and olls-Royce 290L power unit, e decided to carry out a trial. L conjunction with our ;sociate journal, Motor Boat id Yachting, we took a dingy om Emsworth Sailing Club, ampsh ire, to a boatyard at lardlow, near Derby.
Although the boat to be oved wasn't very large, it as on a trailer which ouldn't have made the jourw behind a Land Rover. The ast of the dinghy was 7.3m 4ft) long and a second trailer so had to be taken back.
Although it seemed rather c.e taking a sledgehammer to .ush a grape, we decided to ;e a Foden Fleetmaster and a rane Fruehauf low loader for le job.
The Fleetmaster — equipxi with a Rolls-Royce 290L 3wer unit — was Foden's lat composite grp/steel eeper cab version, and was ened to us by Ron Day of reenwoods Truck Sales imited of Hoddesdon, Hertprdshire.
The Foden was a brand-new smonstrator and came to us amaculately turned out with gold chassis and white and Did cab.
From Hoddesdon we drove the Crane Fruehauf service spot at South Mimms where e collected a CF80-Series low iader with a 6.1m (20ft) bed — us particular trailer beinging to Vic Cook Transport f Suffolk.
Having coupled up, we set if for Emsworth, taking the ,6 towards St Albans then the A412 to Denham and the A40/ A412 through to Slough.
It was here we encountered our first obstacle — the Windsor Cordon. This prohibits vehicles over 5 tons from using any of the southern roads from, Windsor.
Instead of being able to go straight through to the M3 at Bagshot, we were forced to go along the M4 to Staines and join the M25/M3 there.
The rest of the journey to ,Emsworth, via Farnham and the A3, was fairly uneventful except for a slight hitch at Farnham.
A momentary lapse by our navigator had us heading down a B-road and having to negotiate a very tight righthander over a narrow bridge. After a lot of strenuous effort, involving shunting the outfit back and forth, we finally managed to clear the obstacle.
After that we were constantly on the lookout for similar hazards and humpback bridges. If the hump isn't too great, these latter, could be cleared, however, by using the hydraulics of the low loader to raise the deck. The hydraulics are also used to lower the trailer's front end and remove the neck for loading.
Emsworth itself is a village on the A27 midway between Portsmouth and Chichester. However, the Sailing Club is on a minor road which runs down to the sea beside a millstream.
Before we took the Foden with its trailer down this road we decided to check the location, and it was here that we discovered some of the problems experienced by boat transport operators.
The car park in which the boat was located had a narrow entrance and exit and it contained a couple of dozen assorted boats.
It was impossible to turn our vehicle round anywhere or indeed to enter the car park; so we had to remove some of the car park gate posts in order to drive in.
After all the trouble we had in gaining entry there was still no room to turn round in the car park after we had loaded the boat, so we had to reverse to a side road further back. Once we had rejoined the A27 it was plain sailing to retrace our route — with the exception of the tight bridge — until we joined the MI at Watford.
On the motorway the Foden's power really came into its own, but as the Fleetmaster was very new — a mere 900km on the tachograph — we took care not to run the vehicle at too high a speed.
However, the Rolls-Royce 290, which produces 216kW (290bhp) at 1950rpm, was eager to perform.
It was loosening up all the time and although the trailer and its load wasn't a real test , for its potential power, we jot the impression it would be a very good unit at 32 tons.
The Foden sleeper cab is very well trimmed and, as it's a short sleeper with just one bunk, it will couple to a 12m (40ft) trailer without proiblems.
, The lever for the Fuller box l(RT9509A) is well placed, as • 'are the other driving controls.
Forward vision through the single-piece screen (dayJcabbed Fleetmasters have divided screens) is excellent, and it is kept clear by three wipers which have built-in washers.
! However, there was a minor flaw in the new cab. The front panel which houses the headlamp is mad-e of grp and is too flexibly mounted and lacks rigidity.
Because of this the headlamps flicker when going over rough or rutted road sections. Although this doesn't unduly bother the lorry's driver, it could cause difficulties for other road users.
Apart from this fault the new cab provides a pleasant environment in which to work. It is comfortable, well appointed and easy to enter and to leave.
Having dropped our load off at Shardlow and after an overnight stay we returned the trailer and unit to their respective owners.
We shall be approaching Fodens for a full road test of the Fleetmaster sleeper with RR290 as soon as possible. IT SOUNDS LIKE the start of one of those after-dinner jokes: ''There were three Welshmen and one Englishman together on a plane bound for Germany ... In fact, this was the scene for the first day of the Michelin European Study Tour award to the 1979 CM Lorry Driver of the Year.
The sole Englishman was Chris Rogers, Michelin's public relations officer. The Welshmen were Wynne Phillips, 1979 Driver of the Year; Eric Williams, Wynne's training manager from Western BRS; and myself.
Inevitably, the conversation soon turned to rugby and although Chris is an ex player I had to sympathise with him .since I'm sure he must have felt at a disadvantage. How many English players can you think of to match such names as Gareth Edwards, Barry, John, Mervyn Davies or J. P. R. Williams? Perhaps it was as well that we were going to a non rugbyplaying nation.
At Dusseldorf airport we were met by Manfred Schweiss from Michelin Germany and two representatives from Blaupunkt, the company that was to be our host for the first part of the study tour in Germany. Blaupunkt was going to demonstrate its two information systems for motorists — ARI, and the more recently developed ALI. We were able to see ALI in action straightaway as it was fitted to the car in which we travelled from Dusseldorf to our hotel at Recklinghausen.
The code number for Recklinghausen was punched into the dashboard-mounted unit and then, each time we passed over one of the induction loops on the autobahn, the best route