hiya,
Spuds from Dundee in the late 50s early 60s on a wag and drag , must be well strawed and double sheeted, getting rid of the straw at your tipping point was a nightmare, you can’t leave that here driver still rings in my ears.
thanks harry long retired.
market man:
I remember back in the early 70s as a lad being taught how to rope and sheet, " you want to learn junk head, i show you and i will do it old style " needless to say i got fed up with being slapped round the head and told i was a moron !! by the time i was 15 i could rope and sheet and but for some reason i always used to duck in case there was a slap heading my way.But i did nearly get set up in Ebbwvale steel works when i was about 16 yrs old, the guy i was riding shotgun with said he was off to the toilet and said rope and sheet the load ( tin plate ) so i pulled the fly sheet over, made sure it was tight as a drum and then roped every other hook in between the tin plate to keep the sheet tight. Turning round i saw the so called mate and a load of steel workers looking on at me… i thought gotcha you so and so … i remembered him telling me that no matter what you put on to secure steel if it want s move it will and nohing will stop it not even toggles and chains … so the salp around the heads although there was many were well worth it, the pride i used to get after roping and sheeting a load and it looking cushty was out of this world.
As a footnote back at the end of the 80s a guy who worked at the same outfit as me ( one the of the i have been everywhere and know every thing brigade ) was sent down to Cardif market then to barry to reload pallets on a flat,so off he went …trouble is he got back to strensham services with the pallets but rang in to say the load had slipped, one of our other lads was having a cuppa in the services and went to have look for him, the super fine trucker had only pulled the ropes tight but hadnt hitched them !!! how the hell he got that far is beyond belief … needless to say that was his last trip for the company .
Thats bad form you should never rope over a flysheet to secure the load,only to secure the flysheet,I,ll bet that flysheet was holed in loads of places,perhaps you had’nt been taught that,have a look at any Bewicks loaded trailers!
Take it easy,
Rgds,
David 
harry_gill:
hiya,
Spuds from Dundee in the late 50s early 60s on a wag and drag , must be well strawed and double sheeted, getting rid of the straw at your tipping point was a nightmare, you can’t leave that here driver still rings in my ears.
thanks harry long retired.
hi harry,i remember doing a load of seed spuds as a backload from scotch,about 20 drops all around pembrokeshire,bloody nightmare! took me about 2 days to get tipped!,and like you say,ended up with half a trailer of straw 
i was young and a bit green then,i reckon them scotch lads saw me comeing!!! …chris
heres one for the old hands 
my old man used to load bottles at rockware glass @ Knottingley when he drove for Swifts with 2 “halfsheets” & a flysheet & i remember the flysheet covered down one side . How was this done?
hiya,
This was never a very satisfactory way of sheeting a load, the two haf sheets not being big enough to cover a load of bottles you had to utilise your flysheet to cover one side of your load first, keeping it in place while you got the two other sheets thrown out was a nightmare and almost impossible in windy conditions i used to run a rope down the middle of the trailer front to back with a couple of corner boards to stop the rope pulling down between the pallets and you could tie the flysheet ropes to this to stop it falling to the ground after a bit of practice you guessed how much of the fly sheet to leave on top of the load, i always scrambled down to make sure i’d got the length near enough right before throwing the two half sheets over the top and the other side it was a horrible job and took a long time to do, i preferred to have the fly down the drivers side of the trailer, now you young fellas see what your missing, ropes and sheets rule eh’.
thanks harry long retired.
Here Bewick, I don’t reckon much of the roping on that load of timber, the double dollies are good for the top sets, but surely a proper driver would’ve roped over the bottom set first, then the middle & finally the top
I used to do timber regularly from Parkers in Bermondsey & that’s how we all did it 
tonyhogi:
heres one for the old hands
I used to load bottles out of St Helens Glass,always,but always used a bottle sheet,for those not knowing what a bottle sheet was/is,it was a slightly bigger than a fly sheet,but with ropes attached,so you could pull hard with a dolly to secure the load,these bottles sheets were placed over the load instead of a fly sheet,prior to that of course,we used corner boards,2 x 6" pieces of ply joined by fabric and positioned 1 board on top of the load the other board hanging down the side,your ropes went over the top boards.
hiya,
Yes 5thwheel and was’nt those bottle sheets heavy bleeders, i did’nt do bottles very often but most firms had sheets for all requirements, i remember Suttons would’nt load you if you did’nt have the proper gear, and keeping those corner boards in place until you got a rope in place was something else a hard hat would have been useful, where was H&S in those days,
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
This was never a very satisfactory way of sheeting a load, the two haf sheets not being big enough to cover a load of bottles you had to utilise your flysheet to cover one side of your load first, keeping it in place while you got the two other sheets thrown out was a nightmare and almost impossible in windy conditions i used to run a rope down the middle of the trailer front to back with a couple of corner boards to stop the rope pulling down between the pallets and you could tie the flysheet ropes to this to stop it falling to the ground after a bit of practice you guessed how much of the fly sheet to leave on top of the load, i always scrambled down to make sure i’d got the length near enough right before throwing the two half sheets over the top and the other side it was a horrible job and took a long time to do, i preferred to have the fly down the drivers side of the trailer, now you young fellas see what your missing, ropes and sheets rule eh’.
thanks harry long retired.
hi harry.used to do a lot of backloads of apples off hull docks,and had to use the fly sheet to cover half,so i had a few hessian bags with old nuts and bolts in to tie on the fly sheet ropes ,it was always windy at hull, and it saved me the job of rescueing the fly sheet from the dock!! …chris
harry_gill:
hiya,
Yes 5thwheel and was’nt those bottle sheets heavy bleeders, i did’nt do bottles very often but most firms had sheets for all requirements, i remember Suttons would’nt load you if you did’nt have the proper gear, and keeping those corner boards in place until you got a rope in place was something else a hard hat would have been useful, where was H&S in those days,
thanks harry long retired.
Hiya “H” are you having a nice Easter ? hope so ! There’s nothing like a good technical chat about R&S with them that understands ! The first artic we got had a 32ft trailer so we had two main sheets made at 24ft wide by 30ftlong but we had two rows of eye’s put round all four sides so we could put the sheets on either way. Some of the loads we carried were two pallets high just like the glass! and with 32 on at approx 10ft high we could turn the sheets and cover the load! If there was a little bit at the fron’t to cover afterwards the fly sheet could cover it and still be long enough to go down the back of the load a good way. You were on about prefering the fly sheet to be down the drivers side ! my driver on the 8 wheeler I was on always maintained that you put the fly down the nearside so if the mainsheet edges flapped a bit it didn’t matter too much as it was on the near side and didn’t interfere with the driving side mirror!! Hope I havn’t given you a bad head “H” as I know we should be “parked up” at this time and not talking “shop” Regards Bewick.
I was tipping another curtainsider on tuesday morning when I met an old mate of mine. He was loading a lancashire flat and covering it with plastic sheeting. Now this guy s in his 70s but he s a lot fitter than a lot of guys half his age. 3 things came out of our chat, 1: Plastic sheeting is easier to use and a lot cheaper than proper sheets, 2: Roping and sheeting keeps you fit , and 3: As my mate pointed out when its windy the curtains on a trailer can blow about a bit the result of which can mean the poor driver getting a buckle into the face ( So far I ve lost 2 teeth like that).
hiya,
Dennis the flysheet along the drivers side was the way i was shown by an old trailer mate when i first kicked off in the driving game to be truthful in those days we carried a couple of strips of sheet just to keep the the floor of the wag and drag dry when travelling or parked up, the Dundee jute firms liked a dry flat for their goods as did a lot of companies when handball was the norm, remember the goods was on the deck not on pallets you used to see all the proper drivers with the decks covered up when the motor was doing nowt, i’ve been asked many a time by backloaders when phoning for a return load “is your floor dry”, so these bits was used to fill the gap as would a flysheet, if anybody had one in those days BC, I’m not starting back if i can’t have a curtainsider, i’m knackered just thinking about it.
thanks harry long retired.
harry_gill:
hiya,
Dennis the flysheet along the drivers side was the way i was shown by an old trailer mate when i first kicked off in the driving game to be truthful in those days we carried a couple of strips of sheet just to keep the the floor of the wag and drag dry when travelling or parked up, the Dundee jute firms liked a dry flat for their goods as did a lot of companies when handball was the norm, remember the goods was on the deck not on pallets you used to see all the proper drivers with the decks covered up when the motor was doing nowt, i’ve been asked many a time by backloaders when phoning for a return load “is your floor dry”, so these bits was used to fill the gap as would a flysheet, if anybody had one in those days BC, I’m not starting back if i can’t have a curtainsider, i’m knackered just thinking about it.
thanks harry long retired.
Just to keep the nostagia levels up a shot of a 112 coupled to a tidy load of reels in the depot at Milnthorpe.Bewick
I doubt a young fella like me will get the experience you lads have had but I have done a few flat loads. Luckily (for me) we carry animal feed and pulp which are both nice square loads. This is my DAF with a load of pheasant feed (I know I’ve only put a fly sheet (flapper) on which technically isn’t propper sheeting and roping )
Now loaded with 28ton of Pulp from Montrose to Northern Tissue Group, Lancaster. I even fly sheeted it. (Which p**sed off the lad who had to tip it!)
Not the tidiest off loads I know (the back end could have been a bit tidier). A load of animal feed and bagged lime.
My dads old FL10 with a load of coreboard.
hiya,
Ste would have liked to have seen the bare bit of trailer sheeted would have looked a lot neater, go on tell me to go away in whatever manner you wish.
thanks harry long retired.
Ha ha yeh it would have kept the trailer floor dry as well. My dad would sometimes have to do it when they shifted toilet paper reels as they would soak up water and end up looking like an elephants foot! I’m waiting to see what Bewick says. I doubt I would have got a job there in the day
harry_gill:
hiya,
Ste would have liked to have seen the bare bit of trailer sheeted would have looked a lot neater, go on tell me to go away in whatever manner you wish.
thanks harry long retired.
Hi Harry,
I see he has a Fork lift on the back end,don’t know if that would get in the way or not.
Cheers Dave.
Yeh the Moffet can be a pain in the arse. Sometimes I take it off, sheet up and then put it back on again. A real parp!
Ste Burrow:
Yeh the Moffet can be a pain in the arse. Sometimes I take it off, sheet up and then put it back on again. A real parp!
I used a moffet for about 8yrs, best bit of kit I ever used, I could tip and re-load my trailer in 30 mins, at least you can put the sheets on the top of the load by yourself no effort.
at least you can put the sheets on the top of the load by yourself no effort.
Thats true. We do farm deliveries with the feed and biulding sites with bricks or slate, some of them are paid as moffet loads, but when we get there the site has a telehandler, which is nice. We have an old tandem axle Boden trailer bout 36 foot long and with a moffet on the back it can be a pain. You strugle to get grip. we have some steel bar placed on the from but its no where near enough. There also pretty handy if your parked up and want to polish the roof of your unit ( as long as H&S aren’t watching)