Vagabond Drifter Camper Buildout and Mods

for condensation or smells?

 

Buy one and install it yourself.

 

Haha
The smell of Coors light and shame is strong in the AM.

 

Yeah. I could.

But I’d rather leave cutting a giant hole in my roof to the pros at Vagabond. Water leaks are not something i want to deal with

 

My parking garage is 7" 6" in height, i squeak under it with 1/2" to spare. This is with new kings and deavers. IT is so close I switch parking spots with a guy I know in my apt complex so there would be no risk of hitting the garage door.

Now having measured the garage door it is not truly at the height posted, it is about 3" lower, and the garage door hangs down about an inch lower. I'd say the actual clearance is about 7 feet.

 

After owning two Phoenix Pop Up Campers I have found the fantastic fans are well worth the money and effort if you cook in your camper. For every thing else opening the windows is adequate. The hugh down side is that the covers are very expensive & break easily by opening themselves due to the vibration from travelling rough roads. I found a solution by adding sticky sided bathroom door hooks around the vent and using a hair tie or elastic band looped around the vent crank mechanism handle and one of the hooks to keep it from vibrating open. If you plan on doing heavily brushed out trails or carry gear on your roof....especially kayaks or canoes I would not install one....you'll just break it.

 

What mods do you have that affect height? Wheels/tires? Lift? Etc.

 

Kings, deavers with a 3" lift (approx) and 1000lb capacity, BFG Ko2 34" tyre. My truck is shown in the other drifter thread as of about 10 mins ago

 

Thank you for the order!

It is 31” without a fan and 33” with a fan. From the top of the bed caps. It mount using the bed rails, but the camper sits on top of the bed caps.

We are working to increase production, but will also be releasing the full size version soon. That will likely increase orders, so it’s hard to say if we’ll be able to get it down to 3 months in the near future. We’re stoked that orders are coming in, are not going to compromise on quality, and are growing the company sustainability. Grow fast methods haven’t yielded the best results for some customers and companies, and it’s definitely a balancing act we’re challenged with.

Not sure if 900 CFMs is enough for the shame, but we have the CL smell covered

Sounds like a great solution! We looked at the Maxxair fan, which has two lift arms, but they don’t use the pancake motor that the Fantastic Fan utilizes. So only the high- top lid is available with the Maxxair. We use a low- profile lid. The deflector works well too. I drove into a carport and scraped the paint off the metal beam with the deflector. Fan and deflector were fine.

 

I measured from my bed caps (not rails as overlanerd confirmed) last night. I’m still confused by some comments where people have lifts and are around 7 feet but I ended up with the numbers below.

Caps were 51 inches from the ground so these were my totals:
GFC: 80 inches or 6’8”
Drifter: 82 inches or 6’10”
Drifter with fan: 7’

Most parking garages in My area are right in that range but the one I care about for work is 6’10” and the sign looks pretty accurate.

I have a stock 2018 TRD Pro other than tires (ST Maxx 265/75/16).

 

If you don’t change the rear suspension you’ll probably lose an inch or so with the added weight. If you’re not planning on a lot of heavy offroad action you could add some airbags to better support the rear when needed and leave them deflated for getting in/out of parking garages.

 

My biggest concern is that I may be moving to Portland this summer. I know that if I move I will be living downtown. I’ll get a motorcycle for transit in the city, but my condo’s garage needs to accommodate my DCLB by length and now also by height (with Drifter + fan).

I can’t measure any garage because I don’t have a place there yet. Unless there is a general average or standard in downtown Portland.

 

go measure the sign! also if the entry is not flat you will have less clearance fyi.

 

Thanks. Totaly understand the reasons. That tells me a lot. Basically its highly unlikely.....which is what I thought. Looks like Vagabond makes a great product and adding a full size drifter will have a much greater demand then the mid size market. I foresee one to two year waitlist in our future for a Vagabond Drifter. Any chance the deposit policy might change to a production reservation deposit place holder, then a deposit due 90 days from delivery date? Similiar to the other wedge camper companies who have greater then 3 month wait times from order to delivery dates. By the way you fellows really do have the best design and build quality from what I have researched on the web. You apparently also have excellent customer service so I get that you likely do not need to change your policy. I'm just trying to decide to be patient and wait for your production capacity to increase or if policy might change?

 

Huh that’s good to know. If most garages comply to this standard... I may be out of luck with a Drifter + fantastic fan?

 

That’s completely true. I’ve given up on garages even if they say the clearance is over 7’. I went to an airport once where the drifter should have fit and almost sheared a sprinkler.

I have no fan, but I have a 2” lift with 35’s at 35psi. Maybe about 3” if the rear with the stage 3 deavers.

That being said a stock truck might work, but there are a ton of variables.

 

For a long time, I owned a GMC 2500HD. I parked in one of the downtown garages regularly. I even had Yakima racks on the cap. One night, I was coming down the ramp to exit the garage and bam! The rack hooked the height testing pipe and off the rack came.

Difference? New set of tires. Same brand. Same size. Just new.

 

Just a heads up, it rains a good amount in the PNW and motorcycle may not be your best option for most of the year.

If parking in the garage is a big factor, consider airbags like someone mentioned. It's too bad that garage height dictates a lot of your choices. I'd say the hell with a garage and get whatever makes your camping experience legit!

 

Why are you moving to downtown Portland?!?