Insecure trailer rollers

[Jonathan Stuart]

While inspecting the trailer after launching our BC26 I noticed one of the aft rollers had almost fallen off! This was quite worrying. It turns out that on our trailer these large rollers are held on by a split pin through the roller's axle and a large washer between the pin and the roller. The washers' internal diameter is significantly over-sized - 30mm whereas the axle has a diameter of 25mm. Furthermore, the shafts that can take the split pins are drilled to just over 5mm and some of them are enlarged at their openings. The split pins fitted were 4mm and the enlarged openings mean on some axles there wasn't much of the split pins' head visible. The result was that the washer could work over the split pin and the roller would follow - the split pin was all that was keeping the roller from being lost but it was already half way off. All of the aft rollers have these sized split pins and washers, and about 4 have the enlarged openings that means the split pins' heads don't project sufficiently.

I replaced all split pins with 5mm diam 70mm long pins and there is no way the washers / rollers can now be lost. In future I may also replace the washers with something with a more sensible internal diameter.

I recommend anyone with a BC26 trailer checks the large rollers in case you have the same problem.

[Nick Orchard]

Just checked my trailer and I appear to have M4 bolts and nyloc nuts rather than split pins, and it doesn't look like there's any way the washers and rollers can get past them, so I think I'm OK, but thanks for the warning.

[Jonathan Stuart]

Good to hear that Nick. Like your's, the forward dumbbells on my trailer have bolts securing the rollers but for some reason the under-sized split pins were used on the aft rollers. Perhaps CLH ran out of bolts when they were half way through my trailer  ?!