Mary Lou and I are avid enthusiasts of the vintage Boler Camper Trailer, perhaps one of the smallest and most compact certified RVs ever manufactured. With interior dimensions of just 10 feet long, 6 feet 1 inch high and 6 feet 6 inches wide, we say, “It’s the perfect little RV for us to enjoy our retirement travels”.
The Boler Trailer might be tiny, but it has a lot of built-in features. It comes equipped with a 12-gallon water tank, propane furnace, cooking stove top, 12volt/110volt/propane refrigerator, kitchen counter and sink, dining table, and sitting area that converts to a double bed. There is also an additional sitting area, closet, and plenty of storage. It’s perfect for us. It’s only about 900 pounds and we can pull it so easily with our 4-cylinder Toyota Rav4.
We bought our little Boler just a couple of years ago, primarily to use for camping at Folk and Bluegrass festivals. Mary Lou is a singer-songwriter and says, “Each year we enjoy meeting up with friends at the Tottenham Bluegrass Festival in Tottenham, Ontario, sharing songs, music, and camping stories. It’s so much fun”.
The famous “egg on wheels” was invented and manufactured in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and between 1968 and 1988 approximately 10,000 units were sold. I learned that the inventor, Ray Olecko, was originally in the fibreglass industry, and made large egg-shaped holding tanks for liquids, fabricating them in two halves that bolted together in a watertight fashion. He later got the idea of building a lightweight camper that would be suitable for his family to enjoy. In looking for an unusual name for the trailer, and thinking that it looked a bit like an English bowler hat, he decided to name it a Boler.
Although there are purists who enjoy the art of Boler restoration, Mary Lou and I are part of a growing movement of Boler trailer enthusiasts who love to re-design and decorate their little mini RVs to project their personalities. There are a lot of really cool Bolers out there that have been done over, each one different than the next. We call ours ‘The Sonic Egg’.
Go ahead and see our video, The Boler Trailer Cinderella Story, on YouTube.