factoryaprilia:
Hi Robert
Coincidence this pic coming up now as it shows pdf444r with the red roof , pretty sure that is my old man Pete Robson as he always wore the cowboy hat everywhere and was only 5ft7 , I did keep the hat for many years but can’t find the hat now , also answers a small disagreement we had as he said it wasn’t sign written when he had the truck yet the pic of him in Pakistan clearly showed it was sign written, bit late now to say he was partially right
Regards adrian
Always good to hear from you Adrian! Nice that Pete’s in the pic. Yes, I’m intrigued about the sign-writing. There are several pics of PDF on the Middle-East run un-signwritten and I’m not sure whether they were taken before or after it had been sign-written. The pictures show the unit to be well travel-worn so I strongly suspect that it was stripped of its lettering before being sold on. It went to Shamara of Southampton, so maybe it did a trip or two before finally passing on to its next owner. Ro
vwvanman0:
Always on the lookout, guess you have seen this one also. From same Facebook group.
Steve.
Yes, got it thanks. But you have just made me take a closer look at this set of pics. All the pics I have of it without signwriting appear to be from the same trip. Furthermore, counter to what I said in the last post, the unit looks dusty and travelled but not travel-worn. So I reckon they are all pics of it on either its maiden voyage or an early Middle East trip. Another reason I think this is that before PDF was sold on, it did domestic work for Richard Read, whose fleet it had by then joined (along with the other VIJORE liveried unit, NFH 120P). Here’s a pic of it in that capacity - below. So thanks! Ro
vwvanman0:
Always on the lookout, guess you have seen this one also. From same Facebook group.
Steve.
Yes, got it thanks. But you have just made me take a closer look at this set of pics. All the pics I have of it without signwriting appear to be from the same trip. Furthermore, counter to what I said in the last post, the unit looks dusty and travelled but not travel-worn. So I reckon they are all pics of it on either its maiden voyage or an early Middle East trip. Another reason I think this is that before PDF was sold on, it did domestic work for Richard Read, whose fleet it had by then joined (along with the other VIJORE liveried unit, NFH 120P). Here’s a pic of it in that capacity - below. So thanks! Ro
0
PDF did a lot of domestic work inbetween trips as I used to scive off school to go with the old man , think it was mainly steel out of Newport and remember collecting bananas out of Liverpool docks , I do remember dad had the truck to the end as he got back in from a trip and they told him they were retiring it because it only did 6 mpg , they offered him a brand new b series but he just didn’t want it after spending years in PDF , I suppose you get attached to trucks.
vwvanman0:
Always on the lookout, guess you have seen this one also. From same Facebook group.
Steve.
Yes, got it thanks. But you have just made me take a closer look at this set of pics. All the pics I have of it without signwriting appear to be from the same trip. Furthermore, counter to what I said in the last post, the unit looks dusty and travelled but not travel-worn. So I reckon they are all pics of it on either its maiden voyage or an early Middle East trip. Another reason I think this is that before PDF was sold on, it did domestic work for Richard Read, whose fleet it had by then joined (along with the other VIJORE liveried unit, NFH 120P). Here’s a pic of it in that capacity - below. So thanks! Ro
0
PDF did a lot of domestic work inbetween trips as I used to scive off school to go with the old man , think it was mainly steel out of Newport and remember collecting bananas out of Liverpool docks , I do remember dad had the truck to the end as he got back in from a trip and they told him they were retiring it because it only did 6 mpg , they offered him a brand new b series but he just didn’t want it after spending years in PDF , I suppose you get attached to trucks.
Thanks for those insights Adrian! I too would have been reluctant to trade in driving an NGC for a B-series. Still, the old girl went on to give two more hauliers good service! Ro
DEANB:
Posted a bit on here before from the Commercial Motor show 1974 magazine.
Heres a bit from the 1974 catalogue. May be the same as the previous clipping but have not got that handy to check at the moment.
Click on twice.
1
0
Ah yes! It was this clipping that started me exploring the whole can of worms about the final drive ratio of NGCs, when I spotted the line about governed road speed. There’s a whole chapter about it in book 3!! Ro
I see this NGC workshop manual has come up on ebay this morning but you’d have to be pretty desperate to buy it at £250! I got mine on ebay for about £20 and posted most of the relevant pages on this thread. They don’t come up very often now though so they’ll be getting rarer and perhaps this one’s in mint condition - who knows? Just type in: ERF handbooks / manuals. Ro
ERF-NGC-European:
I see this NGC workshop manual has come up on ebay this morning but you’d have to be pretty desperate to buy it at £250! I got mine on ebay for about £20 and posted most of the relevant pages on this thread. They don’t come up very often now though so they’ll be getting rarer and perhaps this one’s in mint condition - who knows? Just type in: ERF handbooks / manuals. Ro
People charging silly money for essential maintenance information does a disservice to the vehicle preservation scene.Posting it online wherever possible can only help in that regard.
Manuals that aren’t tatty and with greasy finger prints on their corners just shows that they’ve spent too long not being used for their job.
The ‘truth’ of value is in between and with some luck you’ve a bargain?
The trouble with documentation is who wants only ‘information’ hence photocopies for
a query or who wants the GENUINE, COMPLETE and MINT copy for a glove-compartiment
or for a quick view in the garage-archive, among part books etc.
Buzzer:
Robert I know this is not ERF related but I know you will appreciate viewing a nice spread axle tilt, cheers Buzzer
Ah yes! I remember that at Gaydon, where it looks as if this picture was taken. I seem to remember it being pulled by a 3-series Scanny though, which seemed out of keeping.
ERF-NGC-European:
I see this NGC workshop manual has come up on ebay this morning but you’d have to be pretty desperate to buy it at £250! I got mine on ebay for about £20 and posted most of the relevant pages on this thread. They don’t come up very often now though so they’ll be getting rarer and perhaps this one’s in mint condition - who knows? Just type in: ERF handbooks / manuals. Ro
People charging silly money for essential maintenance information does a disservice to the vehicle preservation scene.Posting it online wherever possible can only help in that regard.
Manuals that aren’t tatty and with greasy finger prints on their corners just shows that they’ve spent too long not being used for their job.
ERF-Continental:
The ‘truth’ of value is in between and with some luck you’ve a bargain?
The trouble with documentation is who wants only ‘information’ hence photocopies for
a query or who wants the GENUINE, COMPLETE and MINT copy for a glove-compartiment
or for a quick view in the garage-archive, among part books etc.
You are, of course, right to distinguish between the collector and the researcher. One desires the article and the other desires the information. And this is often blurred by those who are both collectors and researchers!
