11 - Trolley Wheels (cotter pins)

 A cotter pin has been designed for many applications. For some applications, they are better-suited than for others, like securing the bonnets of high-performance vehicles for easy release. The pattern of cotter pin I refer to looks like this:

When purchasing my fishing trolley, I made what I thought were rigorous checks, but not rigorous enough, it seems. The trolley came with pneumatic wheels. These may look nice, but will puncture in no time as you pull it down bramble-strewn paths. Solid wheels are what you want - but do get the spindle width accurate if you are thinking of replacements via mail order. I didn’t and my trolley now wobbles along, but, at least, its wheels can’t puncture any more!

Something else I never thought to check was how those wheels were secured to the spindle. If you are accustomed to fishing heavily-manicured areas without a stray weed in sight, a cotter pin like the above might serve your purpose. A bit like using a road car on pothole-free roads. If, however, you intend to take your trolley down overgrown barely-passable tracks, a cotter pin like the above is the last thing you want to be securing your trolley wheels. No different from opting to take your road car off-road into a moisture-heavy farmer’s field. Things will go awry very quickly! 

So it is with these types of cotter pin. At the slightest hint of long grass or bramble stem, they will get ‘yanked out’ with seemingly effortless ease.

What are your options?

Avoidance is better than cure, for sure. Be smart and don’t go for this type of wheel fixing if you are intending to go anywhere other than well-kept and predictable. But could it be that you have inherited the trolley and, being the spirited soul that you are, you want to ‘live life on the wilder side’? Not for you the manicured lakes that Gramps favoured. You are going to go ‘bush’ and you don’t see why you should fork out your limited funds on a new trolley when you have a perfectly-sound looking one ready for your use.

Fair enough. Necessity can be the mother of invention, after all.

The tried-and-tested fix I offer you is both simple and affordable. Get yourself two ladies’ hair grips - one for each wheel. Push the straighter of the prongs through the spindle hole made to take the cotter pin. Now bend the inserted prong around the spindle in the opposite direction to where it sits unused. Then take the un-inserted prong and bend it around the spindle in the direction opposite to how it sits when unused.

In so doing, you will see that you have made for yourself the shape of an anchor:

Just like the ‘anchor’ it resembles, your wheels will now remain firmly secured to their spindle whatever the terrain, and just like the cotter pin they replace, the hair clip is easy enough to remove should the need arise.

PB