I’ve always helped newbies as I was helped.when one myself, learned a lot from older drivers, and appreciated it, in fact I still see a couple today, who are now getting on a bit, and always buy them a pint.
Anyway, a mate of mine was loading chipboard which we all know needs strapped up extra tight. He used a bar that he had made himself, which is designed to fit snugly in the ratchet and give enough extra swing to tighten up. (personally I just use a lump of wood)
A young guy who had just finished strapping asked him if that was neccesary as he had just tightened them up by hand.
My mate said that he would advise it as this stuff tends to move, so when he went for a tea, he loaned him his bar and told him he would get it off him when he came back…you guessed it, the guy ■■■■ ed off with it.
I bet he thinks twice next time.
AndrewG:
Karma always makes an appearance at some point though…
Yeah. Hopefully the bar he nicked ■■■■■ him right between the eyes while he’s trying to tighten up a strap at the chipboard mill next time. That would be karma at its best [emoji12]
Whats the deal with chipboard though Rob as i can honestly say ive never carried it, i take it you have to edge and corner it, strapping it too tight would break it surely no…■■
AndrewG:
Whats the deal with chipboard though Rob as i can honestly say ive never carried it, i take it you have to edge and corner it, strapping it too tight would break it surely no…■■
It can be dodgy stuff, yeh you put corners on, but I have never broken it.
I’ll tell you how dodgy it is, and a few I have told this to in the past didn’t believe me. I picked up a load of formica coated stuff in Holland once, which is particularly dodgy.
I came over on the Rotterdam Hull boat on a particularly bloody rough crossing, so rough that my pint slipped off the table and spilled
No that aint the story,
I strapped this stuff to within an inch of it’s life, had a quick look in the back when I got on the boat, it was dead straight.
Next morning after this bloody awful crossing, nearly rolling out of my bunk, and later on nearly throwing up my breakfast I got back to the truck and this bloody stuff was sat about 6" in the nearside curtain.
I think you’ve got imagine each layer (dozens) has the same slipperiness as these bloody useless new plastic pallets on a typical lorry flooring, in other words you could chuck one sheet on one side and it would slide straight off the other, but times however many in the stack
By the way, that newbie who nicked your mates bespoke lever needs a bloody good kick up the arse, hope he gets a puncture every Friday afternoon for the rest of the year.
I recall, way back in the dim and distant, being sent to London Docks (remember them?) to pick up a load of rubber for Dunlop at Brum. Luckily there were two of us and the other guy was an old hand.
The crane loaded a layer of bales onto the bed and my mate promptly started roping them down. I couldn’t understand why, since they were only a couple of feet high but he shrugged and said to please myself. I did it anyway, even though I thought it was OTT - every pair of bales roped down hard. Then another layer - same procedure, and a single row on top - yes another load of rope.
There was a burger bar somewhere near Northolt and we pulled in there. First job - tighten all those blasted ropes. In spite of all that lashing, they had still moved.
Juddian:
I think you’ve got imagine each layer (dozens) has the same slipperiness as these bloody useless new plastic pallets on a typical lorry flooring, in other words you could chuck one sheet on one side and it would slide straight off the other, but times however many in the stack
By the way, that newbie who nicked your mates bespoke lever needs a bloody good kick up the arse, hope he gets a puncture every Friday afternoon for the rest of the year.
Hope Im never cursed by a Clown like that. But Juddian does raise the point of unsuitable packaging. Plastic pallets on plastic impregnated floors is never gonna be good. Plastic cornerson bases of 1000 litre liquid pallets are a curse. My particular ■■■■■ is against plastic barrels. Not only are they made of a slippery substance but there shape with a smooth bulge towards the middle makes strapping then difficult. Older steel drums had swage lines on them so ropes or straps could be used as a barrel hitch and wouldnt slip down. Stupid plastic ones are harder to grip and roll by hand too.
Santa:
I recall, way back in the dim and distant, being sent to London Docks (remember them?) to pick up a load of rubber for Dunlop at Brum. Luckily there were two of us and the other guy was an old hand.
The crane loaded a layer of bales onto the bed and my mate promptly started roping them down. I couldn’t understand why, since they were only a couple of feet high but he shrugged and said to please myself. I did it anyway, even though I thought it was OTT - every pair of bales roped down hard. Then another layer - same procedure, and a single row on top - yes another load of rope.
There was a burger bar somewhere near Northolt and we pulled in there. First job - tighten all those blasted ropes. In spite of all that lashing, they had still moved.
If it’s the same stuff, I also remember blocks of rubber, none of which were actually square. A real ■■■■■■■ to tie down, plus a sheet to make as sure as I could that they wouldn’t move.
AndrewG:
Whats the deal with chipboard though Rob as i can honestly say ive never carried it, i take it you have to edge and corner it, strapping it too tight would break it surely no…■■
It can be dodgy stuff, yeh you put corners on, but I have never broken it.
I’ll tell you how dodgy it is, and a few I have told this to in the past didn’t believe me. I picked up a load of formica coated stuff in Holland once, which is particularly dodgy.
I came over on the Rotterdam Hull boat on a particularly bloody rough crossing, so rough that my pint slipped off the table and spilled
No that aint the story,
I strapped this stuff to within an inch of it’s life, had a quick look in the back when I got on the boat, it was dead straight.
Next morning after this bloody awful crossing, nearly rolling out of my bunk, and later on nearly throwing up my breakfast I got back to the truck and this bloody stuff was sat about 6" in the nearside curtain.
Bloody horrible load. Used to get back loads from Kronaspan Chirk sometimes, would strap every layer, we’d load 10 packs 2 stacks of 3 and a stack of 4, if you only strapped over the top, the bottom pack will stay still, the top pack will stay still, but those in the middle just slide all over
robroy:
Anyway, a mate of mine was loading chipboard which we all know needs strapped up extra tight. He used a bar that he had made himself, which is designed to fit snugly in the ratchet and give enough extra swing to tighten up. (personally I just use a lump of wood)
A young guy who had just finished strapping asked him if that was neccesary as he had just tightened them up by hand.
Only an idiot uses a bar. You DO NOT need to use a bar when strapping down chipboard. All you do when using a bar is knacker the ratchets and over-tighten the straps so you actually increase the chances of them snapping and the load moving. All the knackered ratchets at Howdens were done by morons using bars. Chipboard doesn’t need strapping up extra tight, what it needs is the right amount of straps on in the right place and to drive accordingly. Shifting standard 1200x2400 packs two high and two across you should have one strap going across the bottom pair and three straps going across the top. Shifting the large packs like we did which were stacked three high you would have two straps over the bottom two packs and three straps over the top one. All Howdens ratchets had strain gauges on them and there was no need to tighten them any more than the minimum needed to close the jaws on the strain gauge.
At Howdens where we were transporting 9x3 tonne packs or 6x 4.5 tonne packs going out from Egger in Scotland which is a crap road to the M74, over the A66 on a night and down the back roads from Darlington to Thirsk when the A1 was shut they never moved even doing 50MPH almost all the way from Darlington to Thirsk down the A167. which is quite twisty.
Conor:
Only an idiot uses a bar. You DO NOT need to use a bar when strapping down chipboard. All you do when using a bar is knacker the ratchets and over-tighten the straps so you actually increase the chances of them snapping and the load moving. All the knackered ratchets at Howdens were done by morons using bars. Chipboard doesn’t need strapping up extra tight, what it needs is the right amount of straps on in the right place and to drive accordingly. Shifting standard 1200x2400 packs two high and two across you should have one strap going across the bottom pair and three straps going across the top. Shifting the large packs like we did which were stacked three high you would have two straps over the bottom two packs and three straps over the top one. All Howdens ratchets had strain gauges on them and there was no need to tighten them any more than the minimum needed to close the jaws on the strain gauge.
At Howdens where we were transporting 9x3 tonne packs or 6x 4.5 tonne packs going out from Egger in Scotland which is a crap road to the M74, over the A66 on a night and down the back roads from Darlington to Thirsk when the A1 was shut they never moved even doing 50MPH almost all the way from Darlington to Thirsk down the A167. which is quite twisty.
Nice to see getting away from lorry driving has enabled you to stepback a bit and not feel the need to call people names who do things differently than you as if you are the only fountain of the “right” way
robroy:
Anyway, a mate of mine was loading chipboard which we all know needs strapped up extra tight. He used a bar that he had made himself, which is designed to fit snugly in the ratchet and give enough extra swing to tighten up. (personally I just use a lump of wood)
A young guy who had just finished strapping asked him if that was neccesary as he had just tightened them up by hand.
Only an idiot uses a bar. You DO NOT need to use a bar when strapping down chipboard. All you do when using a bar is knacker the ratchets and over-tighten the straps so you actually increase the chances of them snapping and the load moving. All the knackered ratchets at Howdens were done by morons using bars. Chipboard doesn’t need strapping up extra tight, what it needs is the right amount of straps on in the right place and to drive accordingly. Shifting standard 1200x2400 packs two high and two across you should have one strap going across the bottom pair and three straps going across the top. Shifting the large packs like we did which were stacked three high you would have two straps over the bottom two packs and three straps over the top one. All Howdens ratchets had strain gauges on them and there was no need to tighten them any more than the minimum needed to close the jaws on the strain gauge.
At Howdens where we were transporting 9x3 tonne packs or 6x 4.5 tonne packs going out from Egger in Scotland which is a crap road to the M74, over the A66 on a night and down the back roads from Darlington to Thirsk when the A1 was shut they never moved even doing 50MPH almost all the way from Darlington to Thirsk down the A167. which is quite twisty.
Ok Conor I will duly inform the guy that he’s an idiot.
I bow to your expertise on loading chipboard, although I have loaded quite a bit myself, and even using rope in the early days.
Tbf I would say the ‘need’ and necessity to put a couple of clicks on a ratchet using a bar is up to the individual, and his peace of mind.
The ‘‘idiot’’ factor comes into it by OVERuse of the bar, to the extent where it resuts in the type of ratchet damage that you mention, done by the ‘morons’ you also mention.
I as I said, I tend to use (not overuse) a bit of wood. I’m a fairly big lad so I can still manage to put on quite a bit of pressure, but I always feel safer (rightly or wrongly) by putting on 2 more clicks with the wood, and I have never damaged a ratchet in doing so, and also never lost a load.
Now if a 6 stone wet through and 5’ 1’ in his socks type of guy can put on sufficient pressure without some aid, I would be surprised, but as I said you seem to know your field.
(Not implying you are that build btw )
I worked as a delivery driver for a timber merchant years ago. They used to put an extra board on top of chipboard etc. and the like and just cranked the ratchets up tight as I could. On more expensive hard woods, just used softwood dunnage. Never had an issue. Wood packs tight to the headboard and each other helps and also driving suitably did me ok.
Years ago I did a couple of nights shunting laminated chipboard from Norboard to Inverness dock for Highland Haulage and never used any straps at all, just took it extremely very slowly and literally crept around the roundabouts and never had a problem …
pallets on a typical lorry flooring, in other words you could chuck one sheet on one side and it would slide straight off the other, but times however many in the stack 
