Yep i can do it nothing like a nicely r&s load to be proud of.
Would i do it now no chance split fingers wet arms and calluses the size of a hazelnut i can do without.
caledoniandream:
Bking:
So you’re ready to retire than■■?
Must be in you’re sixties by now?56 ■■■■ and still hearing the same bull off scroats who spout bollox and think they done it all.Im still learning but some of us know it all.ET AL?
Words fail me The words pot and kettle spring to mind 
…just check out his previous posts on previous threads,… the theme being he knows it all and everybody else knows sod all , and his spouting of bollox is legendary, and if you dare to disagree with him, he displays his limited vocabulary by nearly burning out the auto censor, and throwing every child like insult at you he can think of, making a complete ■■■■ of himself in the process 
as he has just done now by revealing he is 56 ,same age as me! , at least when I thought he was 12 his past responses to me ( ) did appear to be quite appropriate for that age.
robroy:
caledoniandream:
Bking:
So you’re ready to retire than■■?
Must be in you’re sixties by now?56 ■■■■ and still hearing the same bull off scroats who spout bollox and think they done it all.Im still learning but some of us know it all.ET AL?
I couldn’t have summed him up any better 
Now settle down Boys and I’ll explain !! 
Been waiting for a picture like that since the thread was first started …
I believe roping & sheeting is now reckonned to be a specialised job,there’s so few able to do it.
But as H & S are condemning it as an unsafe load method,it willprobably die out alltogether.
I must admit,when I was doing it I was as fit as a butchers dog,nowadays I could tell someone younger how to do it,but roping and sheeting 20 tons of boxed oranges on a 40 foot flat is not really on these days!
bestbooties:
I believe roping & sheeting is now reckonned to be a specialised job,there’s so few able to do it.
But as H & S are condemning it as an unsafe load method,it willprobably die out alltogether.
I must admit,when I was doing it I was as fit as a butchers dog,nowadays I could tell someone younger how to do it,but roping and sheeting 20 tons of boxed oranges on a 40 foot flat is not really on these days!
rope hooks gotta be load tested now all them years holdin everything on by a rope and now its deemed unsafe utter twaddle
nick2008:
bestbooties:
I believe roping & sheeting is now reckonned to be a specialised job,there’s so few able to do it.
But as H & S are condemning it as an unsafe load method,it willprobably die out alltogether.
I must admit,when I was doing it I was as fit as a butchers dog,nowadays I could tell someone younger how to do it,but roping and sheeting 20 tons of boxed oranges on a 40 foot flat is not really on these days!
Not to mention climbing on top of the load to roll the sheets out.
I’m sure H & S woul have had a fainting fit to see me clambering on top of the load with a sheet that weighed about the same as me in strong winds rain and snow.
Never mind the throwing of ropes up and over.
Rough hands - I can see the fear in the girlfriends eyes even now.
Ah misty eyes! Started at F&F Robinsons where every load was on a flat. As has been mentioned there’s no finer a feeling than sheeting a load that looks like a camel and having the sheets as tight as a drum.
Every truck seemed to have a forest of ropes hanging off the back of the cab, and everyone had loads of “once overs” to save starting a fresh rope! I could stub a cigarette out on either palm of my hand without feeling it!
The only time r & s used to annoy me was 6pm Friday night Tilbury dock in the rain when I loaded timber that had sat on the side of the dock for 4 months and they expected me to sheet it! 
Hi, I wonder how many could r&s loads of crated cauliflowers for covent garden straight off the little french coasters at camber quay pompey. also loads of boxed fruit (pictures out and upright for a half a crown bonus).Plus loads of bales of rubber. I could still do it at 80.
Roping and sheeting was an art in it’s self i did general haulage and roped and sheeted many many loads my boss used to sub for pandoro out of stoke and doing a 4 sheeter from the hessian sack factory at Grantham was an eye opener hanging on to sheets while they only just hung to the side of the load but have done all sorts even done dry sheet followed by the heavy tarporlins roped the load then had to fly sheet on top of that and in winter my hands would run with blood from the cold and cuts from pulling on wet damp ropes and as they dried out on your journey would have to stop and keep tightening them by the same token if it was dry and rained on the way to your drop ropes would expand with water and you could not get them undone as they tightened that much it most certainly was a skill do i miss it yes i do ( LIKE A WHOLE IN THE HEAD )but i think ropes are no longer allowed to secure loads on anymore.
Oh, nearly forgot about the permanent freckles every driver sported on wet days!
the maoster:
Oh, nearly forgot about the permanent freckles every driver sported on wet days!
Heh heh! 
Nope, can’t do it and have no intention of learning despite my Dad who is fantastic at it trying to teach me once. Times move on I’m afraid and there’s no point looking backward unless you are doing a job that still requires it. As for all this proper driver bs, having had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting many ‘proper’ drivers over the years, such as one on this thread, it’s made me realise if having an attitude like that is what it takes to be a proper driver then I’ll happily stay a steering wheel attendant.
The only sheet I want to fold back is the one on my bunk when I’m climbing into it!
Prefer the one at home 
nowt like getting under the lee of bum island (an old seafarer term)
switchlogic:
Nope, can’t do it and have no intention of learning despite my Dad who is fantastic at it trying to teach me once. Times move on I’m afraid and there’s no point looking backward unless you are doing a job that still requires it. As for all this proper driver bs, having had the ‘pleasure’ of meeting many ‘proper’ drivers over the years, such as one on this thread, it’s made me realise if having an attitude like that is what it takes to be a proper driver then I’ll happily stay a steering wheel attendant.
Like Switchlogic said my I remember my Dad roping and sheeting as a little boy in the 80s and he did try to show me in the 90s when I was older, but I was a stupid teenager back then in the 90s. And alas I thought better and didn’t concentrate or listen to him like I should have done and would rather bury my nose in my books etc.
I know how to tie a dolly, but I wouldn’t even know what end to start the sheet from Oh well a steering wheel attendant I remain.
However my Dad’s recent words at 62 were “I’d choose a fridge over a R+S flat any day of the week now at my age”.
So perhaps in his old wise eyes we have advanced to “better” things now
C
if anyone asks can i do it
i will say “roping and sheeting” and “tilts” i’ve read about them in books
what do you mean by that they say
my reply
thats were history belongs
I learned to rope and sheet while on general haulage in the 70s.
I’m probably going to get hung drawn and quartered for saying this, but it always puzzles me that when roping and sheeting is mentioned people post pictures of fully loaded vehicles with fully sheeted loads which are usually pretty rectangular in general shape and often nothing more than wooden crates, frankly almost anyone in them days could make such a load secure and look good.
I’m not saying everyone did because they certainly never, I’m just saying that almost anyone with half a brain could.
Try roping a load of mixed small and medium sized garden and farm machinery with perhaps only some parts of the load that need sheeting, or a load of timber with mixed sizes of bundles that has to be secured and kept dry, then lets see how tight the sheets remain after a few miles in wet and windy weather, or picking up a back-load of tractors with only ropes to secure them, or carrying a large awkward shaped piece of machinery that the customer wants kept dry.
Using sheets, and/or ropes to either secure the load or the sheet, on loads like these was generally far harder work and required far more ability than roping and sheeting rectangular loads of sacks or wood/cardboard boxes and the like.
No offence intended but I just don’t get this fascination for roped and sheeted rectangular loads, they look good but with some exceptions, and there certainly were some exceptions, they were certainly not where the skill was required 
A picture of a roped and sheeted load means nothing, it’s securing and/or keeping dry what’s under the sheet with minimum damage that requires the ability and skill.
I’ll leave now while I’m still in one piece
The photos I posted near the beginning of me sheeting a load were to illustrate that in the USA and Canada, where Sheeting is still very common, no one uses throw over ropes with dolly knots at all, but in the UK we still do.
I was curious as to why?
Is it the old drivers trying to pretend they are a clique, with magic powers, or are the companies too tight to buy ringed sheets and good bungees to make life easier?
I am currently working for a UK firm which uses ropes and sheets, on various machines, or mainly NOT RECTANGULAR loads, and decent sheets with bungees would be quicker and safer to use.