Indeed…that is PKR668G and in Pat Kennett’s World Trucks No. 1 it is SKN788H
I can’t really answer the question about DD units, but Henley’s only a couple of hundred yards away in Paddock Wood never had any DD units and we did a lot of farm collections. However it was normal for Henley, Firmin, and Mitchell and Robertson to do the majority of the farm collections with four wheelers - something which is almost unheard of today. The only local firm I recall running artics almost exclusively on this sort of work was Louis Reece.
I suppose it is the decline in popularity of the London Markets that has put paid to the four wheeler which was so well suited to getting the job done quicker.
240 Gardner:
Taken in Rome, I believe, c.1970
Hi,
Looking back i can’t believe i drove these in Europe but they were reliable if not noisy! when i went up to the ERF it was better by far, then onto ERF C38 which again was better still,
Just out of interest [as far as i remember] 
we used to deliver clothes to Hafenstrasse warehouse Krefeld anything else went to the main NAAFI warehouse in Krefeld.
The best run was to Naples or Sardinia after re-loading in Krefeld.
Ah those were the days!
Roger.
robert1952:
GCR2ERF:
Always liked the look of their double drive C & E Series - can anyone tell us how/why they came to this spec please?I too have often wondered about this. The only answer I can come up with is that having done quite a lot of work in the '80s roaming the Kent countryside to pick up produce with artic fridges, there was plenty of opportunity to risk bogging down in some of the farms and even fields visited. Even as recently as 2008 I got bogged down in a Kentish farm early one morning (fortunately, with judicious use of the diff-lock I was able to ‘un-bog’ myself before the farmer arrived)!
However, it may have had more to do with the destinations on the Continent that Lowe went to. I expect someone will come up with a definitive answer. Cheers, Robert
There are some pictures and comments in the Old Pond book about the ERF B, C & E Series, but the author is unaware of the reason they had double drive axles he says ‘unusually the trucks features a double drive back end, so maybe the extra weight was traded off against the 6LYT engine’
Welcome Valleyforge, great to hear from an ex driver.Look forward to more pictures if you have any available.
I read somewhere in the past that Lowe specified double drive because of weight distribution/loading in the trailers being haphazard and this would deal with heavy loaded in the front of the trailers.Not sure however if this is correct.
Just to keep your appetite going, here is a picture Lowe proudly use on their current business website!
There were some amazing pictures of Lowe LV ‘Chinese sixes’ and other early Continental vehicles on ebay a couple of weeks ago. Did anyone bother to save them? Robert
robert1952:
There were some amazing pictures of Lowe LV ‘Chinese sixes’ and other early Continental vehicles on ebay a couple of weeks ago. Did anyone bother to save them? Robert
Yes!
Ringrose, I put a Ldd on about Lowes that may intrest you on the ldd thread.
ERF-Continental:
Lowe’s had a long term contract with NAAFI or with AAFES to supply military bases in Germany.
I have been told it was especially meat and meat-products, Van Steenbergen had a contract
for supplying Dortmunder beer at that time. Heads up and cheers!I remember the LV-cabbed twin steers…in the seventies and mid eighties. In World
Trucks No. 1 (coincidence?) a nice picture is printed at the back overleaf. Names on the
tractors had a relation with admiralty.
This was on ebay recently! Robert
DEANB:
Ringrose, I put a Ldd on about Lowes that may intrest you on the ldd thread.
Thank you DeanB, just read it, would be great if you could load it onto this thread too.
Also found this picture,Lowe peeking out at the end, the fridge trailer next to it looks like Lowe too!
The TSA Trailers were… connected to Teise Storage Association which was the accounts used for the
storage at the farm they owned. Certain items were put in their colours for tax reasons.
Named after …the River Teise.
The Double drive units were purchased with axle weights in mind being mainly tandem axle trailers
and heavy as well… The insulation was full of water ! But… mainly because of the deal Alan struck
with the rep from Normand commercials. The family were fiercely loyal to the companies that helped
them in the early days… including tyre supplies from Central and ALWAYS Michelin. Bradford Batteries
supplied their Batteries from their depot in Collier Street.
When the last ten units were purchased the cheque was written out there and then… Not many companies
could do that in those days.
Great set of drivers… Every one a “Character”
And… with the later trailers… Crane Fruhauf / Petter the Road tax was less than half the normal rate of
£3100 per annum for six axles.
Hi,
When i worked for Lowe’s of Paddock Wood in Kent, on one of my trips i had tipped in Germany and my next load was Bananas from Antwerp Docks, well here were 7 of us tipping in Krefeld at the Naafi and we all met up at the Docks Monday evening, we were told the ship would arrive maybe Wednesday/Thursday, well you knew when it was due as the Dutch wagon and trailers would start to arrive,
So we picked a trailer took our passenger seats out got our gas stoves at the ready and managed to get some Bananas from a store at the Docks went off into town and bought some Milk and Custard powder as i said it was one of my favorites afters i got the job of cooking it, we had some funny looks from some other drivers as they past our trailer and some even tried the food!
Come Thursday no sign of the ship so we phoned the office only to be told to wait as the boss could see the ship coming up the Channel [ he must have had Bloody good eyesight] 
. it finally arrived Saturday Midnite.
We all got away in time to catch the 0400 sailing from Zeebrugge to Dover, some feat from the Dock workers,
They were good times and not so good sometimes, a few of my mates there that week have past away but i still think of that week and just thought i would share it with you.
Cheers,
Roger.
valleyforge:
Hi,When i worked for Lowe’s of Paddock Wood in Kent, on one of my trips i had tipped in Germany and my next load was Bananas from Antwerp Docks, well here were 7 of us tipping in Krefeld at the Naafi and we all met up at the Docks Monday evening, we were told the ship would arrive maybe Wednesday/Thursday, well you knew when it was due as the Dutch wagon and trailers would start to arrive,
So we picked a trailer took our passenger seats out got our gas stoves at the ready and managed to get some Bananas from a store at the Docks went off into town and bought some Milk and Custard powder as i said it was one of my favorites afters i got the job of cooking it, we had some funny looks from some other drivers as they past our trailer and some even tried the food!
Come Thursday no sign of the ship so we phoned the office only to be told to wait as the boss could see the ship coming up the Channel [ he must have had Bloody good eyesight]
We all got away in time to catch the 0400 sailing from Zeebrugge to Dover, some feat from the Dock workers,
They were good times and not so good sometimes, a few of my mates there that week have past away but i still think of that week and just thought i would share it with you.
Cheers,
Roger.
Well done, mate. You found the Lowe thread! I remember Fanny Craddock frying bananas on TV back in the very dim and distant past, much to the shock of the nation. What were you driving? One of the old Borderers, or an ERF? Robert
Roger, if you were still there at the time to drive the C series, what reg number were you of 101 through to 110 ■■? 
Hi Robert,
It was ERF, and Ringrose it was a B series WKO699X, not a C, it’s me age ,
That article i remember Jimmy on that run, in fact he was one of the drivers that came down to Antwerp that Monday for bananas but the following day he got a call to load Margarine in Holland.
It’s funny how you can remember some things and not others 
Cheers.
Roger.
valleyforge:
Hi Robert,It was ERF, and Ringrose it was a B series WKO699X, not a C, it’s me age
That article i remember Jimmy on that run, in fact he was one of the drivers that came down to Antwerp that Monday for bananas but the following day he got a call to load Margarine in Holland.
It’s funny how you can remember some things and not others
Cheers.
Roger.
Good on yer mate! The last time I did Antwerpen with an ERF, it was an E-series. I’d do it again tomorrow! Robert
I can remember that when Turners bought the transport part of the business from Lowe’s the ERF 6x4 and tri-axle trailer combination were exceptionally heavy, with most of the excess weight being in the trailer. The trailers were 24 pallet capacity and by then 26 pallet capacity had become the standard 'fridge trailer. At Turners we worked for the American bases loading out of a cold store at Felixstowe, usually 7 or 8 loads every Monday morning to start the week, and also out of New Covent Garden every day, again up to 6 or 7 loads some days. It was premium rated work as was Lowe’s NAAFI contract. Of course with the end of the cold war all that work finished. The Lowe’s purchase by Turners wasn’t one of their most successful deals.
For a couple of years I was on farm maintenance at Kerry Foods, Redgave. Turners were moving all their chilled and frozen birds. For a while one of Lowes trailers was kept there as a cold-store. Do you know Terry Ellener? My father tought him to drive and he started at FRidged Freight. Jim.