Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

roger that, good to know. Definitely looking at either doing a diesel heater or propane heater in the future.

 

yeah, in my setup i'd probably put the fuel pump and tank under the truck. In your case, just wrap it around some open cell foam.

 

I have been wanting to relocate my backup camera to the drifter to point more downward and get it off the bottom of my bumper swingarm from dust and road funk. A couple flood lights for backing up or some camping visibility sounded good too. So I built a very rough test rig, getting an education in 3D modeling intricacies too.

This ugly block is just to get a feel for the space and make sure mount dimensions work. After everything is reshaped to make sense (attaching the camera unobstructed, having enough depth for the stupid long camera and block plug for it, and working in some bolt mounts to the drifter), then I can add nice bevels and curves and swoops to be appealing.

The lights are these rock lights. Seemed like a good deal for 6- https://www.online-led-store.com/6p...4-led-off-road-rock-light-orzledwkl1050-xx-x6


Also I swapped in 4.56 gears. Still breaking them in but 33s hold (auto) gears way better now.

 

Every camper comes with a insulated roof just so know

 

FYI I built my own camper to cut down on waiting a year and get more of what I want. I never got to insulating the roof so I can test out the camper for now. I plan to finish building it out down the line as I gather info on what is needed for our type of camping.

 

Copy. Assumed you had a Drifter.

Well....every Drifter comes standard with a insulated roof.
Helps a lot with keeping heat in in the winter and heat out in the summer due to the sun hitting the roof.

 

Would anyone ever consider small boat woodstove or small rocket stove for combustion heat source in a drifter. W say a side out for chimney

 

it's doable as a conversation piece, but it's a huge pain in the ass to put wood in there every 2hrs, it's also hard to get them to run just right in the small models because you're fighting against creosote buildup vs too much heat.

How well it burns is a combination of air flow, wood stacking, wood shape, wood species, chimney pipe setup, etc.

 

I could see a high efficiency rocket stove design. That leaves little creosote working. With a small insulated chimney.

 

I thought this was very cool when I saw, but really it's the same investment of going Propex or similar without needing a chimney on your rig! Still cool though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj1UN0Pf3qU&list=WL&index=7&t=0s

 

Threw a Socal Teardrops fridge slide in the bed today. I think it's going to work nicely with my planned layout.

 

Is that a rifle case you turned into a kitchen table / stove holder?

 

It is, one of the plano cases from Amazon. Definitely one of my favorite / most used additions to the setup.

 

Im getting one.

Any advice on how you mounted it flush onto your swingout?

 

Its a bit more complicated then mounting it to any old swingout unfortunately. Typical swingouts will not not provide clearance for the case between it and the tailgate. I built the swingout with the clearance for the case in mind.

 

That's a genius set-up! Thanks for sharing

 

I have a little update on those brackets I was talking about.

https://youtu.be/AbJHHZmqjEM

 

Added L-track and a cargo net to use for clothes and a place to put glasses and books, etc. at night. It is hard to shop for a net without seeing what you're getting in person. This one was cheap on Amazon and the tensioning line works well.

 

Ho did you add the L- track?

 

Metric nutserts (M8) in the "utility rail" that Vagabond thoughtfully built all around the top.