They sure did. While we were ■■■■■■■ about with sheets and ropes and then fly sheets in the rain and wind they were busy loading through the rear of the trailer or maybe through the side or worst case scenario loading through the top. However it was Europe 1 GB 0. Now we have supersonic curtain sider or toughliner as I knew them.
GCR2ERF:
Looking back at photo’s (I’m not that old!), it strikes me that Europe went down the ‘tilts’ route way before we cottoned on to the benefits of not faffing around with ropes & sheets.
Dan Punchard:
About 15 years ago a tipper driver did me some holiday cover he used rope and called the knot a sizzler ,I said what do you mean ? He said it swizzle s when it comes undone it was a bar in the rope twisted round and round ,any way 15 years later he is one of the most wanted drivers in the area for being punctual capable of roping sheeting stapping low loader and flat crane work you can’t get him when you need him he is in demand like you wouldn’t believe .
And no, it isn’t me! Quite content with an Easysheet!
NZ JAMIE:
Both the Aussies and Kiwi’s use the dolly knot,but they are tied off on a rope rail which runs the length of the trailer instead of rope hooks.
So how is the rope tied off on the rope rail please?
It’s a right bloody farce,you have to half complete the hitch then thread the loose end through the back of the bar then feed it through the twist before tightening the hitch,what a balls-up,why can’t they just use hooks ? Cheers Bewick.
Quite right Dennis, It took forever, I remember loading a flat at Immingham when I say a flat This was just a platform like the bottom of a container which you will know what Im talking about, The load was Boxes of alloy sections, Anyway I delivered the load & went into Chas Lennigs at Jarrow & loaded 45 gallon drums, To take back to Immingham the ropes that were on the alloy load were just thin & I cut them in several places to remove them, However I salvaged what I could & made the best of a bad job but I had to use some of my own sisal ropes to make up for the loss of length caused by my rope spanner, Luckily I never had another such load to contend with, Happy Days Eh, Regards Larry.
Most of the Liverpool shippers used old lorry platforms as “ferry flats” when sending goods to Ireland. Some of them were so bent that it was necessary to use lengths of three inch timber to chock them in position. They supplied one ripped and knackered sheet and two ropes with a minimum of ten knots in each. We used our own sheets and ropes over the top of theirs until we got into the docks.
Dan Punchard:
About 15 years ago a tipper driver did me some holiday cover he used rope and called the knot a sizzler ,I said what do you mean ? He said it swizzle s when it comes undone it was a bar in the rope twisted round and round ,any way 15 years later he is one of the most wanted drivers in the area for being punctual capable of roping sheeting stapping low loader and flat crane work you can’t get him when you need him he is in demand like you wouldn’t believe .
And no, it isn’t me! Quite content with an Easysheet!
I still don’t understand why its only the brits/colonies that ‘rope & sheet’ the way that we do , why did our european neighbours use tilts instead I often wonder what the ‘foreigners’ must think seeing a well sheeted load
boris:
I still don’t understand why its only the brits/colonies that ‘rope & sheet’ the way that we do , why did our european neighbours use tilts instead I often wonder what the ‘foreigners’ must think seeing a well sheeted load
The “foreigners” lacked,and still do, any kind of expertise to load and move freight safely using sheets and ropes.An up-to-date example is watching the TV of shots of transport in the middle east,asia and africa,all the motors are high sided steel bodies,so nothing,but nothing,can fall off and the loads can just be slung in any old how.It’s a bit like that in the UK,to-days curtainsiders prevent a lot of mishaps,just imagine the carnage that would befall our road network to-day if the industry had to return to flat trailers,ropes and sheets Cheers Bewick.
Dan Punchard:
About 15 years ago a tipper driver did me some holiday cover he used rope and called the knot a sizzler ,I said what do you mean ? He said it swizzle s when it comes undone it was a bar in the rope twisted round and round ,any way 15 years later he is one of the most wanted drivers in the area for being punctual capable of roping sheeting stapping low loader and flat crane work you can’t get him when you need him he is in demand like you wouldn’t believe .
And no, it isn’t me! Quite content with an Easysheet!
Pete.
No but you filled his boots ?
Eh? Got me there Dan! He must have had small feet…
Dan Punchard:
About 15 years ago a tipper driver did me some holiday cover he used rope and called the knot a sizzler ,I said what do you mean ? He said it swizzle s when it comes undone it was a bar in the rope twisted round and round ,any way 15 years later he is one of the most wanted drivers in the area for being punctual capable of roping sheeting stapping low loader and flat crane work you can’t get him when you need him he is in demand like you wouldn’t believe .
And no, it isn’t me! Quite content with an Easysheet!
Pete.
No but you filled his boots ?
Eh? Got me there Dan! He must have had small feet…
Pete.
Thank’s for the PM Dan, I DID have his truck even though his boots didn’t fit me! Happy days.
The Seaman (Merchant and Royal) may have been the masters of knot invention and rope tying but the Dolly Knot, also later known as the Lorry Man’s Knot was as said earlier the upper half of the Sheepshank, which would have been used by the Farmer to shorten a rope, one end fastened to a post the other to the beast so only giving the animal a certain sized circular area to eat the grass, once the area had been cleared the loops could be adjusted to allow a larger area of feeding and thus controlling the amount a Sheep ate.
It could also be used to isolate a piece of damaged rope which then became one of the loops and therefore didn’t take any strain. Of course someone then had the idea of using the bottom end of the Sheepshank to feed the rope through so it could be used as a pulling knot when a pulley wasn’t used. More than likely a Seaman in this instance or Riverman and again passed onto Carters who all dealt with moving and securing loads using rope. Its likely the knot goes back a very long way as rope making and knots are an ancient craft. Cheers Franky.
NZ JAMIE:
Both the Aussies and Kiwi’s use the dolly knot,but they are tied off on a rope rail which runs the length of the trailer instead of rope hooks.
So how is the rope tied off on the rope rail please?
NZ JAMIE:
Both the Aussies and Kiwi’s use the dolly knot,but they are tied off on a rope rail which runs the length of the trailer instead of rope hooks.
So how is the rope tied off on the rope rail please?
What a load of bollox,bloody great long winded hitch and a short,made to measure rope.The only thing you could say in his favour was that he wrapped his little coil of rope up nice and tidy,but then it was only 15ft long,not 90ft as normal.
He used most of the rope just to tie the Dolly, what does he do to when he needs to go to the ‘next hook or two’ along as we would or does he just have a cab full of 15ft lengths of rope to go over once! My old man told me about a lad they had started for them, he went from one hook over to the other side tied off then cut the rope before starting on the next, until half way along the trailer he ran out of rope and asked for more, a steep learning curve eh! Franky.
I used to pull ferry trailers for a Dutch company, they had very few tilts, but mainly flat tandems, some of the roping and sheeting was abysmal, they used old inner tubes for sheet ties and cut the ropes to length, we always sent them back nice and tidy but they still cut the ropes off. They started to employ English drivers on the continent until the flats were phased out in favour of tilts. It was good traffic though, apart from the talcum powder from Amsterdam that is
Rope rails are a right royal pain in the axxs, you have to carry a load of ropes at about 20 feet long each, rather than a good long length. And you have to break the top dolly to get the loop in as well. Thankfully Australia now has mainly rope ratchets attached to the flat beds so you tie one end of and chuck the other over the load, feed it through the rope ratchet and tighten it up like that. The ratchets slide along the rope rail so there shouldn’t be any kind of weird angles necessary to get it to the next hook. And they tend to use a ticker rope as well about 20mm to 25mm.
Mostly done with straps now as they are a lot better and you don’t get side ways looks from the RTA ( like VOSA ) who’s been done a 2 week course at night school and knows a lot more about those kind of things than you.
If I had the choice I would go for ropes and hooks, far better deal, not as good as straps though, but a lot cheaper.
In Italy they didn’t seem to use anything, just sit it on the truck and drive slowly so it wouldn’t fall of. India uses a bit of roping and sheeting, might be a bit of a carry over thing from the old days of colonies
When i worked for E Hull ltd at Bedford in the early 70s we were having a cuppa one morning in the workshop. The new drivers mate was asked to unsheet a trailer parked at the bottom of the yard. After about 10 minutes he came to the workshop and asked if anybody had a knife.A few minutes later we looked at each other and said why does he want a knife. You can guess the rest most of the rope lay on the floor around the trailer with nice neat cuts and the knots still done up.
NZ JAMIE:
Both the Aussies and Kiwi’s use the dolly knot,but they are tied off on a rope rail which runs the length of the trailer instead of rope hooks.
So how is the rope tied off on the rope rail please?
What a load of bollox,bloody great long winded hitch and a short,made to measure rope.The only thing you could say in his favour was that he wrapped his little coil of rope up nice and tidy,but then it was only 15ft long,not 90ft as normal.
There are all sorts of variations (or were, I see very few using ropes any more - come to that flatbeds are dying out, at least around where I work), but it’s more or less how I learned when I started on flat beds here. He does make a dog’s dinner of tying the dolly (hitch) cos it’s much easier to have a half loop over your wrist when putting the dolly in than all that tiresome feeding the loose end round the bar - it cuts the time and messing about in half. Tying off on the rail is a simple clove hitch and you can get just as quick tying one on a rail as doing it by doubling loops on a hook.
Rails do mean shorter rope lengths but that isn’t all bad - they’re easier to handle and stow than 90’ lengths. Rails can be a pain in the fundament but on the rare occasions I’ve done roping in Britain I found it annoying not having a hook in the right place (to keep the rope at right angles to the wagon). So it’s horses for courses - both rails and hooks have their advantages and disadvantages and most of the criticisms of either are simply a function of what you’re used to.
Jelliot:
Rope rails are a right royal pain in the axxs, you have to carry a load of ropes at about 20 feet long each, rather than a good long length.
As I said, I’m used to rails so it doesn’t bother me and I’d probably get the $hits coiling up 90’ lengths of wet rope rather than several shorter lengths. But it’s just what you’re used to I guess…
Jelliot:
Mostly done with straps now as they are a lot better and you don’t get side ways looks from the RTA ( like VOSA ) who’s been done a 2 week course at night school and knows a lot more about those kind of things than you. If I had the choice I would go for ropes and hooks, far better deal, not as good as straps though, but a lot cheaper.
For heavy loads straps are much better as you can get much more tension on them than ropes. Conversely I find ropes are better for securing light bulky loads that can get squashed easily or that can settle a lot - in those cases ropes seem to have more give in them yet still provide some restraint whereas straps just loosen and flap about uselessly. Agree with your comment about some of the “experts” RMS (RTA) employ, IMO worse still are the halfwits who “teach” these “courses” - it’s become a money-making scam here in Oz much like the UK where just about any job requires perfectly intelligent people to pay good money to sit in a room and learn ridiculously long-winded ways of doing a job that they could either figure out themselves or whose “learnings” bear no resemblance whatsoever to how things are done in the real world. I haven’t checked but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there is a mandatory course for toilet cleaners…
Frankydobo:
He used most of the rope just to tie the Dolly, what does he do to when he needs to go to the ‘next hook or two’ along as we would or does he just have a cab full of 15ft lengths of rope to go over once!
I agree it looks a bit odd but remember this is a demo to show how the knots are tied - it’s not how it gets done out on the road. You can move along the rail and start over by taking the loose end and going past one or more of the rail supports, then over the rail then back over the load. It’s a bit of mucking about but not much worse than going between two hooks.
Quite content with an Easysheet! 
Cheers Bewick.
I often wonder what the ‘foreigners’ must think seeing a well sheeted load
Happy days.
