ERF is ready with Perkins 4001x
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• Operators will be able to buy ERF tractors with 298kW (400hp) Perkins Tx Eagle engines from next month.
The Sandbach-based manufacturer says that, barring hitches with the supply of components, vehicles with the 400Tx should be rolling off the production line in August.
No orders for the 400Txengined truck have been received yet but a test vehicle for press and customer evaluation should be ready soon. ERF is the first manufacturer to fit the high-powered Perkins engine.
BOC Interbrand has been evaluating the engine for a year and says it stands up well against the 14-litre Cummins 272kW (365hp) units the company runs in the rest of its predominantly ERF E14 tractor fleet.
The Croydon-based operator, which had the Perkins engine fitted to a new E12, says it will order two ERFs with the 400Tx — as well as two with the Cummins 272kW engine — before the end of the year.
"We won't go 100% into bed with it," says BOC Interbrand fleet engineer Terry Gregory, "At the moment we've got no durability problems with the Cummins. I'm confident we won't have durability problems with Perkins either, but we've got to try it. What's the best thing since sliced bread today, might not be tomorrow."
Gregory, who says the Eagle has been returning 32.81it/ 100km (8.6mpg), lists the advantages of the Perkins engine as: 0 being substantially lighter than its Cummins counterpart; 0 producing slightly better fuel economy; 0 being higher powered at almost 300kW.
Its main drawback, he says, is that it does not have a "decent engine brake". While the Cummins engine has a Jake Brake, "you can't get the same retardation from the gate brake in the Perkins", he says.
ERF will fit the 400Tx to its 4x2, 6x2 and 6x4 tractors as an option. It currently offers the Tx up to 280kW (375hp). The Eagle Tx range was launched two years ago.
LI BOC Interbrand is taking delivery of seven Foden 2000 Series 17-tonners, all fitted with Perkins Phaser 210 Ti engines and Boalloy Linkliner sliding door bodies. The trucks, fitted with day cab rest bunks and night heaters, have 5,850mm wheelbases. They will be based at Leeds, Airdrie and Widnes, and will carry goods for SmithKline Beecham and others.
El Mel Staddon, sales director at ERF is leaving after six years with the firm to become managing director of a Scania dealership in Pus-fleet, Essex.
LI Perkins has opened a 7,000m factory and office block at its Shrewsbury site, consolidating all its manufacturing into one premises.