Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Like Seattle and as you probably know, Portland has neighborhoods within the city that are urban and fun. We live in one in Seattle (Ballard) and I would never want to live in downtown or park our truck there on the street or in lots - space is just too tight and there are way too many parking meters. The thought of parking the truck in my work garage in downtown is not one I relish. Lots of trucks with GFCs and RTTs, Sprinter Vans, etc. in our neighborhood have street parking that works just fine at no cost. That includes us!

 

Weird proposition, but is anyone interested in trading their vagabond for a FWC Eagle? If so please send me a message, looking to eventually switch over to a Vagabond setup instead of my four wheel camper.

 

I want to stay on the west side. My prospective job may require me to come in early or stay in late, so I’m trying to prioritize proximity to my workplace. Nothing worse than working 10-11 hours, getting tired, and trying to commute home.

 

10-11 hours was a normal day. The long days are those that force you to sleep on the floor in your office.

 

...Yet another reason to get a Drifter, haha.
I've actually considered this, as my commute is 45-60 min each way. But my longest hours are in winter, and I'm stuck with a business casual dress code, so it's easier to just drive home.

 

Was thinking the same thing. Sounds like a normal day to me too.

 

I must be spoiled lol

 

I don't use the FWC enough, so I am looking for something a little lighter, a few more MPG's, my tailgate/backup cam, and overall slightly smaller profile as whatever camper I get will be on my truck permanently.

 

What are the dimensions of the top of your Drifter?? I can't seem to find them either on the website or the web.
Thx

 

Might be in this thread
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-drifter-specs-and-faq.540826/

 

So just talking out loud for a second... spending the last 10 days in Baja Mexico in a friends' iCamper knock-off tent, in some extremely windy conditions and one night of heavy rain (which ended up with a full leak in the middle of the night), plus having the closing straps fail on the first day, among dozens of other observations throughout the trip with not only the severe flaws of our brand new tent but the soon-to-be distant annoyances of everyone else's standard RTT (which I'm still running myself)... suffice it to say I am VERY excited for my Vagabond camper. Stewing over the awesomeness that awaits me, I decided I'm 100% over the RTT life, especially for extended trips like that. I cannot wait for the return trip when my camper will be the easiest tent of them all.

 

54” x 114”.

 

Just picked up one of this beauty for heat in the camper. approx 200USD.

https://www.amazon.ca/Diesel-Vehicl...&qid=1546962837&sr=8-4&keywords=diesel+heater

It is bloody cold here lately , -32 C which is about the same in F, and there is no way a propane heater will work in these temps well. Even running a propane stove is not gonna happen. I tend to place the bottle in the cab in those temps while driving somewhere, take it out and warp it up in a blanket so it doesn't get cold as fast. Sure propane boils @ -44 F and will still give off vapours, but i can tell ya that I've rarely had propane appliances work well at anywhere below -20F, almost as if there is not enough vapour coming off the liquid?

 

Here's the US link for it: https://www.amazon.com/5000W-Car-Washer-Diesel-Heater/dp/B07KGBJY8V/

I've been looking at those heaters. I see the benefit of running diesel in those temps if your running off vapors alone. I know the Snowpeak Baja stove inverts the canisters to go liquid to combat this problem, but I don't think any of the propane heaters run that way. The propex will run off butane, propane or a mix.

I'm a little wary about the really cheap diesel heaters though. If the QC is bad, it seems like CO2 or fire are high probabilities, two things I would prefer to not have in the camper.

 

yeah, I hear, ya, which is why I will be tearing it apart and rebuilding it to make sure the heater is sealed properly. Everything i have found on these new gen of diesel heaters from China is all favourable. I worry the same about an heat source to be honest, I've bought stuff from Can/America that is utter crap and was horribly built, I can name a bunch of offroad gear that is the same. I've bought stuff from China that blows the quality of our countries out of the water. Doubtful these will be much better then an espar/webasto, but there is not much to them.

you cannot invert a standard propane tank, you will get nothing out of it and it will not work. You can with forklift tanks, but those have an added expense.

 

You can invert them to get liquid propane out. That's how I refill the 1lb tanks for the buddy heater. I have two adapters actually. one for the standard tanks so I can fill the small ones from my 6lb tank, and another adapter i made to fill directly of the liquid valve from the forklift tanks at the shop.

The thing is you have to warm up the liquid to get gas, which is why the stoves that run off liquid have a small tube running by the burner to heat it up.

 

We aware you can fill up small tanks like that. Once propane is exposed to the environment it should boil and release vapours. Its boil point is like -44 or something like that. That being said not a lot of vapours come off. We’ve had itnso forklifts/etc won’t work.

Anyways diesel it is for moi, i’ll report back on how it works, expecting the 5l tank to last days to be honest, I can also fire the sucker up via cell/remote as well to pre heat the drifter while driving. I cannot freaking wait to have a toasty warm place to sleep again. If I ever buy the shadow awning enclosure this is gonna make one serious base camp!!

 

Keep us posted! Curious to see your results.

 

How u gonna mount it?