Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

I have not seen any massages regarding bed caps. Who are you trying to contact.

Also making a one off set would be very costly unless you have a CAD design.

 

PM sent @JLee

 

Well I was summoned for jury duty and so far am not getting out of it so I’ve got some time to throw out some build updates!

We picked up our drifter Labor Day weekend and I cannot believe over a month has gone by since then. My ambitions of getting everything build back out ASAP took a lot longer than I thought. I guess I didn’t consider the time I spent on the Flippac build which was done gradually.



While in Benicia Phil was kind enough to let me store a mother little item I was picking up from another member in the area...



The new to me bumper was going to take first priority but after getting it home doing some swing out configuration changes and a little TLC it was on











Some time between then and now I also got my table fabbed up which has been a welcome addition.



Before building out the interior there were a couple more things that needed to happen. One was adding L track to the safe walls since the insulation and wall panel had to be removed as to not squish the insulation, and to make a cleaner appearance.



I added L track to both sides and have more detailed photos of the process if anyone wants to see them. I will say it was way less nerve racking drilling holes in the drifter than in the Flippac.

Next I needed to stiffen up the bed sides which has been a topic of conversation lately. I fabbed up some basic rear bed stiffeners and am in the testing phase of a top secret front bed stiffener.. more to come on that in the future..

Now that I had that’s stuff done the next step was to make my cooler/fridge slide. A stop to my local steel shop and some 500# drawer slides and we were in business.



From there it was time to get the benches and storage made...

 

I had way too much time to get the plans thought out for the interior. We planned to keep the interior lay out pretty similar to what we had in our Flippac because it worked so well for us. Having said that we did have a few changes that we wanted to make.



The skinny cabinet on the side houses my house battery and electrical, our table, axe, fire extinguisher, and some stadium chairs that we use for whe we have our bed pull out in “sunset” mode.

The right side has two lids; one for acces to the cooler from inside, the other for access to our big dry bag that hold all of our sleeping gear as well as a separate cubby up front that had our little camp chairs and a couple totes.



Realizing now that this photo was taken during fitment check before we carpeted.

We decided to leave the cut out on the wall connecting to the sleeping gear storage. Whe the bag is not in there it makes it feel a little more open, and we also wanted access to bedding even when the lid could not be opened.

Also not pictured in the any of my photos apparently is the tool box. The last part of the build was constructing a two drawer box that fits between the benches at the fron of the bed. It has a shallow drawer on top and a deep drawer on bottom for larger tools.

It can be removed and brought outside if needed near a rig and can also be secured on top of the passenger side bench giving more acces to the front for standing as well as crating a standing height table top for what ever you need. Most likely for my wife.

Underneath the box is another “floor” panel which can be placed at bench hight on top of some L track that’s in place to maintain the bench when the toolbox is removed or to create the full platform in case you need to stealth camp or sleep 4. The passenger bench itself can sleep one as is.

I’ll get some updated photos this week

 

Interesting... that’s high on my todo list as well, especially since my plus-sized V1 puts even more weight on the front of the bed. Been kicking around some ideas but haven’t come up with something yet that would be easy to fab and not take away too much bed space.

Saw your rig as I was leaving Mule on Saturday (I think), would have stopped to say hi, but parking was crazy.

 

anyone happen to get weighed on a truck scale before or after you built out the bed (hopefully with front and rear bumpers + swingout + spare tire mounted)? curious how close the setup is to GVWR before building out the bed.

 

I did! The total gain was 580lbs, but 200lb of that was water and fuel that I didn't have when I first weighed myself. Not to mention I also added some of that weight with the swingout that was also added when I got the Drifter.

Before (BAMF bed rack + Tepui Ruggedized RTT, no gas/water): 6260 lbs
Now (Vagabond Drifter, built in cabinets, bumper swingout, gas+on board water): 6840 lbs.

 

One of the last big items was installing my electrical.

I am running a smaller battery for now in the back connected to a circuit breaker and 6 bank bluesea terminal with grounds.

I ran strip lighting (which I may have to redo as the adhesive was sub par) on the roof and under the

saw you parked in the back right before we took off too! yeah parking was nuts, we ended up snagging a spot in front by getting the go ahead to block a guy in. we were only able to stay for an hour or so but wanted to at least say hey and put a face to the name!

told my wife "this is who we got our tailgate lock from" lol

 

Looks great!

 

Thanks buddy!

Need to get some updated photos. Thought I had taken them but I guess not lol. I still think it’s september if that’s any indication

 

Just installed the same bumper looks great! What's the cut out on the bumper for?

 

Pod lights

 

They need to get swapped for floods tho

 

Anybody else putting or planning to put a box on top of their drifter? Why not? Light weight goods, think exterior rug, foldable chairs, fly fishing gear, mini charcoal grill need somewhere to go. Had one on our '85 vanagon which wasn't a heavy duty build but had hydraulic struts and it worked great. Haven't seen anyone here though doing this and wondering why.

 

http://www.kbvoodoo.com/shop/powder-coated-bed-side-rail-cap-system-fits-years-2005-2015

I run these and they work really well.

 

Thank you! I wonder if they fit a tundra Gen 1.

 

I have 2 boxes and a solar panel on top of mine...

 

I still don’t know how you taller than average people don’t celebrate life everyday, being able to reach that cargo. I’d need to stow a collapsible ladder just for this!

 

Hahahaha. The one box just has recovery gear and the other box has my camping tools (axe, machetes etc.) so I usually grab that stuff before I deploy the wedge and only need the recovery gear while I’m driving. So I don’t really get in there when it’s open!

 

I have a fiberglass rear entry packasport roof top box that I used to run on the flippac during the winter. it was nice because I could stand on the tailgate and load gear. I had plans of using it on the drifter once I built my roof racks but the more I think about it the less it seems like it will work as well for me now. I would want it positioned forward enough to allow my fan lid to open and to aid with the strut support of the extra weight. This would put it too far forward to access from the rear and it would be a PITA to access fro the sides.

For now I am just going to build a set of racks that I can haul paddle boards and skis/snowboards on with regular Yakima/thule style racks.

I doubt id ever get a side load pod for up there unless we really needed the space for among trip. Otherwise id go the pelican case route like @tdubd