ImNoSaint's Element:Vanadium Build

[Imnosaint]

Yes, I'm still alive, and while my lymphoma has cancelled my lease on life, I've been living through my bonus PTO days, though I've had to make a number of significant changes. The first is I'm no longer motorcycle bound. The C2C trip on the Triumph Explorer did me in, so I've since sold the bike. Second, I'm finding myself homeless, somewhat by choice, so I'm selling it all including my house and building one last overland rig, this one a 2007 Honda Element EX 4WD. I'll let you collect yourself.

As with all my other builds (the WRōV, the Nomad, the Bedouin) I've developed a theme and this one is no different. Being the Honda Element, I went the Periodic Table route landing on number 23, Vanadium, being appropriate on a number of levels: "Van" is obvious, the chemical element itself is a naturally occurring malleable transition alloy that is similar in colour of my EX. I've been rather malleably transitioning myself.

Upon completion I'll be microcamping down the western coast of North America from Canada to Mexico with my dog, Jack. This post is the beginning of its build thread.

 

[Imnosaint]

The first mod is a greenhouse blackout. I never cared for the paint scheme of carrying the body colour to the full frame of the doors, so while waiting for parts to show, I did a little rattle-canning.

I think I'll blackout the hood as well.

 

[Imnosaint]

The Aerogenics Element Full Length Roof Rack

Making the most of the limited space inside the Vanadium means creating some storage outside, in this case a roof rack from Aerogenics, their full size rack made exclusively for the Honda Element. It ships bare aluminum, unassembled and goes together very well with tight engineering tolerances. I shot the sides and wind deflector with a texture flat black to blend into the roofline a bit better.

Its 51″ X 83″ footprint provides enough room for two low profile Apache rifle cases on each side along with a ROAM 83L Rugged Case at the back running the width of the platform. In between the cases is mounted a 160W solar array.

The rack mounts easily to the Element’s existing roof rack attachment points and turns the vehicle’s rounded rooftop into very usable and level mounting space.

 

[Imnosaint]

 

[Imnosaint]

Hiro's Swivel Seat

Twenty five square feet of living space requires some innovation, especially when dialing in a bit of feng shui, or in this case, just some basic practicality. Since the Vanadium already has two comfortable seats, why not use one for a spot to relax and write and edit photographs and stretch out at the same time?

Enter Austin (Hiro) Hironaka, an innovator and snow boarder from the PNW. Besides the fact that he races an ’87 Honda Civic Si (my first Honda), he figures out ways to make living in Hondas better, especially in Elements. To this end he created a swivel mechanism that allows either seat to turn one hundred eighty degrees into the cabin space. I opted for the driver seat since the bed will be installed behind the passenger side.

This is a game changer.

 

[Imnosaint]

The Eletent

A couple of priorities are driving this build, one of which is I don’t want to do a lot of shuffling, lifting and arranging of stuff and boards to settle in. I want to park and crash. Looking at a number of aftermarket camping inserts I concluded that to reach this end I’d have to build my own bed, one that would fold out into the length I need without alot of rearranging the Vanadium’s interior. To do that I need more room, and to reach that end I sprung for ElementDriven’s Eletent 5D.

But first, some backstory. Meet Peter and Katie, a couple of overland entrepreneurs developing lightweight, durable textile products, one of which is the PERCH.



In full disclosure, Katie is my daughter and Peter is her significant other. Peter developed a weatherproof enclosure specific to Tacomas with a bed topper, that can extend the length of usable space. It’s brilliant in its design, not only in keeping out the elements (no pun intended) but in deployment and storage as well.

This set my expectations pretty high in finding a similar product for my Element, and there’s only one, made by some craftspeople, cottage industry style, much like Katie and Peter.

Made from 600 denier marine canvas, when deployed it extends the Element’s usable space in back to seven feet without having to crunch the seats into the dashboard. Perfect. One step closer to that goal.

I set it up the day it was delivered in triple digit ambient air temps to see how taxing it would be, and given its hook-and-loop attachment mechanism that had to first be adhered to the perimeter of the hatch opening, this initial deployment took a while. Three main panels make up the body of the tent which velcro together and once everything is lined up and installed, the tent can be removed and redeployed in mere moments, not quite a quick as the PERCH, but close.

 

[Imnosaint]

OVS Nomadic 180 Degree Awning

One of many takeaways in home ownership is appreciating how much a deck or gazebo can add to the space of living and given the Vanadium’s limited square footage, creating some usable space outside the vehicle has expanded its livability.

Overland Vehicle Systems makes the Nomadic 180 LTE awning, a batwing that covers the Vanadium’s footprint from front bumper to beyond the edge of the rear hatch making Eletent entry from the outside in inlicmate weather much easier. It deploys very easily, stand alone or with stanchions and guy lines, adapting well to the weather conditions Jack and I will experience in the PNW.

It appears to be well-built with 280G ploy cotton with heat welded seams providing 59 square feet of coverage. The 1 and 1/8″ diameter poles and rafters give it the heft it needs all supported on a heavy duty aluminum frame, and it all tucks away into a 1000G weatherproof travel cover. My only beef with its construction is the single stitching on the Velcro tabs, which through my experience, will not last long.

I fashioned some spacers from left over extruded aluminum and mounted the awning with five attachment points to the roof rack.

See you out there.

 

[Imnosaint]

The Platform Insert

This has been the biggest challenge on this build, given the length of the rear cargo space comes up short to stretch out my 5′ 11″ frame, so objective number one was to buy some more length which was accomplished with the Eletent 5D from Rain Dean (even signed by him) at Element Driven.

With that issue solved I was able to get the measurements I needed and ordered the materials to build the bed insert, 2020 extruded aluminum and hardware (materials and gear for this projects are listed below). Once received, I designed a 48/24-split length frame, the larger of which I mocked up into a piece I could work with in the Vanadium’s space to see how it could make the best of the limited space, make some kind of sense out of the floor’s slope and attach firmly to interior structures.

I decided to have three corners of the structure supported by legs while the fourth and passenger side of the platform would be supported by the ridge of the rear seat frame.

With the mock-up done, I build it in earnest, overbuilding to make sure the insert would hold my weight while still maintaining its aluminum advantage of being lightweight.

Two additional contributors to its structural integrity is the installation of a drawer fridge and the top made from .5″ milled Birch which I sealed and fastened to the frame. I finished the edge of the Birch with .5″ black adhesive trim molding.

This was coming together nicely, too nicely, in fact. First, the fridge’s compressor went on the fritz, and second, the test fit would not work with the off-set frame for the passenger side of the fridge. In the meantime I ordered a 72X24″ memory foam RV mattress, cut it into thirds and found square cushion covers to finish them, two for the main insert and the remaining for the fold-out part of the frame.

Jack is certain this is his bed.

With the permanent installation of the bed insert, I moved the spare and jack out of the well beneath, created a new access door where I now store a floor jack, stands, patch kit and recovery gear. I fitted a 4X4X20″ post I had laying around on the spare’s mount, cut away some plastic buttresses on the spare compartment cover and fit it over the post giving it remarkable rigidity.

With the new working fridge and omission of the off-set frame, the insert was finally coming together.

The flip-top 24″ platform was built to off-set from the main platform’s line to the open hatch and fold out into the space beyond it and designed to maintain access to the drawer fridge when not deployed.

I attached the bin on top of/beneath the flip-top to hold my bedding when the bed is not in use.

The last phase of the insert construction was to create a spot to install the solar system/battery in a place that has easy access and yet protected from Jack. I built a stage on the passenger side of the insert at the suicide door opening and rigged stays and a strap to keep it in place.

After tailoring the third mattress piece to fit the flip-out, the bed insert is complete.

 

[Dougnuts]

I LOVE the Honda Element build, so cool! Make sure you have a refreshed coolant system, as the load from the additional air resistance is going to take some work to overcome, and that will generate some heat.

I hope that your health holds out so that you have a long and enjoyable trip down the west coast.

Lastly, Jack looks like he could be Kona's little brother. We lost her almost 3 years ago (after 14 great years) and there's not a day that she isn't on my mind.

 

[Imnosaint]

Thank you. It's been an adjustment, but a good one, like being able to park in small spaces. I did a flush, refresh and check on all its systems and with a few thousand miles under its beltline, it's been running very well, and living very comfortably.

Kona is beautiful. Non-dog folks don't get the depth of loss when we lose these family members.

 

[Imnosaint]

Some images from the Vanadium's adventures: from Bryce Canyon, to Mt. Rainer, to Ocean Shores.