Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

I have a Camp Chef as well, really dig it.

 

Partner stove is on our list. Getting higher as well. Plan is to mount it on a Socal Teardrops slide under the fridge. https://www.socalteardrops.com/parts.php?cid=9&pid=113

The wife did a little project yesterday and we reinstalled it today. This is the underside of half the bed platform in the Drifter for those wondering.

How it starts off...



Some nice felt style lining and quality sticky tape...





Then she reorganized our patch collection. National Parks, State Parks, truck related companies and brands, fire department stuff, and breweries we love.



And what it looks like when you look up in the camper once reinstalled...

 

Need a Mammoth Brewery one if they have it.

 

Nice! 10 expo points for you

 

I'll actually be in Mammoth later this week. Have you tried Black Doubt? Between them and June Lake Brewing they put Mammoth Brewing to shame. Definitely worth a visit.

I'll take em. I like my patch collection because it helps me remember specific trips. I've got a terrible memory. Haha

 

I don't drink much anymore but when I did mammoth was a goto when up there.

 

I’m selling my partner stove 18” dual burner with windscreen. Only used once. Brand new condition. Let me know if you are interested. I’m in OC.

 

Oooooo.....this is just my type of project! Where did you get the felt? This is probably a stupid questions, but since we haven't had that many patches, how do you attach the patches to the felt?

 

That's tempting. I'll talk to the misses and send you a message.

We had the felt from a prior project covering the firewall of our Porsche 914. I'll see if I can find where I ordered it as it's been sitting in storage for a while. I think it was 914rubber.com

 

Love the creativity and innovation exhibited here.

 

Forgot to add, most of the patches come with the hook side of the Velcro attached to them. If they don't have it then we use a roll of stick on Velcro to cut and stick some pieces of the hook side of the Velcro to the back of the patch. Works pretty good.

 

Very cool dude!

 

Our best day ever finally arrived and we could not be more stoked on this camper! We camped our first night on the way home in a little rain storm and woke to a bluebird sky and surf. Huge thanks to the Vagabond family for the camper/install, as well as the rest of you for the build-out ideas and Drifter pics to hold us over and keep us busy during the queue. Looking forward to running into some of you along our adventures! Until then, I'll start doing my part to give this thread more of what deserves, Drifter pics!

 

I just use a fucking wok.

 

Makes me so happy to see a 1st gen. Getting mine in August hopefully.

What do you have in the back for leafs, and have you noticed any change in the ride?

 

Congrats on the order and hang in there, you are in for a treat!

I went with the full OME setup in anticipation of the Drifter - 881 coils up front, nitrochargers all around and the Dakar heavy duty leaf pack. With the camper now on the truck, it sits nicely and it should carry the modest build-out and gear we are putting together without issue. The ride is a little stiffer than stock, but my last stuff was really beat up, so I'm sure that is part of it too. Only complaint is the infamous leaf spring squeak of the Dakars, but we'll just call that some 1st gen character for now. Lots of Drifters with Deaver leafs, so you may want to explore those too as they aren't a whole lot more $ and can be more customized based on the load you'll be carrying than the OMEs.

 

Oh rad that's what I just threw on mine as well. Just the normal Dakar leafs now, adding the AAL before I pick it up. And I'm soooo happy to read about this Dakar squeak being a common thing. I thought something was up. Are you planning on building anything in the bed?

 

OME Dakar squeak can be resolved by using leaf liners between the leafs and OEM Toyota bushings instead of the OME poly ones. I installed my own leafs and took the extra measures to have them remain quiet after install. 2 years later with many off road trips and few river crossings. I have no squeaks from the rear.

If you go this route, make sure the leaf liner cover the circular isolation disks. I stopped right before the disks thinking isolator disks are made to stop noise. I was wrong. One day I got a squeak. With a small crowbar and tracking down the squeak the springs isolator disk was the culprit. So I put a small piece of leaf liner ontop of the isolator disk and noise stopped.

 

There are some threads on here about how to tame the Dakar squeak. I haven't explored them much but it seems spreading them apart, and greasing them helps, as does adding more friction pads, which I'll probably explore once I get the rest of my to-do list finished up a bit.

For the build, I only have a 4 banger so weight is of concern. I'm finishing up an 8020 box along one side of the bed to house the dual battery and heater system as well as some truck essentials but aside from that we plan to to keep it pretty empty aside from insulating the truck bed as I plan to use it as a truck bed when not camping. We'll see how long that plan lasts though...

 

Which leaf liners did you use?