hiya,
wish there’d been tautliners about in 1957, could picture myself with that equiptment on an 8 legger and drag would have got through an extra load a week,but with roping and sheeting practice made perfect, about 40 years in my case got to admit i was pretty good at it, the nearest i ever got to taut’s was tilts and when i did they always seemed to be stripdowns and the time that took me could have been roped and sheeted and well en-route to my tipping destination, the wind as previously mentioned could be a bit of a bind but a few bits of lead in a bag fastened on the rope when throwing against the wind always worked for me always remembering to check before letting go, unless of course it was the TM standing at the other side he didn’t matter two a penny springs to mind .
thanks harry long retired.
PMSL about that bag of lead possibly landing on the TM,s napper Harry.The good old days of Roping and Sheeting,is right.
In about 1980, I once stopped at that cafe in Rugby,(whose name I have forgotten), and a waggon fron Stoke-on Trent pulled in alongside me. The driver asked me if I,d mind fetching him a cuppa from the cafe, as he had a problem with his right leg. When I fetched the cuppa. he opened the door, and I could see that the leg of his jeans was swollen solid.I felt it, and could feel the end of a bone. Iasked him what had happened. He said that he had fallen off the top of his load of timber down at Tilbury. Some of the lads had sheeted the load for him. And he was now trying to get back to Stoke. I never did get his name, but if your are out there reading this Mr.S-O-T, I,m the guy who phoned for the ambulance, which took you to Hozzie, with that Compound fracture.I often wonder what the outcome was. I hope you did,nt mind me making that phone call.
Sheeting from the 60’s to 2009
I hope farmer didn,t sheet that load on the Leyland. It looks as if it was put on using a Helicopter. 
Come on farmer!! Own up. 
Those ones Brian Edgar has posted are works of art. 
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
McPloppy you could take bedgars toungue in cheek advice and stick to logs. Alternatively do what all or most of us did. Learn all
you can of your chosen proffession. Sheeting and roping will be with us for years to come.
ropes & sheets, when i first started road haulage mid 50ty most sheet were made of sail cloth which was 100% water proof so there was no need for drip or skin sheets the tie ropes were always on the second set of lugs so if you did not have a high load you only open the sheet half way, not like now tie ropes on the bottom so you have to open sheet out fully to get the tie ropes then tuck most of it back up , most companies in the north east got they sheet from harrison sail makers, they where on the quayside opposite the guildhouse, we used to carry a set of old sheet that had been cut down for sheeting steel etc 
standard size sheets were 26ftlong 24 ft wide, bottle sheets were 30ftx30ft,yes they were heavy to lift but if you foaled them nice and tight they where easy to handle, handling these kept you fitt, oh happy days, bumper
Buycrider:
I hope farmer didn,t sheet that load on the Leyland. It looks as if it was put on using a Helicopter.Come on farmer!! Own up.
Those ones Brian Edgar has posted are works of art.
nah wernt me and belive me looked even worse in real life
ive got nothing against dummy loads but they could have made more of an effort
Hi all
Many moons ago we used to load empty jam jars from Nottingley glass for Ireland. The only way we could get them back to Garston dock was to sheet the bottom layer of pallets first then load the top layer and sheet it all as usual, remembering to use your corner boads. At that time they were experimenting with different coloured shrink rap to stop it going soft in the sun. One unforturnet lad had loaded at Nottingley, come out of the factory and pulled into the cafe on the side of the A1. The truck park was on a slight slope. When he came out after lunch the sun had got at his load and half of it was hanging in the sheets.He had to return the half mile back to have it reloaded.
Making a good job of fastening down was even more nessissary when travaling on ferries especiley in rough weather. Some ferry opperators would not let you travel if the weather was bad or if you had chipboard on.
Regards Keith.
Hi all
There is much more to roping and sheeting than holding your load on. When I was doing my apprentiship by going with my father at the age of 14 in school holidays we went to a corn mill near Banbury. As with most places at that time the weigh bridge was very short and the method was to drop the trailer on the bridge, tare of, then couple up , load, then drop trailer again on bridge to get the gross. Well after taring off Father went over to the loader and being a bit farmerish asked if there was any bags of animal feed going spare. He got told in no unsurtin terms that every bag would be acounted for as each bag was weighed seperatly,counted, and reweighed when loaded on the trailer.So the loader brought the bags over and handballed them on the trailer,dad put his sheets off the trailer onto the catwalk on the back of the unit out of the way ( I can tell you are allready ahead of me ).Dad droped the trailer on the bridge when loaded as instructed. The chap in the bridge came out and said your two bags short driver and went to get the loader to bring two over.The loader coulden’t understand how he had made a mistake. As we drove away my Father turned to me grining and said “not everything is green in the country” 
Regards Keith.
hiya,
said it all along DD you and your sidekick norm are as bent as the proverbial nine bob note,
thanks harry long retired.
When I was tramping in the early '70’s,I did on ocassion load empty whiskey barrels in London for Gasgow.
This was a load with a challenge.
The first set of barrels were stood on end and went just three across the trailer.Next were two rows on the roll on top of the outside standing rows.These gave about a 3" overhang on both sides.
Next up was a third layer,a single line on the roll down the middle.
When I was lifted up on top along with my sheets by a forklift,I got to know what it was like to be a Canadian lumberjack,doing their log rolling act!
When sheeted,the load had to be roped first at one end then the other,otherwise the sheet would be pulled down between the barrels if roping from one end to the other.
Unsheeting at the other end was a risky business as it was not possible to roll the sheets up on top of the load,after dropping the ropes off,the sheets would have to be pulled off and be prepared for some jumping around when the inevitable barrel came down also!.
Do you realise that if there had been such a thing as Health and Safety in those days,nothing much would have moved!
Full shoot of crated watermelons from Greece to UK. Not 1 busted melon on there!!! Nearly lost 3 stone sheeting them buggers in the midday sun.
Another fully sheeted load by myself a full hit of insulation board from down Chicago way to Winnipeg
Back in the roping & sheeting days you could almost always rely on another driver coming over to lend a helping hand, when the curtainsider became the norm this behaviour stopped & drivers kept themselves to themselves, it took a lot of the cameraderie away. Also in those days nobody thought of driving lorries as just a job, you had to really want to be a lorry driver, this gave the drivers of the past a certain professionalism that is sadly lacking in todays drivers.
As with all technological advances, curtainsiders etc have made the industry far more efficient, but as with most advances the human element has gone, nowadays a driver is just another part of the machine 
Here’s one I did last year,
Before…
After…
dessert driver:
“not everything is green in the country”Regards Keith.
Not for the first time I have laughed at that statement
done some rope & sheet work when i passed my test 1992 for welchs transport WITHAM depot.didnt last long there but taught me the basics but was still ■■■■■ at it lol. on tankers now 4 many years but still would willingly go out with an old hand some time for a proper r&s lesson ,sad hey just wanna do it properly■■?
Remember the weight of a wet Bottle Sheet?..loaded many a 40ft out of St Helens Glass,one day I was tipping a load of bottles from the Smoke,under the sheet was a wild kitten,still alive although mid winter,took it home but it was ferral and lashed out at every one,took it to the vets.
5thwheel:
Remember the weight of a wet Bottle Sheet?..
The weight of the sheets (sorry tarps) that we have are bad enough dry can`t wait for the winter with em 
Here`s a couple of my attempts at the fine art of sheeting
hiya,
5thwheel, never had to use those bottle sheets but when loading bottles had to use four sheets that was a nightmare,have given the regular glass guys a lift with their sheets and they was heavy, would’nt have liked a permanent job on glass products,once in a while was plenty.
thanks harry long retired.