dafdave:
Iwas tought never to rope or strap over a flysheet as it defeats its purpose I.E. to lift slightly like a balloon over the load,keeping the load free of water.I was also told roping down over corners could also cause minute holes making the sheet porous,and also never use one on steel unless the load was sheeted as well.
regards dave.
Like this, Dave?
^^^ That’s the way to do it! ^^^
10 out of 10 Mr Bowker !! as it should be !!!
240 Gardner:
dafdave:
Iwas tought never to rope or strap over a flysheet as it defeats its purpose I.E. to lift slightly like a balloon over the load,keeping the load free of water.I was also told roping down over corners could also cause minute holes making the sheet porous,and also never use one on steel unless the load was sheeted as well.
regards dave.Like this, Dave?
Spot on there matey,a proper job.
dafdave:
Spot on there matey,a proper job.
I should point out that it’s not my handiwork! It was done by a proper driver!
The location is Burnley Paper Mill, by the way.
Spent a lot of time in burnley paper mill when i was on the road,now sadly defunt the same as many others in the area.
regards dave.
I don’t know why but I would go back to roping & sheeting tomorrow given the chance. I think it might be because I grew up on roping & sheeting and used to spend 6 days a week on general haulage. I was still roping & sheeting less than 10 years ago.
I can understand why it’s not everyones cup of tea though.
seems a lot of you are split between loving it and loathing it.it does make me smile when i see young drivers today struggling with curtains when i think i used to load trailers of cardboard out of tillotsons ,monmouth (tri wall) on a flat 15’ high ,lifted up on a forklift with the sheets and no saftey harness to be seen! health and saftey would have a field day. mind you i have been hit on the head by the pole in the curtain on a windy day(and had it blow up onto the roof) 
I used to load oil out of Shell at both Trafford Park & Stanlow, from palletts of 2 stroke to 45 gallon barrels. Trafford Park was not too bad as you could sheet up under the bay, then pull outside the gate down the lane to the right to rope up, unless they wernt too busy then you could do the lot under cover. Stanlow was OK in the summer, but in the winter!!! You pulled down the stores to load up, round the back for the smalls then round the front for the barrells. When loaded you had to pull down onto the park in front of the office, take your notes in then wait for the girl to check the load was OK before you could sheet up, you were completely in the open, so if the weather was bad you copped the lot! But for that type of load rope & sheet was by far the best, you could really pull the load down tight, tautliners just had corner boards & straps& no matter how good it looked in there, you could gaurantee something would move by the time you got back to Milton, Oxon. And l do not care how smart the paint job is on a tautliner/box/tilt etc, nothing looks as smart as a well roped & sheeted wagon, cos no matter how long it took me to sheet up l always smiled when it was done, cos it looked the donkeys-do-dars! Proper General Haulage, gone but not forgotten.
One thing l remember from loading at Shell Trafford Park, they had a huge canteen across the yard facing the loading bays, at lunch time 1 of the cooks came across & asked every driver loading what they wanted for dinner, usually a choice of 3 meals if l remember right + pudding. This was back in the mid/late 80s, & l think it cost something like 45p, dirt cheap anyway & good grub. And if you were still there at tea time you could have another meal, (which wasnt unusual cos it took about an hour to load & 4 hrs for the paperwork!), how many places do you get that now? They look at you as if you are an alien or a terrorist if you ask to use the toilets!
Best by Bassett’s! - did that apply to the roping and sheeting too? 
I really enjoy roping and sheeting… especially when you’ve done a good job and you can stand back and sy… hey that looks good… 
My first ever sheeted load… Fish Food out of Preston … took me two hours ha ha
Now wait for the smart comments from Dingo …
Yeah roping and sheeting, all very nice when you had a bloke to give you a hand and a forklift to lift them up with but more often I had to do it on Ramsgate docks where it was always windy and there was times when you had to turn the truck round after each throw cos the wind was so strong the rope wouldn’t go over and just came back at you. It could take flaming hours.
So I dunno who invented tautliners but well done that man and why did it take you so ■■■■ long 
Here’s a fine example from Bubblemans Scrapbook Memories thread.
Regards Paul Anderson Northwest Trucks
[quote="Lonewolf Yorks"So I dunno who invented tautliners but well done that man and why did it take you so ■■■■ long [/quote]
Gerald Broadbent - Bowwyer Brothers (latterly Boalloy Ltd.)
Gerald Broadbent was a very clever bloke with some very versertile idea’s, he was the man behind alot of ERF’s success story’s.
There we are fellows and note the date a lot of people thought they came out later than that, couldn’t stand them myself and prefered ropes and sheets, never had anything that moved under those. Franky.
McPloppy ©:
I really enjoy roping and sheeting… especially when you’ve done a good job and you can stand back and sy… hey that looks good…My first ever sheeted load… Fish Food out of Preston … took me two hours ha ha
Now wait for the smart comments from Dingo …
SHEETING was the subject, Not putting a skin on. Look at the tie ropes !!!
anyone can throw a skin over a load of fertiliser / meal !!!
Part timers, stick tae your logs
bedgar047:
SHEETING was the subject, Not putting a skin on. Look at the tie ropes !!!
anyone can throw a skin over a load of fertiliser / meal !!!
Part timers, stick tae your logs
Maybe you could explain the difference between a sheet or a skin and what the differences are in putting them on…
That would be quite a helpful topic for those of us that dont know what/how
took these today
McPloppy ©:
bedgar047:
SHEETING was the subject, Not putting a skin on. Look at the tie ropes !!!
anyone can throw a skin over a load of fertiliser / meal !!!
Part timers, stick tae your logsMaybe you could explain the difference between a sheet or a skin and what the differences are in putting them on…
That would be quite a helpful topic for those of us that dont know what/how
What McPloppy calls a “skin” would be called a “flysheet” in these parts .
A skin would have been put over the the sheeted and roped load.