Perhaps it’s just me, but in much the same way that Series-1 Land Rovers, only look right in particular colours, or a ‘Chinese-six’ AEC Mustang looks unfinished, or even that only one particular actor will forever be Doctor Who, don’t you think Fodens really look best with eight wheels? It struck home most recently seeing this one owned by Chris Balls. A fantastic restoration by Steve Mayle it was sitting proudly at the head office of JC Balls and Sons, the well-known Derbyshire-based plant hire fleet, with its splendid bright yellow paintwork, seemingly luminescent against the grey winter sky A Foden S39 with (then revolutionary) fibreglass cab, Foden 12-speed transmission, Leyland 0.680 engine and Foden’s worm-double drive bogie. If ever a 1970s lorry was created by the sum of its parts, it is this one.
This S39, hails from 1972, a very interesting year for eight-wheelers generally and for Foden in particular. It was close to the end of production for the S39 cab, the last of the ‘Mickey Mouse’ shape which had begun with the S21 in the early 1960s replacing the S20, the instigator of the aerodynamic rounded design, but which utilised the more complex four-piece windscreen. In itself this led to the glasstilt and fixed cab versions of S34 and S36. The S39 introduced in 1969 would see Foden through to the bigger four-square S80 cab, with huge single headlamps, breaking cover in late 1972. Meanwhile, the Construction and Use Regulations had seen a shake-up for eight-wheelers at the same time. Although four-axle gross weights had stood at 30 tons for some time, this carried the proviso that the total axle spread (first to fourth, irrespective of first to mid-bogie wheelbase) needed to stand on a footprint of at least 26 feet. Most operators, due to manoeuvrability requirements, were happily running at 26 tons on the more compact 23 feet outer axle spread. However, this dimension was relaxed for 1972 with 30 tons GVW being allowed upon a chassis with only a 20 feet 8in total wheel-centre spread, as long as individual axle weights did not exceed 9.25 tons. The Earl’s Court Commercial Vehicle show that year was awash with 30-ton eight-wheelers from all the British manufacturers, even including a Unipower-converted Dodge 6X4 KT-Series, but most notably for the future, a lone Volvo F86.
