Roping & Sheeting

[Boyze]

Before i went in the office and started pushing a compoooter about i still wonder how some of the new boys could cope with proper loading... I dont mean that in a nasty way but there are loads of blokes who come into my yard looking for work until they realise that we still do proper general and heavy haulage work which needs a good knowledge of how to keep it on the trailer. I spend a good amount of time teaching blokes to rope and sheet and am convinced that it should be something that every driver should know how to do. With out making me out to being supertrucker i was just wondering weather everyone else feels the days of stripping tilts and putting two canvas and the fly should be bought back... In all fairness it was only the brits who did it properly and all of the europeans wher [zb]!!!
In this policical correct world i know its all wrong now but mate i do miss the blokes who know what there doing!!!
A few pictures of before i came of the road.

[Trubrit]

I used to do it, I can still do it ,but to be honest ,in the wind, rain, and freezing cold I wouldn't wish it on anyone. However, if you run flatbeds I agree with you that training should go along with maybe a higher rate of pay for their use?
What do you think?

[Boyze]

Trubrit.
We should all be paid better money just for being able to do the job we do as i dont care what anyone say`s its a way of life not just a job.
I just worry that the art is going out of the job, i know blokes who could load anything and deliver it anywhere but have a job to read and write so come next year there gonna struggle with the CPC yet they are are best assetts..

[Wheel Nut]

I was a lot fitter when I had to strip a tilt in Scunthorpe Rodmill in the rain. I was certainly fitter when I had to chuck a couple of Tarpaulins 12' up onto the top of a load of baled waste.

Health and Safety would have a duckfit now, and my rose tinted glasses steam up at the mention of a coil of rope. I have written before about the banter & camaraderie of a yard full of blokes who all would muck in to help you fold up a sheet or fasten a few hitches on the ties.

I dont think I want to go back to it, but do think that the basics at least should be shown before you are given any keys. We have blokes who dont understand how a curtainside buckle works, even more who cannot be bothered to tension a curtain properly.

[Boyze]

Dont get me wrong here im not saying that everybody should get out monday morning and strip a tilt or sheet a flat, but im an old fart who given the chance would jump back in my old 88 do it all again!!! Sad i know....
I just think the job has changed so much and like everything in life it is not always a good thing..... Not in a bad way just the knowledge that being lost...

[yella]

we're a dying breed mate. i sent 5 flats out to holland last week and i threw a sheet on every load. one of the drivers ditched the sheet before he left the yard and one of the older drivers told me that he ended up sheeting all 5 loads as the other four hadnt got a clue

[Trubrit]

we're a dying breed mate. i sent 5 flats out to holland last week and i threw a sheet on every load. one of the drivers ditched the sheet before he left the yard and one of the older drivers told me that he ended up sheeting all 5 loads as the other four hadnt got a clue

Funnily enough I had to do the same thing in Mildenhall 15 years ago, none of the tilt jockeys could rope and sheet so I loaded seven flat trailers in two days (complex machinery) for Germany.

[bestbooties]

Doing flat work with ropes and sheets in the '70's was hard graft,but I was as fit as a butchers dog.from what I gather,roping and sheeting is a "Specialised" job these days!

[gonzothejaffa1]

i lad we are




and theres not many of us younguns that know how to rope n sheet anymore either


and yes i would do it again if the right job arose snow rain dnt care i would rather rope n sheet than pull rag siders

[Paul]

Here's one I did earlier.


This was a load of reels of paper loaded for France, we used to send maybe 4-5 loads a day out and they were all on flats to various drops in France. We would usually reload with bags of plaster just north of Paris or out of Cotrama in Bolougne for LaFarge at Portbury. Some weeks we would do 3 round trips the next 2 trips. Sunday morning we would be down at the mill at 05.30 with a load of waste paper, unsheet that then tip and upto the top mill to load the finished reels, sheet that up with 2 full sheets then a fly sheet. Back to the yard drop that and pick up an empty flat back to the mill and load a second, back to the yard drop that and pick up another empty which would then be your trailer to go . Back to the mill load and leave for Dover, we would usually get into Dover on 14hrs duty, (that was if you were 1st in the mill) around 7pm. Ship over and park in Calias ( in the days when you could)
Monday we would tip, reload and be back in Dover that night and if we had the time we would run as far as possible towards Portbury. Tuesday tip Portbury reload waste paper around the Bristol area back to the yard pick up one off the trailers loaded on Sunday and turn back around heading for Dover. Wednesday we would ship over tip and reload Bolougne into Calais and do a change over. Thursday tip , reload Paris ship back over and run time out. Friday tip Portbury reload waste in the Bristol area and back to the yard.
We didnt get that every week but we could do that run for 3-4 weeks on the trot, then you would have it easy for a few weeks pulling a tilt or taut to Greece, Spain or the old eastern bloc.




Heres one loaded with waste paper no fly sheets needed so that would save 20-30 minutes.
One thing that roping and sheeting did give you was pride in a well sheeted load, knowing that you could do it and do it well.
Some of the drivers I work with now wouldn't know were to start and thats not just the younger ones. A few years ago we had a company that would sub some of our work using our tautliners, but they did quite a bit of flat work. They would drop there empty flats at our yard and one day there were about 8-9 off them in there. One of the older hands asked me what the flat trailers were for so I decided I would wind him up a little. I told him that the company were trying to maximise the loads of chipboard that we send to another of our factories and that if they used flat trailers they could get more on for every 5 trailers using flats they would save 1 trailer having to be used. He told me he couldn't rope and sheet and there was no way he was going learn at his age, infact he was going straight to the union shop steward and that they would be "on the gate" if this was allowed to take place. Kept me smiling for a few days

Paul

[tachograph]

I never had to strip a tilt so I wouldn't know much about that, but as for roping and sheeting I wonder what percentage of drivers now would know how to tie a dolly knot.
An honest poll may bring some surprises I fear
Years ago I used to quite enjoy roping a mixed load on a flat bed, can't say I really enjoyed rolling up sheets in the wind though

In the past few weeks I've been using sheets again for the first time in years and guess what ...................... I still don't enjoy folding and rolling them up in bad weather
Since using sheets again I've noticed one thing about drivers though, now they stand and watch you fold and roll them up on your own, how many of the older drivers would have done that years ago

[greg50]

i roped and sheeted for years..then went onto tilts.
all hard work.
fridge work is the way foward for me now.
no tautliners.
30 years of hardship..
give me a fridge anytime

[Paul]

I never had to strip a tilt so I wouldn't know much about that, but as for roping and sheeting I wonder what percentage of drivers now would know how to tie a dolly knot.
An honest poll may bring some surprises I fear
Years ago I used to quite enjoy roping a mixed load on a flat bed, can't say I really enjoyed rolling up sheets in the wind though

In the past few weeks I've been using sheets again for the first time in years and guess what ...................... I still don't enjoy folding and rolling them up in bad weather
Since using sheets again I've noticed one thing about drivers though, now they stand and watch you fold and roll them up on your own, how many of the older drivers would have done that years ago

I think to be honest its more that they wouldnt have a clue what to do and would rather stand watching than feel embarassed, but we've all had to learn somewhere. My dad taught me and at the age of 10 I was always down the yard on a saturday morning help him and his mates sheet the loads, I even got paid off his boss for helping and was told that when I got my licence there was a guaranteed job for me. He kept his word too, as soon as I passed my test on the way home I went there, he told me there wasnt a spare truck at the time but the next one was mine and 6 months later I got my 1st class 1 job.

Paul

[Stupot]

We used to pull Flats for a Belgian company. Looking at all your photos at least you have the right sheets and ropes. These trailers would come over with just two sheets , No fly, and were normally held down by the strangest knots you've ever seen.
I always prided myself on sending them back looking 50 times better than when we recieved them. I was out loading in Belgium once when in came one of our flats to load . I was kicking my heals waitng to load a powder tanker so helped said Belgy sheet up. He was absolutly amazed that this uk guy was helping but he was even more amazed at the dolly knots.
You could always tell when you had a trailer this guy had loaded from that day on.
Would always prefer to lad a flat at the steelworks though, rather than stripping a tilt.

[Wheel Nut]

We used to pull Flats for a Belgian company. Looking at all your photos at least you have the right sheets and ropes. These trailers would come over with just two sheets , No fly, and were normally held down by the strangest knots you've ever seen.
I always prided myself on sending them back looking 50 times better than when we recieved them. I was out loading in Belgium once when in came one of our flats to load . I was kicking my heals waitng to load a powder tanker so helped said Belgy sheet up. He was absolutly amazed that this uk guy was helping but he was even more amazed at the dolly knots.
You could always tell when you had a trailer this guy had loaded from that day on.
Would always prefer to lad a flat at the steelworks though, rather than stripping a tilt.

Thats so true. I use to pull flats for LV Shipping (Elvex) from Vlardingen. the trailers would come over with sheets, cut to fit the load of aluminium ingots, as sheet ties they used pieces of inner tube and a couple of ratchet straps over the lumpy bits

I nearly always had to call in the UK depot and pick up a couple of decent sheets as we then loaded waste bales out of Glenrothes.

It is certainly one thing we were better at than any European driver, although I did see a live cow roped to a stripped down tilt in Bulgaria

[whooshwhoosh]

taught by old hands at brs warrington on the alcan contract,tho the first trip out on my own with 7 drops was still a sharp learning curve but u got better with practice.would go back on flats tommorow ,just gettin fatter by the day draggin tautliners around

[bestbooties]

taught by old hands at brs warrington on the alcan contract,tho the first trip out on my own with 7 drops was still a sharp learning curve but u got better with practice.would go back on flats tommorow ,just gettin fatter by the day draggin tautliners around

As I said earlier,I was as fit as a butchers dog when I was doing it.

[yella]

taught by old hands at brs warrington on the alcan contract,tho the first trip out on my own with 7 drops was still a sharp learning curve but u got better with practice.would go back on flats tommorow ,just gettin fatter by the day draggin tautliners around

As I said earlier,I was as fit as a butchers dog when I was doing it.

aint that the truth, i'd probably start sweating and panting if i did one now

[nianiamh]

taught by old hands at brs warrington on the alcan contract,tho the first trip out on my own with 7 drops was still a sharp learning curve but u got better with practice.would go back on flats tommorow ,just gettin fatter by the day draggin tautliners around

Them were the days on that job, 10 to 15 drops 3 sheets all loaded nice and mixed up by Kenny Mac or Digger Barnes the shunters
with no mention of how it was loaded or where on the trailor the first drop was
was`nt such a bad thing as it was better to strip the lot off and start again after them two had just thrown the sheets at it
Never forget Harry the pot head off BRS Taskforce going down the M6 with the fly sheet trailing behind him
made Princess Di`s wedding dress look a bit plain trailing behind her going up the isle
Another of Harrys great trips out was when he was told to go to Deeside for 20 ton of can ends with a tautliner
rang the office when he got there to tell them it already had a full load of em on it
you`d think you would know a 320 MAN HAD 20 ton on it going up the bank on the A55 near Broughton
wonder where he is now, top quality entertainment with the management he was
Glad we don`t do it anymore at our place as some of our finest can`t seem to do the cutains up on tautliners very well

[dafdave]

Here's one I did earlier.


This was a load of reels of paper loaded for France, we used to send maybe 4-5 loads a day out and they were all on flats to various drops in France. We would usually reload with bags of plaster just north of Paris or out of Cotrama in Bolougne for LaFarge at Portbury. Some weeks we would do 3 round trips the next 2 trips. Sunday morning we would be down at the mill at 05.30 with a load of waste paper, unsheet that then tip and upto the top mill to load the finished reels, sheet that up with 2 full sheets then a fly sheet. Back to the yard drop that and pick up an empty flat back to the mill and load a second, back to the yard drop that and pick up another empty which would then be your trailer to go . Back to the mill load and leave for Dover, we would usually get into Dover on 14hrs duty, (that was if you were 1st in the mill) around 7pm. Ship over and park in Calias ( in the days when you could)
Monday we would tip, reload and be back in Dover that night and if we had the time we would run as far as possible towards Portbury. Tuesday tip Portbury reload waste paper around the Bristol area back to the yard pick up one off the trailers loaded on Sunday and turn back around heading for Dover. Wednesday we would ship over tip and reload Bolougne into Calais and do a change over. Thursday tip , reload Paris ship back over and run time out. Friday tip Portbury reload waste in the Bristol area and back to the yard.
We didnt get that every week but we could do that run for 3-4 weeks on the trot, then you would have it easy for a few weeks pulling a tilt or taut to Greece, Spain or the old eastern bloc.




Heres one loaded with waste paper no fly sheets needed so that would save 20-30 minutes.
One thing that roping and sheeting did give you was pride in a well sheeted load, knowing that you could do it and do it well.
Some of the drivers I work with now wouldn't know were to start and thats not just the younger ones. A few years ago we had a company that would sub some of our work using our tautliners, but they did quite a bit of flat work. They would drop there empty flats at our yard and one day there were about 8-9 off them in there. One of the older hands asked me what the flat trailers were for so I decided I would wind him up a little. I told him that the company were trying to maximise the loads of chipboard that we send to another of our factories and that if they used flat trailers they could get more on for every 5 trailers using flats they would save 1 trailer having to be used. He told me he couldn't rope and sheet and there was no way he was going learn at his age, infact he was going straight to the union shop steward and that they would be "on the gate" if this was allowed to take place. Kept me smiling for a few days

Paul

Aye you bring a few memorys back there paul,in the second pic int that my old daf 2800 parked next to you with germany on the cab.Cant help but laugh when i think of the cant rope and sheet and not going to learn,talk about throwing the dummy out of the pram.Them were the days mate as hard as they were.Hope your all keeping ok

Bilko

[peterm]

Yep them certainly were the days, peeing with rain, blowing a gale, sheets frozen to the load, fingers wouldn't work properly cos o' the cold.
Having said that, if I put a load on a trailer and roped and sheeted it, it'd stay there, even if I turned it over (no I didn't). I don't think too many tautliners could do that

[greek]

Her`s one I did earlier
[img][img]http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j92/hellious2/f7.jpg[/img]
much earlier about 1982/3[/img]

[Lee G]

I'm a newbie and would not have the first clue about roping and sheeting. i have a feeling i would get it wrong unrolling the the fly sheet let alone putting it on.

i understand that hardly any of us new guys now how to do it but there aren't many people out there that use them anymore and even less that would take on a new guy without the first clue so it is a dying breed i guess.

as for dolly knots, WTF are they? what is wrong with a good old snakes wedding to hold a load on?

only kidding fella'. anybody got any info on how to rope and sheet or tie a dolly knot? its interesting to know, just in case! lets try and keep this trade alive by passing on your trade secrets on how to do it!

[Boyze]

Gibisa.
Just reading through most of the posts on here gives you a good idea of the sense of job satisfaction on being able to do it. As much as wind rain and coldness is a nightmare to work in you still know that the load will stay in the same spot and on the trailer.
Trying to explain how to do any of the folding, dollies, envelopeing or any other tricks of the trade is difficult without a load in front of you.
Fair play to you for wanting to learn because just wanting to be able to do it is a very rare thing in new wagon drivers.
This is why this part of the forum is the best place to put this thread because all the experience is already here....
As for passing the knowledge on we train all new drivers up.. Some love it... Others prefer to go to Sainsburys and stay clean!!!!
I blame Mr Health & Safety for stopping kids going with the old man as it has stopped people coming up through the ranks.
Greg 50.
Do you get the same buzz when you open the doors on your fridge and look at all them yoghurts??? Only teasing honest!!!
Paul.
Nice job of sheeting there mate.... I got a Guy Big J4 and old York flat if you fancy a job!!!!

[Semtex]

I'm a newbie and would not have the first clue about roping and sheeting. i have a feeling i would get it wrong unrolling the the fly sheet let alone putting it on.

i understand that hardly any of us new guys now how to do it but there aren't many people out there that use them anymore and even less that would take on a new guy without the first clue so it is a dying breed i guess.

as for dolly knots, WTF are they? what is wrong with a good old snakes wedding to hold a load on?

only kidding fella'. anybody got any info on how to rope and sheet or tie a dolly knot? its interesting to know, just in case! lets try and keep this trade alive by passing on your trade secrets on how to do it!

Have a look at this site from a former member of trucknet (he is responsible for the Zb in the autocensor)

that will teach you how to tie a dolly knot

http://uk.geocities.com/zzar_bean/default.htm

[bubbleman]

I must admit that in my 35 years of driving lorries I haven't been called upon to do much roping and sheeting,it wasn't 'til I worked for Western Transport that I had the oppertunity to have a go. One day my old pal Arthur was roping down a load of G.K.N pallets for dehiring ,as I walked passed the trailer the rope was in position to be tied,now my old man showed me how to do dollies so as Arthur came around the unit I was giving the dolly a good pull "Give it yer ,that aint no bleedin good" and he proceded to drag another foot of rope through the dolly.Needless to say Arthur ,excuse the pun,showed me the ropes and when he retired I took over the pallet job. Because I was shown properly Ihad no problems,also Iwas in my mid 30s when this happened so its never too late to learn.
I was so chuffed to get to my drop safely with my first load of pallets I took a photo.
Cheers Marc

[Lee G]

Have a look at this site from a former member of trucknet (he is responsible for the Zb in the autocensor)

that will teach you how to tie a dolly knot

http://uk.geocities.com/zzar_bean/default.htm

WOOHOO!

i can tie a dolly knot, i can tie a dolly knot nah nan nanah nah

cheers semtex

[frenchy]

Hi All
Opened up a topic of pride with most old drivers that had no choice but to get stuck in and " get that load covered ", even with sore hands and water coming out of your bum in the rain , sitting in the cab after , wet and cold with the heater on to warm up , if you had one , looking in the mirror and know you`ve done a good job , and it all being still there and dry when you get to your drop . Remember those big sheets that covered all a 40ft trailer that only Jeff Capes could lift and having to tie it to a lamp post to pull it off , or sheeting your MT trailer to keep the bed dry for your next load , or looking at a load and thinking how do I rope down that lot .
" Get your sheets off Drive` and I`ll whip that lot off " Oh happy days , not .
Frenchy

[ghosttrain]

Sounds daft but I used to stand back and look with pride at a load I'd just roped and sheeted. I suppose we forget about sheeting trailers in the snow and rain or heaving three sheets over the larger loads. I hated stripping tilts and the innovation of euroliners was a godsend.

[Paul]

Hi Dave yes I'm sure that was your old daf C556 DND.
Here's the same pic but from a different angle along with the Steyr I was driving at the time and I think Brian ( wash a lot ) ( NOT) Nabbs 85. Big Garry must have been on the Iveco at the time hense the loose sheets .
C556 DND was actually the first ever truck I went abroad in when Ace Link owned it prior to Kenny, had to have a new clutch in Novaro on my way to Rome.
Yes, Dave they were the days when we did a hard days graft but they were also the best days of my driving career so far.



Paul