zorba:
Liberace
Double Dolly’s next huh!
Now, now Dave! Stop taking the michael!!!
■■■■■■ ex-RAF Drivers!!!
Pat Hasler:
Once learned, never forgottenWhen if first started on flat beds in the 70’s it took some guy about three hours showing me over and over again, I used dolly’s for the next 13 years and never again untill I came here, then had to secure some crap on a flat trailer with no straps, I did it naturally as if the last time had been an hour earlier
It’s like riding a bike
You’re right, Pat but how did you go on with your US trailer? Did it have hooks the same as the Brits? The reason I ask is because when I went to OZ in the 60s I discovered that the trailers all had continuous bars down the side, impossible to make a dolly loop and hook it over. Their solution was to use many short ropes, one for each cross, and side mesh panels. That way you have a loose end every time, pass it behind the bar and and then tie the dolly in a slightly different way. You need to make a larger top loop though otherwise it can slip. I preferred the British method and told them. That way the height of the load wasn’t critical. Mind you it came in hand back in Blighty when faced with roping to ring bolts in a curtainsider.
I have never seen, anywhere in the world, better sheeted and neater loads than in the UK. The old timer Scotch trunkers were a joy to behold with any left over at the back forming a Dundee (or Scotch) cross. Mind you it was doing that after spreading two 40ft square sheets and roping every hook, a job that took two hours on a high load of loose bikes, that I tripped from the 1ft of space at the back and fell breaking my arm. After 30 minutes lying under the trailer unable to move, shock I suppose, I got into the cab of my Mk 1 Atki and drove one handed to the gatehouse (a long way) and then in the car to Ilkeston hospital. They made us tough in those days, now did I ever tell you about…?
Salut, David. 
Dave, you telling me a bloke of your experience and you dont know how to dolly a trailer with a continuous bar, even I could do that M8! Maybe you just worked with too good trailers! I can dolly to just about anything, maybe it come with working crap gear over the years. These days, i dont do it at all, i mustve grew a partial brain or summat
i can’t tie a dolly i did one once then walked round to the other side of the wagon to do another and i couldnt remember how to do it im right handed but confusingly i play pool/snooker left handed use a knifeandfork the wrong way round so being cag handed doesnt help spansets what an invention
US trailers don’t usualy have hooks, just a rail for hooking the end of the straps on, my previous company welded some one at my request and saw how much better they were.
I would never carry sheet steel without straps or chains back there.
One thing that shocks me over here is the amount of containers I see held on by straps or chains and no twistlocks 
Pat Hasler:
US trailers don’t usualy have hooks, just a rail for hooking the end of the straps on, my previous company welded some one at my request and saw how much better they were.
I would never carry sheet steel without straps or chains back there.
One thing that shocks me over here is the amount of containers I see held on by straps or chains and no twistlocks
Pat,
Not for the first time I expect the Yanks were pleased at being shown the best way, but did you have your own trailer all the time or did they do the whole fleet?
The last time I carried sheet steel was before the advent of straps but when my brother and I ran a small business our driver spread sheets all over Mansfield road, Daybrook after the sheets thought the straps were butter! I think he couldn’t be bothered to sleeve every strap but for me, chains are a must.
Containers carried without twistlocks were very common (and dangerous) in the early days of the container revolution and firms joined in without the proper kit. A mate of mine left Preston docks just in front of me with a 30’ flat container loaded with roped & sheeted potatoes. Our trailers had 40’ & 20’ twistlocks only, so to even out the weight he plonked the flat in the middle and secured it with ropes, double hitches going in all directions. At the first left turn the thing shot off like a launched torpedo, landed flat on the road and continued across the road levelling a traffic island, bollards and all, and came to rest on the far side - potatoes unmoved and ropes and sheets perfect. As I pulled up he clambered from the cab and stood mesmerised by the sparks shooting up from the bare wires where the bollards had been. I had put mine on the front twistlocks and roped the rear, to hell with the axle weights, it stayed put but it was a nervouse run back to Nottingham.
At one point, the all powerful dockers at Southampton, for reasons of their own but with the excuse of safety, refused to unload containers not four square on twistlocks. I say ‘with the excuse of safety’ because those refused were turned around and back on the road again. 
Mal,
Yes, I do, but it is clumsy and wasteful with long UK ropes.
Salut, David
I used to be able to tie a dolly in knots.
Now she just say’s “Go to sleep Williamsy” and rolls over… 
nice one kw