A new product that we are excited to share is the Bluetooth Battery Monitor from Ultimate9. We’re so happy with how it works, we choose to have a contest and give one away with free shipping to someone in the U.S or Canada. They are a great way to monitor your battery’s life without having to pop the hood, and removes the question of knowing if your Element (or any car with a lead-acid battery for that matter) will start when you need it to. It will provide a warning via Bluetooth to your device if your battery gets to the danger zone of not starting. And it’s super affordable at only $45. If you’d like to pick one up (or two, or three), you can here.
If you'd like to enter our Guess the Voltage contest, all you have to do is input what our battery level was on the evening of 1/06. We grabbed a screen shot from the app while sitting comfortably in front of the TV with our 2004 Element sitting 30 feet away. Simply guess between 9 and 15 volts. Contest ends at midnight, Sunday 1/16 and the winner announced Monday, 1/17. You can view details and enter your guess here.
It’s a new year and we’re coming up on our one-year ElementDriven anniversary.
We’re planning a celebration to take place near ElementDriven HQ in Vancouver, WA, for late February or early March. Plans will be finalized soon and once locked in, we’ll share the date and location.
It should be a good time with other Elements to check out and good conversation with other Element owners helping us celebrate our anniversary. We’ll be providing our donation celebration funds to the American Diabetes Association for all the rear-seat latch plate sets we sold this year, along with giving away prizes, great treats/refreshments and plenty of parking.
New Products Keep Rolling In
We’re constantly adding to our Element accessories list of cool parts, with a lot more to come. We’re happy to announce our partnership with Rain Dean. If you’re not familiar with him, he used to make and sell the Eletent - the mini tent that mounts to the back of your Element with the lift gate and tailgate open, creating more square footage inside your Element.
Eletent Bug Screens for the rear and also the push-out side windows. They have his unique hand-sewn, craftsman touch and are super effective at keeping out the blood (fun) suckers that can ruin a great camping adventure, and yet still allow calming breezes to pass through. He’s working on even more products for this year and we’ll be sure to share when new items come out from Rain Dean.
Meet Theo, Our New Family Member
We’d like to introduce, Theo. I’ve been looking for a new car to call ElementDriven’s rolling showroom. It had to be an early AWD version with a manual transmission and my budget was $500-$1,000 (stop laughing). I figured it would be a car with needs and over 300k miles that would be in another time zone. Well, I got lucky and found one in our own back yard with only 196k miles, and slightly over budget - well, double my budget. Theo is a 2003 EX, with Eternal Blue Pearl paint. He needs a new exhaust (we have that already), windshield and some rust repair around the windshield header area, plus some dent repair and fixing an engine leak. We have big plans for Theo, including a lift kit, engine upgrade, adding a sixth gear plus a lot more. We hope you’ll tune in to see the transformation of this year and beyond.
Since we now have Theo, we are expanding our Aerogenics offerings and will be adding more of their products this week to improve Theo's abilities, and ground clearance. See what's available and create your list of Aerogenics items to add to your Element by clicking here.
And don't put off getting a cat cover. I still offer low-cost installations within the Portland, OR/ Vancouver, WA area, and can even come to you to install yours to make sure you're protected against theft. Click here for details and to order your cat cover and install.
Tread Magazine
If you are into flipping magazine pages to see what’s out there in the world of car camping and overland adventures, we are running our first ElementDriven ad in the upcoming March-April issue of Tread magazine. Although it generally caters to the world of Jeeps and Toyotas, we feel that the Element group deserves to be represented too. I encourage you to subscribe...and maybe let them know you want to see more Honda Element content when you do. Here’s a link to their subscription page, available as print or digital subscriptions.
We’d like to wish you a Happy New Year and hope you’ll get out there and enjoy all that nature, the trails and/or the streets have to offer in your Element.
Make sure to check in often as we have a lot in the works for our “new products” department.
Take it E-zee,
Jeff Stites
We are super stoked to share that we’ve now partnered with Rain Dean. If you’ve been involved in the Element social media world, then you’ll likely know his name. We’re providing support so Rain can focus on producing his well-crafted items, and we’ve taken on the duty of processing orders and helping to spread the word about his many talents.
Mr. Dean is working on a number of products, and after a hiatus from social media, he’s back at it and leading things off by offering the Eletent Bug Screen. Great for pets and for enjoying increased airflow while keeping out the bugs that can sometimes mess with that great-outdoors enjoyment. Fastens with Velcro so set up and tear down is a breeze. Can be used with tailgate up or down and it's built to last many seasons of Element camping use.
For complete details and an affordable way to enjoy life in the back of your Element, visit the product page here.
]]>Since ElementDriven turned into a business in early February—created in a matter of a few days, I might add—we’ve been enjoying the positive aspects of new business ownership and all that comes with it.
My partner Shannon and I both enjoy problem solving, so we tend to take any issues that land in our way head-on. Unfortunately life in general can get in the way of running a new business. There were medical issues with elder family members that pulled us away from our full-steam-ahead approach to getting out new products and also slowed down order fulfillment.
In addition, I lost an aunt that I cared dearly for, but she’s now in a better place. And medical issues with other elderly family members are now under professional care, thankfully.
With that, we get to pull out of the rest area (not really rested, but ready), windshield cleaned off, food in our belly and back up to speed on the ElementDriven highway.
I have a big list of new items to create, refine, launch and share with you. We’ll keep you posted here as those new items become available.
If you’re local to the Pacific Northwest and attended the Gresham Honda Element meet-and-greet in July, put together by Nick Stice, then you saw one of our soon-to-be released products for the interior of your Element. I’ll leave that little teaser here for now as we’re working out the fine details, but it was well received and interest was surprisingly positive.
If you are a satisfied customer of ours, we’d encourage you to send us pics of your Element, along with your name (we don’t publish last names), plus year and model of your E and we’ll add you to our E-Rides section on our site to share our growing family with others.
Take it E-zee,
Jeff Stites
Every year for the past few years Shannon and I have planted Black-Eyed Susans. I enjoy watching them grow and taking the time to train and redirect the vines to climb a wall area on our patio. They typically reach the bottom of a bird condo under our roof overhang in September. It takes some time for the end result of a full wall covered by them but the results of watching them grow, with their constant flowering, is worth it to me. They are a nice reminder to stop and take time to focus on growing them and redirecting them here and there.
It’s only been since February this year that we started ElementDriven and I’m amazed at how much has happened—and we are growing. Even more amazing is the genuine positivity we’ve encountered with the Element community. I’m consistently blown away by the support we’ve been shown, which helps push us forward to try and make our customers happy campers.
You may have noticed our site’s product page grew by 13 items. We are happy to announce that we partnered with RobDeezy to offer his unique products for Honda Elements. You can view the current collection here. We look forward to showcasing what RobDeezy has to offer, with more products to be added over the next few months.
Coming from the world I’ve lived in as a graphic designer, art director and road racer (among many other things), I’m constantly striving to push myself to improve—which extends to our products. In short, I’m rarely satisfied with the end result of something I produce. I’ve had to learn to settle in some instances, usually when time constraints are involved, or when my current equipment limits what I can achieve.
With that, I have made a couple of improvements to our OEM- wrapped latch covers, and I’m fully satisfied with the end result. Gregory T. provided this image to showcase how good the improved design looks, stating, “Wow! These look factory!” Also, we recently launched our budget-friendly passenger's seat work tables, with another higher-end version (that folds for easier storing) coming out before June 1.
I’ve been compared to the main character, Caractacus Pott, in the movie Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, and I’m okay with that. I mean, did you see that beautiful work-of-art car he built?! I have a lot of ideas, plans and products that will spill out of my brain and onto our site over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to this feed to see what’s next.
Until then,
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
I’ve spent a lot of time in our Element the past 30 days. I had the pleasure of meeting two awesome people in the Napa and Sonoma areas of Northern California. Two different people, meeting them for two different reasons.
For Eve, who lives in the Napa area, I was able to install an Aerogenics cat guard on her Kiwi-colored Element. I think the car completely fits her personality. I would have loved to talk to her a few mores hours but after installing the shield I had to roll west to discuss a couple of new products with the originator of them, who was just as much a gracious and entertaining host as Eve. I’d like to offer more info on those products, but that’ll come soon enough as details get ironed out. Although it was a quick two-day trip, it was well worth it since I got to meet two wonderful Element owners and listen to their stories.
I’ve logged many miles just searching for OEM rubber flooring for our wrapped latch covers, especially the black color, and coming up short-handed a few of times. The best part of the search is getting to meet and talk to the people involved. After a year-plus of COVID isolation, I believe the value of interactions with others has increased, and I’m good with that.
Our news feed/blog will now post every other week. This will allow me to provide interesting details about what’s happening at ElementDriven and focus on getting our new products launched.
Have you seen our new work table for the passenger seat? It’s our latest item that will help those who work and play from their Es. It provides a large work area to spread out all your work stuffs. This table is for those with automatic transmissions and incorporates a safety lockout. We will have a manual trans version and higher-end version that folds for easy stowing when not in use. Check out our new work table here.
The month of May should prove interesting for ElementDriven as we intend to have even more new product announcements to share.
Until then,
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
Now that Spring has sprung into full bloom (well...almost), it’s time to start prepping for Spring and Summer outings in our Elements. I know I’m looking forward to getting out, especially with the sun shining. I’ve gotten my two vax doses, which helps ease my mind on traveling more, although I’m still practicing safety protocols.
For inside-your-E safety, I suggest not going anywhere without our seat latch covers. They’ll keep your knees safe from bruises and give you additional floor space that comes in handy for load-in and load-out. You can order yours by clicking here.
With our products I prefer to keep prices locked in and set for a long time so I don’t have to raise them, but our OEM-wrapped covers had a price increase due to higher material cost and time to produce them. It’s unfortunate but also necessary in order to keep the wheels rolling forward. That price is now set and won’t change for a long time.
If you’ve been waiting for the right time to get your set, now might be that time. You can save 7% on your order now through the end of April. Enter “AprilShowers” at checkout for the savings. And for this that have ordered, again, thank you! And don’t forget, $1.50 of each set sold in 2021 goes to the American Diabetes Association.
I know that I can’t live without my latch covers as I am constantly throwing tools and gear in our rig since I also do various craftsman/woodworking jobs. I hope those that have theirs put them to good use and find how functional they truly are.
In the parts department
If anyone is looking for the little, rubber cup-holder fingers, I have some used inventory. I added them as a new part for easy ordering, so if you’re missing any, you can find them by clicking here.
We are getting positive feedback for those who’ve received their powder-coated latch covers, with many being really happy with them. That’s the feedback we like to hear.
We have online written instructions in our Glovebox section on our site and an install instructional video on our ElementDriven YouTube channel if you have difficulty in mounting your covers, for anyone who could use the help.
We are slowly shipping the wrapped sets of our floor plates, and got bogged down due to all the variables encountered with initial set up. It looked so simple with the vision I had in my head, but in reality, steel and rubber do not like to adhere to each other. I want these wrapped sets to last a long time so a lot has gone into making sure that happens. If you’ve ordered and are waiting on a set, they are shipping out this week and early next week. We appreciate your patience as we dial-in this new process and work to minimize build time.
Unfortunately it’s getting harder to find the OEM rubber floor material used, so I’ll either need to back-order any future orders (possibly 4-6 weeks for delivery) to build up supply, or look to manufacture our own material to cover any future requests. I personally don’t like the idea of having to back-order products so will see what I can do to avoid that.
We’ve got other products in the works and plans for growing ElementDriven so we hope you’ll stay in touch to see what useful items we can bring to Element owners.
E-Owner Spotlight
With this blog I also want to showcase Element owners, parts manufacturers and those in the E community who are helping to make a difference with the Element experience.
Dat Tran is a local Pacific NW Element owner who is working hard to help others. He helps organize cat guard installs for those that don’t have the space or tools to do it themselves, and also helps people locate the Element they want. I hear nothing but good things about Dat, so look him up on Instagram or Facebook and let him know he’s appreciated.
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
The final production set-up phase for the OEM rubber-mat-wrapped latch covers is complete. Now that I’ve got my jigs dialed in, it’s on to production and shipping orders the rest of this week and next. For those waiting for these new versions, thank you for your patience. I’m hoping they’ll exceed your expectations.
Just like the powder-coated covers, the number of upgrade orders for the wrapped versions surprised me... Well, not fully surprised. These stock-material-wrapped versions are what quite a few people have wanted. They are perfect for Element owners with kids and furballs, they blend in nicely with their stealthy look and have a soft backing like the rest of the rubber floor. I’m designing them to last for quite a while. I’d love to get pics from you all and feedback once these land in your Elements.
Customer E-Rides
On that note, we’ve added a number of site updates, one being the “Glovebox” section, found on our top navigation list. It takes you to a variety of pages that show product instructions, how to navigate our site and my favorite: the E-Rides page, where we showcase the rides of ElementDriven customers who are using their new floor-latch plates. You can view that page here, and check out the Glovebox page for any info related to ElementDriven and our products.
Spring is in the air and I’m looking forward to getting our ‘04 EX cleaned up.
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
Tomorrow is the one-month mark of our pre-launch for ElementDriven — although with it being February, it was a short month. We are officially launched and shipping seat-latch covers now. The whole experience has been positive and amazing as things fell into place along the way, although some things took a little convincing.
Now is where the rubber meets the road; seeing the seat-latch covers thrown into real-world use and abuse. I’m looking forward to images from those who bought, and will buy, showing their covers in place in their new home.
In the effort to minimize waste in outgoing orders, instructions on mounting and adjusting your seat-latch covers will be on the ElementDriven site. I’m sure I’ll even make an oddball video to go along with it. With these videos I get to help showcase some musicians that haven’t had venues to play over the last year. If you missed the order boxing video, you can view it here
We have a lot in store for this year. We plan to introduce more products, like the OEM rubber mat-wrapped versions of our latch plates that just got offered, which have exceeded order expectations. If you have a pet that cruises with you in your Element then these are the versions to have. They blend in well and look like a factory accessory (to me anyway).
Enjoy your seat-latch covers. I’m off to ship out another batch.
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
Karen H. provided the closest entry to our “Guess the ODO Giveaway” contest. Our odometer reading at the time of the contest start was 160,906. Karen listed 160,850, putting her within 56 miles.
Once we confirm shipping details and color preference with Karen we’ll be sending out her free pair of Element seat latch covers. We’d like to thank everyone that entered. It was interesting to see all the guesses.
We are on track to ship all pre-orders placed by March 8. I’m hopeful it’ll be sooner and looking forward to getting these into your hands.
I’m close to having prototypes done for OEM rubber floor wrapped units for that stealthy look, along with plugs for the holes for kids and pets. Pics and video to come over the next day or two. We know how important it is for your family members and furry friends to enjoy the ride with you in your E, or camped out enjoying the best of what nature has to offer.
We have additional E products in the works currently so stayed tuned to our news feed for info. If there’s something you’ve always wanted for your E, let us know. We might be able to make it or find it.
Take it E-zee.
Jeff Stites
We’re Jeff and Shannon.
We started ElementDriven a week ago. And it’s been a really busy week getting set up. We’re close to being fully operational and looking forward to shipping orders soon. If you haven’t pre-ordered your Element rear-seat floor-latch plates, we encourage you take advantage of our introductory pricing—as the standard retail price will go into effect March 1.
First off, the production process is going well. The first batch of ElementDriven rear-floor seat-latch plates is cut. Next up is forming, and then off to powder-coat. Once powder-coating is finished, we’ll get down to the business of packing your orders and shipping them to you. I’m picking up cartons in our E on Friday. Is it weird to be excited about picking up flat cardboard? But still, I can’t wait for that.
I’m looking forward to the process of setting up a streamlined system for packing your orders. Not sure if it’s the former road-racer mentality in me—to always look for ways to improve on something—or just that I like to geek out on systems set-up. I’ll post pics here and on our social media channels as we hit the ready-to-ship stage.
We have many projects on the horizon for ElementDriven; I hope you’ll stay tuned to this blog, posted every Tuesday.
Contest time! NOTE: This contest ended March 1, 2021.
We want to give back to the E community by giving away a free pair of ElementDriven floor covers. Here’s how: we just took a pic of our odometer in our 2004 E. Our mileage is between 160,000 and 165,000.
The person who guesses closest to our actual mileage (whole miles, no tenths) gets a free set, including shipping (U.S. shipping addresses only).
The winner will be announced March 2, 2021, here on our news page and social media channels.
Everyone can still “win” with a discount by ordering your set before March 1st and taking advantage of our introductory price.
Take it E-zee.
Jeff & Shannon
]]>First prototype was ready for application testing Jan 20. I believe there were six or seven revisions due to the original design being too flimsy; it would bend too easily just trying to unfasten it from the seat latch rods mounted to the floor on our ‘04 Element. First versions were 18ga. steel. We bumped up to 16ga., the thickest stock that could still be formed and keep the fastening system from being too thick to act as fasteners. The manufacturing team did a great job in getting the changes implemented, especially from my shoddy welded visual experiments.
On Friday, Feb 5, I picked up the latest prototype set, knowing that we were close on the previous version. They fit far better than I initially anticipated when coming up with this idea. I was so excited that I threw some hammered-finish flat-black paint on a pair of the plates and put them in the Element while still a little tacky to the touch. I posted the pics on Facebook and things blew up from there. I had initially planned on ordering 10 sets to see if other E owners would be interested in ‘em. Yeah, there’s interest!
I hadn’t seen any other versions on the market, only heard about them. Luckily I was able to compare my prototypes to versions from 2018, thanks to E-owner Scott. Although the execution is similar the products are a bit different. I was adamant that ours needed to be one piece of steel for strength and no additional fasteners that could break off or slow down production, and to keep cost to a minimum—although the cost of steel has increased significantly.
From that Friday-night post, there were over 200 E owners interested in these covers within 24 hours. You guys are nuts! And I’m glad you are. Late Friday night I came up with the plan to launch this as a new product, based solely on the overwhelming positive comments from Facebook E Owners, and also Lovers. I’m not sure how I got everything done to get ready for launch in five days. Coffee anyone?
I can’t tell the people reading this enough of how wonderful it was getting to see the enthusiasm from FB group members. It was also nice to see pictures of the people as I built the “want”/“need” list from all the messages. Something I won’t get to do as I automate order taking, but maybe down the road ElementDriven can sponsor an Element cruise-in/rally and we can see each other in real life. Who’s in?
Welcome to ElementDriven Lunch Launch day as I’m very excited to let Element owners see more info, pricing and place pre-orders starting at Noon (PST).
Click here to view details and order your set of Element rear-seat floor-latch plates.
Look for the latest updates and E news right here every Tuesday.
Thanks, and take it E-zee, gang.
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