Fodens promote decker
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THE FODEN-NC doubledecker is still under development, and both Fodens and Northern Counties told CM this week that they plan to continue with the project.
To date, seven bodied examples are in trial service with Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West York-shire, and South Yorkshire PTEs, Potteries Motor Traction, and Derby Borough Council, and some have exceeded 250,000 miles.
All have Allison automatic transmission, but an eighth development chassis is being used by Fodens to evaluate other transmission types.
All decisions on sales and marketing are being taken by Northern Counties, which commissioned the vehicle at a time when chassis were in short supply.
NC managing director David Cherry says there is no plan to drop the vehicle, and there are still tenders outstanding for the model.
According to Fodens, the model is returning fuel consumption figures of around six mpg. Although this is worse than for a vehicle with SelfChanging Gears transmission, the company is not dissatisfied with the figure and says it prefers to look at overall running costs.
The West Midlands vehicle had its brakes relined for the first time after 42,000 miles, whereas its standard Fleetlines are relined usually after 8,000 miles.
The use of the Ferodo brake retarder which maintains rgtardation down to four mph has contributed greatly towards these figures, and is especially valuable when the vehicle is working at slow speeds.
Drivers are also understood to prefer the Foden vehicles because waste heat from the torque converter transmission is channelled into the saloon heater and makes for imported comfort.
The bus's builders are confident that further orders will be placed once the PTEs have had a chance to compare the Foden with the other new generation vehicles in their fleets.