ERF's shorty cab
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• ERF is now offering its E6.18 two-axle rigid chassis with a new shorter version of the SP4 plastic-pannelled day cab, which will also be available as an option on its tractive units and three and four axle rigids, from the beginning of September.
The short day cab is 1,346mm deep, compared with the standard day cab depth of 1,676nun, allowing operators to fit bodies up to 250nun longer, and giving a kerbweight saving on the standard E6.18 of some 75kg.
Hauliers specifying the short day cab 16 tanner ERF will be able to save some 2245 off the standard cabbed E6.18's list price. In addition to the two day cabs, the E6.18 is also available with a full sleeper cab.
The first operator to take delivery of a short cab 16 tonner ERF is Unigate Dairies. Its 4.5 m wheelbase E6.18 is fitted with a 9,550 litre allstainless steel tank, built by Wincanton Engineering, and will be based at Unigate's Rnstanton depot collecting milk from local lams. The 134kW ERF four wheeler has a gearbox pto driven vacuum pump to assist loading on site.
ERF reports that operators are showing "a lot of interest" in its tractive unit equipped with Eaton's Semi Automated Mechanical Transmission (SAMT), following its demonstration at the recent Tankcon show. A number of long-term evaluation vehicles will shortly go on the road.
El ERF saw pre-tax profits drop by 44% last year (to 2718,000) as the company was hit by a slump in export demand.
This year, however, prospects look much brighter with sales of the new E series truck doing well, and production levels up from eight trucks a day last year, to 17 trucks a day. Turnover for the year to March 28 was up 6.42% to £75.91 million.
• Dayton Walther warns that a potentially dangerous repair kit for its Trulok fifth wheel coupling has been put on sale. "It would appear that someone has got hold of obsolete tooling from a previously used subcontractor. The lockbar, pivot pin and main spring are so poorly produced that they will not function correctly.
Dayton Walther says that the most obvious defect with this non-genuine repair kit is its main spring, which is "35% shorter and gives approximately 50% of the pull of the genuine article."