Wikipedia describes the #Honda-Element as a “crossover SUV” manufactured up to 02011
on 02026-02-16#video by #lifeoutofmyelement after 8 years of #vanlife giving a tour of her #Honda-Element conversion #toread
on 02026-02-16#video by #AmyMakesStuff showing her #stealth-camping #Honda-Element car setup. Not very stealth, really. One really interesting thing is the bed: a wooden frame like for a futon, but instead of having a single giant futon on it, it has multiple separate cushions, which are held in place with velcro. Also she added snaps to the edges of her curtains to hold them in place over the car windows, with the other side of the snap “screwed directly into the plastic trim”. Smart. Her solar panel is suction-cupped to the inside of the moonroof, so it doesn’t protrude outside the car. Also her bed frame sort of slides together to be half the width to use as a couch I think.
on 02025-12-09#vanlife #video in Rosa’s 2009 #Honda-Element car named Elrond with a Sodastream. A 7-gallon jug of water was inconveniently heavy; her “build” was under US$200, and she’s been living in it for six years plus US$11250 for the car. She cooks on a Coleman 2-burner stove on the tailgate. “My entire conversion is actually held into my car using zipties.” She built it out of plywood from Home Depot and piano hinges. The interior is too small to stand up in, but the car is pretty boxy and voluminous for being a car, and it's 4WD, so like halfway to being an SUV. Also the rear doors are backwards-opening “suicide doors”, so you get a double-door effect. She uses aluminized bubblewrap windowshades with blackout curtain taped to the outside with black duct tape, which she says blends in better from the outside. Rear windows are tinted, which would make the blackout hard to see from the outside. She showers at Planet Fitness. Stores water (two 1-“gallon” bottles) and a tarp and a folding chair in the passenger footwell, and a backpack on the seat, so someone looking in through the non-tinted forward windows would see that the car is being lived in. But she hasn’t made any modifications to the outside of the car, so there are no solar panels, shore power, stove chimneys, etc. To work on her laptop she goes to cafés, libraries, and Whole Foods (“really great Wi-Fi”). On the road for the first few years, she worked seasonal jobs at national parks and resort towns, and Subway and similar chain restaurants. Then, when Covid hit, DoorDash, InstaCart, etc., and now she’s a YouTuber (“#lifeoutofmyelement”). She feels like roof racks or stickers are not good for stealth camping.
on 02024-05-08