In My Element - The Bed Platform
And so the adventure continues...
In case you missed the last part of the "In My Element" series, you can find it here:
In My Element - Introduction
Many people might imagine sleeping in an Element to be an uncomfortable experience. Some go as far to tell me I'll stop sleeping in my car as soon as my back gives in. This is simply ignorance. It's not what you sleep in that makes a difference - it's what you sleep on.
With that said, I'd like to make my case with the bed platform I designed for my Element which supports one of the most comfortable mattress I've ever slept on.
The first thing to know is that the bed platform had to be designed with organization in mind. Every square inch of space in the Element was not to be wasted since I was living in it so I had to maximize two opposing forces - bed area and storage space at the same time. More than that, I wanted the set-up of my bed to be minimal so I don't have to take time shuffling things around every time I wake up or go to sleep. Lastly, I wanted quick and easy access to all my stuff whether I was inside or outside of the car. I wanted all this done without making any complicated or un-reversible modifications with my vehicle.
The second thing to know is that the element is a configurable vehicle. There are 64 ways you can configure the rear seats - you can even remove them. One cool way to configure the rear seats is to fold them flat as shown below (picture from Honda's website).
As cool as it looked, it didn't serve my purpose because it wasn't the ultimate in comfort, required shuffling things around a lot, and didn't leave much in terms of storage space.
What I opted for instead was to remove the rear seats completely and design a custom platform for it.
My idea was to build a 4 by 4 foot flat platform that meet the front seats when folded fully back to provide a long, wide and flat sleeping area. Having never built anything with wood before - I searched around the net and found one guy in the Honda Element forums (theetimetravelers) who did something close to what I wanted and provided enough photos of his project to help me get started with mine..
I built the platform with basic Home Depot material including 5 steel legs about 10" tall, 47x45" plywood board with lumbar wood to add extra support, and 4 turnbuckles to lock the platform to the floor. Cost me about $100 in material:
On top of the plywood board I put the same kind of material you put under a carpet. The reason is simply to prevent the plywood from tearing the mattress I put on top of it.
Under the platform are two 42" long, 6" high, plastic drawers that can be pulled out either rearward from the trunk area or forward at the front of the platform to provide easy to access storage space whether I'm inside or outside of the car.
Here's the rear view:
Here's the front view (behind the front seats). The 1/4" piece of wood serves a purpose. It evens out the floor, provides extra weight distribution from the front legs, and acts as a stop to prevent the trays from sliding forward during hard braking.
Notice the attention to detail. I shaped the platform to nicely fit the shape of the element. The precise fitting with the natural curves of the Element adds an extra functional benefit of locking the platform in place without any additional hardware.
Lastly, the width of the narrowest part of the trunk space is 47" wide. I found a perfect, 3" thick, foam mattress that got excellent reviews and was 48" wide which allowed it to "fit like a glove." It's really firm and comfortable - good for the back. At 48" wide, it's wider than a twin but narrower than a full - enough to sleep two people side by side in many cases. Read about it here if you'd like:
Cabela's Deluxe Camp Bed
Here it is in my Element.
The tray slides forward or back. Here's the back sliding view. Sorry but I forgot to include a picture of it sliding forward..
With the platform installed, I have plenty of space behind the front seat to store more things! That's my new temporary storage, or trunk area!
Did you notice how the front end of the mattress was folded over on top of itself? I had to cut the foam inside a couple inches of length to make it foldable. Why the heck did I do that? Well consider that the length of the platform is 45" long which is a bit less than 4 feet - and I'm taller than that. As shown in an earlier photo, the front seats fold all the way back so I can rest the part of my body below my knees on them.. That was my original idea but it didn't satisfy me - I wanted supreme comfort for all parts of my body! Are you getting it??!
So with the front seats folded all the way back and the foam mattress flipped forward, here's what I get!
My head goes to the rear where there is a beautiful, large moonroof above me. How many of you have a glass ceiling in your room to see the stars!
The front end of the mattress rests perfectly on front seats. The very last bit of the foam mattress is amazingly held up by the headrest which is held into place because the two metal prongs stick right into the middle of the front seat. It's as if this car was designed with this in mind.
With bottom half of the rear closed. Notice how the mattress is flush with the bottom rear closed so when I'm laying down on it with the top half open, I get an unobstructed view of the ocean with it's fresh air rushing into me. I just have to figure out how to open the rear without getting out of the car..
The bottom half of the rear open. Easy rear access to my stuff.
Here is how it looks folded from the front.. That's me in the shadow :)
I'd appreciate if you left a comment in this blog so I have an idea if people are actually interested in knowing about this... Otherwise I'm just writing to thin air!
