I’ve read more than once in the trucking press that flat work using ropes and sheets is now regarded as,“Specialised transport”.
There must now be a shortage of drivers experienced at r & s,but does that experience get a better rate of pay?
I started on heavy haulage but I was taught how to splice 2 ropes together,how to splice a loop in one end and a dogs nob in the other as a lot of the loads of machinery had to be sheeted and I was always told to rope the sheet or the wind would rip it as a lot were awkward shapes when I later did general on steel this served me well but I found the nylon type ropes harder to splice than the hemp ones.
cheers Johnnie
sammyopisite:
I started on heavy haulage but I was taught how to splice 2 ropes together,how to splice a loop in one end and a dogs nob in the other as a lot of the loads of machinery had to be sheeted and I was always told to rope the sheet or the wind would rip it as a lot were awkward shapes when I later did general on steel this served me well but I found the nylon type ropes harder to splice than the hemp ones.
cheers Johnnie
I bet your start in heavy haulage “sammy” started in the playground pulling a wooden engine around on a bit of string !! Here’s another one from the Bewick archive my pet ERF coupled to a load of Bowater Scott tissue en-route to West Thurrock. Bewick
Bewick:
sammyopisite:
I started on heavy haulage but I was taught how to splice 2 ropes together,how to splice a loop in one end and a dogs nob in the other as a lot of the loads of machinery had to be sheeted and I was always told to rope the sheet or the wind would rip it as a lot were awkward shapes when I later did general on steel this served me well but I found the nylon type ropes harder to splice than the hemp ones.
cheers JohnnieI bet your start in heavy haulage “sammy” started in the playground pulling a wooden engine around on a bit of string !! Here’s another one from the Bewick archive my pet ERF coupled to a load of Bowater Scott tissue en-route to West Thurrock. Bewick
And here is another little Gem one of 3 identical Scania 4 wheelers we ran for a while in the early 80s . One of the drivers loaded in Dundee for Hull and put the 10 ton on from the headboard to the fron’t of the rear axle (how he could stand the uncomfortable ride with all the weight on the fron’t I’ll never know) so when he gets down to Richmond on the A1 he only gets pulled and he was 8ton on the fron’t Axle !! We got fined for permitting the Dozy B*****d to load it like that and we hadn’t even seen the motor ! The driver still didn’t understand what he had done wrong ! Needless to say his day’s were numbered !!
Bewick:
Bewick:
sammyopisite:
I started on heavy haulage but I was taught how to splice 2 ropes together,how to splice a loop in one end and a dogs nob in the other as a lot of the loads of machinery had to be sheeted and I was always told to rope the sheet or the wind would rip it as a lot were awkward shapes when I later did general on steel this served me well but I found the nylon type ropes harder to splice than the hemp ones.
cheers JohnnieI bet your start in heavy haulage “sammy” started in the playground pulling a wooden engine around on a bit of string !! Here’s another one from the Bewick archive my pet ERF coupled to a load of Bowater Scott tissue en-route to West Thurrock. Bewick
And here is another little Gem one of 3 identical Scania 4 wheelers we ran for a while in the early 80s . One of the drivers loaded in Dundee for Hull and put the 10 ton on from the headboard to the fron’t of the rear axle (how he could stand the uncomfortable ride with all the weight on the fron’t I’ll never know) so when he gets down to Richmond on the A1 he only gets pulled and he was 8ton on the fron’t Axle !! We got fined for permitting the Dozy B*****d to load it like that and we hadn’t even seen the motor ! The driver still didn’t understand what he had done wrong ! Needless to say his day’s were numbered !!
Good job you wern’t in charge of the wagon trains going west Dennis,you would have shot the lot of them. 
Cheers Dave.
Hiya…I’ll say somthing now to upset some so called drivers.They ca’nt even close curtains properly now a days. When i’am on my way to Dover
(motor home)i see stacks of curtains with the pigs ears (fasteners)flapping like mad WHAT a mess that looks, just for a extra few seconds.I have also seen curtainsiders with every 4th or 5th buckle fastened and all the rest same flapping like mad.So doing a good neat and tidy R and S job would be out of the Question.■■? I was tying dollys at the age of 6 when i did corn deliveries with my uncle in the mid fifties.
John
havent roped and sheeted a trailer for 35 years! but i keep my hand in going round the house envelopeing all the bedcovers. 
…chris
park your wagon on your sheets and your bed on your boots
This one looks a sorry sight, I wonder if these reels got rejected 
Not to mention the broken fog light and old tarp over the grille … not quite Bewick standards eh!
One thing though … after choosing drivers with R & S skills like this to make the fleet look good, these warped pics don’t do them justice. 
TIPIT:
This one looks a sorry sight, I wonder if these reels got rejected
Not to mention the broken fog light and old tarp over the grille … not quite Bewick standards eh!
One thing though … after choosing drivers with R & S skills like this to make the fleet look good, these warped pics don’t do them justice.
I’m only new to this job “tipit” but try looking at them through the bottom of a glass thats had a few drams thr’o it ! They all will look perfect well they do to me Hic! Hic! Bewick.
Bewick:
Bewick:
Dave the Renegade:
Bewick:
Anyone can be taught to open and close curtains nowadays but it was an entirely differen’t matter to learn the correct way to sheet and rope correctly ! While a lot of drivers managed to “get by” many who had been in the job for years never mastered the skill fully as you could see by some of the disgraceful attempts you saw flapping up and down the roads in days gone by !! However when you did see a lorry or trailer sheeted and roped in an immaculate fashion it sure was a sight to admire ! I was once told that the farther you went North the higher the standards became ( I suppose a lot of the Scottish drivers were acknowledged to be masters of their craft ) but believe me there were bad,passable and excellent fleets throughout the country ! I will vouch for that as we employed drivers from all over the country and in the main those lads were as good as any you would find ! Does anyone else have an opinion positive or negative on the skill of sheeting and roping !! To start the thread off I will put one or two Bewick photos on .Hi Dennis,
I think Harry Gill did a thread on this theme,if he didn’t he certainly had a lot of input into it,as you know that was the thing that Harry’s generation did as normal,no curtains then.
Cheers Dave.This is a shot of the back-ends of a selection of our flat trailers with a variety of loads on them.
A single wheeled tandem stood in the depot loaded with reels.
I had 4 of these single wheel tandems built at Taskers ■■■■■■■■■■■ when we started work at the Cullompton Mill that Bibby Paper had buoght out in '87. they only were required to carry Cap loads outward and the Pulp coming in on the return trips was usually in parcels that could be split into 20 ton loads. We had the trailers built exactly as the dimensions of a Tri only minus the fron’t axle. The axle loadings were still within the 32 ton operation . We saved circa £1200 per trailer and the tyre wear was better as well.When we were needing more Tautliners they were sent back to ■■■■■■■■■■■ to have the fron’t axle fitted then into Bo-alloy’s for a body !!
Bewick:
Bewick:
Bewick:
Dave the Renegade:
Bewick:
Anyone can be taught to open and close curtains nowadays but it was an entirely differen’t matter to learn the correct way to sheet and rope correctly ! While a lot of drivers managed to “get by” many who had been in the job for years never mastered the skill fully as you could see by some of the disgraceful attempts you saw flapping up and down the roads in days gone by !! However when you did see a lorry or trailer sheeted and roped in an immaculate fashion it sure was a sight to admire ! I was once told that the farther you went North the higher the standards became ( I suppose a lot of the Scottish drivers were acknowledged to be masters of their craft ) but believe me there were bad,passable and excellent fleets throughout the country ! I will vouch for that as we employed drivers from all over the country and in the main those lads were as good as any you would find ! Does anyone else have an opinion positive or negative on the skill of sheeting and roping !! To start the thread off I will put one or two Bewick photos on .Hi Dennis,
I think Harry Gill did a thread on this theme,if he didn’t he certainly had a lot of input into it,as you know that was the thing that Harry’s generation did as normal,no curtains then.
Cheers Dave.This is a shot of the back-ends of a selection of our flat trailers with a variety of loads on them.
A single wheeled tandem stood in the depot loaded with reels.
I had 4 of these single wheel tandems built at Taskers ■■■■■■■■■■■ when we started work at the Cullompton Mill that Bibby Paper had buoght out in '87. they only were required to carry Cap loads outward and the Pulp coming in on the return trips was usually in parcels that could be split into 20 ton loads. We had the trailers built exactly as the dimensions of a Tri only minus the fron’t axle. The axle loadings were still within the 32 ton operation . We saved circa £1200 per trailer and the tyre wear was better as well.When we were needing more Tautliners they were sent back to ■■■■■■■■■■■ to have the fron’t axle fitted then into Bo-alloy’s for a body !!
And here’s an early shot probably 76/77 and is in the Mill at Beetham.The load is probably for a night trunk and is being finished off by our then foreman shunter Mick Wilson RIP the Bedford van will be on its way south probably for the local vauxhall dealer !!
I was first shown how to tie a dolly knot by Steve Jolley who at the time worked for Wrefords, it took me about 50 attempts to pick it up but I have never forgotten even 30 years after haulong my last rope and sheet load, I can still tie a perfect dolly in and instant.
I was annal about having tight and properly fitted sheets, times I would hook up to a previously sheeted trailer and strip the lot off to re-sheet it.
Pat Hasler:
I was first shown how to tie a dolly knot by Steve Jolley who at the time worked for Wrefords, it took me about 50 attempts to pick it up but I have never forgotten even 30 years after haulong my last rope and sheet load, I can still tie a perfect dolly in and instant.
I was annal about having tight and properly fitted sheets, times I would hook up to a previously sheeted trailer and strip the lot off to re-sheet it.
Here’s one for all you lads that can’t R & S the only snag would be if your re-load required R & S oh dear !! You should have thrown the sheets and ropes off in the depot then you would have had to run back M/T !!!Bewick.
Hi Denis , If a driver could ent rope and sheet would you really trust him to take those great big lumps of concrete out on the road ? cheers Kevin.
1644FAN:
Hi Denis , If a driver could ent rope and sheet would you really trust him to take those great big lumps of concrete out on the road ? cheers Kevin.
Probably 90% of our drivers were a selection of the finest masters of their trade you could find anywhere and the other 10% would have been fairly well supervised as they would have been the the younger end and our traffic office was always mindful of this and would never put them under unnecessary pressure ! We never had a turnover in staff other than the odd driver that slipped through but was soon exposed as not up to “Bewick standard” and would be weeded out PDQ ! Cheers Bewick.
For me the biggest problem is straps , once lads started using them the art of knot tieing went out the window. Some people forget that a sheet has to be tied properly before you you strap it down. Did you use ex drivers in the traffic office ? cheers Kevin.
1644FAN:
For me the biggest problem is straps , once lads started using them the art of knot tieing went out the window. Some people forget that a sheet has to be tied properly before you you strap it down. Did you use ex drivers in the traffic office ? cheers Kevin.
There was a bit of that with the old Lancashire flats or ISO drum carriers, no one wanted to lose a coil of new rope or a good sheet to those Jonny foreigners. Instead the tatty sheets were used both ways with bits of inner tube to fasten to non existent rope hooks
1644FAN:
For me the biggest problem is straps , once lads started using them the art of knot tieing went out the window. Some people forget that a sheet has to be tied properly before you you strap it down. Did you use ex drivers in the traffic office ? cheers Kevin.
Yea we did 1644 all of them had done the “job” the best one was the manager !! No employing “traffic planners” in the Bewick traffic office !!! And I was always lurking about at all times of day and night as well !! Bewick.
Bewick:
Pat Hasler:
I was first shown how to tie a dolly knot by Steve Jolley who at the time worked for Wrefords, it took me about 50 attempts to pick it up but I have never forgotten even 30 years after haulong my last rope and sheet load, I can still tie a perfect dolly in and instant.
I was annal about having tight and properly fitted sheets, times I would hook up to a previously sheeted trailer and strip the lot off to re-sheet it.Here’s one for all you lads that can’t R & S the only snag would be if your re-load required R & S oh dear !! You should have thrown the sheets and ropes off in the depot then you would have had to run back M/T !!!Bewick.
They have got to be outbound loads . . or did you carry the cradles on the off chance ?
Suedehead:
Bewick:
Pat Hasler:
I was first shown how to tie a dolly knot by Steve Jolley who at the time worked for Wrefords, it took me about 50 attempts to pick it up but I have never forgotten even 30 years after haulong my last rope and sheet load, I can still tie a perfect dolly in and instant.
I was annal about having tight and properly fitted sheets, times I would hook up to a previously sheeted trailer and strip the lot off to re-sheet it.Here’s one for all you lads that can’t R & S the only snag would be if your re-load required R & S oh dear !! You should have thrown the sheets and ropes off in the depot then you would have had to run back M/T !!!Bewick.
They have got to be outbound loads . . or did you carry the cradles on the off chance ?
Yea we carried every thing needed to load anything we were offered just like a good Penrith haulier !! Only joking !! I think the 3 loads were just passing thro’ the depot in which direction(north or south)I am not sure !! Bewick.