Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Original plan was to use the unit under the floor, run ducting to the front corner (near cab) so the heat would circulate from the from back to front and cool air would be pulled in by the tailgate. Then I saw one of these, and I was like hmm, I can use this for multiple functions (work trailer, sea cans, etc)

Plan as of now is the following:
-Mount the unit to the storage system i have, I built a 1/2" plywood floor, using four lag bolts.
-drill a 2" hole or whatever is required to run the exhaust through to flooring to the riverside cubby. Exhaust will be heat taped/muffler tape wrapped to prevent any damage/fire hazards/leaks
-remove the driverside cubby, and replace it with a sheet of metal (1/8-3/16") cut to match the cubby holes. Have a hole in this sized to fit the exhaust and maybe inlet hose (may go without this and just use the air in the camper to feed it)
- all exhaust hose will be wrapped to prevent damage. Muffler will be tucked in behind the quarter panel or by the spare tyre so it vents below the truck.

In spring/summer, I can easily remove and use elsewhere or if i want change the system out to something different. Right now my top plate to my system needs to be rebuilt, as I measured incorrectly on the back plate closes to the tailgate and need to fix it, plus my method to attach the matting failed, hoped it would work, sadly no. Fits like a glove though, just messed up on a few spots. Not bad for doing it in freezing temps, with the bare minimum of tools.

 

My interior is fairly simple to remove if you had to.it’s about 8 bolts into the factory accessory rail and a few screws. That allows the bench units to be removed and still leaves the fridge slide. I didn’t opt to create a plate for the bottom like most because I like to be able to remove my floor pieces in case I am climbing in with muddy gear or if some water gets in I can let it drain to the front drain holes I put it.

Like Phil said Iggy has photos of it, I can take some tomorrow if you hadn’t seen any

 

So much room for activities!!!


Haha man I won’t be making this mistake again... I haven’t been on TW for a few weeks and I am wayyyy behind!!!

In this shot we have our table stowed away and have one of the floor panels (seen in the foreground) up on the L track rails with the heater pumping underneath. With the table out you can sit all around. Could probably fit a couple more in there

We have been spending a lot of nights up at our local mountain using the Drifter as base camp and we couldn’t be more happy! This last one was from New Year’s Eve. Little night exposure showing the light from our little fire in the back and of course our newest mod: party lights

 

can i ask how many of you have used spods or switchpros for your electrical? im debating on what to use and if i should wait until getting my drifter before tackling electrical. I'm still lost in this department

 

i am using one for my truck electrical. I keep adding to it. Works great.

As for tackling electrical, I’d wait and see what you want to do. A lot can be done witb sinple relays and switches. And its easy to fix should there be an issue

 

I have a needs and wants list ready to go, I guess my only real question is how to treat what comes with the vagavond. did you end up tying your interior lights with your electrical set up or do something else with them, assuming you got one with them?

 

The problem w/ using a generator tube for liquid injection like any Liquid Fuel Stove (safe for the MSR DragonFly style stove which depend on a heated burner cup to heat fuel emitted by the burner orifice) is that it's post regulation. So trying to control the flame is a function of the pressure of the fuel post generator tube and the given size of the orifice of the burner.

My issue w/ Propex heaters is that you need a rather sizable tank (larger than 20lbs) to avoid the issue of the tank dropping so low in temp that it no longer adequately gas at a stable pressure. You start seeing problems at 7,000 feet and at below freezing temps. This situation can be adequately resolved by putting the tank inside your cabin, but if there's a leak, you're f***ed. But at least the fuel, when burnt, is totally safe.

With regard to Fuel Oil heaters, inhalation of diesel/kerosene fumes will be an unlikely cause of death. Leaking propane or gasoline tank in an enclosed area will likely lead to death.

Diesel heaters will run a glowplug for the first few minutes to get the oil hot enough to burn freely. Once that's done, it's really clean.

With regard to CO, as long as it's run with a window cracked, you're probably g2g. Ask @sytfu510 his experience w/ the exhaust from a diesel heater running straight into a patrol vehicle he gets to hang out in on deployment.

Here're some figures of a 5kw heater running.



^^^ running at max fuel consumption with the fan at 3,800RPM. These units are adjustable depending on altitude as well so you can adjust the fan speed to give it more or less air, more or less fuel at a given altitude. They're more customizable in that regard vs the Eberspacher or Webasto models (which also are in the 750-1200 dollar range depending on model).

And like the Propex, the exhaust is vented outside and away from the vehicle. What little fumes that can make it through your cracks, will get blown away by the wind. Obv, use a CO sensor in your vehicle, but the chances of it leaking are slim. There are some bad QC issues so the units should be tested out of the vehicle before install, but the units that I've received have worked well so far.

Just a note, all these units will emit CO2 and water from their exhaust. Generally CO2 isn't a concern because you'll feel edgy and jumpy before it kills you. It's one of the few gasses you can detect that give a very fast biological effect. Like the reason most people can't hold their breath until they pass out is that when CO2 in your blood rises, you automatically try to breathe.

 

@Eazy.E Can you please provide details about your table?

 

The 5kw unit is pretty thirsty at max power, ~.52L/hr. With the early generation Webasto and Eberspachers, they only had a binary setting, on or off. The reason I suspect was sooting issues regardless of size.

You'll note that the unit draws ~80Watts of power during startup and tapers off to <13watts when running the fan only after it reaches operating temperature. It also will run the glow plug if the fuel flow is too low to keep the chamber hot. Many people have found that at low settings with the fan set too high, the burner assy cools down too much to sustain a reaction and thus the glow plug comes back on and you get really smokey exhaust, carbon buildup, and generally bad times on boats.

I'm tinkering with fuel and airflow settings so that the unit will run the cleanest with the least amount of fuel consumption.

 

Yup, not too worried about it, even at max power it will run for 10 hours on the 5l can, they rarely run at max power as he temp cutoff throttles them back especially in a small camper. I have the ability to also carry a 20l jerry can of diesel with me for backup. The 10 L tanks from what i am reading from others are lasting 4-5 days and keeping them quite warm as most are not running them on high, and if they are the temp cutoff in the tent/truck/van is shutting it down fairly quickly and throttling the units back.

With regards to the sooting, etc, I am quite handy at stripping the units down and cleaning out the burner units, have done a few espars, super simple to be honest one needs standard tools, a shop vac, stiff wire brush and go to town, just make sure you do it outside or in a well ventilated area, that shit gets everywhere. You have to do this with the espars as well, no way around it unless you run them at high temp for a bit to clean it out. Very similar to the regen systems on heavy equipment, well not really, but same principal I guess. it also helps to run kerosene through them from time to time.

keep me posted on what you figure out for fan settings, will set the temp cutoff at 16-18 degrees, the espars we use to run at about mid fan settings, we never really found a happy medium to reduce the sooting, also found the ctrl units for the espars to be absolute junk.

Anyways, I am super excited to get this, I just got the notification that it has shipped, which means it should be here within the week and i will be putting it to use pretty much immediately, well after I strip it and put it back together to make sure everything is all sealed up properly, that'll take me a few hours as I am anal when it comes to doing things like this. Installs, I usually start off with good intentions, then life/dog gets in the way and i am like screw it good enough for gov't work.

Steve

 

Duude!! It looks like you had the party cabin!

I’ll be a running a switch-pro in my camper shortly. We have a corner plate specially designed for the switch pro button pad and we’re a dealer for them as well.

 

Party of one cabin it appears?

 

Here’s the party

 

less guys in the photos please. Geesh.

 

@rkam65 ??

Maybe this is what GFC is finding a work around for?

 

All kidding aside that is a lot of room, or some seriously small people . Wish I could convince the lady friend to go camping, she is more of a glamper. too many years living in oil sands land and the dude with 40 foot trailers that they drag out to some area and get shit face in.

 

The Vagabond is the very definition of glamping. Put a Foxwing on it, BAM! nice place to kick it. Lots of room to kick back in the Vagabond.

 

I don't think you realize how big the 10 liter tank is. That thing is too big. I have like two of them. I'd rather pack away two 1 gallon jugs.

But yeah, I'll test out the fuel and air settings and see if I can find something good.

 

You realize the one I am getting comes with a 5L tank and not a 10L.

 

We always just strip em down, clean em up rebuild em and put them back to gather nothing special. your pressure decay.snoop test is way more in-depth then anything we have ever done to them.