snooks:
0
Nice sheeting job, but whoever thought white was a good colour for the sheets with the British weather 
A) Because it matches the cab.
B) You can’t buy sheets in dirty, mucky dark grey!
Still a lot of flat work in Canada,but the sheets aint the same and its all straps and chains,you mention ropes to the here and they start shaking,showed one guy how to do a dolly hitch and he couldnt believe how tight i got the rope.Tractors have to have 4 chains per tractor,i used to load out of Massey Ferguson in coventry and put one strap over the back wheels and rope the front,here that would be a hanging offence.
adr:
Just found these pics of a couple of my efforts when I was on Swains. Never claimed to be a World Champion at it, but always got it on, secured it, got it there & got it off, never had a load refused or signed for with damage, & never had anything fall off, so I was happy with thatAlaways say that a well R&S load looks better than any Tautliner all day long!
That’s pretty much my attitude to it, though to be honest doing multi-drop work around town I have neither the time nor the energy to make a really flash job of things. OTOH if I was doing distance bulk work then I’d take a bit more time.
A couple of general observations and questions.
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A fair number of the photos that youse lot have uploaded (and thanks for doing so, it’s always useful to see how others have done things) show what I call ‘plastic’ (polythene??) sheets. I’ve used them occasionally and have to say I don’t get on with them as well as I do canvas ones. I know the canvas ones (like the one on my wagon) feel like they quadruple their weight when wet and are a perfect cow to wrestle with but I never seem to get as covered in cack as I do when I’ve been using a polythene sheet. Is it economy, is it preference, is it down to the sort of load normally carried, or is there some other reason for preferring ‘plastic’ sheets over canvas?
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As a rough guide, how long would you expect a reasonably proficient driver to take to properly sheet a 40’ trailer? I know that’s like asking how long is a piece of string since there are so many variables, but humour me. (As a rough guide, it takes me about 25 minutes to sheet a load of board with fancy-schmancy finish on a 6-legger rigid with a 28-foot flat-bed, though that’s mainsheet only, no flysheet).
I keep meaning to take a shot of my efforts (I know you all need the laugh), but it’s usually dark when I leave the yard and when I get to my first drop, and when it isn’t I’ve forgotten to bring a camera.
Like most (I suspect) of the other traditionalists on this forum - please note, I’m not referring to age - I would prefer to use what I would call “double duck” sheets (who remembers “duck” and “double duck”?) for the main sheets with a plastic flysheet.
And for goodness’ sake don’t take photos of it if you rope over the flysheet- it’s a hanging offence in ■■■■■■■■
adr:
snooks:
0Nice sheeting job, but whoever thought white was a good colour for the sheets with the British weather
thanks , 4 sheets on load that is good side had fly sheet along otherside still looked good though,bought erf 2nd hand this pic was took b4 signwriting , boss’s idea of white sheets 
In response to “Parkroyal’s” critisism of PVC main sheets I couldn’t agree more with him 
In mid 1972 I was offered a pair of virtually new PVC covered main sheets,they were a suitable size for our loads and they were roughly half price of new They had been ordered by a local owner driver from Milnthorpe,John E.Ion,who’s main traffic was Cape Boards between Uxbridge and Glasgow.However he quickly found out on his first few loads that the boards easily rubbed small holes in these sheets,so he stopped using them and offered them to us,I jumped at them at the price and sent them to our Tarpaulin supplier who gave them the “once over” and repaired the odd hole or so,then I put them into service on a 34 foot York tandem,as we were using the same type of material for our fly sheets,which worked well, I thought that these two mains would give us a fair trial of a new main sheet material 
I had noticed that quite a few of the West ■■■■■■■■ “marras” were using the same kind of sheets for both their mains and fly sheets 
So thought we had nothing to lose How wrong could I be,the first frosts of the year played havoc with these two sheets,talk about trying to fold a 24ftx24ft board and you’ve got the idea 
So off they came and I think they ended up helping to cover a woodpulp stack in our yard 
This is a shot of the poxy things on their first load of paper on our trailer park in Milnthorpe.
It’s a natty-looking load, Dennis, but two layers of PVC didn’t half sweat !
Retired Old ■■■■:
It’s a natty-looking load, Dennis, but two layers of PVC didn’t half sweat !
Warm reels did create a bit of condensation especially in winter weather but I can only recall one incidence when it caused us a problem to some loads of Core board out of the Reeds mill at Tovil in Kent.They had got down to loading them straight off the mill,and the reels were fairly hot.So on the long journey north to Barrow,in cold weather they created a lot of condensation and were signed for wet ( which they weren’t) and Reeds got their “knickers in a twist” and said it was our defective sheets,the cheeky ■■■■■■■■■■■ the up-shot was,Reed Transport would do the next load to show us “carrot crunchers” how to do the job !(using a brand new set of sheets). Guess what,they gets to Bowater Scott at Barrow mill,pulls the sheets off and the reels were running in condensation and much worse than ours had been Bowaters "■■■■■■ " them off with the whole load Reeds finally accepted what we had been telling them about loading hot reels straight off production,normal service resumed and we carried on doing the job but only after the reels had stood a few days to fully cool off.Cheers Bewick.
This is an early '76 shot of a new F88 which I took just prior to leaving the Bowater Scott mill in Barrow to run back to Milnthorpe with a load of finished tissue product for their West Thurrock RDC,this trailer would then been trunked down overnight via Daventry where we had a couple of day men who would be on the “doorstep” at W/Thurrock ready for the warehouse opening next morning.IIRC I had worked the nearside of this sheeting and roping job and my old pal and ex workmate, Eric Postlethwaite,Bowies yard foreman, at that time,had done the offside work Just like old times when I had been on the Octopus and trailer of Bradys with Eric,he still came around to my side when we’d finished and squinted down the hitches “Still a bit rough brother,you need a bit more practice” 
Cheers Bewick
That will be heavy if it rains.
20 tonnes of rag tobacco from Renfrew to John Players and Sons Nottingham brand new sheets not bad for a 14 year old with a bit of help from his Dad
This is another shot of the same set of PVC sheets on another load of reels,different Atky though.
PS this was probably THE first load they were used on IIRC.
Having written to Rod Simmonds a while back, he kindly gave permission for use of his pics, and being as the topic is PVC, this one came to mind. from NZ.
Oily
Here’s one I’d like the old hands to take a look at, posted on FB by a mate of mine. For a young hand I don’t think it’s too bad, but what’s your opinion Dennis?
dew:
Here’s one I’d like the old hands to take a look at, posted on FB by a mate of mine. For a young hand I don’t think it’s too bad, but what’s your opinion Dennis?
I don’t see many ropes only straps I’d had put a cross on the front and back just to stop the sheet coming loose and wind getting in there and making it look like a balloon as it’s going down the road it’s not a criticism but a little bit of advice I hope he gets a few more loads on a flat because it’s a dying art
hi dew
the lad is obviously learning the art as ive seen this countless times sheets rolled up either end and a strap over it
this is not a criticism and fair play to the lad for taking pics and showing some pride in the job
tell him next time to go round the headboard and go to the rear of the trailer (sheet the trailer if you like) providing the sheet is long enough for a real tidy job
pull them corners heeeeeeeeeeve
and always strap under the sheet
My opinion only and everybody does it differently and has there own ways of doing things
must try harder as my school teacher use to say
What you saying dennis ■■
