Am i alone in never being impressed with these ‘plastic pigs’ , again another british manufacture that made cheap n nasty cabs , poor build quality , just thinking that decent engine/ driveline set up would be enough to be competitive & as history shows - was not to be , surely if they’d have tried a little harder to compete with there rivals & not sold to western star could it have been a very different story ?
Cant see the problem my self,2 young lads turned down the DAF XF85 and want the EC11 olympic who work for my brother.The good thing with ERFs is everything is adjustable or reparable .
Dan Punchard:
Cant see the problem my self,2 young lads turned down the DAF XF85 and want the EC11 olympic who work for my brother.The good thing with ERFs is everything is adjustable or reparable .
I would drive a EC11 all day and every day, rather than the s*"t that’s on offer today.
boris:
Am i alone in never being impressed with these ‘plastic pigs’ , again another british manufacture that made cheap n nasty cabs , poor build quality , just thinking that decent engine/ driveline set up would be enough to be competitive & as history shows - was not to be , surely if they’d have tried a little harder to compete with there rivals & not sold to western star could it have been a very different story ?
plastic metal whats the differance ?,everythink you drive today has plastic somewhere on the bodywork.so that arguments out the window !!..
as for build quality,thats untrue
I was driving for or council and had a 6wh tipper we were changing to a hook-loader and my transport manager gave me the choice of three makes Volvo Daf and ERF. I chose the ERF EC our operation was based on the landfill site and was a dirty mucky place all year round. The EC coped very well and in the 7 years that we had it was a great motor comfortable and a nice drive and nothing fell off and there was no cracking of the plastic. If I had been an owner driver I would have been well pleased with it. Eddie.
The only plastic that i think could have been improved would be the b c and e series door cards would be better if they were thicker.however they got them right on the EC.
1990 ERF and still looks as good as anything of that period, and would still look good up against the new stuff.
This was a cracking motor with its Eaton Twin Splitter Box & the Perkins RR 375 , & No complaints about the cab , It could hold its own with anything
Very smart Dan not overdone and looks ready for another days work. Eddie.
Cheers,its very hard to stay away from the i crashed in to an accessory shop look.When i have a bad week with the flat its also hard not to start using it with new tyres, gearbox, drums shoes, radiator, lights, grill ,shockers air bags, heater and fan ,wiper spindles/arms ,windscreen, centre bearing ,valves ,tank straps ,belts hoses,and more.it would do me along time with out needing much doing.
Les Morgan’s fine looking ERF and step frame trailer. Les also has a nice ERF KV unit that has been restored to a high standard.
Cheers Dave.
This was an Ex BRS Motor, Gowlands ran long distance all the time, Powered by the Gardner 6 LW No doubt, There were lots of them about in the
It wasn’t the quality that caused the demise of ERF or British makers IMO, it was failure from the makers and dealers to take on the foreigners at their own game of offering 24 hour workshops, leasing etc and the whole package.
The Brit vehicles were every bit as good and could be maintained far cheaper, (personally i preferred Sed Acks especially the 401s but thats from a drivers not owners view,) and in well specced cases superior to the foreign stuff, but the attractive overall packages couldn’t match up.
Plus we lost over the years that most important of things for a nation…patriotism…i worked for one haulier (one of the best fleets in Northants) that wouldn’t have a foreign lorry in the yard and the gaffer wouldn’t buy a foreign car either, if more had been like this then our country might be completely different today.
Oversimplified?, True, course we ■■■■■■ the rest of British industry up the wall during the same timeline in the race to turn the country into one big office block / shopping centre and concreted much of the rest to house millions of immigrants.
I too would sooner drive a real British lorry(■■■■■■■ Fuller Rockwell) than any of this modern electronic junk.
Juddian:
It wasn’t the quality that caused the demise of ERF or British makers IMO, it was failure from the makers and dealers to take on the foreigners at their own game of offering 24 hour workshops, leasing etc and the whole package.The Brit vehicles were every bit as good and could be maintained far cheaper, (personally i preferred Sed Acks especially the 401s but thats from a drivers not owners view,) and in well specced cases superior to the foreign stuff, but the attractive overall packages couldn’t match up.
Plus we lost over the years that most important of things for a nation…patriotism…i worked for one haulier (one of the best fleets in Northants) that wouldn’t have a foreign lorry in the yard and the gaffer wouldn’t buy a foreign car either, if more had been like this then our country might be completely different today.
Oversimplified?, True, course we ■■■■■■ the rest of British industry up the wall during the same timeline in the race to turn the country into one big office block / shopping centre and concreted much of the rest to house millions of immigrants. Well said that man, I agree whole heartedly, Regards Larry.
I too would sooner drive a real British lorry(■■■■■■■ Fuller Rockwell) than any of this modern electronic junk.
Hi, Larry
ERF,s in their day were good motors,they (the company ) were a bit slow modernising but the KV and then the LV and A series was the backbone of many a British fleet.
Things really started coming together with the E series, good drive line ,a decent cab and these attributes were merged into the really good fleet motor, the EC.
I,ve driven many British trucks and also done many a mile in the Scandinavian breeds ,but I’ve never been on the back end of a wrecker in an ERF but I have in,Volvo’s Scania’s and Iveco’s.
A pair of pliers and a adjustable spanner a couple of cable ties , that’s all you need to get most ERF’s home, Oh and crossed fingers!
Cheers Bassman
This is an early '70’s shot of some of the Bewick tractor units with our first ERF “A” Series which I bought because I couldn’t source a new Atki at the time and we were desperate for more motive power at the time,Iv’e got to say that although I was a commited Atky operator that ERF was a nice smooth motor,helped enormously by the Dynair thermo fan we had fitted from new,it’s spec was 220■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ 6509/Kirkstall D85 HR.It never seemed to be able to perform as well as some of the Atky’s but it gave trouble free operation throughout its time on the fleet and I can honestly say that we never had a bad ERF out of all the ones we ran over the years,the last ones were C38 Series which joined the fleet during 1982.
This was the 3rd A Series tractor unit we bought and the first Gardner engined one it is also my favourite ERF out of them all,now if every motor ERF produced had worked as hard and was as reliable as this tractor proved to be the factory might still have been in business ! 
This company was a big ERF fan and ran them over the water cheers Buzzer.
While I never drove anything past a B series, the LV, A series and B series were among the worst things I ever drove.