The Drifter - Specs and FAQ

See quote below:

 

Oh boy I'm going to be cutting it waaaaay close with the fan haha.

I wish I knew how much my fiberglass shell weighed so I could do some experiments with the additional sag I'd get from the drifter(400lbs?) and buildout(50lbs baseplate, 50-75lbs 80/20 boxes, 65lbs fridge/slide). Makes me wonder if I should be doing an AAL or airbags with my dakar leaf pack.

Any ideas?

 

Don't worry; those Dakars will sag and you'll probably clear it!
(according to the manufacturer, they 'W' by design )





...jokes aside, just add up your extra weight (like you did) and see what the total is before you go picking a new solution. I'm sure you could "google" the make/model of your glass cap, and find weight specs, and go from there!

 

I would definitely do at least an AAL if you have any of the Dakar leaf packs. I had HD Dakars and they went flat REAL quick! I have since gone with an Alcan leaf pack

 

Haha nobody told me the Dakars were shit when I bought em! But yeah the AAL was the plan from the get go, now I'm all anxious about height though and need to decide if I need to ax the fan from my build. Aye aye aye. Guess I could get one size smaller tires worst case ontario...

I tried finding my shell's info a while back only to discover its a defunct local company. I think I could safely guess around 150lbs for a simple 6' shell?

 

No personal experience with Dakars, so take this with a grain of salt, but like the others have already alluded to, I can't remember seeing anyone that has had *long-term* success with Dakars under a Drifter.
I had Deaver make me a custom pack a couple years ago, but I full time in the Drifter (off and on), and have a bunch of extra weight.

 

Curious. What is success measured as here? Just them not flattening?

 

Good question. I guess I mean that I don't remember anyone sticking with Dakars and being happy with that decision long-term.

So "success" according to the people who've actually used them and posted about their experience, I guess.
As far as I remember, doing the W thing, or bottoming out a bunch, etc.

But I'd recommend searching "Dakar" in both of the Drifter threads and looking at the actual feedback.

 

Makes sense. I dont have the drifter nor have enough money to care about it now, it'll either be something I assess later or just deal with.
For future reference though, what does a customer deaver pack run generally and what specifics do they need to make them?

 

Nobody told us when we bought them either. lol My Dakars came with my BP51 kit. If that shell you have was fiberglass, then chances are its more than 150lbs. I think my Leer was closer to 300lbs.

 

Funny, after 40k miles my OMEs haven't moved from periodically measuring hub center to fender. It is an HD pack with an extra leaf and counts similar to Deaver pack size on the heavy duty end. It could be folks aren't sizing their packs correctly, or I got the only working set.

 

I gave them my approximate daily rear axle weight and fully loaded rear axle weight, and the amount of lift over stock that I was looking for (minimal).
I paid around $900 I think, which was lower than I thought it would be. I have a feeling that was because they decided fewer, heavier-duty leaves was the best solution for my particular needs.

 

Pack:

• Dakar HD

Added weight (at the time):

• KB VooDoo modular bed rack (~50lbs)
• RTT (~150 lbs)
• HC rear bumper (~110 lbs (190lbs - 80lbs))
• Rando gear ~150lbs

After the first couple months, this pack flattened out, and eventually just became a W.
The W of course is "by design" so there's no warranty for the sag.
There is however a warranty for breaking and actual leaf - they did ship me out a new pack, but those went on the wife's Tacoma before we traded it in for her Tundra, and I went Deaver Stage 3. There are many that have issues with Dakars, and like mentioned above, I also wasn't warned about them before I bought them. Live and learn.

See below...

 

FYI - my personal opinion is that the 1st gen Dakars like @cobes has and I had on my 2003 DCSB suck less than the 2nd gen Dakars.

I was riding well on my 1st gen with Dakars and No AAL with various shells (ARE DCU, SnugTop Supersport and SnugTop XTR).

When I put the drifter on my 1st gen, the AAL took up the extra just fine.

 

I’m able to clear an 8ft garage with my skis attached on top of the drifter. I think I measured ~93” floor to top of the ski rack. Granted I am on stock size winter tires right now...I doubt I’ll fit when I put my 285s on for the summer.

Setup: King 2.5ext front/rear with stage 2 deavers. No bed buildout or anything.

 

I had Dakars HD (which is a AAL to the regular pack); they were okay but sat close to flat. I switched to Alcan custom pack for the added weight and some. I believe 1300 lbs total. Didn't sit as flat but it holds the weight just fine. Been on several trips and I had no issues fully loaded and flexed out.

 

This is good to hear. Now I'm all worried about clearance in the garage and without specific weight I can't really make any decisions about axing the fan or not. Put 160lbs of tires and 130lbs worth of girlfriend in the bed to see sag with 300lbs more would do. And it went down about ~3/4inch. And I think with everything for my build will be closer to 400-500 lbs. But I don't have the AAL on yet and the whole purpose of that is to lessen sag so now I feel a particularly comical dilemma.

Say hypothetically because of clearance I can't add the AAL. What's my biggest issue there. So much sag that the rear doesn't handle or ride well?

 

Get the fan, you will probably regret it if you don’t. Vagabond reinforces and frames in the fan opening on the lid/top. If you decide to add one later you won’t have the extra support for the fan.
If you order the fan you can ask Phil to frame in for the fan and not mount it but blank it off. Then you can get things all sorted and go from there.

 

If you're balancing height and ride characteristics, that may be a great reason to go with a custom leaf pack from Deaver/Alcan. They can set the truck to up to handle whatever final weight you end up with but still sit at a ride height that works for your garage situation.

 

Okay I don't want to be dramatic but if someone wouldn't mind trying to get measurements of the exact height of the Drifter + Fan. Down to the closest 1/4 or 1/8 would be so very appreciated.

Apparently the left side of my truck rides about 1/2" lower than the right, but thankfully the heaviest part of my build will be on the right. I was able to throw 330lbs in the back of my truck which should emulate pretty close to my base static build. And with that weight I was able to get clearance from bedrail to the lowest part of opening to 33.75". If the height of the camper is 33.25" then I have a small sigh of relief and can enjoy how comical that is