Got to the depot 6.45am,keys to a brand new 15 plate DAF XF high roof unit. GULP. Turtles head already imminent. Got told which empty trailer(all curtainsiders) to hook up to. TRI AXLE 40 footer. Turtle having a good look around in the Armani’s at this stage. All sorts going through my head; Lift axle,suspension heights,missed pin etc. Deep breath,had a cool think and got on with it. No problems.
Next thing-reverse into warehouse without killing anyone to have 7 pallets loaded. Achieved ok. Scooted off to Radcliffe without ripping gate out of tarmac. Turtle back in his shell for now. Easy blast up the M62. Found the yard,and drove in. Tighter than a mouses ear. Turtle out again. Luckily the forkie moved a skip that some knob had left in the way. Spun it on sixpence and collected a further 11 pallets.
Off to Chorley M61. Turtle gone. Arrived at the next place too early for my slot so I parked up next to a burger van and stuck it on break. 1 hour later I head into the yard and…its HUGE. Have that turtle!! Tipped all 18 pallets and phoned gaffer.
“Well done”…“Now go to Liverpool and collect 26 pallets of soft drinks”…YIKES!
Another hour later im sat waiting to be loaded with a smile on my face. Got fully loaded,strapped up curtains shut,and off to my home depot. FINAL CHALLENGE. A very tight gate. Turtle rears its ugly head but soon hibernated as I nailed it straight through like a snake!! Dropped the trailer in the yard,got a nod of approval form the gaffer and back tomorrow at 7am. REALLY ENJOYABLE DAY.
Used the internal webbing straps Swampster. The pallets were well shrink wrapped and obviously loaded tight from the headboard back. Cross-strapped the back 2 pallets.
Sorry to have asked…my experience is with limited to box trailers with the tension bar to hold in any loads, did my test with a curtain sided tri axle trailer but it was unloaded so I’m just a little intrigued on the whole strapping load down thing…something that we never covered on our training …
