Although we loved our Honda Element, we wanted to upgrade to a bigger vehicle for extra comfort and room for our long-term travels. -Joel. Having the trunk door open won’t drain the battery. We actually recently sold our Honda SUV and moved on to a van conversion project. When you pull the end of these slats out to open the bed as seen in the first picture of “Step 4: Make a tent cover”, these metal bars act as guides to allow only those slats to slide out and because there are metal bars on top and bottom, the slats cannot fall out of place. Then we cut a hole in the wood the size of the fan. What type of wood and wait is the thickness that you used to replace the moonroof? This post may contain affiliate links, please read the disclosure for more info. We build everything on the Go Fast Camper. There is another brand called Best Price that we tried and was really comfortable. Thank you for reading! We assume you bought a truck because it’s durable and capable of accessing remote backcountry on rough roads. In the back, we drilled a few metal screws into the floor to hold the wood down with metal angle braces which can be found at Home Depot. Cool build! A Battery Isolator Relay was installed to charge both batteries from the alternator when the car is running, but separate them when the car is off to make sure we don’t drain the starter battery and get stranded in the middle of nowhere. Thanks for well written and informative post. We used a Pro Start Marine & RV Deep Cycle battery from Pep Boys. We added caps on both sides to keep the water in the pipe and a Y-joint to fill it up. Your design with a fridge caught my eye because I consider healthy eating essential so there is no way I could eat out everyday, or make meals without one. We chose a black pipe because black color heats up water during sunny days and keeps the water warm. It was the perfect thickness because it is extremely comfortable without being too thick. Also, I read further down that you converted the Honda back to original to resell it. We cut up a tent and used some aluminum tubing to make a new frame for it, then attached it to the bed frame we made. Sleeping Capacity: 2 Adults + 🐶/👶Jumpability Index: Extremely HuckableThings you find in space: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. You won’t compromise your truck, you’ll want to drive it like a race car. Instead, if you look closely at the first picture under “Step 2: Create a platform bed frame”, you can see a metal bar that is only screwed to every other slat. Good luck! I’ve had 100-watt solar running to a 100 Ah Renogy battery. Glad to hear your SUV conversion into a camper went so well. Get a huckable guest room that won’t slow you down, whether it’s prerunning the Baja 1000 or running home from the hardware store. The best part about converting your 4×4 or an all-wheel-drive car into a camper car is that you don’t have to worry about your car getting stuck on rough roads and unlike a van, you can take it on just about on any trail or small road. Your advice is greatly appreciated. This is great! Sometimes we just have to make the best of what we already have. A house jutting out from a cliff. The flip-up side panels provide unparalleled access to the entire bed of the truck, keeping your stuff secure and accessible. This worked out great and was super easy to install. Could you tell me more about the mechanics of your build? While traveling in an adventure van looks glamorous, not everyone has the luxury and time for a campervan conversion. A great all purpose tent that attaches to your awning. Would love to hear about it, Hi John, the storage area behind our fridge became our kitchen. Running track ... Cliff Jumping platform into the ocean. I just bought an element with the intention to convert it, How do you affix the fixtures (bed, fridge, etc) to the floor so that they do not move around as you drive? I’m converting my element as well, it’s always I interesting to see the different approaches people take. I am planning on having a 24/7 gym membership because I workout daily, so that solves the showering issue, and am only planning on using my car for sleeping, cooking and eating. I want to do the same but don’t want to have to reroute a ton of extra things. Our Honda SUV is not perfectly square so we had to cut the mattress to fit the shape of our car. Once we had a general layout figured out, we took measurements and made sure everything fit in our car like the mattress and the fridge. If we did this would it be a lot of trouble to change back into our regular car? At first, we did a lot of car camping in our SUV and recently decided to upgrade to a van after we decided to live in our car full time. Another question, as a single woman who knows nothing about the wires and carpenter things, where can I find the professional conversion company? Also, can i give u credit for my purchase somehow? We used this rooftop RV fan from Maxxair, which is great because it comes with a thermometer that you can set to turn on automatically when it gets too hot inside the car. Wow! The Zinus mattress ended up not holding up too well. But if you do decide to go with a campervan for extra comfort, here is our guide on how we converted an empty Promaster van into a full-time campervan. If you want a short quick answer, the wiring goes like this: Element’s battery – 6 ga cable – isolator solenoid relay – 6 ga cable – deep-cycle battery – 10 ga cable – fuse block – 16 ga cables – accessories Of course, make sure you ground everything with the same size cable, so add a 6 ga cable from the negative of the battery to any point on the SUV, and 16 ga cables from the negatives of the accessories to the SUV. The weight is perfect and I can't imagine owning any other camper on my truck.". how did you add the schreder pressure valve? We used 1/2″ plywood and the original brackets to create the moonroof. Concept #2: When closed up, your camper should become your own private den.. A cozy little space to wait out a storm or sleep like a log. We wired the batteries to a fuse block, then powered everything from the fuse block. UpContent helps users builds trust with their audiences through discovering, collaborating on, and distributing curated content across a variety of platforms. Any advice you have to offer would be much appreciated! Good luck with your project! Also, I didn’t find any prefabbed battery trays that will fit for this so you’ll have to make your own out of sturdy sheet metal. As for giving us credit, just click on any of our product links on this page and if you buy anything on Amazon within 24 hours, we get a small commission! We used a metal bar as a guide to slide out the wooden slats and a wooden beam at the end to keep them together. Sure we could pay $10 for a day pass at a gym, but we’re all about saving money where we can. In order to install the fan in the roof, we replaced the sunroof with a piece of wood. Hope the two year trip is going well! Existing customers please email support to ask questions, get updates, or schedule a phone call with our expert support team.All other inquiries please call: © 2021 GoFastCampers One more question. Get a camper and keep your truck. Forget about all the extra stuff and enjoy. Which car do you think would work better for me the Element, minivan, or full size van? Best regards. Poly is probably a good idea as long as it’s thick enough to not bend much and be durable enough to not break with the weight and vibrations while driving. We traded our office desks for a life on the road in search of the next great adventure. I’ve been wanting to do something similar to my subaru forester! If you are thinking of converting your SUV into a full-time camper, here are some rough estimates of the time and money it took. Get out of your car and be ready to camp in seconds. One of the hardest parts about traveling in a camper car is finding a place to take a shower. How does the fridge hook up to your second battery? In some internet forums, It has been suggested that you can just take two folding tables set up side by side and there you have it. If you don’t add the additional battery, the fan would probably kill the car’s starting battery within a few hours since the stock Honda Element battery is tiny. about installing your house battery and wiring would you? At the end of the shower, we added a ball valve to the end cap and attached an RV Shower Hose when in use. I have been thinking about putting a roof vent in my Durango and came across your site in my research. There are a few different ways to build a portable tent platform and each of them depends on your definition of portable as well as what constitutes a proper platform. Hi Laura and Joel, I’m really impressed with your bedframe! Then we transferred the finished wood piece and fan onto the sunroof and secured in with the hinges. I’m looking to do this to my Prado Landcruiser but don’t quite understand how you made the sliding bed. Thanks Richard! At the very top, a Schrader valve was added so we could add pressure with a car tire inflator. Once the fridge and the bed frame was secured to the car’s floor, we ran wiring along the sides of the car to power up the fridge. The PVC pipe fits around 6.5 gallons of water which lasts us a few showers. A camper or tent shouldn’t be an embarrassing, truck-ruining liability. Wet naps and dips in the river are very scenic but can only go so far. What else did you have to do do get the second battery that far forward? Do you have a more detailed description or drawing you could share that would show the make, model and length of the rails you used and how they were placed etc..? Â. You can check out Part I of our van conversion article here: http://funlifecrisis.com/dyi-promaster-campervan-conversion/. Hopefully, this article gave you some good ideas for your conversion as well. Question: would you still choose that same model fan or suggest anything different? 8. In the same pictures I mentioned you can see all the screw down places for all the slats. Then it was time to get to work and start building! For our conversion, we decided to create a bed frame that fits in the back of the car during the day and extends out for sleeping at night. These fixtures are not permanent, they can all be reversed back to their original state. This is awesome! It can handle very rough terrains and the possibilities for conversion are great as well. The Deluxe versions of the Maxxair fans have bigger covers that are nice to have when it rains but stick out a few more inches and are much more expensive. Our production, customer advocacy teams, in-house designers and engineers are what Go Fast Campers great! Did you have to remove the air intake resonator (all the black plastic parts to the far right side under the hood) to accomplish this? I think this sounds like a great idea. We use bottled or filtered river water for drinking and dish cleaning. The idea was to keep half the wooden beams in place and the other half set up to slide out and support our feet while we sleep. We gave the camper a completely redesigned spaceframe featuring tubular aluminum that bolts together with internal joinery pieces and custom extrusions, which are machined for premium fit and function and joined with hardware and unique machined parts. And by following these 8 steps you too can convert your everyday SUV into a full-time camper car! Great job!! The area was the perfect depth for our camp stove and we used a medium plastic container to store our camp pots, utensils, and dry or canned foods. We decided to install a ceiling fan into our Honda Element’s sunroof to alleviate some of the heat during the hot summer seasons. Nice build! Woollen tent camp with campfire. We employ a team of great people and some pretty cool robots to deliver supremely high-quality products at reasonable prices. We had to place the fridge in the car before we secured the bed frame to the floor. Since the Honda Element has a two part rear door, the lower tailgate was used as a kitchen and cooking table and the top liftgate protected us from the elements while cooking. Flip open the sides of a GFC and you’ll create a cabana like area that’s perfect for hanging out and enjoying what made you want a camper in the first place: the outdoors. How to build a portable tent platform . ... Start your own Minecraft server with friends and see how many things on the list that you can build! We searched the globe and selected Polymath to be our tokenization platform because the people are great and know what they are doing. We also cut the mattress in three parts and sowed them loosely together through the mattress cover sheet so we could fold the mattress during the day. After finishing the conversion, our SUV is now equipped with a foldable sleeping platform, a full-size bed, tons of storage, a fridge, a fan, and even a solar shower! Hi, Ry! Once the bed platform was built we bought a 4 inch full-size memory foam mattress on Amazon. It probably took us a full day to do it all but it’s really the only way to add a second lead-acid battery in such a small SUV. The Element’s wiring was much more simple – you can just ignore the solar part and the second battery. This kept it all super sturdy both while we drove and while we slept, and it never made a squeak. From the space frame to the fabric, it’s all done onsite at our facility at the foot of the Bridger Mountains. Hi there! The result is incredibly strong and lightweight. Core Concept #1: Seamlessly blend indoor and outdoor spaces to make a tiny space huge. We are aware of the pvc leaking, so we are only using that water for showering. Below is a guide on how we, with a low budget and lots of sweat equity, converted our Honda Element SUV into a full-time camper car in 8 simple steps: The first step of our conversion project was to come up with a layout and brainstorm some SUV camper ideas that fit all of our needs. On the front of the bed frame, we took out the rear seat belts and attached the frame to the bottom seat belt mounts. A traditional yurt (from the Turkic languages) or ger is a portable, round tent covered with skins or felt and used as a dwelling by several distinct nomadic groups in the steppes of Central Asia.The structure consists of an angled assembly or latticework of wood or bamboo for walls, a door frame, ribs (poles, rafters), and a wheel (crown, compression ring) possibly steam-bent. Nice! We used a small kids tent from Walmart to create a custom cover in the back of the car that extends out at … Not enough? Its like having a huckable hotel room that is ready to go at a moment's notice. Leave it on all the time. Step 4: Make the tent cover. A metal rod was added in the back of the car underneath the platform to support the extended wooden beams at night. The fridge was a must for us so we built the base of the bed around it. Congratulations! Feel free to push back if you think a bad idea. This would help us keep healthier eating habits and avoid restaurants and fast food which means more savings in the long run. 4 inch full-size memory foam mattress on Amazon, how we converted an empty Promaster van into a full-time campervan, Subaru Outback camper conversion, choosing instead to use off-the-shelf parts to quickly turn it into a camper within minutes and not days, http://funlifecrisis.com/dyi-promaster-campervan-conversion/. Length: 96”Width: Standard, XLRoof Storage capacity closed: 500lbsRoof storage capacity open: 75lbsPanels: Removable. Some of our “must have” requirements were: -a semi-enclosed bed platform -a fridge -a solar shower -a ceiling fan for hot summer days -extra storage for clothing, food and my travel gear. Hi Laura and Joel, I am wondering if you open the trunk door, will you not drain the battery? For those who prefer something more substantial, it’s possible to create a lightweight wooden cabin, a wood framed tent with a wooden platform or one can buy or build a camper trailer. If you were to build a website without a CMS platform, then you would need to learn these languages and write a lot of code. We wanted something to cover the extended bed platform at night to provide more privacy and to protect us from bugs or bad weather. Wow, great job on the conversion! Thanks! One of our must-have items for our camper conversion was to install a Dometic high-efficiency 12V fridge in our SUV. We wanted our camper bed to be comfortable but not take up too much space. We created a general bed platform from wooden beams and added aluminum bars as guides and support. We added a gate lock to keep the flap up and in place during the day. It also doesn’t have the two-part tailgate-liftgate combo in the rear to extend the sleeping area or the pop-out sunroof to easily add the roof fan. We are Laura and Joel – full-time travelers, photographers, and van lifers. It got too soft to where you could feel the wood underneath and we just weren’t getting the best sleep after a while. Hope this article can give you some good ideas : ) Cheers, Laura, Amazing conversion, well done and quite inspiring. Check out our Promaster build where I made a wiring diagram for the van. I am about to do the Fan build you did. We used a blanket and these bed sheets and pillowcase for a twin size bed. Trucks are meant to work, not just camp. It works great on water leaks and punctures. The extra house battery can provide enough electricity to power up the fridge as long as the car runs for a minimum of 15 minutes a day. Do you have any other legs/support in the middle of the bed? I love this build! I’m wondering, specifically, how you were able to make the slats slide past each other and they’re still strong enough to support half of the bed. . Looks like it would be right where the air intake is. Built with a tough as nails anodized aluminium poles and offering full UPF50+ sun and waterproof rain protection wherever you pull up. The day we sold the Honda we converted it back to its original state in about 2 hours. Yea, we had to remove all those black plastic pieces of the intake and create a new hole in the filter housing. My husband and I were wondering if you had more details on how you fitted a tent to the back of your car? An SUV might not be as roomy as a van, but it still has a lot of space inside that can be utilized for sleeping and storage. Let me know if you have any other questions! It definitely helps save money on food and stay healthier with eating habits. Then we transferred over the hinges from the sunroof to the wood piece to secure the wood piece on the roof. I am not aware of any professional SUV conversion companies, but there are some for campervan conversions. If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. When we sold the Element, we simply put the hinges back on the factory glass moonroof and reinstalled it as before. We used a small kids tent from Walmart to create a custom cover in the back of the car that extends out at night along with the wooden slats. We didn’t use any rails to make the bed. Either one of them works, just depends on what features you’re after. So instead we decided to create our own custom build solar shower kit out of black PVC pipe from Home Depot. If it was me, I would just make a very simple, flat, permanent sleeping platform in the Escape and add a rooftop box for storage. If you do decide to convert your Subaru and have any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask! How’s that going? Everything we make we design in house. I am not so handy, but think I can do the solar shower. We just purchased a 2007 HE and we’ve been getting a lot of inspiration online. Drive to hard-to-reach locations, but don’t confine yourself to a tin can when you get their. The GFC Platform Camper melds seamlessly with your truck, so you never have to take it off. Side windows zip down from the inside for airflow and privacy. If you don’t plan on being in really hot places, then the new Maxxfan Mini looks like a great option that takes up less space. We don’t rebrand an outsourced product. Another great option is using a small deep-cycle AGM battery and putting it inside which would be much easier and would keep everything stock under the hood. Super impressive! Hi! Good luck with the conversion, let us know if you need any more help! Inside the car, we added a 1×6 to keep the mattress from sliding forward during the day and to add extra length at night on the sleeping platform. My husband is super tall and would love the extra leg room. Does anyone know which of these superb, well thought out conversion plans might need different adaptations on the Escape or has anyone done this conversion on an Escape? Did you try something different in your van? The spacious interior allowed us to easily sleep inside on our favorite forest roads, eliminating the need to find hotels or book hard-to-get campsites. How much volume water can you fit in the black PVC pipping, for the solar shower hose?? A CMS platform (content management system platform) is a piece of software that allows you to easily manage content and create a website. Just wanted to mention the toxicity of pvc leaching into your shower water. You guys did an awesome job on the roof top installation. Unfortunately, we did have to move a few things around to make it fit. It’ll really depend on the car so you just have to try a few things to see what works, Your email address will not be published. We wanted the fridge to fit under the bed frame and the mattress to sit on top of it. We used tent rods, hooks and velcro to keep the tent upright at night. We wired the fan from a fuse block that we installed under one of the interior side panels, and powered that from the additional battery we added under the hood. However, sleeping in sleeping bags on thin sleeping mats, with no shower, and no convenient way to store cold food often left us a bit eager to get back to civilization. The factory moonroof can be taken off and put back on by squeezing the latch as you open it, so nothing was damaged when we took it off. I did a transformer setup for the best of both worlds, here is my step-by-step guide building the transformer style setup. Thanks! There is a surprising amount of room in there to fit a second large battery, we fit a group 31 but didn’t have room for anything bigger. Normally, web pages are written in HTML, JavaScript, and CSS programming languages. The Platform Camper leaves your bed free and clear, while also creating extra space to haul up top on the roof rack. So we set to work and over two week time of non-stop runs to Home Depot, screwing, sawing and drilling we were able to complete our DIY car conversion project. We use advanced honeycomb composite panels and most of our hardware is CNC billet parts. Awning Tents for your camping needs. Core Concept #3: A camper shouldn’t be a truck ruining liability. With a 1-minute set up time and integrated hard-shell cover, the iKamper Skycamp 2.0 roof-top tent is built with longevity and ease of use in mind.

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