A septic tank turned travel trailer? Cue the cliché: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” It’s what inside that counts, right? 

When Rick Mooyman wanted a unique, easy-to-tow trailer, he hunted for the most obvious piece of equipment to build one — a septic tank. To be fair, it was never actually in the ground storing sewage. He customized a vintage Boler after finding it as a gutted shell. 

According to an article on WinnipegSun.com, Boler camper-trailers were invented in 1968 by Winnipeg native Ray Olecko, based on the fiberglass tank he had patented the previous year. It’s obvious there’s a clear connection between the rounded fiberglass septic tank design and the egg-shaped trailer that popped up the following year.

The original fiberglass trailers were the lightest trailers on the road at that time. And even today, it’s one of the lightest on the market. The aerodynamic, egg-shaped camper design blends strength and volume, perhaps thanks to its septic tank parentage.

“It’s an upside down septic tank,” says Mooyman in the article. “As soon as people find out they’re living in (a septic tank), their jaws kind of drop.” 

So the next time you’re lowering a tank for installation or pumping a tank for maintenance, think about this: Could you call a septic tank “home”?