Another Irish example! I wonder how many more there were. Robert 
For what itâs worth, I notice that all 3 Irish LHD B-series on this thread were on frigo work. Robert
robert1952:
For what itâs worth, I notice that all 3 Irish LHD B-series on this thread were on frigo work. Robert
Couldnât have been any slouches or un-reliable then, or they wouldnât have been run, or stood up to that life 
. Regards Chris
adr:
robert1952:
For what itâs worth, I notice that all 3 Irish LHD B-series on this thread were on frigo work. RobertCouldnât have been any slouches or un-reliable then, or they wouldnât have been run, or stood up to that life
Quite right, theyâd have had to lead the way up the A75! Robert 
Iâve exchanged emails with Jerry Cooke and included this note :
I went to ERFâs at Sandach once when on holiday to buy spares. By then I was transport manager and they made quite a fuss of me when they found out who I was. Tea in the boardroom and all that.
I donât know if you remember, but when the linkages became loose with age, the gear stick would smack the bonnet putting it into one gear (canât remember which) and you had to keep your fingers out of the way. I took the opportunity to ask what they were doing about that and they looked at me in bewilderment and said they had no plans to change the bonnet shape. I always thought that that endemic British attitude of âthatâs how it is - like it or lump itâ is one of the reasons we have lost so much manufacturing. The Swedes or the Japs would have engineered that fault out of it.
Did they fix this fault in the c series? Iâd always thought erf were better than that
John
John West:
Iâve exchanged emails with Jerry Cooke and included this note :I went to ERFâs at Sandach once when on holiday to buy spares. By then I was transport manager and they made quite a fuss of me when they found out who I was. Tea in the boardroom and all that.
I donât know if you remember, but when the linkages became loose with age, the gear stick would smack the bonnet putting it into one gear (canât remember which) and you had to keep your fingers out of the way. I took the opportunity to ask what they were doing about that and they looked at me in bewilderment and said they had no plans to change the bonnet shape. I always thought that that endemic British attitude of âthatâs how it is - like it or lump itâ is one of the reasons we have lost so much manufacturing. The Swedes or the Japs would have engineered that fault out of it.
Did they fix this fault in the c series? Iâd always thought erf were better than that
John
Damned good question! Iâm afraid that this peculiarly British attitude has come up time and time again on these threads. Maybe thatâs why I have learnt to love and accept these old ERFs: because, like the typical stoic of the A-roads, I liked it and lumped it! Alas, I was only driving them, not marketing them. On an upbeat, I can never remember the gear-stick getting my fingers into a trap in an ERF; however, I do remember that the gear-lever on the Scania 80 artic gutless wonder I once drove, used to run tight against the driverâs seat and trap your fingers against it! I also remember that if you even dared think about double de-clutching, the little piston in the gear-change mechanism would become exasperated and refuse the change; and I do remember climbing back into a B-series ERF with some sense of thanksgiving and relief because it was simply vastly nicer to drive! Robert 
John West:
Iâve exchanged emails with Jerry Cooke and included this note :I went to ERFâs at Sandach once when on holiday to buy spares. By then I was transport manager and they made quite a fuss of me when they found out who I was. Tea in the boardroom and all that.
I donât know if you remember, but when the linkages became loose with age, the gear stick would smack the bonnet putting it into one gear (canât remember which) and you had to keep your fingers out of the way. I took the opportunity to ask what they were doing about that and they looked at me in bewilderment and said they had no plans to change the bonnet shape. I always thought that that endemic British attitude of âthatâs how it is - like it or lump itâ is one of the reasons we have lost so much manufacturing. The Swedes or the Japs would have engineered that fault out of it.
Did they fix this fault in the c series? Iâd always thought erf were better than that
John
the u/j on the bottom of the gearstick on my c series broke , no gears middle lane M6 Bâham. handily i had a load of tube out of corby works, so , i nicked 1 of the wires for the cardboard product tag, and up went the cab, wired up the u/j , and carried on .
For the next 4 years or so. the workshop did weld it up , but it broke again so i just wired it up , lot more reliable, wire , apparently
Maybe I was wrong about it smacking your fingers, but it certainly didnât engage the gear properly which wasnât good.
Slightly off thread, but I wonder if that problem and the Scania 80 problem was anything to do with them being built with the wheel on the wrong side.
When I came back from Saudi I bought an Amtrak franchise. First van (and a few thereafter) was a 307D. The driverâs side footwell was somewhat âsnugâ to say the least - nowhere to put your left foot really.
But loooaaads of room in the passenger footwell!
John
John West:
Maybe I was wrong about it smacking your fingers, but it certainly didnât engage the gear properly which wasnât good.Slightly off thread, but I wonder if that problem and the Scania 80 problem was anything to do with them being built with the wheel on the wrong side.
When I came back from Saudi I bought an Amtrak franchise. First van (and a few thereafter) was a 307D. The driverâs side footwell was somewhat âsnugâ to say the least - nowhere to put your left foot really.
But loooaaads of room in the passenger footwell!
John
You were probably right about the LHD / RHD thing in the Scania. Certainly, I found the LHD 142 to be nicer to drive than the RHD 142 because you pulled that dog-leg 1st / 6th gear shift towards you instead of pushing away from you in the old 10-speed 'box! Robert
Ashley Coghillâs slide lecture at the Middle-East Seminar at Gaydon threw up all sorts of nice old ERFs. Here are some of Nick Bullâs B-series LHD unit. Weâve seen several pics of it on this thread, but these show the Middle-Easter at work, and are really good pictures. Cheers, Robert
Ashley also showed this one. This LHD B-series was doing the Middle-East run too, but I know nothing about it. Can anyone fill in some details? Robert
That tilt looks like itâs got greedy boards.
Nice treasure! What is remarkable:
- striping according to White RCâs
- headlights-unit, so before 1978
- mark of horsepower on bumper
A-J
John West has been in contact with me re the Caravan ERFs of Dammam in Saudi. He wrote as follows:
Various photos taken by Andy West attached, mainly from the 20 years that I owned an Amtrak franchise. Andy has captioned them and I donât think they need further explanation - shame about the camera judder on BX54.
Steve Burrow is aged about 27 and has always been an ERF fanatic. He gave up a very good apprenticeship at Kimberly Clark to go driving and currently pilots a Mercedes for JT Leyland of Milnthorpe - Bewickâs stamping ground.
That reminds me, I sold one of my Mastiffs to Dennis, I wonder if he has any photos of it - the only ones I have are in my mind.
The picture taken from the driversâ villa of the red ERF was the first one that Caravan bought from Star Commercials, before it was painted in the green and white Caravan colours. Itâs loaded for Waste Management at Riyadh. '78 or '79.
Before Waste Management took on the Urban Cleaning contract at Riyadh, all waste was taken to a particular place in the desert and dumped. Waste Management had the task of clearing this dump. We took some of the equipment to that dump. Piles of refuse of all kinds including dead aniimals and kitchen waste were tipped alongside a winding track. Despite the blistering heat, you could not possibly drive through those mounds with your window open. The flies were a solid mass of humming blue.
They poured petrol on the dumps and set them alight. We watched some of the piles go up, they almost exploded with the fierceness of the fires.
Peter Best was transport manager then, but I canât remember who drove that ERF. We started out with a few Brits, I remember Eric Collins and a lad called Angus who was some relative of Peterâs, plus there were about eight or nine of us owner drivers, including Peter Minnis, who later wrote for âTruckâ magazine and then became a publisher himself.
Then the next drivers were Somalis with Yemeni passports, a couple of them are in the photos on my website, Mohammed later became transport manager when I moved up to the main office as âoperations managerâ.
After Peter had left and I became transport manager, I went to the Phillipines (maybe 1982) and recruited about 20 drivers and a brilliant mechanic, Rene whoâd worked on â â â â â â â engines at Clark airforce base.
Rene was a good welder as well. We finished up with a rake of 20â skeletals from the States. Rene was a dab hand at making one 40â out of two 20âs. (no C&U regulations - if it worked, it worked). I also attach a photo of me in my Honda, which I inherited from Peter when he left. You can see a couple of the 20â Skeletals in the background.
Most of our trailers were American and had the âtrilexâ type wheels, but the rims werenât split into three. We all liked them, they were so much lighter than the European wheels. I see on the trilex thread that people say how fussy the rims and wheel nuts were, but I donât honestly remember them being a problem - and we pulled some funny old weights on them!
We also had a contract with Sanibel Dairies. Before they arrived we used âNidoâ powdered milk for our tea. Horrible at first, you soon got used to it and enjoyed your tea again.
Sanibel imported pregnant cows. The cows died within a year or so, because they couldnt stand the heat, but the calves, being born there, survived, so thereafter we had fresh milk, which was a joy. I remember on one trip to a camp miles out in the desert with a track leading to it which had turned into a jaw juddering washboard effect, I had filled my âElephantâ flask with cold fresh milk. When I got to the camp and opened the flask for a drink - it had turned to cheese!
Iâll be adding some photos of the people in the Caravan office to the website over the next few days.
Best wishes
John.
Fascinating insights, John and thanks for sharing it all with us. I will post some of the Amtrak pics below - Robert
ERF-Continental:
Nice treasure! What is remarkable:
- striping according to White RCâs
- headlights-unit, so before 1978
- mark of horsepower on bumper
A-J
- Yes the unitâs on a T-reg plate, which was 1978
- the trailer fuel-tanks and side-boxes are worthy of note
- the air-con unit on the roof is too!
- I wouldnât mind betting that the figure on the bumper has been calculated the old Dutch way and that we just canât read the figures âPKâ (paarde kracht) after it. Robert
@RobertâŚAGREE!!!
That might indicate this previous Dutch was refurbished (mind the other Dutch B-series
in Germany in front of the Ford-dealers) with same White RC-striping.
ERF-Continental:
@RobertâŚAGREE!!!That might indicate this previous Dutch was refurbished (mind the other Dutch B-series
in Germany in front of the Ford-dealers) with same White RC-striping.
Yes A-J I hadnât thought of that! This unit surely bears the hallmarks of a re-imported Dutch ERF, but the only problem is that it would be on a Q-plate not a T-plate, so the mystery hangs in the air⌠Robert
To be continuedâŚin Holland and Belgium (perhaps the dealers forced so) it was ânormalâ to
show off on how many horses (not the fuel-consumption though) you had. Some influence on
UK was absorbed as on last picture
Thatâs a much clearer picture of Van Steenbergen no. 28/31 than weâve seen on here before! Itâs the pic that appeared on the front of Chassis magazine. Robert