Any Campers in the Mix?

You must definitely see the Canadian Rockies - Banff, Jasper and Kananaskis are gems. If you ever get to the wet coast, you must, must, must go to the Vancouver Island, see Tofino and check out some of the smaller (hippy) gulf islands. You won't regret it. Trust me. I'm planning on spending my golden years there, if I get that far...

I'm told the "fantastic fan" is very good. There's a guy on Youtube from Calgary named KevinHenry on Youtube, that has uploaded a ton of videos of two boler renovations. He's very thorough and has some really good ideas. Check him out.

I've seen one picture of a front kitchen, I've tried but I can't find it now. Believe me, I poured over so many sites and I'm in a bit of a boler daze at the moment. Wish I could find that picture again...

No the shell is fibreglass. The inside is covered/insulated with a soft foam. The problem with most spray foam is that when dry they are hard, not pliable. All the shaking and movement of the trailer causes most spray foams to disintegrate to dust, this is why the foam is glued to the shell. Wood, metal and fibreglass wrapped structures are used as shell support and storage. My plan is to use another type of fire retardant foam, there are several types on the market and then paint, just like the original, but with better, more efficient insulation than the circa 1974ish model I'm buying. I will use caulk (Dap) instead of the tape the original boler came with. I will investigate further on what I can paint the foam with, as I'm sure some products will or could eat/melt the foam or make it too hard.
The insulation doesn't really soak up the moisture but acts more like a wick, quickly drying out. A fan is especially helpful with that as well. The old ensolite was a fairly good product and is still being used in some models of fiberglass trailers, however it is not a fire retardant product and will grow mold after time if there are leaks in the rig. I've heard melamine paint is a good choice but other campers have experimented with marine paints and other mold retardant products. It's the off gassing that can take time and can be particularly nasty..

Yay! I got me a boler. The frame needs work, the door needs works, the paint job needs work, it's dirty, tired and beat up. Isn't she loverly??



Won't be around much. Going to spend the next few days cleaning and doing some small repairs. This friday I'm taking her out for a week camping on the island. Woo hoo! I'm a happy girl.

Sorry, didn't realize the photo was gargantuan.

She needs a proper name. Think of something visual to go with the idea of travelling. Maybe something from Stephen King.
Rocinante has already been taken by John Steinbeck.

Sanding her down and spraying with a good acrylic or lacquer based car paint will do her a world of exterior good. First thing is take off the wheels and see what youve got in the way of er brakes and bearings. Does it have an electrical brake system? I dont recall where brake systems start in weight classes. We have a 16 foot utility trailer (a box) that has no brakes but we keep "dogs" (weight distributing ties) on the hitch so it wont veer lweft or right if I slam on the brakes of the truck.

I haven't picked a name yet. I'm thinking Dudley, as in Dudley Do-right. I'm planning on painting it red and white, with some Canaidanna flair.
I have to do a lot of body work. When we were bringing her home yesterday, she jumped off the hitch when we hit some harsh road construction. So, the front has yet another puncture mark, this one is about the size of a plum. The front also had two more punctures, about an inch in diameter. I'm not sure if I should use fiberglass on them or try and fill the holes with a sandable epoxy putty. Any ideas?
The frame needs work, but that wont happen till the winter when I take the egg off the frame. There are no brakes, but I'm thinking of installing some electric ones and a new 7 plug thingy, it only has four now. The door is in bad shape, but I think the frame work should correct most of the alignment problems and then I can repair the crack over the door. I'm going to gut it this winter, repaint the inside and out. Maybe change up the floor plan a wee bit. We'll see how much I can get done on a budget of rusted nickles.

I repaired a boat with some fiberglas tape and epoxy sxhmear one yer(It was a speedy boat that I hammered into a rock on Fundy) We spent a night in a wee town N of ST Georges and l;et it dry. When we got going the damn fiberglas plug lasted so long that I actually sanded it down as a permamnent repair. Otherwise Ida had to punch it out. Body epoxy with no fiberglas depends on the shape of the hole and whatever stiff patching you put on the back. (SOme holes , like in a double hulled thingus ( are hard to get anything pother than screening behind and My fiberglas quick patch had more strength cause it covered itself over the hole (also about the size of an apple) and exceeded the hole dimension by severa;l inches.
In other words, Id do a fiberglas kit patch, its fairly easy, the entire kit ois available at a chandlers, and it holds like a rock (once its cured a day or so, Then, for you to sand it , prime it and then paint SDudley all over(I see a great big Dooright face on one side of the rig and a Canajun sympbol on the other. The best cartoons are those that are so big they slop over slightly on the roof and the front. Just get Doorites face near thedoor with eyes looking at the door.
Either that or the Stephen King Clown with pointy teeth. (Thatd be my choice, it keeps kids at bay) We had to replace the door on our Trillium too. I found that piano hinges worked great cauase you can really get some screw purchase on the big sheets of the hinges. It takes two people to fit em up.(I screwed up at first and we had to put in a whole sheet of fiberboard on the door.
ALSO, another little trick is to put that liquid wood hardener on the wood surfaces where you will be re screwing holes or tapping new ones. It holds great too.


If you have a frig on the brain (Get a DOMETIC) they have dealers all over and are pretty standard with parts. But since youre gonna put elec brakes and a new jack plug on, remember you can run the frig on the truck battery while driving and it cools er down really well, then when you get to your plot, just switch over to gas or camp electric (depending on what youre gonna set up)
We found that, with no heat system (just the stove heat) we could run the frig and do all the cooking for about 2 weeks on one bottle of gas.
*Now we use the 50 gallon LPN tanks and run everything off gas

Oh yeh. I know a guy who redid an old Aistream and he redid the body plan to having all the facilities at one end and the living at the other. Sounds simple enough but by lumping all the facilities like gas and wires and water to one end, it saved a lot of space. He also redid the floors by carpeting the whole thing and he ran the carpeting up the side walls a bit (about a foot or so) and then put an aluminum rail all along that carpet line. It looked really great and I wished I woulda thought of it when we redid the Trillium.

Alas, I can't see the Canada Express (Maple Sugar, Moving Song, Road Maven, whatever name you come up with, Ceili - you're the poet - because I don't want to register for the site. Waaaaah!

Really? Damn. I didn't realize that osso. I'll try and put it on another site. Give me a few hours, I'm up to my elbows in bleach and other cleaning stuff at the moment. Just had a quick bite and back at 'er....

Some great tips. Thanks Farmer.
I'll be back in a few and I'll show you the designs I'm thinking of putting on the Boler.

No hurry, just sometime. (I suppose I could give in, if push comes to shove.) Anyway, I'm enjoying your adventure.

K, there ya go. The boler looks much larger in the photos.

I'm taking her out on the her maiden voyage today. I wont be around for the next little bit. Going to soak up some island life. Vangroovy Island here I come. Have a great week everyone..

Thanks, fun to see the photos.

Have a good time..

Enjoy! (It looks to be in pretty good shape.)

A video of RV'ers from 1937. Some pretty cool contraptions.
http://www.rvvideos.com/2007/02/rving-in-1937-as-seen-on-movie-theater.html

Hey Ceili,

It has been awhile since you updated this. Have you finished the rehab project? How did it turn out?

Well I got as far as taking it all apart, the demo's done. I'm hoping to have the trailer frame worked on soon. I've got the interior and exterior designed on Google Sketch-up. I'm in the process of buying many of the things I need. Until the weather warms up, that's as far as I can go, as my garage is not heated. I can't paint or do the fiberglass repair work until it's warm.


Trust me, when it's done. It'll be splashed all over the place.
In the meantime, I've been reading and watching every site I can find any pertinent info.
Thank-you for your interest.