Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Having moved a fabrication business once in my life (I had a lot of help! Maybe 30 workers in all.) I was highly stressed and totally exhausted every night! Hang in there Jerry because it will all eventually pay off!

 

I can confirm that Vagabond used to use Loctite Teroson 5555na. I had an issue with my drifter back in the day and was sent a tube of it to redo a small section. The stuff will stiffen up in a day or two so I would recommend doing it over a weekend when you don't plan on exposing your camper to the elements.

 

Been doing some things....

I decided to finally make a bed platform lift. The long in short of it is I made a frame out of aluminum angle and strapping riveted together, cut down the existing bed platform to make it a few inches narrower, then bolted it to the frame. I screwed the hinges to the front of the platform, and bolted some aluminum angle to the side rails to create new mounts to support the platform when it's down. A couple of 50 lb struts do the lifting. Still need to finish placing the carpet tiles, but you get the idea.





More details here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/tacomarin’s-chubby-unicorn-build.536001/page-15#post-30271669

 

Made the NickLeeCreations calendar as 'Mr June" - for anyone interested in patches and other cool toyota inspired off-road stuff check out his website and / or his forum

 

The kids are bigger and I need more space. Decided to transform the Drifter to a pop up. Still working on the new tent fabric, but making progress

 

Rad!

 

That’s wild !!

 

thats sick. do mine next!

 

Dude, awesome! that will be sweet once its done

 

Almost there. Just a few things to work out

 

That's awesome!

 

Wowsa!

 

Day one of the BAMF Drifter build, very early stages. Met Jerry at the new BAMF location; he began by ensuring the drifter will fit our new 4th Gen truck…good news, it does! Can’t began to thank Jerry enough for jumping in to get the build going after years of disappointment.

 

Awesome news! last I was in touch with Jerry was in February and he said production was starting soon. Did he say anything about ETA?

 

Yep I'm finally finding the time/space to start processing these. I've had no room in the shop to even assemble one until now. I now have enough space to work on two at once without getting in my way too much so they will start moving now. If I could get some retail orders I could actually hire someone to work on them full time. but we have seen little to no interest in these from new customers as of today.

 

I tried to get Phil to do this years ago but they were set on the wedge. This is how they should of been made. How may people would want a kit to mod your wedge to a pop up? I made the panels for MJ so making a kit for current drifter owners wouldn't be difficult.

 

What would pricing be? I would be pretty interested.

 

It would probably be over a couple grand. It would all depend on how many tents we are having made at once. The current ones are 1800 from the tent manufacturer.

Tent, hinged folding panels, struts and hardware im guessing 2500 to 3000 depending on how much the tents cost.

 

Well put me down as interest in 1. Maybe some others will chime in and we can get the price down. Would you install or would it be a kit shipped?

 

I am in for a kit!