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    • Home
    • Boler's European Heritage
    • Popular Boler Folklore
    • Boler and Compact Cars
    • Old Boler Advertisements
    • Sources Of Research
    • The BIG Boler Registry
    • Bolerama 2020 Gathering
    • Subscribe To Our Videos
    • 50th Anniversaries
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  • Home
  • Boler's European Heritage
  • Popular Boler Folklore
  • Boler and Compact Cars
  • Old Boler Advertisements
  • Sources Of Research
  • The BIG Boler Registry
  • Bolerama 2020 Gathering
  • Subscribe To Our Videos
  • 50th Anniversaries
  • Polls Surveys & Research

The Official Boler Trailer History Website And
e-Museum

The Official Boler Trailer History Website And e-Museum The Official Boler Trailer History Website And e-Museum The Official Boler Trailer History Website And e-Museum

Much like in Europe, the boler was built for compact cars.

1979 Issue of Woodall's RV Travel Magazine.

With its European characteristics and styling, the Canadian & American Boler was perfectly designed to be towed comfortably by small North American sub-compact 4 and 6 cylinder cars including European and Japanese import models of the 1960s and 1970s.


The boler was born at the cusp of a world-wide Oil Embargo of the 70s decade when many Canadian and American consumers were changing over to small fuel efficient sub-compacts. This created a lucrative opportunity for Boler Manufacturing Ltd. to market its product as being "A joy to haul anywhere, even with a small four cylinder car."


Boler marketing and advertising messages of the day were specifically aimed to appeal to consumers who owned sub-compacts such as the Volkswagen, Pinto, Vega, Gremlin, and Toyota among others.

image1169

In the 1950s and 60s Europe, long before the boler was though of, lightweight moulded fiberglass camping trailers of Europe were designed to be hauled by small European cars such as the VW Beetle of Germany and the Czechoslovakian Skoda among others.


Today it is not an uncommon sight in Europe to see vintage moulded fiberglass trailers (like the ones in the photo above) being towed by small European built automobiles. 


It appears evident that early moulded fiberglass trailers born out of several countries were specifically intended to appeal to owners of small four and six cylinder automobiles.

Boler marketed mainly to sub-compact 4 & 6 cyl. car owners

Small fuel efficient automobiles grew in popularity in the 1970s

At the time of the boler trailer there was a growing popularity among average income small families to purchase compact 4 cyl. fuel efficient  and less expensive automobiles. By 1973 a world-wide oil embargo causing fuel shortages, compounded by an economic recession, pushed consumers to consider changing over to sub-compact cars.


The boler came along at the perfect time by offering a lightweight affordable trailer that could be towed by any size automobile whether it was large or small.


The marketing of bolers to owners of small 4 cylinder cars was a running theme in most all of boler's marketing ads of the day including press articles (example: photo right from the Winnipeg Free Press Feb 12th, 1969)

image1170

Examples of 70s compacts that hauled the boler trailer easily.

 Four and six cylinder 1970s compacts like the ones pictured below were well equipped to tow a boler trailer, most having a trailer towing capacity of 2,000 lbs and ranging in engine horse power from 50hp - 128hp. Cars like the Chevy Vega, Ford Pinto, VW Rabbit and Dasher, AMC Gremlin and Toyota Celica were specifically named in Boler advertisements of the day as cars that can tow a boler.


(Source for towing capacity: Popular Mechanics magazine Issue March 1974 article by Mort Schultz entitled 'Cars to take your rig in tow')

Boler marketed heavily to the compact car owner of the '70s

Boler advertisement May 1975 - Winnipeg Free Press Newspaper

The Boler's older European cousins

1960s European fibreglass trailers were also towed by small 4 clylinder cars

It was common place in the countrysides of Europe to see various makes and models of fibreglass trailers as heavy or heavier than the boler being towed with small 4 cylinder European autos such as Germany's VW Bug and the Czech Skoda.

Official Boler History Preservation Website Of  

Counting Bolers Facebook Group 

& Planet Bolerama RV Trailer Group

The Offical Boler History Preservation Website

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