For many years I drove for R & N Cessford of Brechin, mainly pulling a folding potato bulker. We generally loaded
potatoes in bulk from Scotland to England then having tipped we dropped the sides and central apex and backloaded
fertiliser, empty potato boxes or anything he could find. These trailers were quite heavy to assemble and fold down
and we never found a way of fitting them with an easysheet. They were also prone to having many little faults and all
seemed to work differently and it became apparent that it was beneficial for drivers to keep the same trailer as they
had sussed out its failings and how to keep them running. Trailers were mainly modified or rebuilt by Martin Cessford
and the central apex made them into “self tippers” replacing the little boards drivers used to have to pull out from
under the potatoes while tipping. Photos show an empty trailer assembled ready to load potatoes, loading potatoes,
loaded and sheeted and finally backloaded with empty boxes.
Imagine the carnage that load could have caused if it fell off.
Ropes only,not a ratchet strap in sight.Sheer lunacy i"ll tell thee.
Suedehead:
Imagine the carnage that load could have caused if it fell off.
Ropes only,not a ratchet strap in sight.Sheer lunacy i"ll tell thee.
Standard practice in my day, I actually thought ropes held the boxes better than straps and ratchets. Plod and VOSA were happy
with that system as well, although it may be unacceptable in today’s health and safety climate. Would also point I NEVER had
any problems with the boxes moving.
oldmannie:
Suedehead:
Imagine the carnage that load could have caused if it fell off.
Ropes only,not a ratchet strap in sight.Sheer lunacy i"ll tell thee.
Standard practice in my day, I actually thought ropes held the boxes better than straps and ratchets. Plod and VOSA were happy
with that system as well, although it may be unacceptable in today’s health and safety climate. Would also point I NEVER had
any problems with the boxes moving.
The man did not take any notice of the cross on the front of the load and one on the back pulling the whole lot together. Pre limiter days
we would run at 60 mph with that lot and very rare would it move.
Cool pictures, thanks!
Newbie question - what’s the purpose of the central apex?
There’s still quite a few Scottish lads running these see em quite often
Fascinating story with explanatory photos thanks for posting it. Tidy bit of roping them empty boxes were not going anywhere. Where the sides made of metal,I bet you feared the frost. I guess the central apex keeps the weight off the conveyer so the spuds trickle underneath.
For the General the central apex did indeed keep the weight of the potatoes of the belt allowing everything to run,
For Tarmac Duck the sides and hinged angle boards were inch thick plywood lined with metal, the sides being lined with check
aluminium plate on the outside which in turn became the floor when running as a flatbed and the hinged angle boards on the inside lined with tin plate. Suppose that’s why they were so heavy to lift up and down. Iveco and trailer tared at just over 17tonnes.
As Phantom says there are still a few of these trailers being used, however there is a school of thought that a modern fixed sided
bulker carrying 30tonnes of spuds, easy sheet over for the run home and its a big saving on diesel and time is a more viable outfit. I can remember often tipping at Morrisons at Flaxby (just off the A1 near Knaresborough) and having to go down to Immingham for fertiliser. Allow time for the run down, breakfast stop, the inevitable queue at the fert works, loading, sheeting and roping, quick wash and cup of tea and the off and it could be anythging from 6 to 8 hours when we were passing the Flaxby turn off returning north on the A1. We could have been nearly home in that time and reloading.
As regards the empty boxes, a load tied down like that would often be travellinh from Kings Lynn to Scotland with no problems. There were of course times when we mixed fertiliser and empty boxes to maximise profits.
Nice one, thanks, oldmannie.
In a previous job I pulled one of the “newer type” solid sided bulkers - made by fibertec I think and mounted on a 4 lock skelly trailer . Always thought these older types looked like a bit of a fiddle if you didn’t know the job well enough .
I used to have the pleasure of pulling this, same principle just it was a tipper. As has been said folding the thing down was bloody hard work. Thank God the boss decided to get rid of it. Never liked using it as a flat trailer and it wasn’t much use as a tipper, too heavy and anything other than gravel would stick down the sides.
Just goes to show the young uns don’t know they’re born!
I think that your tipper would have been a little lighter johnboy76 as you wouldn’t have had the angle boards inside. We were
virtually lifting double weight all the time.
Noted with interest the easysheet. We could not have used anything like that as it would have hit the empty box backloads
on the head, even fert would not have worked. Immingham and Ince loaded 6 bags at a time (2 lots of 3 across, and our other
main customer Billingham loaded 4 at a time so their tines would have been hitting the sheet.
Cessford did buy one with an easysheet, had it specially made with both sides and angle boards in one piece each. They were lifted by
rams powered by a little electric motor, always seemed to be giving problems. The easysheeet was rolled to one side then lowered on a cable and pulley system to be stored under the bed of the trailer against the chassis. Fert had to be sheeted and roped as normal.
He never bought another.
Although the work was heavy and dirty I will say that Cessford was never afraid to pay for it, indeed we were usually regarded as by far the best paid in our county.
johnboy76:
I used to have the pleasure of pulling this, same principle just it was a tipper. As has been said folding the thing down was bloody hard work. Thank God the boss decided to get rid of it. Never liked using it as a flat trailer and it wasn’t much use as a tipper, too heavy and anything other than gravel would stick down the sides.01
Even on glance looks like a comical tipper and even worse flat bed. Its cartoon chunky metal and very little room left over for the load. I’ve seen photos from the 60s of better designed trailers. Who’d your boss buy it from? It looks like a sort of school craft design and technology A-level project.
