Been away a few days!
Now that Lynn has refreshed my memory; Rob is exactly right... "deadmen" were buried, "deadheads" were towed (or followed the Grateful Dead in a Volkswagon minivan!
We were taught the same thing as FV623 about the hex shape and the 9th spike... usually cheated by driving the truck right over the holdfast and winching the spikes out if they were beyond muscle power. Bent a few!
The scotches (never used the word "plates" with them) were definetely not for drinking!
Cheers! Mike