i think you lads will be the best to answer this question… i do container work for the past 3 years and i like it although now im lazy. my firm want to diversfy from only doing boxes to these demountable bodies TILTS 
so from an easy day doing not a right lot now i might have to start stripping down these norfolk line tilts that fit on a skelly. whats it like 
It all depends on the state of the tilt, ie: if the roofstruts are rusted, also
deformed .held together with rusty seized nuts+bolts, the sideboards
are perhaps damaged, these are just a few points the slideingroof may
be jammened through misuse, then again you may not be so unlucky
and these points may never apply to the tilts you may have to work on,
some one will have a few more points that I have missed??
its got to be crap in this weather and rain but i suppose in the summer would be better knowing me i would be stripping it in the sun and fall asleep on top. 
That is quite correct .but I would not sunbathe onthe roof as you might
find the ladder missing, ALSO when useing a ladder be sure that
a. it is a tested ladder b. that you secure the said ladder to the side of the tilt so it will not slip and therefore cause you to have a accident ,
Just so that the HSE can not accuse you of not keeping to the
HSE rules. the HSE will have some publications dealing with these
aspects of safety when working on a tilt,
Unless you are 8 feet tall and built like Garth, I would leave them alone. They are normally damaged, dont get maintained, bits missing and sods law says as soon as you pull up at a customer it will rain. 
Even Ferry Trailers can be difficult because no ones interested in reporting damage.
jessica`s dad, put “tilts” into the search bit on the top of the page and it will give you an insight into them… i still shudder
i know jb im not looking forward to it… i do think they will have to pay extra to do it cos at our yard it full of blokes over 45/50 and they arnt going to do it so it will always get passed onto the younger ones and im not going to stand for that my attitude is if one does they all do it.
Some of us still have to strip these beasts out on a regular basis 
I used to do em every week for Continental Cargo Carriers (C.C.C.) from Felixstowe, not a problem taking side out or both sides out (as long as it wasnt too windy 
) strip outs were a pig though when you had to load machinery or usually steel through the roof, basically you had to “roll” the sheetfrom the back of trailer to the front, and beleive me and the people who have done it, its a LOT easier than it sounds, then taking bars out of roof, get your load in and strapped down, then the fun began, trying to keep the sheet straight and even so it all fitted flush when the back flap came down.
Just my luck after 5 years of doing this on a weekly basis, that 1 month after i left the job, they started buying euroliners, stripping them out is easier than undoing the back doors. I think i remember Vince having some pictures in the photo forum when he worked for Overveld i think it was, he got a brilliant photo of a tilt stripped out, if it wasnt you Vince i appologise, but it was someone in the photo forum.
But theyre nothing to be afraid of, if you dont want to get your hands dirty, stick with them girly things, containers i think theyre called 
Kindle that wasn´t Vince it was me I´m afraid
Sorry mate, all i could remember is that the name began with a V
But congratulations ( ) on a perfect stripout mate, and im not taking the preverbial 
I liked the way you put your sheet behind your boards in the front bay, i take it by that you must have done a bit of driving with sheet like that, as if you didnt drive, you just made extra work for yourself!
Or did you just “tart it up a bit” to make a good picture??! well i remember that pic above all the others so it made an impression with me 
We do a bit of tilt work, but I’ve never had to strip one. When I was hauling steel on a flat, I helped rebuild one.
It was an absolutely horrible day, blowing a gale so that the rain was horizontal . I arrived at Clydebridge works to pick up a 3 metre load of 50mm plate which had been shot blasted. 4 plates was a full load. Anyway, when I arrived they where loading plate into a tilt, on the only loading pad, by overhead crane. I thought, oh [zb], as you do . Then I thought, here is an opportunity to learn how to do a tilt. So I went over, helped strap the load down and rebuild the tilt. It took us about 20 minutes I think. The driver was a Pole who was profusive with his thanks . I also had realised that the sooner he was out, the sooner I would be in, loaded and on my way home .
What really struck me was, just as we where struggling to get the corners of the sheet over the frame, another wagon arrived. This guy was obviously in a hurry, because all 16 wheels where in the air on at least one occasion. If you have ever been to Clydebridge works, you will understand how this was possible, even though it was stupid. (The potholes have/had miners at the bottom of them.) The driver came storming into the shed, in a rage, shouting and waving his arms about, even I couldn’t understand him, how a foreign driver was supposed to I don’t know. When he got close enough to the tilt we where still in the middle of rebuilding, he got to taste the toe of my boot, which quietened him down a little 
. (If you have met me, this reaction might surprise you , but I’m not that quiet and well mannered ). Anyway, he would still have had to wait for me to get loaded, and there was no way I was going to sheet a shot blasted load out in that weather, nor would I have been allowed too. It used to cost about £100 a tonne to get steel blasted there, and I was collecting a full 25tonne load. I could easily have kept him waiting till after shift change started, I didn’t, I’m not that vindictive. He was still shouting the odds at me, between spitting out blood n teeth, but standing well back . I don’t know why. Steel haulers are an odd bunch
Kindle threading the sheet through the boards like that apart from looking neat as you put it saves having to waste a couple of straps to hold it down, strip outs are something that I can end up doing several times a week as my job mainly consists of tipping and loading the trailers in Spain that the Dutch bring down.
Happily, I don’t have to do complete strip outs. We do, on occaision, have to open up the sides, to deliver loads on unaccompanied trailers. I don’t fancy having to do complete strip outs on my own. I don’t think any of our other drivers would do it at all. You should hear the moaning when we get one of those older Euro-liners. The ones which look like a tilt, with the drop down side boards, and the short side curtains which are secured by a TIR cord through the loops. These are the ones with curtains, similar to a curtain sider, and sliding roofs. If it was suggested that a complete strip out of a tilt was needed, I could see there being a riot .
Vas, i understand what youre saying there. 99 times out of 100 when we had stripouts, it was in a shed, Scunny, Shepcote Lane Sheffield etc so we could strip out and rebuild inside so we didnt need to put sheet behind boards and didnt need to strap it down.
I only lost a sheet once, thank heavens i was delivering crane sections, the crane driver just picked it up and dropped it back on roof when hed finished unloading me. Had that have happened at any of the steelworks, i woukd have been left to my own devices to sort the problem out, as the blokes who work at steelworks are the most miserable unhelpful bunch of gits ive ever met
stripping down tilts is a second nature to me…as having done so many over the years…i found that the ones with roof boards are the easiest when doing it without any help…although still time consuming…however…the ones with metal gates in the roof were the hardest and most difficult…a lot of the tilts today have a lightweight grill which are a lot easier and not so heavy…i remember struggling with the heavy metal grills that bolted into place rather than just sliding into a cradle…some of the back bars are difficult too…its useful if you have a ladder to help…and also a lot easier if theres an over head crane…if you find that the cover doesnt fit as well as it should…then a quick run down the road will pull it into place…providing the t.i.r. cord has been threaded through the eyelets…down the side of the trailer
Stripping tilts is not such a hardship, if they are well maintained, with all the catches and latches in place. The best trailers I used were United Rental Fruehaufs with the lightweight sheets and alloy sides which we had fitted with belly tanks!
I think Jessicas dads post was more about the Dropbody / Swapbody type, these are total pigs because they are sat much higher on the skelly, they get damaged easily and are normally covered in Brown rust from the rail tracks 
My own tilt was an ex Dowfreight trailer with steel sideboards and barn doors with an RSJ for a lintel. That was a pig too, I eventually got banned out of Alcoa in Falkirk because it took so long to strip.
Stripping tilts is not such a hardship, if they are well maintained, with all the catches and latches in place. The best trailers I used were United Rental Fruehaufs with the lightweight sheets and alloy sides which we had fitted with belly tanks!
I think Jessicas dads post was more about the Dropbody / Swapbody type, these are total pigs because they are sat much higher on the skelly, they get damaged easily and are normally covered in Brown rust from the rail tracks
My own tilt was an ex Dowfreight trailer with steel sideboards and barn doors with an RSJ for a lintel. That was a pig too, I eventually got banned out of Alcoa in Falkirk because it took so long to strip.
alright malc… we heard ya the 1st time
thanks wheelnut that is the ones im on about i know they bring them into daventry drift at the moment and i think immingham but they want to bring them into leeds on the train for us to do.