Started off as a van lad (Harrisons of Dewsbury), a company that later became…wait for it…CARRYFAST), then moved on to tippers (coal, Commer TS3), then transferred to fuel tankers. (25 years at Hargreaves)The rest is history. I got 100% job satisfaction , never smashed one up, never injured anybody. Ok, I exchanged mirrors and a bit of paint now and again but who hasn’t. 
Sorry about the CF bit, it was before HIS time. 
I love to see photos of ‘old workhorse’ lorries, a bit battered, a bit of road grime, it’s memories for us old lads
Thanks for that, grumpy, a different pathway to us.
I enjoyed my eight years carting fuel to mostly minesites but including rural properties, Aboriginal communities and service stations/roadhouses, but ended up going back to what I knew best. A 600km range had me suffering cabin fever, I had no more to prove.
For your information my son we never lost a load of reels at Bewick Transport so I do not know where your getting info from but take it from me it never happened ! 
The tilt cover is a one piece sheet so how would you get it up once you’d rebuilt the frame.The cover would be much more rigid than a sheet designed to be used on a flat trailer .The usual sheets for flat trailers were in two halves and if used a one piece fly sheet. Yes tilt sheets could be and were used but not so much because they were unsuitable and hard to manage and time consuming.
C’mon then CF, answer Mr Bewick. As they say in the pub…‘put up or shut up’
Oh, for clarity, referring to one of your earlier ‘contributions’, and after 50 years on the road, I’m embarrassed to say that I have no idea of the tensile strength of a lorry sheet. I know, it’s a failing, but I’ll just have to live with it.
Curiosity:- do you know ? No Googling now. 
This CF fella, he’s a class act, best free entertainment on t’web. 
I find it all a bit boring to be honest. Better off ignoring the tw&t in my opinion
That 150 Gardner ERF is a very handsome machine. We had 3 at Hargreaves with 4000gallon tanks on (1964 ish), I occasionally got my hands on one when one of the regular men was on holiday
Quite pedestrian but not for the time?
It should be a ticketed event, pay per view.
It was you that mentioned using a tilt in multi drop, I never said that, nobody would use one for that, as you mentioned the tilt in a flat bed mode by using all the sheet to secure the load.
A decent company would plan the weeks work for the need for the driver to have a flat bed trailer all week with prearranged loads that are suitable for a flat bed trailer and not a tilt trailer.
The tilt sheet is in one piece and not in detachable sections.
If every job was through the roof, that’s hours per day wasted messing about, with multiple deliveries per day if it was plant, old , refurbished ,or new printing presses and factory machinery that would have to be lifted out with a crane through the roof.
In flat bed mode, it would take hours to strip it fully in to a flat bed trailer.
Then you would have to rebuild it again which will take hours.
That’s all the side bars and pillars lifted out, to be stored away at the front of the trailer, all the wooden side boards stacked away at the front of the trailer, all the roof and bars and poles, all the metal side doors , and the heavy sheet, all of this is taking up vital space and volume to be carrying less cargo for the customer and a profit loss for the bosses.
You have obviously never had to work with a tilt.
Yep…I don’t know why he doesn’t just put it all down in ONE single post instead of about 10 
At least then it makes it easier to '‘scroll through’ .
One advantage of the Aussie gate and rope system is that you don’t need to do any crosses on the back, Scotch or otherwise. 
Certainly does, I’m guessing a page from ‘Headlight’? I had such fun in those days often avoided loading for home. How else would I get a 3 high load of little rowing boats from Hull to Butlins in Minehead? ‘Just park there Drive and take off all your ropes, then reverse at speed towards the lake and stop just before you get there’. 
The sight of those little boats bouncing and splashing all over the shop will bring joy to my dying day. Tipped, signed and gone in no time.
