• Owner-operator Donald King runs an 8x4 bulk blower, delivering
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poultry foodstuffs in southern England for Humphrey Holdings of Winchester. Fie started 19 years ago with tipping attics and has operated a rigid blower for the past nine years. His is an early Foden Alpha fitted with the Cummins Mr 380 engine.
He says: 1 had a Foden 4300 before with the Caterpillar 3306 which was returning 6.25mpg. All the tests I read in the press suggested a much better fuel consumption was possible from the Mu. Hooked at other trucks. Volvo did not bother to send me a quote, even though Humphrey operates an all-Volvo fleet. However, I wanted to swap my PPG body over to the new chassis and that would only sensibly fit onto either an ERF or Foden.
With the promise of more local backup than was already in place at Fareham and Bournemouth I took delivery of the new
truck in August 1998," he adds. "It was originally promised for July and so I lost three weeks' work. Foden credited me with Li,000 on future parts purchases. It was a gesture but fell well short of meeting my loss in full. Priden Engineering of Wisbech did a good job in swapping the body over for me. I received good parts supply with my previous Foden but the local servicing has yet to materialise. Parts prices for the Alpha seem to be dictated by Daf and are much higher than for either the 4000 Series or ERF.
"I had anticipated getting about 8. ompg out of the Cummins engine, which I had hoped would help pay for it, but it has not lived up to my expectations," says King. In fact it has got worse as the engine has bedded in. The return for March shows 6.36mpg. It's not a job that gives good mpg figures as the truck can be stood blowing for two to three hours a day but I was expecting better than I got with the Caterpillar engine.
"Foden didn't have an engineer in this area until last September but a Cummins engineer did visit rue quite early on and has been several times since," he says. "A new ECM was fitted but consumption has got worse since. I went onto the Foden stand at the Commercial Vehicle Show and I have been promised that someone will have another look at the problem. I paid extra to have the r6-speed Eaton box but I could manage without the splits in the lower range. The 12-speed should be quite adequate for A-road running. I was keen to have Air-trac air suspension on the rear but