Your camper modifications and upgrades.

Let us know what you did to improve your camper, any modifications, practical, simple and complicated we want them all !

We bought our BA 1200 last summer, late in the season. We used it once for a weekend of dry camping. We have had the cables replaced last year. This year we are looking at getting the wiring fixed to run off battery power, and replacing the thermal coupler on the fridge, so it will work better when hooked to the propane. It works great on hydro, but not so much on propane! I've made new curtains for her, and patched a few holes in the canvas. Knowing the canvas repairs are going to be our biggest expense, we're going to put it off for another season. Whoever owned this baby before truly loved her, we have very little work to do!

That's really good to hear, Bonys are rarely respected for what they really are! Just an awesome, light and perfect camper. Happy to see that you are loving and taking care of it.

Welcome to the forum, please don't be shy and sharing your experiences and stories with up. Tips and tricks are what makes this forum a great resources for them beautiful Bonair campers !

I just got a 1982 ba1900 it has hard walls that flip up ( not a tent trailer) it sat since 2000, the roof has some rot that I fixed up today, I'm planning to take it off and rebuild it ( possibly a little taller) after camping season is over. Any one had any experience with this type of trailer?
Hope everyone is enjoying summer :-)

Hi and welcome to the Bonair family.
You have a collector's item in your hands, those are few and far between, real hard to find and are a gem to restore because they have no canvas.

The roof is the same on these as most Bonair campers, you will find that after removing the side moldings, rubber seals and tracks, you will be able to take the roof apart kind of in layers, well, if the rot just doesn't fall off and you are left with something somewhat unrecognizable...Take lots of pictures and make some drawings, you might not find any instructions on these anywhere so what you document is very valuable to this community if you are willing to share it.

Take your time, write everything down, measure three times and take pictures. These things are pretty basic but one small mistake that the roof doesn't clamp down anymore.

I hope to see your project mature and that you will be sharing your adventures with us.
Thank you and again, welcome to the Bonair family !

Hi all,
We purchased our 1988 BA 1440 in the late fall of 2011 and used it for the first time in February 2012 for a ski race weekend in Kearney, Ontario. The furnace worked like a charm and we were so happy. Since then we have taken our little "home away from home" across Canada out to Alberta from the first week of June until early August of 2012. Had a wonderful time and got lots of great comments along the way about our little trailer. We are now planning our ski race weekend once again for next weekend and the trailer is already packed and ready to go. Our trailer was owned by a couple from brand new and sold it to the people we bought it from. They owned it for only one year and never took it camping. Kept it in the driveway for when the grand kids came over. Decided to sell it to pay for a new floor in the kitchen of their house. Good for us!!! Our Bonair is in mint condition as it was stored under roof for most of it's life. Once again...good for us! Looking forward to a summer full of camping around Northern Ontario this season. The only big changes I have made so far are to move the battery to under the seat area with a built in electronic charger and a vent for charge gas. It stays a bit warmer here for our winter camping since I insulated the area. We also have purchased some nice 4'X4' low pile mats from Home Depot that we have cut to fit the entire floor area for winter camping. Makes it less slippery when coming in with snow on your feet and you can walk around in sock feet without feeling cold. I have rewired most of the camper to bring it up to like new condition and changed all the external lights to LED. Next is the interior lights! Adding a sound system this spring as well.
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Almost forgot, I also replaced the electric brakes + wires and the wheel bearings. No use pulling it if it isn't going to roll nice and stop right!

Hi everyone! I'm new to the camper world. I have been looking for a camper for 3 years, my budget was low and I missed every great deal out there, recently I bumped up my budget and got myself a cute '88 little BA 1440. One thing that was appealing to me is that the interior was in great condition and it was light gray, as opposed to brown tones, which are nice but I prefer the lighter tones of gray in this case. I drove over 4 hours to get it from the 2nd owner who had it for 3 years, used it very little, and previous to that was well cared for by the first owner. Upon my initial inspection the leaf springs looked ok and I felt good about pulling it back home. Not too long after I left, I realized I was really burning through gas. I had gotten there on 1/4 of a tank in my Dodge Grand Caravan Crew, going up hills it was hard to maintain a speed, coming down...I was being slowed by the camper. I plugged away, filled up and just made it home on nearly empty. 1 and 3/4 tank of gas for a 4 hour drive seemed a lot to me. The following days were about cleaning and inspecting the camper, assessing what worked and didn't. My husband jacked it up, we tried to spin the wheel, it did not manage a rotation. The scariest part for me was that one of the layers of the spring leaf broke, and the last spring leaf was arching. We knew we had to change them, my husband also opened the brake assembly to discover everything was seized, and the barrings needed to be repacked, and U bolts replaced, he plugged away for days to get this done, parts scattered across the city, he will be posting some photos to share that progress. Overall we spent just over 5000$ with the initial cost and the upgrades. That doesn't cover my taxes and new plate with ownership transfer. I don't regret my purchase and hope to personalize my camper even more. My biggest concern that I have to address is the distribution bars, the way they are attached to the tongue, they make me a bit nervous and I'm looking for some experienced insight on them. I am eager to head out to some dog shows next week, with 3 children, 2 dogs, and a sense of adventure I haven't had for over 20 years