Rescued from page 2.
Happy new year to you all.
Harry has probaly got a hangover from all of the free whisky he had from members of his fan club? 
Norman Ingram:
Harry has probaly got a hangover from all of the free whisky he had from members of his fan club?
Harry is probably watching the football on the box Norm, Possibly kicking the TV.
Cheers Dave.
Dave the Renegade:
Norman Ingram:
Harry has probaly got a hangover from all of the free whisky he had from members of his fan club?Harry is probably watching the football on the box Norm, Possibly kicking the TV.
Cheers Dave.
Hiya,
My football viewing (in the living room anyway) is very limited as far as “she who must be obeyed”
is concerned if I want to watch there’s three teles upstairs and another one in the conservatory, I
never go in the conservatory it’s too bleedin’ cold in there and the ones upstairs Uh’ I haven’t a
clue how to set them up they’re them silly wall mounted things and you’ve got to fiddle on with
them to change from ordinary tele to Sky it’s all too complicated for me, I think the gentle touch
with a big hammer is the answer.
thanks harry, long retired.
Harry, Harry, you never planned that ve
ry well 
when. I.Built my conservatory I put two large Radiators in. to keep my wife warm while she watched her soaps.I am kindness. It’s self.
Hiya,
I may have put this little tale on before but where and when and if so I can’t remember, I bought
a Vauxhall Viva off my brother who in turn had bought it new from a subsidiary of his company
he got it new at a good price the company being a service station and also a main dealer when I
bought the car from him it was because he was sick of it, it would never start when cold hence it
was very low mileage I drove the car home a distance of about 100 miles and yep the next day I
was going to go to work and it wouldn’t start, I questioned my brother had he ever had it looked
at by the garage where he got it from who where supposedly Vauxhall trained engineers, yes he
says they’re forever putting new plugs, points and even plug leads on it and it does start when he
goes to collect it Aye’ from a nice warm workshop, the next time I get a chance to have a look
at the car I remove the air filter to check if fuel was “spraying” when the choke linkage and the
throttle was operated nothing, then I notice there is no butterfly in the carburettor and what’s
more there never had been the car had left the factory like that and after more than thirty odd
attempts by the “trained fitters” not one had spotted the problem, a secondhand bit from the
local scrapper problem cured and the car was never any trouble again, and I’m not a qualified
mechanic but still pretty decent on the tools, I think I should have been a Vauxhall technician.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hi Harry,
I bought a brand new Ford ■■■■■■ estate in 1979. One of the cylinder head bolts was sheared off, and even sprayed over with paint like the rest of them.
So much for pre-delivery inspections. I did have it replaced under warranty.
Cheers Dave.
Hiya,
I did a load or two of new cars back in the 70s mainly those terrible Marina’s not a job
I liked was just thrown in at the deep end without being shown how to go on, but one
Guy I met at the storage yard gave me a few tips of what to look out for before sign-
ing for the load (about seven cars) in those days, sign for any damage you come across
on examination six of the cars had faults mainly paint damage but one had no spare
wheel and one had a wiper blade and arm missing all these things bar one were noted
when I took them to the dealers just fortunately I’d signed for them as “damaged” at
my collection point, and a couple of the cars were so short of fuel I’d to “wind” them
onto the decks using the starter motor and people think they’re getting a brand new
car when they’ve received more abuse between assembly line and the dealership than
they’ll ever get by the new owner. The chap who’d been giving me a few tips also told
me it was OK to use the in gear and starter motor method to load if out of juice.
thanks harry, long retired.
I remember the Austin car transporters coming through Kington in the 1950’s and 60’s ( pre bypass days ) bringing new vehicles from Longbridge to Automobile Palace at Llandrindod Wells. They used to drive on the wrong side of the road going out of Kington, to stop the over-hanging branches scratching the new vehicles on the roof.
Cheers Dave.
Hiya,
Yes Dave overhanging trees were for me being a total novice at car transporting a worry,
not to bad for the guys doing it regular they know all the danger spots but when just on
an occasional “oncer” even on regular roads with twigs overhanging the road don’t matter
with a roped and sheeted load or a curtainsider but can make a mess of your four upper
cars, I suppose it would be OK and easy peasy for the experienced lads not a job I fancied
doing full time, myself always preferring ropes and sheets or a dollop of steel plate with
a couple of chains and tensioners.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Hiya,
Yes Dave overhanging trees were for me being a total novice at car transporting a worry,
not to bad for the guys doing it regular they know all the danger spots but when just on
an occasional “oncer” even on regular roads with twigs overhanging the road don’t matter
with a roped and sheeted load or a curtainsider but can make a mess of your four upper
cars, I suppose it would be OK and easy peasy for the experienced lads not a job I fancied
doing full time, myself always preferring ropes and sheets or a dollop of steel plate with
a couple of chains and tensioners.
thanks harry, long retired.
Never would have fancied that job Harry. I preferred being on tippers or flatbeds. I didn’t drive flatbeds a lot, but had a lot of experience of roping and sheeting from being with my Dad as a kid and as a teenager, who I still road shotgun with when I was on holiday, from my normal day job.
Cheers Dave.
Dave the Renegade:
harry_gill:
Hiya,
Yes Dave overhanging trees were for me being a total novice at car transporting a worry,
not to bad for the guys doing it regular they know all the danger spots but when just on
an occasional “oncer” even on regular roads with twigs overhanging the road don’t matter
with a roped and sheeted load or a curtainsider but can make a mess of your four upper
cars, I suppose it would be OK and easy peasy for the experienced lads not a job I fancied
doing full time, myself always preferring ropes and sheets or a dollop of steel plate with
a couple of chains and tensioners.
thanks harry, long retired.Never would have fancied that job Harry. I preferred being on tippers or flatbeds. I didn’t drive flatbeds a lot, but had a lot of experience of roping and sheeting from being with my Dad as a kid and as a teenager, who I still road shotgun with when I was on holiday, from my normal day job.
Cheers Dave.
Hiya,
Where I collected from at Oxford was a sea of BL cars and it was your job to fish your seven
out and of course inspect and load them It took me ages the regular guys just flew them up
the decks and stopped them exactly ready for tying down, in my case I spent ages getting a
car where it was supposed to be and putting the front one on, the one that was over the cab
frightened me to death always imagining I was nearer the stop than I was, no if I given the
choice of going for a load of handball or going for a load of cars it would be the handball
every time I would more than likely be loaded ,roped, sheeted and en-route before I’d found
the cars I had to take up North, I guess it was just unfortunate that the motor I had the PTO
fitted so I was favourite for cars if there was a rush on or a driver off.
thanks harry, long retired.
harry_gill:
Dave the Renegade:
harry_gill:
Hiya,
Yes Dave overhanging trees were for me being a total novice at car transporting a worry,
not to bad for the guys doing it regular they know all the danger spots but when just on
an occasional “oncer” even on regular roads with twigs overhanging the road don’t matter
with a roped and sheeted load or a curtainsider but can make a mess of your four upper
cars, I suppose it would be OK and easy peasy for the experienced lads not a job I fancied
doing full time, myself always preferring ropes and sheets or a dollop of steel plate with
a couple of chains and tensioners.
thanks harry, long retired.Never would have fancied that job Harry. I preferred being on tippers or flatbeds. I didn’t drive flatbeds a lot, but had a lot of experience of roping and sheeting from being with my Dad as a kid and as a teenager, who I still road shotgun with when I was on holiday, from my normal day job.
Cheers Dave.Hiya,
Where I collected from at Oxford was a sea of BL cars and it was your job to fish your seven
out and of course inspect and load them It took me ages the regular guys just flew them up
the decks and stopped them exactly ready for tying down, in my case I spent ages getting a
car where it was supposed to be and putting the front one on, the one that was over the cab
frightened me to death always imagining I was nearer the stop than I was, no if I given the
choice of going for a load of handball or going for a load of cars it would be the handball
every time I would more than likely be loaded ,roped, sheeted and en-route before I’d found
the cars I had to take up North, I guess it was just unfortunate that the motor I had the PTO
fitted so I was favourite for cars if there was a rush on or a driver off.
thanks harry, long retired.
I would have preferred hand ball to tippers Harry. I preferred bagged slag from Margam instead of the bulk loads I normally fetched with a tipper, but I drove a drop sided tipper for C W Griffiths and would have fetched bags every time if it was down to me. I suppose the bulk was a higher payer for my boss, as it took about three hours to spread ten ton.
Cheers Dave.
At Fridged Freight we used to load at Polastra Packers in Eye Suffolk. Frozen chickens in cardboard boxes came out of a hatch in the cold-store on rollers and we stacked them in the wagon and drag on sheets of cardboard on the floor as high as possible, avoiding the meat hooks and front to back.
It wasn’t heavy work but your hands were blocks of ice at the finish. Same with tins of eggs from Harveys? Haverhill, but they were bloody heavy after an hour or so. Funny, but when pallets and forklifts came out the job didn’t give you that sense of achievement. Never had to rope and sheet though.
Got to admit, a well sheeted and roped load does look right and you can tell the driver who can do it properly by the way they walk and hold their shoulders and head back. Jim.
you should try sheeting and roping hydrated lime as we used to do . loaded straight off the packing belt and stacked 8 or 10 high . the bags were full of air and the sheets and ropes were slack before you had weighed out , i used to throw a rope round the back and take it home . the neighbours must have thought i was mad , tramping up and down the top of the load to squeeze the air out and then tightening the sheets and roping it . it would still settle within the first 20 miles and all had to be tightened again . when palletising came in they put the pallets through a roller to compress them , of course by then it was all tautliners, cheers , dave
Hiya,
Once did a load of sulphur from a chemical plant at a place called Church near Accrington
there was no warning or issue of goggles at that time seemingly it was harmless all of your
lads just come and load it without any problems, got the load back to the yard ready for
an early start next day but never made it I could just about make out light and colour and
it was a week before I could return to work my gaffer did pay me a basic weeks pay and
from that day forward eye protection was offered but I never did the job again.
thanks harry, long retired.
Hello Harry. I haven’t noticed a post from your pal Sandman Norman lately.
Always enjoyed the banter between you two. Hope all is well. Jim.
I am still alive and kicking Jim and lads but I am full of cold virus, I had one when I went down to Great Yarmouth to see my brother on the 20th Dec. but got better to go up my daughters for christmas, then on the 7th Jan I went to my chemist to pick up our tablets, and the women behind the counter had a barnstormer of a cold, eyes streaming ,nose running like a tap, coughing and sneezing. 
You have guest it, I got it, and being such a generous chap I passed it on to my wife, I have just a chesty cough, the wife has it all as she is only a week into it I have had it for two weeks. Just when I forced myself to go bowling, one chap told me he had had the virus for six weeks from Dec.1st. My euro lotto ran out, but to late to put on tonight, so had a look at Trucknet, must leave you, got a coughing fit starting bye.Norman
Norman Ingram:
I am still alive and kicking Jim and lads
Hiya,
Nice to see your still out and about Nosser my old mate I too have had the “cold man flu”
thingy you just can’t shake it off I just keep doing the hot Lemsip laced with honey and
a goodly slug of one of my blends Teachers at the moment not touching the single malt
until I can fully appreciate it, get well soon Norm and give the Colleen’s chest a good rub
with Vic, If you can’t be bothered I’ll get the next bus to Northhampton I’m good at that.
thanks harry, long retired.
I’ve got a bus pass too. Get well soon both of you. Jim.