Well, in the end its just a matter of personal preference and for the last couple of pages it has been fine to hold an opinion about it. I’m one of those who look at joggers in the street with disbelief, but I don’t call it a load of old bull: after all, they might not like my preference for tilt-work. Each to his own, I say. My sport is transport 
But I’ll keep taking the medicine 
(it’s brewed by the Nile)! A tilt is the only type of trailer to have a soul. Robert 
On one trip to Doha with an Astran load for the Qatar Petrolium Co, I cleared customs as usual ,down at the seafront and went off to tip at their stores. They were a great bunch of guys who stripped the tilt as necessary and rebuilt it when empty, whilst I sat chatting to the head storeman who was also a Scotsman that had been with the company for years.
On returning to Doha that afternoon i parked beside one of Birdales Mercs with an empty stripped down tilt. On chatting to the driver, he told me that as far as he was concerned it was too dangerous to run back through Turkey and eastern europe in the winter, with a built up empty tilt due to the weight of snow that could gather on the roof and overturn the trailer. Everyone to his own I told him, but I would much rather build a tilt in Doha in December than in eastern europe.
Little did I realise that he had Ulterior motives, he had been up at one of the campsite bars the previous evening and had purchased about twelve cases of whiskey, which was to be delivered to him that evening, he was then going to stash this under his stripped down tilt and smuggle it into Saudi, where he reckoned he had customers lined up.
I went into the customs and collected my empty papers and he was not even aware that they were open. On my next trip out in the January His truck was parked up in the National in Belgrade where he had left it and flown home. Needless to say I never seen him again.
Best regards Jamie.
Build up of snow on trailer? What we used to get in Swiss is snow freezing on top after being parked for the weekend and on Monday morning blocks of ice crashing down on the autobahn causing chaos .
Hey to all, Everyone his fancy, but if you think, be payed the same rated for roping and sheeting, breaking down tilts,I should know what to choose. But my father swore by roping and sheeting even in the '60’s with the Engish trailers with three sheets and only ropes, not as here cables and only two light plastic sheets in Belgium. And no ties on the sheets but easy to use rubber straps made of old innertubes. So you will know what was my job as kid after school
And I did everything from roping and sheeting to fridges or tippers,tankers. But if I got of International work THAN learnt I what was the best (for me) and that was a cement bulker, nothing to open no load or offloading by your self
( as we call it today “self service”) no ADR or food examination, loading or delivering 24/24 so never in a hurry.
So thys of driving like a cowboy too be in time,and arriving at a closed gate. And a tomorrow morning you are the first reply.
Cheers Eric,
harry:
Build up of snow on trailer? What we used to get in Swiss is snow freezing on top after being parked for the weekend and on Monday morning blocks of ice crashing down on the autobahn causing chaos .
Hullo Harry,
This made me laugh, I know it’s a bit off the subject, but your post reminded me of what happened to John Schemitsky ( anybody remember this Bloke ? ), he always was a bit accident prone, he was coming down Archway Road in the middle of Winter, under the Arch down the hill and on with the brakes. A great big disc of Ice came flying off the top of his tilt, it must have weighed a ton, and went skidding down the hill in front of him. Fortunately it never hit anybody before it finally broke into pieces. I think he was very lucky it never hit somebody, as it’s a busy bit of road there. It always makes me roll up to think about it.
Who did john work for ,Archie?
harry:
Who did john work for ,Archie?
Hullo Harry,
He was an Owner Driver and at the time that I knew him he was a regular subbie working for George Atippa ( Mondial Forwarding ) from Bow.
I knew George ,what truck did John drive?
harry:
I knew George ,what truck did John drive?
Hullo Harry,
The last time I saw him, about '83 or '84 at Trieste, he still had a Maggie D. 
Archie Paice:
harry:
I knew George ,what truck did John drive?Hullo Harry,
The last time I saw him, about '83 or '84 at Trieste, he still had a Maggie D.
Then I never met him Archie. Maggie D’s are stamped on my nightmare cortex.
robert1952:
R-E-L-A-X with a tilt… Robert0
What an emotive picture, sums up perfectly, the lifestyle we had…with the improvised washing line!
Didn’t Euroroute lose a driver on the ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’?
Pete
petecud:
robert1952:
R-E-L-A-X with a tilt… RobertWhat an emotive picture, sums up perfectly, the lifestyle we had…with the improvised washing line!
Didn’t Euroroute lose a driver on the ‘Herald of Free Enterprise’?
Pete
Yes, I love this evocative picture: it so readily sums up the messy business of putting tilts back together in the baking sun. I think this picture was taken in the Middle East. It was provided for me by Ashley Coghill, who drove for Euroroute for some time. Perhaps another driver can answer your ‘Herald’ query. Robert
I made a washing line out of tilt cord one weekend, I had a thin black line across all my cloths of a week or so after that. I should have washed the cord first.
Jeff…
Jelliot:
I made a washing line out of tilt cord one weekend, I had a thin black line across all my cloths of a week or so after that. I should have washed the cord first.Jeff…
I did the same and had pants with tramlines ever afterwards, AND I’d cleaned the [zb] TIR-cord! The fact is you could never clean those cords properly without the aid of banned industrial cleaning substances! Robert
I had a giggle at the washing line experiences, on my first trip (Teheran) I too cleaned my TIR cord and put my gear out to dry overnight but I will never know if I had black strip 'cos I had the lot nicked overnight by the phantom nicker snatcher. there has got to be more funnies relating to clothes lines, lets be having yer !! 
Fred
freshir:
I had a giggle at the washing line experiences, on my first trip (Teheran) I too cleaned my TIR cord and put my gear out to dry overnight but I will never know if I had black strip 'cos I had the lot nicked overnight by the phantom nicker snatcher. there has got to be more funnies relating to clothes lines, lets be having yer !!
Fred
On my first run down to the Gulf, I decided to do a bit of dobie while I was waiting to have the Saudi transit plate fitted at Haditha. So I strung my washing up between my wagon and Dave Poulten’s trailer. The Saudi customs man came marching round the corner of the trailer smack into all my damp underwear. He wasn’t at all amused and demanded the line be taken down! Robert
Hi all.Just recalling what Jelliot said about seeing and experiencing things in strange places.I remember in 1975 on the way to Doha for Astrans i was parked in the desert in Saudi having a meal when i saw in the distance 3 Omani registered trucks coming toward me.As this was quite an unusual site i was amazed when they turned toward me and pulled up next to me.All of a sudden i Heard a ‘oh so familiar voice’ shout ‘‘get the bloody kettle on then ■■■■■■■■■■ looked in amazement as three guys from the same town [Clacton]as me jumped down from these trucks.It turned out that 3 old mates of mine were working for the sultan driving Omani reg motors to collect military supplies in the UK for the Omani army.
Re;Hut. That part of Essex supplied a load of TIR drivers - I for one wanted to get as far away as pos.from that boring area,still do. 
I had a bush washing machine ( bucket with a lid ) in my trailer locker and used to do my undies in it. We did a big push across Russia and Kaz, M32 in a day a and a half as the weather had truned bad. I forgort about the bucket and when we finally stopped for a break I opened the locker to find the bucket of undies frozen solid. It took 2 days in the foot well with the cab heater going flat out to thaw it out.
Jeff…