I would rather rope and sheet then strip a tilt 
I wonder if unsheeting in a queue of trucks nowadays you would still get a driver to help you fold up your sheets, or would they just watch?
Used to able to almost guarantee that someone would give you a hand.
bjd:
1st real job in this game was with Guns
Who did you work for Ronnie and Reggie’s Transport? 
Big ■■■■:
I would rather rope and sheet then strip a tilt
Snap! 
del949:
I wonder if unsheeting in a queue of trucks nowadays you would still get a driver to help you fold up your sheets, or would they just watch?
Used to able to almost guarantee that someone would give you a hand.
Very rarely nowadays 
In fact, at one drop last year some ■■■■■■■■ drove over my sheet whilst I was trying to fold it 
Words were exchanged, trust me…
are you sure that he wasn’t just trying to iron it flat for you? 
Didnt have much choice when i started,the company i worked for only had flats 
and can remember it was a pita using new sheets,they were like cardboard.
Strangely though,wouldnt mind having a go at it again . . i think its time to take my medication . . nurse.
Hi, i started as a trailer mate at 16 and there were no tilts or the like on general haulage. Who remembers the bales of wool, hard end out. But no-one has mentioned the nice little slits down the inside of middle fingers on both hands. Bill S.
bjd:
Harry Monk:
raymundo:
Roping & sheeting when it’s wet or worse when it’s freezing, nothing cheers the soul so muchWet, freezing and windy, even better. Nothing like being repeatedly slapped in the face by a filthy wet tarpaulin.
pulling the ropes tight and the water running up your arms never bothered with gloves in those days
I found it nigh on impossible to wear gloves as I always caught the fingers in the dollys, split skin on the opp side to your thumb was the norm in winter.R & S is like riding a bike IMO, once learned never forgotten, but must admit there’s nowt more frustrating than backing a box wagon up to the bay and then discovering you are too close to open the doors so have to pull forward again 
Now that IS hard work 
Learnt in the early 80s on a 7.5 tonner.
1st time I went to the Royal Docks in London it took me ages to get the sheet off so the Poxy Dockers let a few wagons push round me then went to ‘T’ for about an hour & a half, so by the time I’d done a couple more loads I could get all the ropes & sheet off in about 2 minutes. (they still used to take hours to unload me though ! I love Dockers )
If I see another driver folding a sheet up I will always help (can’t stand knobs who stand around watching someone struggle in the wind)
robroy:
There are different degrees of r&s, anybody can chuck a drip sheet over a load and muddle through, where as a couple of 30x20s neat and tight, fully roped with a fly sheet tightly set on the top, is a different ball game. Some of the flats r&sheeted sent over for me from the Continent in the past, looked like they had been thrown on by a bunch of school kids, so I either carried on looking like a barrage baloon, or I re-done it on the quayside.
Hell yes I picked up many a balloon on Ramsgate docks back in the 80s. Days when you threw the coil of rope over and it blew back at you.
To be honest, I never saw a pair of gloves until maybe the 1970s.
In most of the old firms, roping & sheeting was learned long before you gained your driving licence. And if you didn’t do it properly you were certainly told about it! Have to admit that it’s much easier these days- I didn’t know I could go home with clean(ish) hands and clothes until I started pulling a curtainsider. Although they do hide many a poorly secured load (see another thread 
)
Results of the poll so far seem to indicate that most of the chaps on here are of the Old School and could still present a neat line of dollies down the sides of a 40-footer.
Back in prehistoric days (70’s ?) I slaved for Ralph Hilton of Charlton doing r & s loads of Martell 4 star Brandy from Sheerness docks to a bonded store near Lime St Station in Liverpool, very smart squared off loads, was when you went up the M1 to near Leeds and turned left down E Lancs Rd IIRC. 35 to 40 mph (and that were going downhill).
Worst ever was on a Bedford TK, Felixstowe ICD also to Liverpool, full load of boxed wellington boots. Try pulling those ropes tight, nearly as high as long.
Lonewolf Yorks:
robroy:
There are different degrees of r&s, anybody can chuck a drip sheet over a load and muddle through, where as a couple of 30x20s neat and tight, fully roped with a fly sheet tightly set on the top, is a different ball game. Some of the flats r&sheeted sent over for me from the Continent in the past, looked like they had been thrown on by a bunch of school kids, so I either carried on looking like a barrage baloon, or I re-done it on the quayside.Hell yes I picked up many a balloon on Ramsgate docks back in the 80s. Days when you threw the coil of rope over and it blew back at you.
Should have stood with the wind on your back then Wolfie
Has anyone seen the “professional” sheeting on those IOM groupage trailers operated by a certain white & blue-liveried company fron Skelmersdale?
Makes a bloke proud to be associated with the British transport industry!
raymundo:
Lonewolf Yorks:
robroy:
There are different degrees of r&s, anybody can chuck a drip sheet over a load and muddle through, where as a couple of 30x20s neat and tight, fully roped with a fly sheet tightly set on the top, is a different ball game. Some of the flats r&sheeted sent over for me from the Continent in the past, looked like they had been thrown on by a bunch of school kids, so I either carried on looking like a barrage baloon, or I re-done it on the quayside.Hell yes I picked up many a balloon on Ramsgate docks back in the 80s. Days when you threw the coil of rope over and it blew back at you.
Should have stood with the wind on your back then Wolfie
Or made a “monkeys fist” 
Raymundo, I also worked for Ralph in the mid 70,s but i was working out of Barking when he took over Roadlink
glad i am not doing it now but still remember the times fighting with the bloody things in the wind lol, parking up and having to put the tarps under the trailer wheels so no light weight nicked them
Modern times driver, nice sheets and bungees, or rubber rope…
Fairly pleasant 45 mins, a bit of a sweat on in summer, but not in winter at over 20 below zero and trying to open frozen sheets and fight wind snow hail etc
Very interesting thread… Takes me back to when I used to watch my Dad rope and sheet late 60’s early 70’s and yes the camaraderie other drivers showed then when helping fold up sheets and the like. No I cannot rope and sheet myself but I, like most drivers, admire and respect those that can.
Just a note… I noticed that almost all posters to this thread are SENIOR members which made me smile