Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

Agreed, sadly this would never work for me. Had hoped it would, but I lose my trucks function to carry items/etc.

On a side note, As much as I like the decked, its not working either in terms of storage and having to constantly mount and remove an rv water tank all the time. Frontrunner it is, which i should’ve bought from day one like I wanted. Grr.

 

I love Goosegear stuff as I had an icebox fridge slide top drawer combo in my 4runner. Really made camping easier with it. My only concern would be weight. How much does the entire setup weigh including the bed mount plate for a short bed tacoma?

 

We'll get a rough weight at the scales soon. The cabinets are very minimal and the heaviest one is the drawer module. The best part is you don't have to buy this as a complete system. You can buy the modules that fit your needs and budget, then you can add them as you go along.

 

Was your pack the Deaver U402 Stage 3 but custom for your weight? Or what did you ask them to do? I've been talking to Deaver about a pack for my Habitat build and am getting told the U402 Stage 3 will be fine.

 

Finally got some progress!





There’s a huge learning curve here if you’ve never worked with extrusion or taps and don’t already have the tools necessary. With all of the various connectors you really need to think ahead so as not to duplicate work. 6 hardware store trips and counting.
Props to the finishers club so far.

So much more to go...

 

@MTNHABITOVERLAND , looks great so far. I'm looking to make an extrusion buildout of my own over the upcoming holiday break. Did you buy all of your extrusion pieces and connectors online? Then get the tools needed to complete the work locally? I can't find any local suppliers for extrusion material in my area.

I can't wait to see your build progress.

 

Honestly, I got a “few” different materials from a few different places online. All hope is not lost though. Best bet is to start with Amazon. I found the extrusion lengths to be a better deal here with prime as a great way to save on large item shipping costs.

This project isn’t cheap by any means and it’s quite labor intensive in the sense of detailed work but totally doable as proven by others here before me.

The tools I sourced locally and were easy to find at lowe’s and hd once I figured out what I needed.
I did a lot of research on the 80/20 website. They have a ton of vids. YouTube was my friend too.

 

Re-upped on my supply of Drifter contraband.

 

Soooo jealous. Nicely done so far!

 

Agree, really wanted to do something like this myself, but then realized the weight and my trucks currently my dd, hoping to change that here in th next few months with a possible acquisition of another Toyota.

 

anyone prep/seal the bed before installing their bed plate? I took mine out yesterday to find moisture. I think i’m off to home depot for silicon and more sealant for the plywood. It rained a lot last week so i’m curious how it got back there... the Drifter is bomb proof. Since it’s going to be semi permanent when it goes back in, I want to prevent any mold build up. I’m guessing the drain holes but if anyone has any tips on how they are keeping it dry I enlist in your help.

 

The beds are notorious for leaks. The biggest area where I sealed is where the metal bedsides and the composite bed meet. The best way to attack this is to take off the plastic factory caps and rails and put a bead where the two meet. Then using some of the aluminum ducting tape. Seal all the openings under the bed caps.

That should take care of most of it. The next areas are the cubbies. The electrical outlet leaks a lot, so taking some silicone to those helps as well.

Dust is a whole other issue and the biggest area for that is around the tailgate.

 

Drain holes and cubbies in the lower area.

Did you do your bed rails as well? Aside from the areas most people seal, @Iggy was getting some water where the metal cap part of the fender meets the composite bed.

@MJonaGS32 spent quite some time sealing his yesterday.

 

Jinx

 

Thanks guys, I may be up a creek trying to get the bed sides off with the Drifter on... I wish I was closer to Benicia! I do remember hitting the sides with silicon before installing the kbvoodoo, but no tape. I’ll eventually get to that again as the kb rails i have are steel and rusting (before they were aluminum). The cubbies are running wide open right now for test fitting the propex, that might be the culprit...

 

How much do you think this weighs?

 

https://youtu.be/fPFQGrLXXUU

 

The cubbies have a bunch of holes. That is definitely part of your problem.
The holes on the bedrail are too if you didn’t seal too well

 

The KB Voodoo caps are aluminum now (thank god!). Hopefully that means the PC will stick to it better too.

btw, for anyone that hasn't gotten their Drifter yet, do your self a favor and get the KB Voodoo caps on before you do so. I tried to go cheap and just caulked the underside of the OEM caps. No bueno. The caps have warped and I've only had the Drifter on since Spring (granted, I’ve taken it offroad a bit). Then I had to peel off all of the caulking (PITA), and do what I should have done in the first place.

 

Just wanted to mention that the 3rd gen caps are designed differently, have a much lower profile, and don’t seem to be an issue.

I’m still running stock caps, but they were a little beat from the PO who had a flippac on the camper and wheeled often. Got this bed as part of the sale for the flatbed camper.

But @MJonaGS32 probably has more trail miles than anyone with a Drifter & 2nd gen. So YMMV.