Cab choice for ERF tractor launch
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by Brian Weatherley ERF plans to launch two brand new tractive units by September: one with a steel cab, the other made from SMC. Speaking at last week's Birmingham CV Show Klaus Schubert, chairman of ERF's new parent MAN, confirmed that the Cheshire-based manufacturer will introduce a new SMC cab, retaining its commitment to its trademark composite construction.
But backing up the SMC cab ERF will also fit a modified version of the MAN F2000 steel cab. This is expected to have its own distinct exterior styling. ERF boss John Bryant insists: "You'll not recognise it as an F2000. Were not just putting the F-Series cab over a Cummins engine—it will be an ERF."
The SMC-cabbed tractor will be the first to come out of the soon-to-be opened Middlewich assembly plant, with pilot builds starting in August.
Bryant has also reaffirmed ERF's long-standing partnership with Cummins engines, promising that Cummins will remain the company's standard power unit over 15 tonnes. "It will be the exclusive engine for ERF," he adds.
The one exception will be ERF's use of Detroit Diesel's gas engine in its LNG-fuelled tractors. But the decision to concentrate an Cummins looks like hitting Detroit Diesel's "normal' 60Series diesel which, until now, has been offered in the E11127, as well as Caterpillar engines. "You can't be exclusive as well as offering anything else," says Bryant The deal with Cummins will run for four years.
He adds ERF will also be taking the nine-litre Cummins ISL "when it's ready". as well as the 15-litre ISX/Signature high power platform, but "not at the start of Euro-3". ERF will be busy this year, Bryant reports, making full use of all the opportunities offered by component sharing with MAN.
• ERF's planned 7.5-tonner may well be powered by an MAN engine. Talking to GM at the Birmingham truck show, Schubert insisted that in a light truck "the engine is not so much an identifying component". This could mean that the use of Cummins in ERF tractors will not necessarily be reflected below 15 tonnes.