Wedge Life

Thank god the Drifter has a fan option. With the unexpected snow this past weekend and wife being medically allergic to the cold, we were able to cook breakfast inside the Drifter and not worry about the smell of onions or carbon monoxide







She took these pics while sitting in the overhang part with the folded mattress, 3 pillows and a queen comforter.

Also - got to really take advantage of the clear vinyl windows. Wife got to enjoy the views of the snow in the comfort and warmth of our bed. These wedge campers have really elevated our camping experience.

 

Wow! Home away from home.
I think i read somewhere that you were able to access stuff like clothes or dry food you had on the backseat of your truck through your sliding window of your camper....what a bonus!

The Vagabond Outdoors guys really did think of everything

 

I'm from CA, what do you think

Yea we usually have quite a bit of room in the camper for all of our food, clothes, etc. But with the snow coming out of nowhere and us needing the make shift kitchen, I put all that stuff in the back seat of the truck and accessed it from the camper via the sliding cab window. Can't believe I didn't think of doing this before

 

No worries! All wedges are welcome. I’ve been too busy to update this thread with different builds and options, but i’ll be doing that soon.


If anyone has any wedge build outs they think I should add to the master list let me know!

 

Damn dude! Full on Iron Chef in the camper. It looks so spacious even though it’s a short bed too.

 

Thanks! Honestly organization is key. Can't really tell from the pictures what's in the cabinets, but aside from a complete kitchen, I have spare truck parts and hardware, tools, recovery gear, a toilet, 10 gal water tank, diesel heater, air compressor, fridge... the list goes on haha.

For perspective, here's another angle of the buildout

 

Lol, strange things in my noggin sometimes

 

oddly appropriate tho.

 

Anyone have any experience with a Drifter and a 1st Gen Tacoma?

I'm wondering what to do with the suspension in the back to accommodate it.

 

Depends on what you plan on doing w/ it. Heavy duty springs are going to be important. Boxing that rear end wouldn't be a bad idea either. If your truck has a shit ton of dirt miles on it, you'll want to brace the shock mounts.

Are you running a V6 and/or have larger than stock tire dia? You'll want to regear too.

 

Senator, can you post a picture of what others have done here? Interested as we also keep our spare in stock location.

 

@huruta https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-storage-trash-bag.279938/page-7#post-7033475

 

X2 on the fan! Last weekend was our first trip in the Drifter with temps up in the 90's. Kicking on the fan in the morning was a game changer and let us sleep comfortably while everyone else melted in their tents.

 

Lessons Learned (thus far):

This is our second wedgie and here are some small things we've done with wedgie #2 that have made the experience more seamless:

• detailed packing lists of what goes where (glove box, under front seats, in kitchen kit, in camp kit extras, blah, blah) knowing what's there is peace of mind. keep a list in the truck so you know where to find shit you don't use very often. This means a detailed excel spreadsheet with columns for each area/bin.
• leaving as much of our stuff in the wedgie as possible all the time, ready to go (this means buying certain things twice to store in the camper, but in our experience the fewer things you have to remember the day before, the easier getting ready will be and the less hassle the whole experience feels).
• all drivers have their own set of keys that are complete for everything (boxes, windows, camper, car, etc). it makes packing so much easier
• going out on a limb because it's new, but I think the dometic cooler will be a game changer. a big hassle has been getting all the food ready. with this thing, we know the mayonnaise will be kept at the correct temp which means we can take it from our fridge, use it camping and put it back in the fridge when we get home. Before, I was worried about food safety, would make small portions for all sorts of things, (more planning, throwing food out on return, hauling out cooler when we got home, hassle, headache, blah, blah. (will update this with more use). We got a 40L, which seems to cool down fast (like <1 hour in Seattle early Summer temps) which means we can probably leave it the fridge in the truck and not have to haul out and in every time we camp (convenience is awesome). (I don't work for Dometic...)
• Same with water. We have two 5 gallon containers with spigots. Done. With our vanagon, we had to clean the water tank which means routing an outside hose to the street which took time and two people, overnight soak, drain, refill, and then the water spigot broke and electricity getting it to run was unreliable. Being able to just bring in a container, rinse and refill and restock is sweet.

A few more, hopefully not pedantic thoughts:

• Have an incoming / outgoing bin in your house. Stuff you need to wash (linens) when you get home and then have a place to put so you can keep track of truck stuff and make sure it gets back out there has been very useful. We don't have to go back out the moment its ready, but have a place to put it that is for the truck.
• Clean up as much as possible at camp. The more you bring in after your back, the more you take out later. We have gotten better at minimizing this in/out chain by doing dish washing at camp.

Really all this about little things that = convenience, which means it is faster and easier to get outdoors and faster and easier to clean up on return. That, and the fact we can take (and already have) taken the truck places we'd never go in a 2 wheel drive 30-year old van is awesomeness.

A few more:

 

@SeekingZero has a 1st gen and Drifter

 

The Drifter doesn't need much to accommodate it. Here's basically what's in your bed. This was my truck with OME +AAL and a 365lb dual sport bike. Not much needs done to your truck.


Similar response to this question here.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-drifter-specs-and-faq.540826/page-122#post-20853505

AAL is all you would need. Boxing the frame is a nice to have, depends what you are doing with the truck. Bracing the shock mounts is unnecessary if you aren't wheeling it. If you are wheeling it, replacing the stock setup altogether since the 1st suspension setup is not great.

Regear is absolutely UN-necessary and a waste of money if your tires aren't over 33".

 

Cheers man. I'm about to throw a full OME kit on the truck, and adding a leaf before picking up the camper.

I keep hearing mixed ideas about gearing with that weight, as well as if a 2" lift changes the driveline angle enough to worry about.

Howd your mpg change with the drifter?

 

OME with AAL is plenty adequate. 2" lift won't affect driveline angle, no worries there. Gearing is personal choice, but I haven't regeared and don't feel a need to. I get around 18mpg with a supercharger and that may be why I have no complaints. Though if you bought a truck for the mpg, you're doing it wrong...