Starting Stock
The Element is a small unibody SUV, manufactured by Honda from 2002 to 2011, currently out of production. The stock EX 2004 is 4 cylinder vehicle with AWD, 4 seats. The admittedly not-so-elegant exterior hides a surprisingly spacious interior, which includes stadium-style seating. The interior is also mostly waterproof, and seats fold up to give you something like a truck bed, where you can haul bikes, kayaks, lumber for your home improvement projects, etc. Considering the engine type, the car is not really suitable for heavy duty hauling, but it is still an excellent choice for roadtrippers and outdoor enthusiasts. Used vehicles sell for $5 - $10k, depending on year and milage.
Pros
Overall the Element is a extremely versatile and interesting platform for vehicle mods, partly because on the one hand it's so cheap it's almost expendable, but on the other hand it was originally exceptionally well designed and durable. If the resell value of the car is already down then you may as well start hacking on it!
Cons
The automatic version of this car can reasonably be described as slow and awkward, and in my opinion is not very good for driving in a large city. I strongly suggest getting a manual if you want to compete with aggressive urban traffic.
The manual on the other hand is snappy enough for a city, and also does surprisingly well off-road. The small engine works out ok since the overall weight is also small, so the major problem is the low clearance. There is one lift kit available which fixes this to a large extent (described later) but this is a roadtrip machine with an off-road option, not a off-road machine. Also in the "never going to be a jeep" category, aftermarket options for bumpers, tire carriers, roof-racks, etc are slim to none.
Lift Kit
There's only one commercially available lift kit on the market, namely the CCM Kit, which costs about $500 as of 2017 and labor costs for installing the lift kit will probably be in the $400-600 range. The kit itself has mixed reviews in the extremely useful Element owners club forum. My experience has been great, so I wonder whether these complaints may come down to bad installations, or whether the kit has been improved by the manufacturer since it was first available.
A 3" lift doesn't seem like very much, especially with a price tag that could be a sizable percentage of the resell value of the car, but the crucial thing is that the lift will let you put bigger tires on too. I suggest the Toyo Open Country AT P235/70R16.
It's true that after getting the lift I can do routes I wouldn't have considered attempting before. Nevertheless, the bigger win is that I can do trails I would probably have been doing without the lift anyway, and do them much, much more safely. Before the lift, I'd been scraping ass down trail after trail, thinking there was nothing that could really be done about it. The exhaust system and the gas tank inevitably take most of the abuse, and both systems operate best without any extra holes! Lifting the Element is something I wish I had done a lot sooner, especially as a frequent visitor to many places where one does NOT want to break down, such as Death Valley and Canyonlands.
Sleep System
I very rarely have more than 1 passenger, and so when I got tired of folding the rear seats up and down and carrying around the useless weight I decided to get rid of the OEM back seats. Metolius makes a tri-fold bouldering crashpad (available at REI) where the width fits perfectly inside the back of the Element. Crash pads are tough and designed to take abuse, and after they get filthy you can just pressure wash them at the car wash. It's possible to unfold the crash pad completely into a sleeping area, or fold it into a couch position if I do have 3+ people in the car. Since it's lightweight and easy to remove from the vehicle, the crash pad can also be used to great advantage for car-camping.. just pull it out and throw it down for a comfortable seat near the camp fire. For the tri-fold crashpad, you can expect to pay $250-$300 as of 2017.
Jerry Can Holders
Having fixed the low clearance so it's possible to ride rougher roads, another thing to consider is mods that will improve the range and let you go farther.. which is largely a matter of carrying extra gas and extra water. Specifically, I carry an extra 20L of gas and 20L of water if I'm going way off grid, which is close to the bare minimum one should consider taking for a few days in a place like Death Valley. In the words of the park service.. travel prepared to survive! The extra gas and water means a lot more comfort and peace of mind, especially in the remote desert. For all those times when I'm NOT in the remote desert, I wanted to avoid mounting the jerry cans on the outside of the car, partly for looks, partly to deter opportunistic theft, etc. For the same reasons and to prevent making the vehicle more top heavy, I also preferred not to keep the jerry cans on the roof.
In the end I decided to weld the two jerry can holders to the inside of the vehicle, one on the passenger side, and one on the driver side, to keep the weight balanced. Choosing the height for the baskets is tricky.. one wants to make sure it is easy to remove the cans so they can't be mounted very high or else the can hits the roof. On the other hand, if you put the basket too low, then it can interfere with the sleeping space in the back of the car.
Bumper Rebuild
Locking Tire Carrier, Locking Full Size Spare Shovel, Scissor Jack + Crank, Socket Driver, Jumper Cables Tarp, Tow Straps
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Electrical System
Batteries: Primary, Auxillary, Specialty
Lights: USB
Jumping
Charging, Solarpanels
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Storage
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Center Console
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Starboard
Bicycle Panier Bicycle Rack Storage Mesh
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Portside
Mesh Bicycle Panier
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Aft: Tailgate
Books Maps Stools
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Dorsal:
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Ventral: Roof
Center: Bag Right: Bike Front: Platform Rear Rack:
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.