ERF, Wind & Fire:
Personally, I always pronounce the letters in ERF but my mate keeps calling it an ‘Erf’, hence the name.And, yes, I am in EOD.
My godfather was in EOD in the Bundeswehr until he retired and now does consultancy. He was pretty high up…pretty much in charge of the German operations in that area in recent conflicts as far as I can gather.
If this horse transport mullarkey doesn’t seem feasible, then another option is to do EOD “consultancy”. There’s lots of well paid work available at the moment, but it mainly involves going to horrible places where the baddies cut your head off live on tinternet if they catch you. So not as appealing as you might imagine.
AndyRoo:
Funny …as I always say ‘em-ay-en’ when it comes to MAN.Do lots of people just say ‘man’, as in male person?
You must be one of the newer fellas (to quote Bing Crosby to Frank Sinatra) 
, yes most older drivers pronounce it that way, all those that I know anyway, but I have heard younger blokes pronounce the initials. No idea why we do that when ERF was always pronounced the other way 
Now. Is that ee-oh-dee or eeyod? And what does it mean? Is it secret? The Bundeswehr sounds a bit sinister 
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In France the place is ruled by initials and acronyms. Two that have been mentioned on here before are FCOS (effcoss) and FIMO (feemoh). Now I’ll sit back and wait for Caveman or Froggy to contradict me (pronounced mee). 
Salut, David.
EOD = Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or bomb disposal in everyone else’s language. The forces are notorious for acronyms and TLAs - Three Letter Abbreviations
Bundeswehr = German Federal Armed Forces ie, the nice friendly post WW2 ones.
Spardo:
You must be one of the newer fellas (to quote Bing Crosby to Frank Sinatra)
Apart from being a newer fella anyway, my dad (who’s German, hence the Godfather in the German Army) always says it by pronouncing the the three letters in German.
I remember sombody once telling a story on here, about trying to blag at an interview…asked about his experience he looked out the window at the first lorry he saw and said he’d driven an ‘erf’ before. Can’t remember who told it though.
Spardo:
and reckon that you would be better off with a proper demount system, ie seperate purpose-built bodies rather than a jack-of-all-trades master-of-none affair.
that will work if you use a flat bed and drop the bodies on top, but be careful if you use some of the other sorts of demount systems you could end up lifting the floor of the box too high for the horses - top heavy when driving and too steep for the ramp ! I’ve seen it happen with a lorry that has a cattle box and a referigerated body on some sort of slide on demount system.
The other thing with two bodies, the one you want will always be the one in the corner of the yard
is it DATH or is it DE-AY-EFF, alright alright my taxis here shortly 
Ladytrucker679:
I know John Parker but what I meant by military work was shifting the household cavalry and Herendon are the only wagons you will see in knightsbridge!
Ladytrucker, you’re spot on there. I was talking to a bloke from the Household Cavalry yesterday and he said exactly the same thing, although he did add that when they move all the hosses up to Norfolk for the summer camp Jock does sometimes sub some of the work out.
Jock subs other jobs out too, we took a green DAF driven by a bloke called Mike when we took the musical ride to St Moritz but all operations have Jock at the helm, very much so. Your ability to settle to the work depends very much on your ability to be told over the cb when to change lane, indicate, ect!
Forget the horse box lets hear some stories about the work you are doing now.
Or are you not allowed to tell them.
Mark
Go on tell us more.
“well, during the war” (said in an Uncle Albert stylee)
At the risk of sounding a bit ■■■■, I can’t go into too many details, mainly for fear of boring everyone to death, but also for the obvious security issues. As it happens I’m doing a desk job at the moment, so its not too exciting. I can tell you that the only time I’ve been blown up wasn’t anything to do with the baddies. A TA nurse dropped a grenade in front of me and I (along with 4 others) copped a few bits. I can’t even find a decent way to get injured! 
Easy way to keep the horse box clean is to get the bottom and halfway up the sides fibreglassed. I was once told if you wanted to take a horsebox on the ferry it had to be lined, don’t know if thats correct though.
ps
I thought the name was quite god even if I did have to read it a couple of times.
Thanks. I was thinking of lining the box as you say, but with rubber. Hopefully should do the trick.
I’ve never seen it done with fibreglass and I would be concerned about the splinters from the damage a horse shoe can do. Rubber matting is the most common these days and as far as I know there is no legislation regarding the lining of boxes used on ferrys. There are less injurys with rubber and the urine doesn’t rot it, it is also easier to wash out between loads.
Kick boards can be made from wood but of course that adds weight.
Most people with a horsebox have cover on their insurance to get the horses moved if the vehicle has to be recovered. There is a network of people who do this on a callout basis, might be a way of earning a dollar.
Thats something I hadn’t considered. I take it they only get paid when they get called out then?
stanleymann:
Most people with a horsebox have cover on their insurance to get the horses moved if the vehicle has to be recovered. There is a network of people who do this on a callout basis, might be a way of earning a dollar.
yea, and they call you sunday nights and any other time you want to do something else ( when their favourites don’t want to do it)
I get about one phone call a year and it’s always anti-social hours - I’ve told them not to call me any more, but if you want some contact details let me know
knight:
. I was once told if you wanted to take a horsebox on the ferry it had to be lined, don’t know if thats correct though.
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In the days when i had dealings with Horses, i never saw a box that didnt drain Effluent on to the ground. Though the Cattle float we have at work, has an Effluent tank which you drain at a suitable place
We have two boxes and about 6 trailers and the inside of them are all rubber. They can be kicked,and allsorts that they get up to.The only thing that we have to renew is the rubber on the floor,because they do stamp their feet with a metal shoe and in time it does wear thin. Good luck with it.
