The Drifter - Specs and FAQ

There is a whole fan discussion a few pages back. I put some d-rings on my fan for a "manual" lock down with a bungee.

 

thanks for digging this one out for me. had the same idea on the road, but wondering about a more "elegant" solution, albeit i like how easy that came out.

 

A manual lock from inside would certainly be a more elegant solution. If you forget to take the bungee off before you pop the top, you obviously have to pull the top down.

 

How hard is it to wire the fan to the battery? Not knowing much about how much electricity that kind of thing pulls, is it generally okay to run it all night? Or do people have other battery setups?

Thanks

 

The fan on low is around 1.5 amps, I think. You could get by running it over night with your starter battery. I think in general, myself included, most folks are running all the accessories off of an auxiliary battery/electrical system.

 

Not to go down a battery rabbit-hole (there's the Dual Batt Thread with 2k posts for that), but your starter battery is really designed to start your vehicle only. Other uses (especially 1.5A / hr overnight) will likely cause it to have an early death. You can upgrade your starter battery with a dual-use battery (AGM deep cycle, for example), but it won't be a great starter or aux battery. I would go for a "House" battery. Mine will be housed in camper (when my Drifter arrives), but you might have room under the hood depending on Taco model.

 

We have had a few people run a battery pack like a goal zero to power the camper. It's totally possible and less expensive than a dual battery system, but as other have mentioned, dual batteries can be quite the rabbit hole. However, I didn't mine right from the start and haven't had to touch it in years.

 

Im running two yellowtop batteries through an offgrid engineering dual battery system. Saved me twice already where the starter battery ran all the way down and I was able to start the vehicle using the aux battery. Also because its a deep cycle AGM I recharged it on a bench and its good to go. Im planning on having Vagabond wire up the Drifter to my aux battery when its installed.

 

Our aux deep cycle battery powers our drifter fan, and lights (and domestic fridge via a blue sea fuse box). Works great. And so nice to have extra ports on vagabond panel for charging phones and luminoodle for lighting our awning.

 

I plan to run my drifter off a Yeti 400. I opted out of the fan so it will be just for lights, charging stuff and maybe a fridge.

 

Been trying to get an invoice for the goosegear package for over 6 weeks now. What does it take to spend money with Vagabond?

 

Have you tried calling Phil? Or tried tagging @Overlanerd in a post? I’m sure he will get back to you.

 

I reached out at the end of June and got a preliminary quote about two weeks later. I asked for some adjustments and didn't hear back for two weeks so I reached out again and was told that I would have an updated invoice that night. Four more weeks went by with no reply so I reached out again and was told that i would have an updated invoice by this weekend. Its a 10 week lead time on goose gear right now and I would really like to get it done at the same time as the drifter.

 

Randomly did a stretch of Lamar Valley in Yellowstone behind the TAV Tundra the other day.
That Nomad looks good!!

 

Has anyone heard back from VO? I left several messages on Phil's phone weeks ago with no response and Iggy never responded to my DM from last Wed.

 

Sorry, just getting caught up. Worked on completing a camper all weekend and didn’t get behind the computer. Working on it this morning.

Sorry, I was out of the country for a wedding last week and am catching up. I’ll give you a call this morning.

 

Just submitted a payment for the GooseGear buildout. This is going to be awesome!

 

Rabbit hole is an understatement. I am revamping my entire electrical system, separating it out from the trucks electrical, installing batteries and gave up on a diesel heater option and am going with a propex. It never ends. All in I am gonna be way way way more money then I wanted to spend.

On a side note anyone have any suggestions for some aftermarket charge ports? I am looking to install like a 50amp lead to the side of the camper to drop a line down into the bed of the truck to keep the batteries topped up (house and starter) while i am away for work, also can double as a plugin for if I ever go to a RV park, ugh. ON a side note, learning that my darn car alarm sucks about 0.5amps and hr and is constantly draining my battery in the truck. Not normally a big deal, leave the truck site for 4-5wks while you are away and replacing the battery is not fun as it sat dead for a month, and oddly my battery disconnect works, but the alarm is wired to the starter battery for power, doh. Suppose i could just disconnect the battery, but hell that is not nearly as sexy.


Steve

 

Or just get a solar panel. I only drive my truck on trips. Batteries stay charged in between them.

 

[I’m not an expert but...]

50amps seems like overkill if you are just trying to keep the batteries topped off. But, an Anderson connector will do the job. Are you trying to do a “true” shore power setup or just plugin a charger when you have access to power?

I just wired an inexpensive ac-dc charger to my battery. I just grab an extension cord whenever I need to (if I’m going to leave the truck in the shade for a week and don’t feel like cleaning the fridge out). It’s not very elegant now but I plan to route an extension cord to around the hitch area for easy plug in.