Boler front storage question

[DannyH]

I was looking at a couple of Boler restoration projects online and noticed that when they took out the fiberglass seats/ couch in the front, it still had a fiberglass shell that looked about 6-8" off the floor. Is this a water storage tank, there to make the trailer ridgid, or something else? Has anyone taken this out?

Thanks

[Roy in TO]

Danny there are 2 basic floor patterns. The early bolers did not have a notch in the frame at the front for the porta potty door. The frame runs straight across. In other designs the frame is boxed to allow for a section of the floor to run right up to the front giving a little more room for the porta potti.

I didn't realize this till after looking at a few mods. The notched floor makes for a better front dinette mod.

[Raya]

Edited to precede with: The 13' Boler/clones get their standing height in the middle section by dropping the floor down into the frame rails. So there is a dropped floor that is about 4' square. In the back, the floor under the dinette is back up on top of the frame. It's also that way along the sides (except by the door), and across the front.

Partway through the Boler run, they began making another section f dropped floor, in the center of the front gaucho. This was made for a "slide in" Porta Potti stowage locker. I think the notch came in around 1975 on the Bolers. My 1974 has a thick frame piece that goes across and no notch. All of the Scamps seem to have the notch.

It would be quicker/easier to put a dinette in one with a notch. OTOH, one "consolation" of a non-notched dinette is that the table will be up at window height, for easier looking outside while seated. If I make a dinette, I will probably remove the settee base (to save for re-conversion) and build the seat boxes on top of the (non-notched) platform.

Here is a photo of a Boler frame without cutout (a rusty one that someone was replacing):



So everything that you see inside that large "square" is the dropped floor section on all 13' Boler/clones. The additional "notch" would be in the form of a chunk taken out of the center of the thick rail to the right in the photo, to add another little bit of dropped floor.

I have a photo of a Scamp frame saved on another computer; basically, that forward thick frame rail that goes across is very thin in the middle, and a "box" extends forward in the middle (about two feet square). I guess that cross member must not be structural.

Raya

[Roy in TO]

Here is a pic of a notched front on a Scamp

[Raya]

Some of the Bolers have it even easier. I've noticed (happened to be on a mid-'70s yellow/gold one) that even the top of the bench was cut out already and the whole "U" finished in gelcoat, complete with inset rails for the dinette table to drop into to make the bed. You could use that type for a dinette virtually as-is, although the table would still be low compared to the window (to imagine what I mean think about how the rear dinette is up on the platform and thus the table is right at "look out the window" height).

Still, it's a nice, easy conversion --- and one could always raise the seats and make a little platform in the foot area if they wanted the table at window height.

Raya

[DannyH]

Everyone, thanks for your replies. The photo's helped. I did not know they lowered the frame in this area. Something else to keep in mind as I look for a trailer.

[Raya]

Here is a photo of a Scamp frame (whole trailer upside down); I think the Bolers with the "notch" would have a similar frame - you can see where they cut out the beam that's under the front (as you are sitting on it) of the couch and added the "box."





Some other 13-foot trailers are just one level all the way forward and back, like the Burros and U-hauls. Others, like the Trillium, are (usually) level all the way forward, but have a rise at the back under the rear dinette (rather than a dropped floor, it's a one-level floor with a raised area, if you see what I mean).

I said "usually" for the Trilliums because I have seen some early 13's (bathroom model) that had a step up at the front more like a Boler/clone.

Raya

[Bill K]

Raya,
Thanks for putting this picture on here, I thought that the bottom of the frame was the trailer height from ground. LOL ( not counting the axle. )

I have been reading here and the Scampers forum since Nov. and never caught that.

Just goes to show that a picture can get through my head better than the written word. I would have caught on next month when I crawl under mine at Backus,

Bill K