I must apologise for the unforgiveable language, H. In mitigation I would like to admit to several other offences- two Fairy Liquid bottles, one for washing lorry & hands and one as a windscreen washer- a soft broom for washing body & chassis- a big sponge for washing cab- bottle of polish for inside cab, together with a stack of dusters ( coal dust & scrap metal dust makes such a mess in an 8-wheeler Atki, dear!) And then there was the old t-shirt, waiting to be ripped into strips to attach to the mirror arms. And, in the winter, the sheet of cardboard for blanking off the radiator, painted matt black so it didn’t disintegrate in the rain and the boss didn’t notice it!
Please try not to be too harsh on me, H, I was only trying to do my best.
Blimey ROF, it’s a wonder you ever found time to drive the thing.
i’m firmly in harry’s camp on this one , go to work to earn money not spend it on someone else’s lorry . if they want them clean , give me the tackle and pay my time for doing it . to be fair when i drove for hazelcroft anything in that line was out of the stores and we were paid to clean them , but the others i’ve worked for got the first answer . good job you didn’t have alloy wheels to polish ROF or you would never have got home .
harry_gill:
Retired Old ■■■■:
Know what you mean, Eddie. At various times I was employed, both by decent firms and by the Stetson & Six-gun brigade, as well as the old Red & Rust. I have also been an employer, owner-driver and working manager, but I always made sure that any prospective employer knew that I had rules as well as him! I insisted on being provided with a hosepipe (Harry is laughing, now!) and sufficient paid time to make what I considered to be improvements in order to make my job easier and more efficient. Of course, this was mostly in those “good old days” when the whole country was crying out for lorries and people to drive them, so there was the opportunity to do a bit of dealing before you accepted the job.Hiya,
What’s a hosepipe, ROF ■■ I hope your’e not going to make a habit of talking dirty.
thanks harry, long retired.
Blimey Harry it’s lucky he never worked for the council.We often had enough earth and dust on the floor for grass and weeds to be growing in the cabs. 
.
Or potatoes even. I believe Pentland Crown are a good variety. Quite good for making chips… Or so I’m told.
Bewick:
This was my second motor and the driver had been brought up “old school” and wanted a storage box to hold his gear ,various, which I readily agreed to have fitted at the Body shop to his requirements. Amongst the gear carried was Jack, wheelbrace, reel bar, big bag of wedges, chain and dwang,pinch bar and hammer plus a few nails and a gallon of oil! This was the only trailer that we ever fitted with a storage box although I recall that in the mid 70’s I bought five or six secondhand Boden (C/F) 40 footers which came out of a firm from Oldham IIRC and these trailers each had a large cabinet that fitted between the chassis and the door was in the middle above the u/run bar they were like bloody coffins must have been 6ft deep up to the back axle. Obviously they were made to carry a set of sheets but they were always very damp from memory so we eventually stripped them off. We never needed to carry copious amounts of gear on our motors as the main of our traffic was paper industry based as well as pallet loads so apart from a few wedges and a back scotch that was it. If we needed chains or straps we issued them as and when. Cheers Dennis.
Probably a good reason for doing it that way but the back end of that flysheet looks wrong imo.
Must of acted like a parachute?
Nice load Dennis, dollys roped by a right handed man, tails on the fly sheet not spliced at eyelet end correctly, other than that ok to go. ship it out to DAV.LOL.
Suedehead:
Bewick:
This was my second motor and the driver had been brought up “old school” and wanted a storage box to hold his gear ,various, which I readily agreed to have fitted at the Body shop to his requirements. Amongst the gear carried was Jack, wheelbrace, reel bar, big bag of wedges, chain and dwang,pinch bar and hammer plus a few nails and a gallon of oil! This was the only trailer that we ever fitted with a storage box although I recall that in the mid 70’s I bought five or six secondhand Boden (C/F) 40 footers which came out of a firm from Oldham IIRC and these trailers each had a large cabinet that fitted between the chassis and the door was in the middle above the u/run bar they were like bloody coffins must have been 6ft deep up to the back axle. Obviously they were made to carry a set of sheets but they were always very damp from memory so we eventually stripped them off. We never needed to carry copious amounts of gear on our motors as the main of our traffic was paper industry based as well as pallet loads so apart from a few wedges and a back scotch that was it. If we needed chains or straps we issued them as and when. Cheers Dennis.Probably a good reason for doing it that way but the back end of that flysheet looks wrong imo.
Must of acted like a parachute?
He will probably say it was on purpose as the trailer had poor brakes !
D’you know I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be perfect ! 
Bewick:
D’you know I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be perfect !
Simple really Dennis, you need to be from Derbyshire!
Pete.
rigsby:
i’m firmly in harry’s camp on this one , go to work to earn money not spend it on someone else’s lorry . if they want them clean , give me the tackle and pay my time for doing it . to be fair when i drove for hazelcroft anything in that line was out of the stores and we were paid to clean them , but the others i’ve worked for got the first answer . good job you didn’t have alloy wheels to polish ROF or you would never have got home .
No ally wheels, pal, although I did have a very nice ERF with aluminium fuel tank. Every time I washed it (Swearing again, Harry!) it went dull, which meant that I gave up on the firm’s rather aggressive traffic film remover and went back to wax car shampoo. Sorry, H!
Bewick:
D’you know I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be perfect !
Hiya,
Dennis if I get time I’ll write my life story jus bein an owd driver I can’t spell
autobiography, read that and you’ll have a good idea what perfection is.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Bewick:
D’you know I’ve often wondered what it would be like to be perfect !Hiya,
Dennis if I get time I’ll write my life story jus bein an owd driver I can’t spell
autobiography, read that and you’ll have a good idea what perfection is.
thanks harry, long retired.
And no doubt it would be a best seller “H” (well on Truck Net anyway as the Great general public wouldn’t know what yer were on about “H”) plus it could get a bit er! “fruity” when relating to your escapades down the “Smoke” eh! Cheers Dennis.
geepir:
2008
Is that extended ? Looks neatly sheeted if it is .
Yeah,in the 1st picture the trailer is extended to 15.5mtr.
you have to admit there was an art to roping and sheeting loads and no matter what the weather it had to be done. Rookes lorries carried three no less then three sheets two for the sides and one for the top. I used to go with my Dad on many occassions he drove for Rookes and was good to see drivers helping each other sheeting there loads. Today will health and safety sheeting loads is becoming a thing of the past