Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Anyone thought about/done frame reinforcements? I tend to drive pretty fast and break stuff so I was thinking of boxing the frame between now and when my Drifter is ready. I was also thinking about installing a mole bed system to greatly increase the amount of mounting/anchor points in the bed for the build out.

 

Have people found a 5x5 piece of Birch local to them? I did a quick search and I am not sure I have a place near me that supplies that size.

 

I had no problem. You might need to go to a local lumber supplier as AFAIK big box stores don't carry it

 

Will do, I think I have one around here. Maybe I can stop and look once I get back on normal work hours.

 

Not disputing anyone here but I can tell you that I’ve lifted this particular sheet (too many times to count) and it FEELS nowhere near 55 lbs...maybe 35?

 

FWIW
A little trick my dad taught me...
When you suck at measuring...grease of any kind is your friend!
A simple swirl around the bolt heads...voila!!

Drill the hole center and you’re good to go!
This made quick work of the bolt hole placement.

P.S. My pop was a pretty cool guy. *tear




I have the Total Choas bed stiffeners installed. These unfortunately took up the slack of the bolt catching so I’ll need to acquire some longer bolts x2 for this area.

 

That is a brilliant trick, I will be doing that.

Thanks for the heads up on the bed stiffeners, I plant to get some so I will need to notch this area and buy longer bolts as well.

 

You might be right. I picked up a whole sheet the other day at Home Depot and didn't even use one of their carts. Just picked it up, went to check out and out to the parking lot.

I just went off a website for the weight, but I should probably just weigh the damn thing since lumber in general is so different per region.

ORRRR maybe we just got major gainz and don't realize we're lifting 55 lbs

But probably not LOL. I can confirm weight later today

 

I drilled through my factory accessory rails to mount my flippac. If the coverage is right I plan to use those same holes and bolt the vagabond camper down with some grade 8.

I removed my factory bed rail caps when I put my flippac on and got it to seat well enough to cover all but approximately half of the front bed rail holes. Having said that I have been planning on picking up a set of Voodoo bed rail covers rather than re using my plastic ones since the Vagabond will leave more bed rail exposed. I think with the voodoo caps you would be able to use the front hole that he leaves cut in the cap for something... hang my hammock from there lol. But I also don't have the shark fin antenna, otherwise id throw the plastic caps back on.

 

Thanks Phil, good to know. That makes install easier for sure and keeps from having hardware poking through the roof on the inside of the tent.

I'll be adding L Trac to the sides eventually as well (inside and out) so that may sandwich the insulation a bit. I plan to turn some spacers down though to keep the crush to a minimum between the inside and outside L track.

 

Interesting idea! I had to plan around the mounting clamps for my drawers, but this might be a better solution

I'll have to look at it later tonight to see if that's even an option.

 

It's definitely works well for Flippacs from what i've seen. LMK how it looks on the Drifter.

 

Nah man. I’ve been putting in gym time. You’re right it’s 55 lbs Lol!

 

From the looks of it, it should work just fine. The camper overhangs the accessory rail enough to allow down force but ill definitely keep ya posted once its on this summer! The clamps that come with are nice for sure, but I know I would be stubbing toes on them lol

 

I have a Dometic 50.
Had a truckfridge in the past. Not bad. It withstood driving rain through Colorado only covered by a hefty bag. Also, tf had great customer service back then. If it’s the same fridge, it’s actually an Indel-B. Good Danfoss compressor.

So far, I’m loving this Dometic though!!

 

I have a dometic cfx50w as well, its very nice and i like the wifi connection and app. Only used it on one trip so far but ill be testing it this weekend in N GA.

 

I still have the plastic bed caps on (which rests on the bed rails). It looks like in order to get this to work is to get the KB bed caps and just drill all three (Drifter, bed cap, and bed rail). But that's also a pretty permanent solution. I might just stick with the clamps it comes with, especially since I've already built the cabinets around them.

 

Absolutely correct, with the stock plastic caps you have to drill through them as well. I believe the KB caps mount behind the factory bed rails so you would just be drilling through the factory rail and the shell. But either way its is definitely a more permanent solution. We camp out of our rig year round so it pretty much lives on the truck lol.

I may however modify my interior a bit to make it more easily removable when I re install it in the drifter set up. When I build it in our current set up with the flippac I never figured something like this would come along .. .thanks (Phil and Iggy) lol

 

Stopped by Blue Ridge Overland Gear yesterday and picked up some Velcro organizer pouches and attached them to the ceiling with sticky backed Velcro.

I attached them far enough forward they shouldn't interfere much when closed.

I plan on having misc toiletries (toothbrush and toothpaste, contacts), misc bed items (headlamp, hat), ear plugs, and phone/charging cables.

I was a huge fan of the pockets on the interior of my Alu Cab so was trying to mimic that in a way.

 

Flooring is nearly done! Sad to think about half of it will get covered with cabinetry lol!