Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Here are some pics of what I have so far. Heads up, I was putting this together all week last week and left early Thursday AM for our weekend trip - meaning that this was pretty much put together very poorly (to my standards), but I have all summer to fix it

 

Damn, looks great @MJonaGS32

 

That looks awesome! I am probably going to do something very similar - love the tall unit in back!

Do you have width dimensions on your left drawer and right fridge box?

 

Do you want the measurements of each? Or the distance between them?

And yea the tall unit in the back is not quite done. I have to add cabinet doors and a sink will go on top, which is why I left about 5" clearance to the sleeping extension to account for a faucet. At least that's the plan. The wife really liked the tall unit because she used it as a vanity to get ready

 

Both if possible - I ended up copying Phils measurements and it left me like a 12 inch gap between the two which obviously isn't enough.

 

Get her a makeup ring light on a swivel and let the fornication commence.

 

The double drawer on the left is 10-1/2”
The fridge cabinet is 19-1/4”
The space between is 19-1/2”

For me, the order of priority (for width) was fridge cabinet (bc there isnt as much flexibility there), the space between (bc that is the point of entry), then the double cabinets on the left. What helps with the cabinets is that I purposely built them at 18” high since that is the standard sitting height. I was able to fit all of my tools and recovery gear in the bottom drawer (taller of the two drawers).

Then I put some of the kitchen supplies in the top drawer. Placement of the kitchen supplies was critical because if I was prepping dinner on the tailgate (grill or stove on the swingout), I can still open/close the top cabinet to access kitchen suppies in case I had a cutting board or other materials all over the tailgate.

I purposely built it so that the drawer face barely clears the @Bentrodder bed stiffeners

Closed


Open

 

Forgot to show some of the exterior mods:

Reverse lights/camp cooking/area lights


And where I take my showers


The quick disconnect for the shower head is in the same door where I have the tank fill and breather holes

 

What’s your cabinet material?

 

1/2” birch

 

I don't have any prior experience with pocket screws, but the research I did generally suggested that 1/2" was too thin for them to hold securely.
Any concerns with yours? Did you use one of the Kreg jigs, or some other method?

 

Awesome job man, coming along nicely!

 

Thanks!

 

Nice work! Fun to see how efficient you can be with a 5’ bed.

 

One of the upsides yo the Drifter is you can go vertically to gain more efficiency in storage vs a traditional cap.

My problem is that every time I see a new buildout, I reevaluate my own plans. I have redrawn my bed 6 times now...

 

Snub nosed the shark fin today (installed the '11 antenna on my '12), as the ~1" lower profile kbvoodoo rails are next to be installed before the Drifter goes on. Looking at them side by side, I question the design choices to add a fin in the first place, as it appears to be purely cosmetic (radio works the same). I may just end up using the pre-existing cab hole for solar now that I know its there, as don't even use XM...

 

Yeah most of the fin is empty space. The longer profile allow them to shove GPS and SAT in there but I don't like the height the fin added .

 

Odd if so (I don't have Entune GPS). Either way... I also expected reasoning behind added height of the fin. One could literally cut the fin, fill it with silicon, and call it a day.

 

That is what I did since it was hitting my Frontrunner rack.

 

I am going the same route with KB rails before I my drifter is ready. I currently have the factory covers removed with my Flippac. Luckily I don’t have a shark fin to worry about! Lol