Droves of Americans are getting in on the fun trend of buying and modifying Japanese Kei trucks. Sure, several states have banned these little guys from their roads, but enthusiasts can’t get enough. Perhaps the cutest of the bunch is this one, a 1990 Honda Acty. A YouTuber converted it into a surprisingly nice camper for its tiny footprint, and now it’s for sale.
This little camper first made the RV news rounds back in May when its creator, Levi Kelly, published a viral video giving viewers a tour of the camper. Levi calls this the “world’s smallest functioning camper,” and I have no idea if it’s true. But I don’t really care because he has me hooked. It seriously looks nicer inside than the last hotel room I’ve stayed in.
Admittedly, an imported Honda Acty isn’t exactly something that you’re going to take on a long-distance trip. But if you’re looking for a little camper to take out into the backwoods or to more local state park campgrounds, I can see it working really well. Even cooler is how I recently spotted Levi’s build for sale, and his asking price is actually very reasonable. We’ll get to that in a little bit. First, let’s take a look at what he built:
Levi Kelly might not be a well-known name amongst car enthusiasts, and that’s because his passion is unique homes. His channel, Levi Kelly Tours, has been around since 2013, and he loves touring gorgeous houses all over the world. He also has a website to help you find the unique vacation rentals he’s toured, which is neat.
Levi also has a second channel, Levi Kelly, and that one’s more personal, with the videos showing the silly things that he builds on his 14-acre property. Many of the videos on his second channel involve home improvement, but most recently, Levi has been getting into building absurdly micro-sized tiny houses and also kitting out imported Japanese vans and trucks into campers. So, if you’re into looking at beautiful homes, it sounds like Levi’s main channel will be up your alley. What drew me in was what he did to this Honda Acty.
On May 10, Levi published the video above about his camper and in it, Levi helpfully details how he built this camper. He says he started with a 1990 Honda Acty 4×4 that was imported from Japan.
A Tiny Camper On A Tiny Truck
I’ve written about these little trucks a lot, but if you’ve missed those pieces, I’ll explain. The Acty is a member of the kei-jidōsha, Japan’s smallest class of highway-legal cars. When this truck was made, Kei regulations pegged the maximum length of a vehicle in the class at just 10.8 feet long. That makes this Honda Acty smaller than most highway-legal cars ever sold in America. In the modern day, only a Smart Fortwo comes in at a shorter length.
A 1990 Honda Acty is powered by a 656cc carbureted inline triple, good for a ravenous 34 HP. These trucks aren’t fast by any measure — cruising speed is about 55 mph — but they are reliable and will go as far as you’re willing to drive them.
What’s neat about the Acty is that it’s a descendant of Honda’s first production car, the T360. Yes, Honda is known for its motorcycles and reliable cars today, but its first production vehicle was a tiny truck! The Honda T360 launched in 1963. Back then, Japan’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry had proposed a plan to strengthen Japan’s auto sector by consolidating the industry into three groups. The perceived threat was that only automakers with something special to offer would be able to remain independent. Honda hit the ground running with an exceptional lineup of small cars and trucks.
The T360 series was replaced in 1977 by the Acty, and Levi’s is an early second-generation model.
Levi specifies that his camper is the world’s smallest functioning camper. The term “functioning” matters to Levi because he’s noticed that a lot of people build Kei truck campers, but they’re little more than just a place to put a bed. Levi says that his camper can be lived in for a couple of days, such as a weekend trip. That’s because this camper has a shower, a toilet, a sink, running water, and even solar panels.
Levi says that he started by painting the Acty “military green” and contrasting the green with black wheels. Now, you can definitely tell that this is not a professional paint job. Levi did not paint inside of the cab at all, and there’s green overspray on parts. However, it does present well in photos and video.
Levi says that the camper box was built over the course of a couple of weeks, and it’s constructed using 2x2s for framing. Levi notes that the truck has a carrying capacity of under 800 pounds, so he wanted to make sure that the Acty could carry the camper and a driver, and a passenger without being overweight.
Levi continues by saying that foam insulation was used inside, and residential exterior wall paneling was used for the outer walls of the camper. Cedar was used as stylish trim, and reclaimed wood was used for interior paneling, plus maple for the countertop and walnut for interior trim.
Attached to the side of the rig is a ladder, which gets you up to where the hinged solar panel is. The truck gets 100 watts of solar from this panel, which isn’t much, but this also isn’t a lot of camper. The panel charges a Pecron 288 Wh power station. This isn’t going to be enough juice to run an electric heater or even a flat iron for very long, but it should have no problem running lights, the fan, the water pump, and charging devices.
Inside, there’s just 21 square feet of living space, and Levi made the most of it. There’s a bench that converts into a bed, a sink with a decorative elephant-style faucet, and an electric pump hooked up to a 5-gallon drinking water jug. The sink drains into a 7-gallon gray tank under the sink. There isn’t an air-conditioner, but there are opening windows and a powerful side fan.
Additional features include an electric hot plate, an absurdly tiny wood-burning stove for heat, and a shower head that connects to the sink and feeds outside. Finally, there’s also a portable toilet, and apparently, how you use it is that you pull it out of the storage box and sit on top of it under the skylight dome.
Levi says that something neat about the camper is that it’s not permanently affixed to the truck. You can slide it off and use the camper by itself, or swap it into the bed of another Kei truck if you want to.
Beautiful And Priced Decently
You get all of this for the sum of just $11,900 (link to listing), which seems like a decent price for a whole Kei truck and a really cute camper on the back to sleep in. Some dealerships try to charge more than $12,000 just for the Kei truck alone! The truck also has the equivalent of 29,935 miles on its odometer, so it should have plenty of life left.
I hope to see more of this in the future. I love the creativity put into making a tiny camper like this, and it’s even cooler that it’s about as functional as you can expect given the size.
Of course, I recommend checking the Kei truck laws in your state before you head out to Hillsboro, Ohio, to buy this. But if you’re lucky to live in a pro-Kei state, I think this could be a great ride. I’d love to spend a weekend in the little camper at a state park or something. Heck, it would be a great little rig to use on a Gambler 500. The possibilities are endless! Well, so long as you aren’t going to try driving it across the country, anyway.
(Topshot: Autopian/Levi Kelly)
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