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Application advice?
I have a trailer to digitally print with 30 feet sides.
Our supplier was suppossed to print them in seperate vertical segmants for ease of application but has supplied two 30 foot horizontal prints!
Any advice on applying these giants as i cant afford to cock it up!
Thanks
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10 Replies
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Man, that’s going to be a p.i.t.a.! I would send the job back and tell them to print it right.
If they won’t reprint, the only thing I would recommend is to make some sort of wheeled dolley that can hold the media on the roll at the height that you need to make installation a little easier. Something like this…
Or, cut the graphics down to managable panels and hope that they line up with the seams of the trailer.Good luck,
Checkers
a.k.a. Brian Born
Harrisburg, PA USA[/img] -
did you ask for them to be printed in panels? If you did, I would ask them to reprint the job. As for cutting them into panels yourself, you will have a problem because there will be no overlap and what happens if you get any vinyl shrinkage? I wouldnt fancy putting it all on in one go 😮
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just spoke to them and them and i have arranged to have them reprinted if we cannot apply successfully or we cock up, basically.
This is one time that i am glad i kept the email! 😀
wish me luck
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This may be the exception to the dry Lambie rule.
To get a perfect overlap over 30′ is going to be difficult. (not impossible but difficult) I think I would tape the bottom tile in place. then hinge in the middle and work out to each end, roll each half onto a tube as in brians drawing, defo a 2 man if not 3. Good luck,Peter
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When you say two 30 foot prints, if you mean one for each side at the full height of the body then I wouldn’t even attempt it.
For one the weight you’ll be carrying at first will be huge.
Then there’s the removal of backing paper, if you tear the paper and the surface is wet you’ll run the risk of wet feathered backing paper sticking to the print.
Getting it bang on straight will be a tad difficult too.We’ve done quite a few artics, we always `wallpaper` them with a 5-10mm overlap and also work from back to front. (Less chance of the overlaps coming away at a steady 56mph).
If you were determined to try, I’d certainly consider cutting the picture into 1200-1500mm rolls to hang vertical, if the image would stand being forcibly overlapped.
Whatever happens, the best of luck!
Splatt
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Had to do a LWB transit the other week with the same problem, two horizontal prints. It was certainly much more difficult than if it had been vertical strips. Couldn’t get a perfect match up but luckily the design was a bit abstract so it didn’t show.
I also had a job like this with a totally flat 3m long trailer and even that was hard so I think a 30ft truck will be VERY difficult.
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quote Peter Normington:This may be the exception to the dry Lambie rule.
To get a perfect overlap over 30′ is going to be difficult. (not impossible but difficult) I think I would tape the bottom tile in place. then hinge in the middle and work out to each end, roll each half onto a tube as in brians drawing, defo a 2 man if not 3. Good luck,Peter
it is much more difficult, ide send it back mate.
believe it or not peter, i used to do all my trucks horizontal mate…
i always had a second or even third pair of hands to help but that was just holding the material while i applied.if you cant get round this, i would still do it dry..
here is how…
using catwalk and trestles, about 10-12ft catwalk.
have one body 6ft away holding the rolled up vinyl. fold back carrying paper about 16 inches. tack/align your part at the start. once tacked, ask the guy 6ft behind you if he is aligned. if the answer is yes, apply the depth of the vinyl coming in about 12inches.
at this point the vinyl IS on track. the guy ft away should have the vinyl taught but not tight. he must always keep an eye on the alignment as you work your way towards him.
if you have another pair of hands, ask him to stand between you both gently pulling the paper away from behind the vinyl as you work towards him. this is, believe it or not, a fast way of applying. but of course, allot more can go wrong and when it does, it is harder to fix. if dubious, cut the length every ten feet. it will still look good.
i have applied lots of 17ft hard back trucks completely on my own running two horizontal strips. ha vent done it in a while now, but i used to do it a couple of times a week two years ago.
i reckoned i was pretty quick at it. so much so… some "might" remember
a couple of years back i wrote to the Guinness book of records hoping to set the world record for the fastest rigid bodied 44ft trailer fitted dry!
Guinness knocked it back saying it would be to specialised 😕 yeah right! -
quote :a couple of years back i wrote to the Guinness book of records hoping to set the world record for the fastest rigid bodied 44ft trailer fitted dry!Wow – and to think, I thought your street cred could never get any higher!!
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as much as i would like to prove a point that i wont be beaten, i have got to admit that would be awkward as hell to fit right.
as much as it hurts the guys who printed, they asked you and you told them the best, if not the only successful way, to supply you the print and to their costly mistake get them to re print. you wuill spend endless time trying to rectify their mistake, and speaking from experience, once you try to do it these things have a habit of haunting you when the customer says why try then?
you did the righht thingtell them to reprint full stop!
ouch!!! (chat.) -
Mate is this the same crowd we were discussing on another thread?
This a a fundamental mistake if they are an experienced sign shop. For heavens sake, is there no one at the company that has experienced fitting to an oversized vehicle?
Tell them to do it again, or show you how to fit it. Better still, help you fit it.
Longest I did horizontal was 6m, with 3 people. that was hard enough, and I’m experienced. 🙄
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