The best i ever used was a Van Hool, the stanchions were light but strong, the sheet was fairly light and the boards fitted properly.
Being a bit of a shortarse and never having a ladder. I devised various ways to assist me, one that worked well was to string ratchet straps in a zig zag between the posts and nip them up tight. If you chucked a few tilt boards on them you could walk along them to refit the roof bows and poles although it was easier to knock out the poles with a board and push the sheet back with a board, having 2 people made it simpler.
I have climbed up the tilt boards with my whole weight supported by one finger stuck through a lacing ring while I laced the back flap up 
Well it is hard when its a very old tandam axel tilt that has,nt been strippred for years and then the bits dont go back as you wished yes summer sun or winter i,ve done it
Ha special clothing yes i love you hey its after 1 05 am here so good night
Yes i thought you were joking 3 days ago but old Truckers prefer Pink, blends in with thier highlights
Wheel Nut:
AlexWignall:
ncooper:
AlexWignall:
Slightly OT, what does the word ‘TILT’ actually mean? Is it the German name for a sheet/cover perhaps?
W
It’s an old English word for an awning or wagon cover.
(Mine of useless information).
Regards,
Nick
Thanks for both replies.
Easily the best and most plausable explanation I’ve heard in nearly twenty years.
I’ve asked a few grizzled veterens in the past but the only thing they knew was how to scarper if you needed any help with one…
W
Here is the definition from a dictionary.
tilt 2 n.
A canopy or an awning for a boat, wagon, or cart.
tr.v. tilt·ed, tilt·ing, tilts
To cover (a vehicle) with a canopy or an awning.
[Middle English telte, tent, from Old English teld.]
On the few times I did get home from working in Europe I can’t say it ever crossed my mind to look the word ‘tilt’ up in the dictonary so thanks for that Wheel Nut.
I’ve got another couple of questions now…
Is there a proper name for the wooden side bars? Why do modern Euroliners still have them? Considering how strict the BAG are about ratchet straps what’s the point of the side bars?
In an attempt at a return to the topic, I met an old German o/d last year who had made himself a metre long rod with a bracket on the end for putting the side bars in.
My poor German couldn’t explain “Dragons Den” to him…
W
AlexWignall:
I’ve got another couple of questions now…
Is there a proper name for the wooden side bars? Why do modern Euroliners still have them? Considering how strict the BAG are about ratchet straps what’s the point of the side bars?
In an attempt at a return to the topic, I met an old German o/d last year who had made himself a metre long rod with a bracket on the end for putting the side bars in.
My poor German couldn’t explain “Dragons Den” to him…
W
The main reason for the side bars is to stop the sheet billowing like a sail. remember the old tilt covers had a sleeve, like an envelope to place the boards through. The boards also made a good ladder to get to the roof bars. Remember you cannot tension a tilt cover except with the rubber bands.
If you break any of the side boards. TIP will send you a bill for replacing “Tilt Boards” and charge you about £17 a piece 
Wheel Nut:
AlexWignall:
I’ve got another couple of questions now…
Is there a proper name for the wooden side bars? Why do modern Euroliners still have them? Considering how strict the BAG are about ratchet straps what’s the point of the side bars?
In an attempt at a return to the topic, I met an old German o/d last year who had made himself a metre long rod with a bracket on the end for putting the side bars in.
My poor German couldn’t explain “Dragons Den” to him…
W
The main reason for the side bars is to stop the sheet billowing like a sail. remember the old tilt covers had a sleeve, like an envelope to place the boards through. The boards also made a good ladder to get to the roof bars. Remember you cannot tension a tilt cover except with the rubber bands.
If you break any of the side boards. TIP will send you a bill for replacing “Tilt Boards” and charge you about £17 a piece
I agree that the tilt boards (for want of a better name) add to the structure of a traditional tilt but why do Euroliners still have the same boards?
WH Bowker near us have Euroliners and I’ve noticed that the drivers keep the boards in a stowage behind the underun bars on each side of the trailer. I guess they refit the boards if they load for export.
As for using the boards as a ladder…
I broke my arm trying that trick.
W
there are still plenty sort of loads that needs the boards to be in.
for example tyreloads or rolls of cloth and also for adr loads.
dutchie64:
there are still plenty sort of loads that needs the boards to be in.
for example tyreloads or rolls of cloth and also for adr loads.
Without hijacking JD’s thread too much…
I’m not really questioning the rights and wrongs about ‘tilt boards’ I’m more interested in if there is a correct name for them and why are they fitted to modern day Euroliners?
I’ve carted all the loads you mentioned without ‘tilt boards’ with no ill effect. In fact I struggle to see how a full set of flimsy wooden slats are going to stop twenty five IBCs if they decide to make a break for freedom…
W
AlexWignall:
dutchie64:
there are still plenty sort of loads that needs the boards to be in.
for example tyreloads or rolls of cloth and also for adr loads.
Without hijacking JD’s thread too much…
I’m not really questioning the rights and wrongs about ‘tilt boards’ I’m more interested in if there is a correct name for them and why are they fitted to modern day Euroliners?
I’ve carted all the loads you mentioned without ‘tilt boards’ with no ill effect. In fact I struggle to see how a full set of flimsy wooden slats are going to stop twenty five IBCs if they decide to make a break for freedom…
W
Most of the boards separate the side post uprights, even on a Euroliner, without them the posts can roll or cockle dependent on the type of cant rail, so I suppose you could almost call the boards, spacers. I didn’t have a name for mine, I just used to number them
The IBC cannot make a break for freedom if they are strapped and in the true use of a tilt trailer, anyone who is going to drive three or four thousand miles with the trailer sealed will spend an hour fastening the load to the bed 
I had a wagon and drag, lightweight loads most of the time, and I started doing loads to Berlin in the days when there was a West Germany and an East Germany.
The truck and trailer had to be tilts, and so I had two !!
The tilt was easy once I had got used to it the hard part was the borders. If the Eatsst German customs found a single loop missed, it meant stripping that side out. Just stripping out, but it happened to me a couple of times.
A remark above said that a German had shown him how to put the boards back in using a meter long pole, I also learnt that pretty ■■■■ quick, the company I worked for had German Dutch French and Spanish registerd trucks so I got to see interesting places and learnt various dodges.
No advice I’m sorry
Peter
AlexWignall:
I’m not really questioning the rights and wrongs about ‘tilt boards’ I’m more interested in if there is a correct name for them and why are they fitted to modern day Euroliners?
its because the curtain is not considered as a load restraint, this came up on here a while ago and i remember someone asking about strapping a load when they thought it would be ok inside a tautliner but then somebody else replied that if it gets strapped on a flat there’s no difference 
so the boards keep the load from going through the curtain in theory.
as has been stated plenty of places won’t load without them especially in germany. tyres are the main one and in some places i’ve loaded they even require that you have all boards up to the roof even if the load is only a metre high 
The uprights on the Krone Euroliners I worked on last year were easily as stable as the uprights on the UK style Curtainsiders I work with now. At least it was a fair attempt at an explanation for the ‘tilt boards’.
My own theory is that the Euroliners are so flimsy that they need the boards to make the thing more stable but I have yet to see any ‘Coffeeholic’ style proof that fitting them is a legal requirement or that my theory is right. I would of thought that might be useful information for JD as well as satisfying my curiosity…
When I started out at Montgomeries I would often collect 13.6m Montgomery Curtainsiders from the Docks in Dover loaded to the roof with tyres that had come from Spain, France and occaisonally Germany and not one of those trailers had a ‘tilt board’. I’m sorry WBIS but I have never had a German customer who checked I had all my ‘tilt boards’ in place. Even the kind of places that make you put rubber mats under the load and watch you strap it all down.
In fact, at one place they assumed because I was English I would have those
“nice straps that hang down from the roof because they do not damage our boxes…”
I don’t think they realised that their precious load was going to get shunted to Esbjerg chucked around a warehouse and then crammed into another tilt before it got to Blighty and I didn’t have the heart to tell them.
Thanks for the replies so far,
W
welshboyinspain:
britladinspain loaded the same trailer as mine in germany with tyres and he only had 3 boards high so he had to go a local transport company to get more boards. they showed him a pile of planks and a saw and said “carry on”
Wincanton in Germany did that, they cut them for you though, they needed at least 4 boards high and then cut the interleaves to suit. they would then let you go down to the plant to load tyres.
Michelin in France did this and also expected a spare strap over the roof to prevent bulging, that was on tautliner, euroliner or a tilt.
Wheel Nut:
welshboyinspain:
britladinspain loaded the same trailer as mine in germany with tyres and he only had 3 boards high so he had to go a local transport company to get more boards. they showed him a pile of planks and a saw and said “carry on”
Wincanton in Germany did that, they cut them for you though, they needed at least 4 boards high and then cut the interleaves to suit. they would then let you go down to the plant to load tyres.
Michelin in France did this and also expected a spare strap over the roof to prevent bulging, that was on tautliner, euroliner or a tilt.
we’ve got 5 slots high and 4 sections per side so he had to measure cut and fit 16 boards
welshboyinspain:
britladinspain loaded the same trailer as mine in germany with tyres and he only had 3 boards high so he had to go a local transport company to get more boards. they showed him a pile of planks and a saw and said “carry on”
as for the legal side you claim you’ve never heard of i’m no law expert but i know a curtain IS NOT considered a load restraint especially by VOSA so maybe the drivers cpc might help us all learn the laws 
I’m sure that has happened to many other Drivers…
I made my point about IBCs making a break for freedom to illustrate that IBCs obviously would need to be secured properly wether the trailer had a full set of boards or not.Goes to show how easliy things can get misinterpreted on t’internet.
I liked my DCPC Trainer but when he showed the powerpoint on load restraint I had to take him to one side at the end of the module and ask him not to show it again. I had to warn him that if he had shown that module to a group of General Haulage Drivers they would of laughed him out the room.
I’ve done my 35hours and I can honestly say I have of learnt more in an afternoon on TNUK but that really would be a topic hijack so I’ll leave it at that.
W
When we used to load at Repsol in Tarragona with pallets of plastic granuals, they wouldn’t load you on a bay if you didn’t have ‘tilt boards’ in particular they were looking for the (floor level) bottom ones!! It seems they think the boards make it safer for the forklift driver, obviously they would stop the fork truck from going through the side if the driver got it wrong!!
They would send us to a painted rectangle on an open area and load through the sides?
Ross.
however if you must do them like people have said plenty of rope and a ladder and plenty of showers and change of clothes afterwards 
i think you are supposed to have 2 to strip a trailer out now 
Health and safety 
good luck and take care