Electrifying Tilley

This past week Pat was able to get the car in to the lovely gentlemen at a Ziebart garage near us. They installed a brand new brake and lighting electrical wiring system for pulling Tilley.  This weekend Pat decided to test it and make sure everything was connected and working properly and working between the car and Tilley.  Of course things are never easy.  There was a mess up between what was supposed to be blinking or glowing and what actually was.  He had to take the brake light and side light wiring apart to find out why this was happening.

 Luckily it was a simple case of right wire in the wrong place and it had nothing to do with the work we had just paid for.  He was able to get it fixed very quickly once the mystery was solved. Then he moved on to the next thing needed in order to get Tilley electrically self-sufficient.

As Tilley is very small, she is currently covered in tools, wire and other bits and pieces Pat needs to put the electrical puzzle together.

Tools and meter sitting inside one of the seats as there is no room anywhere else to put them.

Pat was able to make a lot of progress this weekend.  He took out more old wiring and old lights that we won't be using.  He also rewired a lot and added a brand new fuse box.

                         New fuse box....so shiny!

Pat looking like a pretzel as he works on installing the new fuse box and cleaning up the mess of old and dangerous wiring that was in Tilley when we bought her.

Whether house or trailer, we seem to have a knack for getting old places with lots of spirit and potential, but that were muddled with to the point of being a death trap.  I'm sure Tilley smiles (in her own way) every time Pat enters in with his tools, knowing she is getting the love and attention she deserves.... and I smile knowing that we won't be sleeping in a death trap.

Power for Tilley - It has Begun

In my last post in April I mentioned that Pat would be getting down to business within a couple of weeks.  Well the old saying "life is what happens when you're busy making plans" came to pass.  Life took over and poor Tilley had to wait until this past weekend to continue getting her electrical makeover. During 'life', Pat did do a lot of research to find out where he could purchase the right battery for us, as well as all the bits he would need to get our beautiful brass lamps (that we ordered and received in January) installed.

He found he was able to get our battery and a charger at our local Canadian Tire. 

Luckily we have quite a huge Canadian Tire store near us and they had everything he needed for installing the lamps as well.

Gratuitous photo of Pat enjoying a break and his lunch while checking to see how well wifi works in Tilley...

After Pat's well deserved break, he went back to work installing our new lamps.  He made an interesting discovery: (the story from Pat himself)
"I wanted to test the new lights using the existing 12 volt AC wiring. The wires started off as yellow and brown at the panel but by the time I got to the cupboard - they had become two white wires - not very helfpul for DC.

Based on the design I had thought that the tin can supplying 12 volt AC was original equipment so I was reluctant to take it out. However, the outer sheathing protecting the insulated supply wires had come off and I have no plans to use 12 volt ac in the future so I thought it best to remove the transformer carefully and put it away with the other original parts we have changed. The can was held to its moutning bracket with wood screws. When I removed these, there was a loud clunk from inside the can. When I opened the can I found a larger donut shaped transformer mounted in the can with a bit of broomstick with some insulating foam wrapped around it. This was obviously not original manufacture and not original Boler as born out by the "Transformer for residential track light" sticker I found inside the can. Needless to say the can was removed and will end up in the bin - after I figure out if the copper is worth selling :) "


Unfortunately he had cleaned it up by the time he told me and I was unable to get a photo of the crazy muddle he found.  I did however get photos of the wonderful end result...

When closed this way they are very tight and won't move when travelling.

They easily open up and the head swivels to point where you need the light.

Aren't they gorgeous! 

The next stage will be to finish the wiring and connect it all to the battery, as well as to make a space to house the battery.  I'm very much looking forward to reading, eating and perhaps playing a game or two in the evenings by the light of our new lamps.

Power for Tilley

Earlier, we decided on a 12 V battery as one of the power sources for Tilley.  While Pat intends to wire her so we can plug her in at various camping spots, we don't want to rely on this all the time.  Also, we want to be self-sufficient and more environmentally friendly with our energy use.  To this end, we did some investigation on the use of solar power for trailers.

We looked around a little here and there, but didn't see anything useful, portable or that wasn't wildly expensive.  Then a few weeks ago we decided to go and gawk at the mammoth RV cousins of our little Tilley at our local RV show.  There we found the goliaths and krakens of the RV world.  Huge monstrosities that could house a small village in each one. 

Then, tucked away in a little spot between two of these behemoths, was a little table that caught Pat's eye.  The poster said "Go Solar RVing".  We stopped dead in our tracks and went to speak to the lady standing there.  What we found was exactly what we were looking for!  They have just what their card says... thin, flexible, light weight solar panels...and they don't cost an arm and a leg!  We had a lovely chat with the lady, who was soon joined by her husband. They were both delightful and not your usual pushy sales people.  They were very knowledgeable about their panels and solar power in general. The other wonderful thing we found out was that although the panels are manufactured in the US, the couple live and sell the panels in Canada.  Their website GoSolarRVing.com has all the information you need to choose the best panel(s) for your trailer, cottage, even your tent. However you prefer to live in the great outdoors.

Pat will be finishing the wiring and installing the interior lights in the next couple of weeks. After that, we will have to decide on the type of panel we want. We're torn between their folding panels

 and their rollable panels

 
Either way, we can't wait to get one and save money, help the environment and just generally make Tilley even more self-sufficient and amazing!

New Pretties for Tilley

Back to more of the design aspect of our work on Tilley...

I was out at our local Canadian Tire to get a few things for a renovation of our back room - sandpaper, wood filler, stain blocker, the basics.  I happened to notice that they were having a huge sale on all of their winter things....and....they were unloading all their new spring items!

Last year when we were looking for general houseware items for Tilley I was looking online for some nice dishware.  I was also looking at every possible store in our area that would carry the same thing - unbreakable but stylish dishware.  The online pieces were beautiful but expensive and by the time we were looking in stores, most of their stock was already sold.  We would find something we like, but they would only have one or two pieces left. Most annoying.

As I noticed that the Canadian Tire spring stock was being unpacked, I also noticed that the spring outdoor dishware was being unpacked.....and "Oh Glory Be" I found it! 

If you look a little farther back in our posts, you will see that we had decided on green for our glassware and dishware and had found ourselves some lovely cups and goblets.  Well now we have dishware to go with them! I absolutely love the Victorian style botanical pattern and perfect green.  When I first saw them I was thinking "nuts they're porcelain" and I had to actually walk up close and  tap them to see what they were.  I was incredibly pleased to find they are melamine.  I purchased four of each so we can accommodate guests as well.  I am very much looking forward to using them this season!

Electrical Work, an Update

Now that Pat is finished with the safety aspect of our lighting, he can begin working on installing the reading lights into Tilley as he mentioned in an earlier post.  We also still need to redo some wiring for our outside door light and get our 12v battery. We'll be able to get some serious work done soon as the weather warms up.

For now, here are before and after photos of Tilley's new tail lights.
Before
(yes, they were being held together with tape)

  ... and After

So much better and safer.  The LED lights are going to make her shine!
More coming soon....

Intermission

Pat has started working on Tilley's electrics.  He even took some nice photos to share with everyone.  Then I asked him to clear off the card....of course forgetting about the photos.  Sorry!  So until he can retrieve them so we can show you what he's been up to, I would like to share with you a couple of Canadian sites dedicated to the Boler:

The first is Bolerama  The site is dedicated to the preservation of Boler trailers. It was established in 1999 by Linda Vanderwiel in Saskatoon.  There is a great history page.  It has an interview with the father of the Boler, Ray Olecko.  It also provides a forum, a page of rallies across Canada, photos, tips and even manuals!

Another site is Boler Life Here you can find how to's and information to restore and repair your Boler with lots of before and after photos.  You can even buy Boler decals.

There are also two Facebook Groups for Boler lovers : The Boler (US based) and I own a Boler (Canada based)  

Some of the restoration work people have done really shows the love owners have for their Bolers.

Check out the beautiful exterior work on this Boler owned by Mark Bergen.

There are a lot of people who like to restore their Boler to match their fabulous antique car!

(photo and owned by Beverly Wayne Armstrong)

Cheers to all you Boler fans out there!

Coming Soon II

Manly? Yes

Well electrical any way. One of the things we noticed when we first bought Tilley was that the tail lights were very dim and one lens cover was cracked. A little research showed that the dimness was a common complaint.  Our choices were to replace the lens cover and maybe work out something with the existing bulbs, or go with new LED tail lights. Bolers have always been a little quirky and one of these quirks is that they use School Bus size tail lights. Big monster 7" tail lights. Big monster LED tail lights the size of small dinner plates with 31 LEDs and the ability to leave streaks of blood red light behind Tilley like something out of a TRON re-make as she boots down the midnight road.....

Ahem - for safety's sake we decided to go with new LED tail lights that would maximize safety and would make Tilley safer to tow safely. So off with the old lights (which will be kept in case we ever want to restore to original specs). What were these monsters held on with? Four little 1/4" long screws into the fibre glass shell. That's not going to work on the new lights - the mounting holes are 1/4" wide. So it's back to the hardware store for some nice 1/4" stainless steel bolts. Sadly brass was not available in a long enough length. So it's stainless bolts with big acorn nuts for Tilley - she's beginning to look a little butch.

The new reading lights were a different story. They were designed for household use so I bought all the right mounting plates and other bits required. But a fibre glass trailer cupboard is not 1/2" drywall so a re-think was required. Upon disassembling the Italian brass light bases, I found a Y shaped mounting yoke in solid brass. Perfect - 6 brass screws and washers and we are in business.

Next up - putting it all together.