My first sheeted load was on a 4 wheeler, I was going down the M6 looking like some kind of out of control barrage baloon. 
After practice and a few more years experience on artics with 2 30x20s and a 48 foot plastic dripsheet it was more like a neatly well wrapped giant present. 
Definitely a dying ART …thank Christ.
Twoninety88:
And as I have stated in a similar post regarding ‘old school’, we didnt know any different! The idea was to work and get the job done. We certainly wouldnt live and work like that now, but then it was the nomal thing to do!
Written by someone who nearly died of hypothermia in a day cab A series ERF on Sandbach one winters night!
[/quote]Happened to a lad overnighting in an A series on Raynesway, Derby, a few years ago. I was there waiting to tip at Balfour Beatties the next morning when they were taking his body away. Apparently the engine was running and he had taped all the gaps around the door seals up to attempt to stop the draughts so they were unsure at the time wether he died of hypothermia or suffocation from Gardner fumes?
I used to watch my dad roping and sheeting back in the fifties but never had cause to do it myself, I just pulled the rope on my Easysheet and it did it all by itself!
Pete.
Definitely lost. I admire the few bits and bobs of sheeted stuff you still see about. I wish I knew how.
But freezing your knackers off all over the country you can keep. I’d rather be home.
raymundo:
Remember on a really cold night out in Sheffield and was running the engine on tick over and someone complained and the to police came out and told me to turn it off, I refused and asked to be locked up for the night in a cosy cell, refused to accommodate me and left, gave it about 5 mins and then I restarted the engine but heard no more and iirc it were one of the coldest nights on record !
Aah police ,I remember when we had some of them,people knew how to behave in those days,sadly long gone.
Sitting here reading these anecdotes feeling the ridge of hard as nails bloody skin running up the edge of the index finger of me right hand, used to get cracked and split to buggery till eventually it thickened up and near enough solidified, a not quite so bad rough section on the back edge of the hand below the little finger too…all due to roping, the other hand smooth.
1985 ish the last time i roped and sheeted in anger, like riding a bike though you never forget how to do it.
It was a pride thing to make the load neat and tidy, and you learned quickly because you wanted the approval and acceptance of the old school of the time, there was warmth and camaraderie among drivers then who would help each other out (not carve each other up or leave you out to dry in the middle lane after you’d pulled out to let them on 
), have a chops over dinner in a real transport cafe and go for a pint together before returning to digs for a nights kip, it wasn’t such a solitary virtual existence then, you were out on your own which is the nature of the job but drivers stuck together generally.
That’s what I miss the comradeship and camaraderie! If someone stole your rear light lenses, you nicked some one elses. If somebody stole your ropes you nicked someone elses, and we had real butter for tea.
Eric Rambler:
That’s what I miss the comradeship and camaraderie! If someone stole your rear light lenses, you nicked some one elses. If somebody stole your ropes you nicked someone elses, and we had real butter for tea.
Not roping and sheeting related, but if you pulled for Norfolk Line, you always had your own light board, and a 60’ long electric lead, so someone nicking your light lenses weren’t an issue 
I did a little roping and sheeting, but due to My chronic bone idleness, I was usually found to be avoiding it, whilst consuming Ice creams near D block in Great Yarmouth
In a similar vein, I nearly had to sheet a load the old fashioned way last week as I had to do a load of compost on our puddle jumper. I’d always wanted to have a go at sheeting a tipper “old school”. I loaded the truck, shovelled it level and went looking for a tarpaulin and some rope. Then thought, “■■■■ that for a game of soldiers” and left it. 
After shovelling/walking on it not a bit blew off.
I’d rather press a button to sheet up and not be old school, thanks.
Muckaway:
In a similar vein, I nearly had to sheet a load the old fashioned way last week as I had to do a load of compost on our puddle jumper. I’d always wanted to have a go at sheeting a tipper “old school”. I loaded the truck, shovelled it level and went looking for a tarpaulin and some rope. Then thought, “[zb] that for a game of soldiers” and left it.
After shovelling/walking on it not a bit blew off.
I’d rather press a button to sheet up and not be old school, thanks.
Ha ha, yep them easy sheets are second only to Sliced Bread . I remember when I was doing spuds 25 years ago, had to roll the sheet across the load by hand, then get in the back hand lift the boards away from the belt, just meant being covered in mud all the while. God bless easy sheet and self tip bulkers
PS and stand in the back with a sack of straw to top the first spuds to go in from getting bruised
I’ll defy health and safety rules and climb into the tipper no problem if it means making sure something doesn’t fall off en route or to clean some debris out, but unfolding a sheet and then tying nice neat knots to the body? No thanks, my 8w hasn’t any hooks on the sides anyway.
I can rope and sheet but give me a taught anyday of the week, I wasn’t fast and I reckon by the time I had one ready to roll the old boys would have done 4 but it looked good and didn’t move which was good enough for me.
I can still do a dolly and possibly some of the other knots I used to try every so often, but I don’t miss the folding and rolling or trying to find somewhere with shelter out of the wind, mind you I would take roping and sheeting over stripping a tilt down any day of the week.
Not connected to roping an sheeting but well remember the really very windy day I was delivering to London somewhere and a driver was having troubles closing his curtains on a brand new all singing blinged up to the eyebrows unit and his new shiny trailer, I gave him a hand then went to my beat up clapped out Leyland Roadtrain I was stupid enough to buy and pressed a button to lower the curtain a bit and release it off the clips, press the up button and it rolled it’self up into the roof. Press the down button and reverse procedure to close up. Simples !
roping and sheeting back in the day was an art form for many, I particularly like it neat and tidy, and not forgetting that the sheets were for keeping the load dry, and secure, most of the freight we carried we had no choice, there were no straps about in those days…even the early containers I carried were from Freightliner and collected from rail terminals, and we had no choice but to rope them on, and that was when trailers were only allowed a max of 27ft with metal rails down the side ( raves ) and the container sat metal to metal…we did eventually get chains and toggles, but never ever got pulled by the ministry man…back to roping and sheeting though, it did play havoc inn the winter, frozen sheets, ropes being dragged through the slush, as you wound them up…and not always someone around to help fold them up, more like awkward ■■■■■■■■ who would drive over them whilst you were trying to fold them…I had one instance where I had to lift the sheets onto the roof of the cab, then climb up to heave them onto the load…and had to do that twice with 2 sheets, but got the first one on and unfolded, when this huge gust blew the poxy thing off the top, talk about a nightmare…and even to this day, my finger tips crack open in the cold weather through roping in very harsh winters…the good old days eh !