The Surrey-based Foss family own a fabulous collection of restored lorries representing their long history in road haulage. This 1988 MAN 30 331 is a recent addition, and has been given a full in-house restoration. Peter Simpson tells the story…
Over the past few years, we’ve been impressed by the various preserved vehicles within the ‘Britaniacrest’ collection. This collection which pays tribute to the Foss family’s history in lorries, and represents the vehicles operated by both Britaniacrest Recycling and, back in the 1960s, those run by Chairman Ray Foss’s father Charlie. His firm, Charles Foss and Co., were well-known in and around London. The 1988 MAN 30 331 eight-wheel tipper is one of their younger lorries. It is, however, absolutely stunning. It’s also now surprisingly rare. Indeed, when the Foss family started looking for a worthwhile example, they were surprised by how scarce they seemed to have become.
A Representative collection
Like the rest of the ‘collection’ the MAN 30 331 was acquired because it represents a type of lorry that the business operated in the past. These were also, according to Britaniacrest Director Ray Foss Junior “extremely popular” with the firm’s drivers at the time.
Acquired in late 2016, F475NUR is not an actual Britaniacrest lorry, but it does have a sort-of connection. When new it worked in the London area where Charlie Foss’s tippers were a familiar sight in the 1960s. Then, in the early 1980s, Ray Foss began in business running household waste for the Greater London Council from a transfer site in Croydon to landfill in South Ockenden.
The current business started in 1993, and is based near Gatwick Airport. There are also two further locations in Surrey and West Sussex. They are also currently building a major “Recycling, Recovery and Renewable Energy” facility on a former brickworks near Horsham. Once completed this will, apparently, process around 230,000 tonnes of domestic rubbish a year. Anything recyclable will be removed and the rest ised to generate electricity. It’s claimed that enough juice will be made to power a town with a population of 47,000.
Back from Ireland
Back to the matter at hand though, after its time in London, the MAN moved to Ireland, where it was used mainly on muck-away work by owner-driver John Mclaughlin. He worked the lorry for “six or seven years” and, by all accounts took great care of it. Every year, John took a longish holiday abroad, and during one of these he arranged for a local fabricator to fully refurbish the tipper body, work which included fitting a complete new floor and understrut assembly. Then, in 2015/16, just a couple of years after this, he decided to retire…
This co-incided with the Foss family wanting to add a MAN 30 331 tipper to the collection and finding, as noted a moment ago, that they had all-but vanished from Britain’s roads. There were, though, still some working in Ireland, so feelers were put out there. A contact in County Cork named Enda Mcbride found out that John McLaughlin had just retired and was selling his lorry, passed the information on to Ray Foss, and Ray then flew out to take a look…
Rusty cab, otherwise good
Overall, the MAN 30 331 wasn’t in bad condition, and having only just stopped working it was, by working lorry standards, sound enough mechanically. The cab, however, was in extremely poor condition, rusted beyond viable repair, but John McLaughlin was aware of this and had acquired a solid ex-military replacement cab, but he retired before he was able to fit it, and the replacement cab was included in the deal.
Anyway, Ray liked what he saw, and a deal was done, with the money being transferred there and then. Ray then drove the MAN across to Belfast where it was put on a ferry back to Britain and met by one of Britaniacrest’s low-loaders at the other end.
Then, after it was transported back to base in Surrey, restoration started more-or-less immediately.
Hands-on management
As you’d expect given the size of their fleet, Britaniacrest’s maintenance and repair facilities are pretty comprehensive, to put it mildly! There’s also no shortage of skilled staff around, though we should mention that Ray Junior was quite hands-on with this restoration and often did work himself in the evenings because he wanted to! The workshops are, however, there for the working fleet, and its needs must always take priority. The restoration was used as a ‘quiet times’ project, meaning that while progress was sometimes quite rapid, there were other times when little or nothing could be done.
Work started with removal of the cab and tipper body, and stripping the chassis which was then cleaned, blasted and painted – the last being one of the jobs that Ray did himself. The main mechanical components were basically okay and the engine needed little more than a thorough service and check-over, though when the engine and gearbox were split, the engine’s rear oil seal was found to be leaking and renewed. A new three-piece clutch kit was also fitted.
Drivetrain repairs
Further back, new propshaft centre bearings were needed. There was also “quite a bit of play” in the rear axle differentials which was rectified by renewing a couple of bearings. The brakes were fully overhauled with new linings and drums all round. The springs, steering and so on were re-bushed and sorted as required; the original springs were fine for reuse. The tipper ram was sent to local specialist Thompsons for overhaul, and the tipping gear is now fully operational.
In terms of parts availability, a local supplier known, perhaps unsurprisingly, as “Parts Ray”, supplies many of Britaniacrest’s needs and he was able to source much of what was needed. The local (Redhill) branch of MAN dealership PCL Trucks were also extremely helpful, including sourcing some unusual main dealer only type stuff from Germany – and Ray admits that Britaniacrest’s buying power probably helped with ‘motivation’ and pricing! A few real gems came to light including the ultra-rare original sunvisor that the tipper now wears. A new radiator and turbocharger (supplied by Parts Ray) were also fitted, and the intercooler was treated to a very thorough clean-out.
One crucial part, however, had to travel much further than any of this. The Eaton gear-operation knob, which includes hydraulics, was cracked and leaking internally. The only place a replacement could be found was Australia.
When acquired, the MAN had a fairly typical working lorry mix of non-original wheels and tyres. Following an extensive search, a complete set of thirteen (twelve for the road plus a spare) original pattern rims were found in a German scrapyard. New tyres – from the fleet’s ‘usual supplier’ were also fitted all round.
Cab Swap harder than expected!
As noted earlier, the MAN 30 331 came with a new ex-military cab which the previous owner intended fitting but never did. Ray now suspects that he wasn’t especially keen to undertake the job, “and when I did it, I could see why.” The two cabs were sat side by side in the workshop, with components being swapped and refurbished as required. The replacement cab needed some modification as because it was intended for a left-hand-drive lorry. Specifically, the front corner wings were different to accommodate the RHD-type air intake being positioned differently. This means that the cab steps are also slightly different. The original wings could be reused after some localised repairs. The steps, however were too far gone. So a local fabrication specialist made new ones using the rusty originals as patterns.
Inside the cab, a pair of refurbished seats, using the original covering material, came from Greece. A replacement headlining, again using original-type material, was made and fitted by professional trimmer called Bruce who also happens to be Ray’s wife’s cousin. The rest of the interior was good enough to be cleaned up and reused. The cab and lorry electrics were thoroughly checked by an auto-electrician. He made a few localised repairs to the loom to ensure it was 100% safe, and also renewed a number of lights and other components.
Unusually, the tipper body was probably the best part of the whole lorry pre-restoration. It had, as already noted, been fully refurbished a couple of years before the lorry and owner retired. The floor in particular “looked like it was almost brand new.” The only work required was removal, shot-blasting, painting and refitting. Cab and body were both finished in house using two-pack. Mark of Harrow-based Spectrum Signs, who also looks after the working fleet’s branding, applied the signwriting.
Finished in six months
In all, the project took six months from start to finish – a time which reflects the facilities available, plus the fact that all in all, the lorry wasn’t in that bad a condition, and the most important replacement part needed – the cab – came with it. Since completion, the MAN has been on a number of shows – mostly local – and also taken part, alongside other Britaniacrest preserved lorries, in the London to Brighton run.
So there we are. To some of us, it probably seems like only yesterday when lorries like this could be seen everywhere. 1988 is, however, now 37 years ago, and they’ve pretty much all gone. This is due mainly to natural aging, though ever-tightening environmental regulations make commercial operation of vehicles like this harder with each passing year. Thankfully, at least one will very definitely be retained for posterity. Younger enthusiasts now and in the future can see what tippers in the second half of the 1980s were actually like.
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