mthoodsub

97 Outback Sport Outback Struts King Raised Springs for Forester 1/2" Strut Top spacers in rear 215/75R15 Studless Snows 4.11 swap with VLSD rear Primitive Skidplates Set up for winch receiver front and rear

Finally got around to replacing my mis-shapen 1-1/4" trailer hitch frame with a 2" receiver in the bumper. Now I can use my winch cradle front and rear Started by cutting out a hole, just big enough, through all the layers and structures of the bumper to slide the receiver into. Then used 3/16" plate as a spreader across the back of the bumper, was going to use 1/4" but after examining the structure I think 3/16" will be ok With the 3/16" bar I added to the mounting arms, I had to beat on the bumper to get it to slide into place. I like that, as I think those are the weak point of this setup. I also wanted something to help keep the bumper mounting bolts from tearing through the body, so I recycled my old trailer hitch frame into some shackle mounts, torched off the ends, and burned a hole for the shackles.

Got out and did some wheeling the past couple weeks, after last winter it feels great to get some snow. Only got some pictures of our pre-Christmas run. Winch and mods held up great. Aired down to 12 psi and the snow was still just too soft/sugary. Finally decided to just winch myself around in the ditch and head to another trail. Pretty happy with the way it wheels, but I think its time to move to some Grabbers or BFGs

Some recent updates Re-sealed my 2.2 Swapped over to 4.11 gears with VLSD rear Made and installed 1/2" spacers for front subframe and control arms, to help with my axle angle Reinforced bumper and core support to hold 2" receiver for winch cradle Only got a few pictures of the receiver install Here you can see the lower core support/skid plate mount I reused from my legacy. Its welded at either end to the tow loops with 1/4" plate caps. What it looks like all finished And with my cradle I haven't got to try out the winch on the Subaru yet, but we are finally getting some good snow around here and I will be going out soon

Finished my roof basket over the weekend. Got the last of the sides on and painted it. Holding it down using some 4" square U-bolts My light bar ended up a little crooked, but oh well This is what I have holding my Hi-Lift for now. With everything loaded up, I don't plan to use it for very much, mainly wanted my spare and the hi-lift out of the cabin and a more safe place to carry fuel. Got the light bar all wired up and working used a 1/4" grommet and just went through the roof. Its rained for a couple days and haven't had any leaks

Finally got some wheeling in. Had some fun out in Sand Lake on Sunday Didn't get a lot of pics, not a lot of trail damage just a broken tail light. That night I had to drive to Bend for business, a total of 350+ miles for the day, including the wheeling. Then on Monday had some spare time and went over to Cline Buttes OHV area, its somewhat new, only been open a few years now. 4 Wheel & Offroad Magazine wheeled here during their Ultimate Adventure in 2012. Awesome views of the Cascades, It was fairly clear that day and I could see from Mt. Adams in Washington south to Broken Top. The green trails are pretty tame, mostly deep dusty stuff with some sharp rocks mixed in I stuck with the green trails and one of the blue trails, there are a good bit of black diamond trails too, Great views from just about anywhere in the area, Three Sisters in the background of this one.

Picked these up last night from Inferno Fab Friend and USMB member had them made in trade for my Borla replicas and dual port ej22. Stainless version, equal length

Got some more work done on the basket, added a bar across the rear for some future lights, worked up my spare tire hold down, and added some conduit down the length of the basket for the wiring of said future lights. This bar in the rear also covered up the ugliness of the fact I used an old bed frame, and hides those assembly slots I kept for tie down holes Nut welded into a piece of 1" square tube, then welded to one of the cross supports First time trying to weld conduit, i used my oxy/acetylene to burn off the galvanization and hit it with the wire wheel. Seemed to get a decent weld on it.

This guy builds some good stuff, he custom built my 2" drop spacers for my trailing arm bracket for my Impreza build. Im extremely happy with them.

Got to work on my Roof Basket this weekend, pretty happy with the progress I made. Started out with a basic layout using an old bed frame and some expanded steel. Finally got some shielding gas for my welder Made some uprights for the corners and kept everything as square as possible using the strap Corner Posts done Then I started tacking in the top rim of my basket, all the flat bar I used was 1/8". Then added some side supports Made a quick test fit Took some measurements and added some support for the expanded across the bottom And welded the expanded to the cross bars Added mounts for some light thing I got. And then test fit the light onto the basket 30" Combo Beam LED Bar, 3w each, 180w total draw Need to gather up some more expanded for the sides and figure out some hold down loops or locks for my tire and Hi-lift

I would definitely get one, especially if you do any wheeling alone. The extra expense can be worth the trouble of leaving your car stranded as you roll your flat, or bent rim down the road to hitch a ride. Just rotate the spare onto the vehicle on your first tire rotation and let it get rotated at all 4 corners before rotating it out. It won't be a perfect match on diameter but this is what I did with my 5-AT2's. Until I bent and fixed one rim and just kept it as my dedicated spare. Even then, I used it as a spare with probably %60 tread when the rest were down to %10. Got me home 80+ miles, never heard or had any trouble with drivetrain. But that's just my experience

Here's a peek at what will be coming up, also installed a CB over the holidays.

Here are some numbers and pictures, now that I have the 215/75R15's on, they are just studless snow tires for now. Will go with either Grabber AT2's or Dynapro MT's when I can afford it. Between the 2" spacers and the little cutting I did, I think they fit pretty well Right around 5/8" clearance. This is how the Impreza sits now, Im happy with how level it turned out, the 1/2" spacers in the rear turned out to be just right. Here is the measurement at the front. And at the rear Using just the measurements at the bottom edge of the doors, between the very beginning and after the tires, I have gained 5.75" in the rear and 5.25" in the front. Here are my ground clearance measurements 12.25" at my rear skid plate And its hard to tell in the pics, but I measured 11" at the lowest point of my Y-pipe. Also did some light wheeling over the weekend while looking for a christmas tree, 3-4" of snow covered in ice, the Impreza performed very well, but I am definitely interested to see how it does when I install the 4.11's

Got my 215/75R15's on last night, which are about 3" bigger than the 205/60R15's I had previously. So I'm hoping for 1.25"-1.75" gain from just the tires. I will post up my measurements soon, but here is a crappy angle pic to start.

Ok great, thanks for the tip! And I've got new tires scheduled for this week so more to come.

In anticipation of finding tires soon, I decided to make a little room for them over the holiday weekend. Aside from cutting out about 1/2" from the front of the rear wheel wells, I took off the mud flaps and did some minor re-shaping of the area I rubbed on the Legacy. Using my old 27x8.5R14 AT2 spare I had from the Legacy, I found I was only rubbing on full droop at full lock. The "frame rail" in front of the control arm mount is double walled, so I cut out one of the walls. Then, since I don't have my torch running, I used my welder to apply heat and then gently beat the second wall back until I had no more rubbing. Ground the welds "smooth" and gave it a shot of paint. I know the 215/75R15's I am going to be running are larger than the AT2 I was using, so I expect there to still be some rubbing in this spot, but any room gained is a plus, to me.

PM sent.

With the lift pushing the rear tires forward, and the want for bigger tires. The obvious answer is to correct the Trailing Arm bracket. I was at first going to just use the standard Legacy OB bracket, but having heard of only gaining about 1/4" of clearance, I wanted to go another route. Since I have not seen a build with my exact set up, I figured I would try something. I met another member, local to me who has started to build lift kits, and got him to build me a set of 2" drop spacers for the trailing arm bracket. I was hoping that by doubling the drop of the LOB bracket, that I would achieve close to double the clearance gained. Here are the spacers, 2"x 3/16", turned out very well. And here is the clearance measurement before the spacers went in. My current tire size is 205/60R15, and I am planning to go up to a 215/75R15, so anything gained here is worth it IMO. Here they are installed. And yes, I know I'm not using Grade 8(10.9) bolts. Drove around the block a few times and came up with this measurement. I don't think it will gain much more than this from anymore settling. So it looks like I've gained about 3/8" maybe 7/16", not ideal but I can work with that.

It' been a few weeks and the suspension has more than settled in now. So I figured I would post my final numbers. Here are the final front measurements Here are the rear measurements Which calculates to a mean(average) lift of 3.78" of lift.

Oh and I went ahead and swapped the proportioning valve from the Legacy at the same time I installed the lift. Brakes seem fairly more responsive, so I'm happy with that.

Yes I will either go look for the OB bracket or make my own spacers. After looking at the Impreza the last few days makes me wonder how it would look with the 4" AA kit that I have laying around, that I never put on the Legacy. But I think I will save that for when/if I decide to do a dual range swap I will post an update soon I hope.

Then moved onto the rears. I didn't get a before pic of the rear stock set up. When I had this set up on my Legacy I was still sitting a bit lower in the rear compared to the front and I did not want that to happen this time. So I went ahead and made some spacers for the rear out of some 1/2" HDPE. I used that upper strut mount cover that came in the legacy as my template In this picture you can see what I used as my template. Also that 2lb. fire extinguisher ended up being the perfect size for my center hole. I centered the fire extinguisher 1/2" from each hole. I used my dremel to cut them out, this is the bit I used. I used high speed and in order to make clean cuts, I had to move pretty quickly and firmly. You can see how well that turned out Rears are installed I also didn't take any pictures of how/where I drilled the new holes for the Forester top hats, since I don't like how it turned out, and don't want to lead anyone to do it that way. Even with the spacers being 1/2", I got thread engagement of the entire nut so I feel safe about that. I also took off the rear sway bar, and also installed Ingalls Camber bolts in place of the top strut bolt on the rear. I had to do this in the Legacy as well. And this is how it rolled out of the garage These are just immediate results, I know the springs need to settle down a bit. Front After Rear After Need to find 2 more 215/75R15, and make spacers, or find some Outback trailing arm brackets, and get an alignment. Thanks for looking guys.

Ok, so, made some progress this weekend. The Impreza sits a littler higher now. Before rolling into the garage for comparison Rear Before Front Before Tore into the front first, knowing it would go quicker than the rear. Here is a comparison pic of the stock OBS struts(left) and the 97-99 Legacy Outback Struts with King Springs Raised Springs for a 98-02? Forester with 98' Forester Top Hats. These are the Fronts. And as a refresher from above, here is a comparison shot of the rears, same setup as the fronts Fronts Installed The fronts went really smooth, I ended up removing the swaybar. As from previous experience there is really no need for a stock size swaybar with the stiffness of the King Springs

One of the very first times offroad with the Legacy and I do this. Limped off the mountain with a donut to a gas station with air, and beat the rim back to shape with my BFH, filled it up and headed back to the hills. This happened when another member and I went exploring after one of the forest clean-ups we organized with the Forest Service Tore the rear bumper off on the first group trip I attended, organized by Scooby, we headed through TSF to Sand Lake The bumper would not be the only damage I receive that trip. And this was accomplished from sliding through a turn, over a culvert hole/ditch into a large rock

Yes I was using the 98-02 Forester struts. And you mention the 03-08 having a higher REAR spring perch, are the front perches not higher like the OB's?