A few of weeks ago I decided to have a look at the trailer whilst the weather was still trying to make up its mind.
One of the jobs I had to do was to replace one of the brake shoe's, as the end of one of the linings had broken off. So I got the boat off the trailer again. 
However, on the way back from the barn to my house I lost on of the rollers, the track is a bit bouncy and even driving back up the track a few times I couldn't find it, must have gone into the long grass and the track is 2 miles long so I wasn't going to search by walking it for a roller at £5. Consequently I checked the other roller fixings again and because they were a tad rusty decided to get on and replace them. Indespension in their wisdom fit mild steel zinc coated washers on their rollers with mild steel split pins!!
They also secure the roller arms with high tensile bolts again coated in zinc. I suppose they don't think their trailers will ever get dunked in salt water!! 
Also the brake cables were a little stiff even though they were only a few years old, so I ordered some Stainless Steel ones for a few quid more than the ordinary ones....bargain!!
New cables fitted.................nice blue colour!
- New Cables.jpg (178.01 KiB) Viewed 4815 times
The split pins were completed rusted in and the bolts although still strong were rusted into the brackets. I tried bashing the bolts with a club hammer, 2 came out with a little effort but the others were welded in. I tried heating them, soaking them, I even tried scratching my head, but that didn't work either...
I tried drilling out both the split pins and the bolts in situ, but that was not an option as the drill couldn't be held still enough. So I bought a drill stand.
Consequently the only way to get the split pins out would be to take out the bolts, therefore I went through the painstaking task of cutting the heads off the bolts with an angle grinder, hacksawing through the shanks, then cutting the split pins with a mini bolt cutter to remove the rollers, hacksawing the pins close to the bracket then drilling out the pins via a drill stand.
You can see I've tried previously to rescue them by greasing them but that didn't work and then how to cut the pin heads to get the rollers off. I tried sawing, a Dremel, wire cutters and tin snips but in the end I bought some mini bolt cutters, that worked.
- Old washers.jpg (174.13 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
I then thought that holding the brackets under the drill which was in the drill stand would work to drill out the pins and bolts but no, that didn't work, so I made a makeshift holder. The drill bit started to drill but soon found the softest metal and veered off to cut through the aluminium of the bracket. Sorry no picture's of this. I remembered my dad telling me about pilot holes and using a punch to start the drill so I precisely punched a small indent into the pins and the bolts and drilled with a small drill first.
- Small drill.jpg (138.7 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
Because the small drill can only find hard metal it tended to drill straight even when I was drilling the bolts.
- Smaller drill first.jpg (126.41 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
So then used the 4mm drill bit and got a nice straight hole!!
- Nice straight hole.jpg (92.66 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
After a lot of blood sweat and tears the trailer has now got shiny new stainless steel bolts, washers and split pins
- Shiney new bolts.jpg (173.93 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
- Shiney new washers and split pins.jpg (128.72 KiB) Viewed 4816 times
Oh the joys of trailer boating, I'm going back to mooring now or may even try the funky wizzy dry stacking!!
Hope this is useful for someone!
