Mini diary

[scantheman]

Got up at three o clock on friday morning and was on the road for just turned four had a pretty uneventful trip along the A55 then A41,M54 and M6 where the traffic started building up and i was down to a crawling pace mind you it was 07.30 so i suppose people were on their way to work.

Reached the A14 and had been on the road for just over four hours so decided to take an hours break…

Set off along the A14 and noticed there was a few speed cameras so kept my speed to a steady 50 mph and when i reached the A12 i pulled over to ring the farm where i was picking up the straw from to get some directions…the directions were pretty good but i was a little worried when the bloke on the phone said “turn down the road that says unsuitable for large vehicles” and he also said “you’ll have to reverse in but theres plenty of room”…well the entrance was quite wide but the road i was reversing off was very narrow with ditches either side…

…I’m not the best in the world at reversing due to lack of practice but with a couple of manouvres i was in and ready to be loaded…any tips on reversing off a small road would be appreciated

It was only 12.30 when the bloke started loading so i was thinking i’d be ready to settle down by about three or four at the latest.The wagon was loaded by about 2.00 and then it was up a ladder on top of the bales to link together two straps to go from front to back…and let me tell you, climbing a ladder with four rolls of straps in your hands is pretty nerve racking
Before loading the trailer the bloke went inside to have some dinner and left me to finish off strapping down the bales on the front.

Although the wagon was loaded pretty quickly the trailer turned out to be a different story…they were small bales on the trailer and every time john tried to pick them off the pile they kept falling off the grab and it was about 6.30 when the trailer was finally loaded so it was up the ladder again only this time it was pitch black …after it was all strapped down John made us a well earned cup of tea and give me 2.5 dozen free range eggs to take home…nice bloke.

I got to bed about 8.00 pm but couldn’t sleep very well as i kept going over everything in my head worrying if i’d done all the straps correctly…i was having visions of bales all over the a14 and the road being closed for hours .

I finally nodded off and was woke at just after one by the sound of my alarm going off Had a quick drink and started the wagon did a few checks and was on my way,after about fifty miles i stopped and checked the straps were still tight, they were so i got on my way feeling a little better in myself.

I stopped for a break at the end of the A14 and checked the straps again…paraniod or what…carried on and as it was only half five the M6 wasn’t to bad and i was soon on the M54 then A41and A55 were i stopped again as i was feeling tired.After a 45 min break i carried on but the wind had now got up but it was suprisingly not that bad…i was expecting to be rocking all over the place and must admit was worrying a little bit about crossing the brittania bridge but when i reached there the wind had died down .

I dropped the trailer in a place in Llangefni and delivered the straw on the wagon to a farm in Carmel.All done i took the wagon back parked it up and went home to enjoy a nice hot bath some hot food and a good sleep.

All in all an enjoyable trip,plus iv’e been told there’s a lot more work if i want it…obviously i said yes so it looks like i’ll be going again soon.

Scan

[gordy]

Nice one Looks like a tricky strapping job.

[brit_pete]

A very nice read with good photos as well, you posted that you were

worried about the load due to it maybe not secure enough,what about

the use of small canopys/tarpulins which have lashing points built into the

canopy so that you can use small rachet straps to secure them, over the

germans use them for small loads in trailers that are difficult otherwise

to secure, just a thought as a addedsafetyx factor,

[denis_f]

6 hours to load

the guy needs to learn how to drive a loader

one farm I went to last year I was 25 minutes from start to finish ( including strapping)

over a hour is unacceptable as far as I’m concerned

[scantheman]

Gordy:
Nice one Looks like a tricky strapping job.

It was a little tricky on the trailer as they were small bales and needed more straps to hold them in place.

what about

the use of small canopys/tarpulins which have lashing points built into the

canopy so that you can use small rachet straps to secure them

I have seen them on some straw wagons but this guy doesn’t have them

6 hours to load

the guy needs to learn how to drive a loader

one farm I went to last year I was 25 minutes from start to finish ( including strapping)

over a hour is unacceptable as far as I’m concerned

I agree it was way too long…he was doing other little jobs inbetween aswell which made things worse…iv’e seen the big bales loaded and strapped in under an hour

[hgv_mikey]

scantheman:

Gordy:
Nice one Looks like a tricky strapping job.

It was a little tricky on the trailer as they were small bales and needed more straps to hold them in place.

might be an idea to stack them differently, so they are more stable and don’t move. best way might be like bricks on a house, as you’ve done one layeryou shift the next layer over slightly.

as for the time, keep the farmers attention on loading, hard i know but if you can do it a few times, he’ll realise that its better [for you and him] if you get loaded quickly and on your way.

[denis_f]

HGV_Mikey:
[
might be an idea to stack them differently, so they are more stable and don’t move. best way might be like bricks on a house, as you’ve done one layeryou shift the next layer over slightly.

.

you can’t stack them like bricks because you can’t cut the end one in half to square them up

I’ll see if I can do a drawing of the way to hand stack them …

[denis_f]

Ok, assume that all the rectangles are the same size and there aren’t any gaps between them

I would start with layer one, then alternate 2 and 3 until you get one layer from the top and then put the top layer the same as the bottom
other people use different top layers but this way makes it easy to strap ( or rope!
) front to back

Of course if anyone asks I don’t do small bales

[snooze_control]

Good artwork Denis!