The new 13' boler is back in Canada! It's now called the"Armadillo"

[D Davis]

LOVE this camper! Costs?

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by D Davis

LOVE this camper! Costs?

Since they are only doing custom builds at this point, I'd say that's not public information, unless the buyer chooses to share it.

Pretty sure it's out of my league anyway… sigh!

[CampyTime]

What a gorgeous little trailer. Dare I say, sexy! Love it love it. I'd be proud as a peacock towing that little gem down the road. Just perfect! And I love the colors as well as the under trailer storage. Very smart and it does look well made. Neato!


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[Con]

I am astonisted at the desparging comments some of the members have made in respect to the Armadillo trailers.
I have not been on the this formum for some time so I was cusrious to see if the members were aware of them.
Having a great deal of hands on experience in all aspects of the Boler and Bigfoot trailers maintanence and modifications I can speaks with some authority about these trailers.

My wife and I live in Armstorng not far from the old Bigfoot plant and not far from Jason Jongs plant. As a matter of fact we live right next to his parents farm acreage.

Yesterday we went to the Interior Provincial Exhibition here and ran into Jason with his display of two trailers. We had a long chat with him and I must say I was very impressed with his knowledge and how meticulous he is in the construction, detailing and design of these trailers. His years of working for Bigfoot has given him a very grounded knowledge. Any of the design flaws I metioned to him on the old trailers, he has addressed and fixed, improved or eliminated.

The quality of the constuction and materails are about as modern and high tech as you can get. I crawled under the trailer, looked the inside of the cabinets carfuelly and came out impressed with the quailty of the work.

They modified the original. Boler/ Little Bigfoot molds quite a bit and when I looked at sample he had of the 3/4" styrfoam bonded to the fiberglass skin (same as Bigfoot does) the strength of that shell is increadiable compared to the orgininal Bolors & Bigfoots.
When I looked along the surface of the shell I could not detect any waves or ripples in the skin. The gecoat finish is superb. Having worked on custom cars, hot rods, race cars, snowmolbiles and trailers over the years I have good eye for any flaws.

In comparing these to the Escape trailers from Chilliwack or the Northern Light trailers for Pentiction (which are not made anymore) I would say the Armadillo beats them hands down.

I would say these trailers are 100 times better built and quality the the old ones.
And his logo and name is a heck of a good idea!

That's my opinion and I am sticking with it!

Web site
armadillo trailer manufacturing

PS: Hi Donna, glad to see you still in there keeps things going
Con

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by Con

I am astonisted at the desparging comments some of the members have made in respect to the Armadillo trailers.

PS: Hi Donna, glad to see you still in there keeps things going
Con

Hi Con, still hanging out here. I agree with your comments. The Armadillo is a fantastic little trailer. Everyone has an opinion and it's easy to find fault on (anything) when never physically viewed.

You know what they say about "belly buttons."

[Con]

Hi Donna,
I get your point.

My only concern for Jason is the pricing on these trailers of $24,900 Can
may scare people off. However one thing he offers to do is customize to anything you want which, when I spoke to Bigfoot were not willing to do at all.

When we bought our 2003 17' Bigfoot trailer to do our cross Canada trip in 2011 we paid just under $20,000. It was the deluxe model and had all the options. When we went to sell it I phoned the Bigfoot dealer and they quoted me a price of $39,995 and that was bare without all the options we had on ours. I choked. So the price to replace our 2003 model with a 2011 model would have been in the vicinity of $45,000!

Ridiculous, for a 17' trailer. I have seen hardly any new Bigfoot trailers on the road. Only a few of their newer campers and I mean few! I believe they have priced themselves out of the market.

[GirlGone]

I would be interested ...
If only it had a bathroom !
I know that's a lot to ask for in a 13'

[Con]

When we spoke to Jason he did mention that they were looking into how to design and provide a bathroom into the trailer. It would interesting to see if they could get the mould for the 17' Boler and what magic they could do with that.

When we were planning our trip across Canada (for 4 months) my wife stated she was not going to travel in a Boler without a bathroom. Hence we sold the Boler in 2 days and then bought the 17' Bigfoot.

Just a footnote on the Bigfoot; While Bigfoot long held a reputation for a good product I found a number of design faults and badly executed items on ours. During the trip I made a pucnh list of items to be fixed, changed or improved.

By the time we got home I had 50 items on the list. Some things I had to fix on fly as we travelled and on occasions borrow tools at the RV sites to fix some things.

Things like some screws were missing from the inside window flang and during a fierce storm one night in Newfoundland I woke up to find the counter and floor flooded. Leaked like a seive.

When I took the sink out to replace the cheap plastic faucet they had in there I found the "P" trap and drain were not connected so water was running down the wall for 4 months.

The sanitary sewer outlet was too low and we could not hoopup to the drain line in a number of RV sites (that brown stuff will not run uphill) One RV site I borrowed a saw from the owner and cut the their drain pipe shorter. I had to revamp the whole sewer systemwhen we got back.

One day the power on the battery system inside the trailer quit. I started using my tester (everyone should carry one) couldn't find the problem. Decided to check the battery terminals (battery was brand new) First one was OK the second when I removed it, the end terminal fell off. It had not been crimped on properly.

This is only a capsule of the things I found.

Since then my brother in law and his wife have our trailer and they use it to travel back and forth between Keromeos and Arizona every year.
Since I fixed everything they have not had a speck of troulble with it.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Con

I would say these trailers are 100 times better built and quality the the old ones.
And his logo and name is a heck of a good idea!

That's my opinion and I am sticking with it!

[/FONT]

Con I think your opinion is a good one! ;-)

We had an Armadillo attend the fibreglass meet here in BC this spring.

Rolled in complete with the underbelly wine storage system stocked with wine.

Lots of very creative and unique use of spaces not seen on any other Fiberglass trailers that I have seen.

Was indeed a well finished and thought out trailer.

[Con]

Yes and he has also added the ceiling cubby storage at the front and back which is good. I also ubderstand his reasoning for eliminating the front window as those that didn't have the rock gaurd would quite often get it punched out with a flying rock. Another thing I was impressed with is he beafed up the frame from the original 1 1/2" by 3" tubing with 1/16" wall to a 2" by 4" - 1/8 wall tubing. I have seen some Bolers with the frame broken where it meets the body and there was not enough clearence so mud and water would built up in there and eventually rust right through the frame.
Over the years I talked to a couple of people who were on the highway and the frame broek . Jason has definately addressed all the design faults that I known about

I see you are involved in the BC Glass Eggs group. Doug Mager whom I have known for some time now had invited us to come to the Ft. Langley meet for years and we were never seemd to be able to make it down there. As we are trailerless now it has become more even less likley.

[GirlGone]

" I also ubderstand his reasoning for eliminating the front window as those that didn't have the rock gaurd would quite often get it punched out with a flying rock."
Wouldn't a standard "rock guard" make that a non-problem.
Scamp as well has eliminated the front window which is where the front bath is.

[Owen Lindsay]

Nice to hear your assessment, Con! The wife and I saw the Armadillo as presented in the Armstrong Fair Parade, but lost track of Jason later and was not able to do a detailed "once over " as I would have liked.
My son, who is also an RV technician, had the opportunity and reported that He felt it was far better built and finished than either the Dolphin or the Trillium that we owned in the past.
I have felt a sense of disappointment in the reactions from some FGRV members. I felt that it would have been more in the spirit of our community to ask questions about what we didn't know instead of jumping all over someone trying to do something we know too little about.
The reason that I have been a member of this forum since 2003 is the quality of the people and the combined spirit of helpfulness displayed.
I will make an effort to get back to Enderby this fall and check this out further, as I am specially fascinated by the strength and load capacity of the axle and suspension systems that Armadillo uses.

[Con]

The axle is a 3500 lb. torsion bar suspenion with I think it was 15' wheels. I forgot to ask him. One add on he had on the frame were some very near fold down stabilizers that I had not seen before. Mind you I haven't had a trailer for almost 5 years now so there is new products coming out all the time that I am not aware of. Also some very neat hold downs on his prototype propane tank cover

Over the years I have had trailers of various kinds (horse, travel RV's, snowmobile, utility) with spring, torson bar and neither types of suspention.
I would take the torson bar suspension over any thing else for simplicity, maintenance and rideability.

If you do decide to make a trip out here in the fall let me know and I would join you to do a tour of his plant. We are only 15 mins away from Enderby.
My address is 2411 Pheasant Ridge Drive, Armstrong, Ph 250 546-6325

[Darral T.]

For some reason, today is the first time I've seen that little JEWEL! The exterior/interior changes are phenomenal and make the "retro" look SO much more "modern"- >>> MY PREFERENCE!

I'm afraid that the price WILL deter alot of people. I'm anxious to see it with a bathroom. But wow...the looks of it bumps up into the "Oliver" category of small trailers!

The only negative I have and it's affirmative- is the NAME. I've had to deal with Armadillos messing up my yard- divots and holes and they are NOT my favorite word right now. They may be ok up north but dealing with them in the south- and not to mention ROAD KILL kings right now- the name really needs to go. And seriously, if I was to have one built, they WOULD leave off the decal and any "decorative" tag on it in reference to Armadillo! In relation to that, when I had my Scamp built, I had them to leave off the so-outdated "racing stripe"!! I dont regret that at all!

[roguebooks]

I certainly appreciate this original post. I read all through them and learned a lot. The trailer seems to me to be a fantastic build, full of style, and adaptable to my needs.

[roguebooks]

I realize the Armadillo is excellent for cold weather camping, but what about Florida? I live there at minimum six months per year. Would that climate hurt my Armadillo of I were to buy one? What about mould and condensation issues, are there any?

[Con]

In response to your question, as an ex owner of both a 13' Boler and a 17' Bigfoot I can maybe give you some guidance.

The Bolers were originally built with just a Fiberglas shell and a layer of approx. 3/16" Enselite fabric covering on the interior. If you were sleeping in it during the night and the outside temperature dropped to freezing or below freezing, yes you would wake up with moisture inside in the morning. A little disconcerting to say the least. Conversely on hot days in the sun the Boler did get quite hot inside because of no insulation. We have experienced both conditions here in BC. 100+ degrees in the summer are not uncommon here. We have camped in Oct and the temp dropped to a point where it froze our water.

The Bigfoot however was a much better shell design because it had the outer Fiberglas shell and then a 1" layer of white medium density poly-foam bonded to the inside. Depending of the model, layout and interior finish you got with the trailer it could be a heavy fabric. We found the temp was much more stable inside because of the insulated shell. We did have an air conditioner and a Fantastic fan and we found the air conditioner would almost freeze us out. Turning on the Fantastic fan and leaving the door open was usually worked quite well. We noticed on cool nights we did not get any condensation inside.

Jason Jong the owner/ builder of the Armadillo is about 15 minutes from where we live. Last year at the Fair I had a long chat with him and he has addressed all of the problems that I found and fixed or improved on in our trailers. He worked for a number of years for Bigfoot plant which is about 5 minutes from us so he took his experience and knowledge with him and utilized the same shell design in his Armadillo.
Check out his web site, I recall seeing a photo of the shell structure.

As a retired Chief draftsman in engineering and design for 50 years, I was very impressed with what he had done with his trailer. The only thing I have some concern about is the pricing of his units may put some people out of the market.

Hope this helps you

[roguebooks]

Thanks. I spoke with Jason about a month ago. Nice product. Thinking of going with one of my original ideas. Will know in a week or two.

[raster]

I just noticed that Armadillo has a three-bunk floorplan (the Tripple, shown about 2/3 of the way down their floor plan page). That would mean a family of 5 could theoretically sleep comfortably in 13' egg camper.

Thankfully I don't have enough kids to need that many beds, but it's nice to see another option out there.

https://www.armadillotrailers.net/floor-plans

[Jon in AZ]

Wish they'd lower the bottom bunk to almost floor level so the top one is not smashed against the ceiling. That's a first! I'm having a hard time imagining a large family going for such a small, premium trailer, though.