Tarping up????

The other day i was watchin a bloke tryin to put on a tarp on everything is goin ok until he got to the ends couldnt work out how to envolope the ends.
Next came the tieing of the shortns ropes so i wander over and asked the best i could and he told me he had been driving trucks for 10 years but this was the first he hab put on a tarp . :-[
He was only used to tautliners after showing him how to do it he was fine .
My question:- is traping up a dyeing art or what?? :'(
and another thing are we looseing the art of tying truckie knots ?? :'( . Dave

call me thick but i could never catch on how to do "truckie knots" .. ive only ever got by doing it my simple way .. then again i was probably 21 before i knew how to tie my shoelaces

Hi Dave, I agree with you, my father inlaw is a retired truckie and he recently said the same thing. He reckons most new blokes wouldn't have a clue if you told them they had to tarp down a load. I have another confession, I have been shown how to tie the 'truckies Knot' by about 5 different people. One week later, I'm useless! as a mate of mine said I tie 'will Knots"..."will not hold anything!
Now I have the Dodge I will definately have to learn it properly
regards Harleigh.

Dedlee
guddayM8
me thinks itz called tarping 'tarping up'
Trapn iz wot u do when U lead a sheila down a ded end st
LOL
well U got me on rope tying
I'm hopless
but get by
if my knots get wet U better have a knife handy
as we do not have to use ropes so thru lack of xperience we soon 4 get the truckies knot where by u twitch the knot with a flik of the fingers n she'z undun
have been shown many a times but B tween time we need to use ropes we soon 4 get
Just call me granny knot
LOL
now chains n dogs is a different kettle of fish as I twaz bought up on m
LOL
cya

Dave, the art of tarping a trailer has long been forgotten these days, 'cause you wont find a rope on a Tautliner curtain or a fridge door, now will you.

At the truck show at Brisbane a few years ago, there was a tarp tying contest and just about all who entered were well into their fifties, only a couple of young 'uns were in amongst this motly crew.

It was won by a bloke in his late forties, so if the steering wheel attendant aint goin' bald, then he just aint seen one, to learn how to do it.

Had to tie down and tarp up about three trailers a night for months when I first come up to Brissy, working for Brambles Long Distance out at Acacia Ridge yard, these trailers belonged to subbies who were headed north. OK, now you all know, I'm a bald headed old fart!

regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]

:oI agree the younger steering wheel attendants would be lucky to see a trap let alone know how to tie it. If you have front printed on the trap is that were the front of the trailer is or if you start spreading the trap from the back of the trailer then that become the front. Up and down the Hume and most highways you are lucky to see trapped loads these days. Carting cans to Sydney you would use packing , 2 general traps and then the cap trap over the top .By the time all the ropes were tied the rope rails were full. Maybe we could do this at Sandown for a contest. Podge. :-X

There's a fair few around the place these days that have got no idea on chaining things on either.
Saw a truck on a tilt tray yesterday with a block of wood each side of one set of duals and a chain from one coming rail over the top of the chassis down to the other coming rail with a half hitch. And that was it. She was rocking back and foward between the blocks each gear like a puppet.
Image what this dude wouldve done with a tarp...probibly steal it and live under it.
Barry

I hope I have forgotten how to put a tarp on, hate the bloody things especially when they are wet. Always seemed to end up with a load the shape of Ayres Rock that you just couldnt do a good job with.
There is a knack to dogs and chains as well, you want them tight but dont try to break them, Stop and tighten afer a couple of Ks.
Are you using those new fangled safety dogs now Swishy ?

Hi everyone now there is the dogs and chains and art of how to use and let them go with out taking your arm with them.
I was carting reels of plastic to be used in the food trade and every load had to be tarped and we would do 4 trips a day all over Melb.
The other day we had a tautliner in our yard and it had GATES but thy were on straps so the driver didn't have lift them and they were made of Aluminuim whats the world coming to
These days drivers dont even change tyres . Dave

Like Greenie, I started off in a yard where I had to help tarp up the interstaters. That was more than 25 years ago, but I haven't forgotten how and when I take my little box trailer with a load of garden rubish to the tip it's always the neatest looking load there!

Dogs and chains are another story though :-[

Dennis