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78 FODEN

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20th September 1968

Page 130

Page 131

Page 130, 20th September 1968 — 78 FODEN

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Fodens Ltd., Sandbach, Cheshire.

FIVE chassis are on the Foden stand and while detail points of interest are to be found on each one, the major item of news is the use of a new half-cab on two of the vehicles. This has been developed from the all-steel cab used by Fodens and has the suspension for the rear that was introduced recently. This consists of conical rubbing mountings at the front with coil springs .at the rear surrounding telescopic dampers and transverse location by a Panhard rod.

Like many of the cabs now used by British manufacturers, the full-width all-steel cab used by Fodens is based on a structure supplied by Motor Panels. But the new half-cab is quite different and has an outward sloping windscreen. It is fully lined and insulated and although more applicable to chassis used off-the-road at least part of their life, Fodens is also offering it on normal road vehicles; on the demonstration park there is a tractive unit fitted with the cab.

The two chassis inside Earls Court with the half cab are an eight-wheel tipper for 24 tons gross with a Gardner 6LX engine and Foden 12-speed gearbox, and a six-wheel truck-mixer chassis with a 6LW engine and Foden 12-speed gearbox. Both of the chassis have double-drive rear bogies and because of its wheelbase the sixwheeler is limited to 20 tons gross weight.

The other three exhibits on the stand are tractive units, there being two four-wheelers for 32 tons gross combination weight but this is almost the only point on which the two chassis are the same. One of them has a Foden Mark VI, 175 bhp two-stroke engine with Foden 12-speed gearbox and latest pattern plastics tilt cab while the other has a Leyland 0.680 engine (200 bhp) and 10-speed semi-automatic gearbox and the non-tilt version of the cab.

The final exhibit is an export tractive unit for up to 80 tons g.c.vv. It has a Cummins NHK 250 engine which develops 240 bhp and the drive is through a 12-speed overdrive box. This particular gearbox has been modified internally by Fodens to take up to 700 lb.ft. torque which is necessary for this particular power unit. Another interesting point about the chassis and others on the stand is that it has a ceramic (sintered-iron) clutch which gives considerable improvement in life and operating characteristics in arduous conditions. The export six-wheeler has Kysor air-conditioning and because the vehicle will be operating in temperatures up to 160deg F it has a higher-capacity radiator and a larger grille on the front of the cab. Another interesting point about the vehicle is that it has double reduction heavy-duty axles and a four-spring bogie with a load equalization device consisting of Dunlop air bags over the rearmost axle which increase the load there when required. The equipment is intended to be used when extra heavy loads are being transported and the weight on the kingpin can cause the weight on the front axle to reduce to too low a figure; this is especially a problem on gradients.