pontoontodd

Our friend M wanted to have an off road bachelor party so we took ten guys and five Subarus to the UP. We all met up at my house around noon Friday. C showed up early, his girlfriend drove his blue Outback and he flat towed his black Impreza OBS with his pickup. We went to a grocery store to buy food for the trip – bagels, strudel, bread, PB&J, pizzas, dogs and burgers, and taco ingredients. We left around 1PM and all drove to the cabin without any issues and cooked the pizzas. The next morning we cooked pancakes and packed up and left around 7AM. Headed across 2 to the railroad grade into Watersmeet, hit the mini whoop section on the way into town. Shortly after going through Watersmeet the blue Outback died and we eventually towed it back to Nordine's in Watersmeet. Eventually figured out the timing belt had skipped some teeth. C had brought a different tensioner thinking the one on there might be weak. Got it running again and headed towards the Baraga plains. After a couple more hours we finally got into an area with a lot of trails and the blue Outback died again. We got it running but not well, it probably had some bent valves. Pulled it to civilization with the 50' strap. Talked to a kid in the family that owns a repair shop of sorts, his mom wouldn't let him buy it. Found a gas station that would let us leave it there for a month, C is coming back up over the fourth of July with his girlfriend's family and will tow it back then. At some point early in the day A put the Impreza in a ditch and got it up on two wheels which bent one of the front wheels. Drove on some main roads to the Baraga plains. Drove around a sandy stunt area and got all the cars but the blue Impreza stuck at one point. Went to the sandy pipeline grade and hit that which cheered everyone up. Switched cars at the halfway point. Headed east on 28 to get close to halfway to where we were staying Sunday night. Headed south off the highway and did some more trail riding. Saw a couple of painted turtles at the start of one of the first trails. I let M and C lead the way and they decided to keep going straight where the road turned and we were on an old narrow somewhat overgrown trail. They started driving through the woods to a clearcut at one point and when we got out to look around and found we had gotten off the main trail a bit. Shockingly it went through to the dirt road we had turned off on. We found some other dead ends on the way to the campground. At one of them we noticed coolant coming out of the bottom of the Outback. One of the valve cover bolts had rubbed through the lower radiator hose. Cut the bolt and boss off flush with the recip saw and put the spare radiator hose on. The campground at Pike lake has been closed for almost a decade but the campground at Bass lake was open so we camped there. The next morning I took the overflow cap off the Outback which caused it to start leaking coolant again. A different valve cover bolt had rubbed through the hose. I was able to cut one of the hoses back, cut that bolt and boss off flush, and put it back together. In the morning we found some dead ends and motorcycle only trails. From there we headed east to Gwinn and got fuel. There was a nice little jump along the powerline on the south side of town that we took turns hitting. Looped around the south side of town on a whooped out sandy trail. Went south between Mehl Lake and Little Lake and everything seemed to be private. Went north across the highway on some sandy trails that led up to the snowmobile trail, which was sandy/dusty and whooped out. I was driving the Outback in the back and could see the Impreza bouncing around quite a bit, the right rear has no damping. Followed 35 for a bit and went down some other dead end trails. Eventually worked our way back up to the snowmobile trail but there were gates in a few places so we wound up taking 94 to Munising and got gas. At this point we decided to just go to the lodge we rented and make dinner. S cooked tacos. C wanted to do some trail riding since there are a ton of trails around that lodge. Figured we'd loop around for an hour or so, try to find an unpaved route to the Driggs River road. We went west and then turned off on Sunset Landing road. Fun road with dips/jumps and sandy turns. Came to a four way intersection. The widest straight route went right into a big pool of standing water. There was a trail right alongside it that was narrower but a decent dirt road with just a tree line in between. I drove down the dirt road and thought Cory saw me. They both joined up after the tree line. C didn't see me and had gotten overconfident from the standing water we'd driven through on sandy/rocky trails in the afternoon. He drove right into it and got stuck in the middle of the pond. It was about 50' wide and 200' long and he was stuck right in the middle. In a couple minutes there was water on the seats and they were sitting on the roof of the car. I couldn't get close to them on that trail since I started to sink in before even getting to the standing water. Water was only about a foot deep but the bottom was very soft. I got close on the side trail and we winched them over to the treeline. We were able to pull the car up the bank with the snatch strap, ripping off the front bumper in the process. It was held onto the brackets by four spot welds on each side. Pulled it back to the lodge and C told B he joined the swamp club. We drained the water out of the oil pan, pulled the plugs and cranked more out, and it sort of ran. Relays were clicking on and off, battery seemed weak, we're thinking the ECU being submerged might have caused problems. The next morning we drove back to the crime scene so we could all check it out in the daylight. At this point we struggled to get C's car running right, swapped the batteries between the Imprezas. It kept acting up for the next hour or two, hotwired the fuel pump, eventually just decided to flat tow it back home with the Outback. Outback was running hot above 70mph, especially up grades. Blasted out the radiator at a coin op car wash which didn't help much. Radiator has at least some mud on the backside of it. Had to run the heat about 1/3 of the time on the way home. Blue Impreza's hood didn't get latched properly after we got gas in Menominee so that blew open and smashed the windshield. Other than that we got home alright. Leaning towards just getting a RR strut, windshield, and a couple other things for the Impreza. Tempted to get Forester struts for it and pull the swaybars. Also tempted to just switch to the alloy wheels and snow tires and keep the steels for backup rather than buying more steel wheels that are just going to bend. Thoughts on that? The next day the Outback was leaking coolant again. Need to change the water neck on the radiator and flush the mud out of it.

While looking for rear axles we noticed that they are different lengths. Got a pair that I think are from a 98 Forester, right rear axle is about 10mm longer than the left rear. Shortly after the last Arkansas trip my wife and I went to Tennessee in the 99 Outback with kayaks. Forecast was for rain in IN, KY, TN so we stayed in western IL. Odometer went over 250k on the way down. Went to a couple different lakes in Illinois. Next we went to Interlake. Have to pay to enter now, not a lot of people out on the trails. Trails seem rougher and more overgrown than the last time we were there. Looped around to one of the lakes at the bottom of a rough hill. My wife figured we wouldn't see anyone else out on the lake and we didn't. Went up the hill without much problem and kept looping around. Showed her the one big climb just off the county road which wasn't much of a problem. The trail after that was quite narrow and washed out and at the bottom the whole area was flooded. We probably could have gone through but I decided to turn around and take the main trail back to the parking lot. On the way we stopped at a hiking trail. Trail was fairly overgrown and we were only able to follow it by looking for the markers on trees. We headed for Wood creek lake the next day. On the way to what we thought was the boat ramp we went by Wildcat off road park. I thought this was the park in KY where you can drive through a cave so we signed in and bought wristbands and a map. Then I found out this is not the park with a giant cave. Should have asked for my money back but we went out and looped around the main trail across the road from the office. There were a few sections that tested the Subaru but we made it through but I decided we should leave while we could. Did some more kayaking and hiking and had no car problems. Drove about 2000 miles, mostly on pavement, used about a quart of oil. We plan on taking ten guys in five Subarus to the UP soon, I think we have the cars all ready to go.

Looking good, should be a blast when it's done! Make sure you have enough piston to head clearance. Guess I mentioned that before.

We went back to Ozark NF in Arkansas over the weekend. Decided to check out the small section of it between Mountain Home and Mountain View. C made it to my house a little before 6AM Friday in his 99 Impreza Outback Sport and we hooked up the tow bar and lights and headed south. Picked up K on the way and met J in Mountain Home and unhooked the Impreza. We started trail riding towards the Leatherwood wilderness. We crossed a stream next to a waterfall and C noticed one of his tires was leaking. We swapped it out with his spare and continued. We spent the night at Gunner pool campground next to a small pool created by a rock dam holding back the stream. C's RR strut mount rusted out in the Impreza and he kept getting flat tires so we stopped at the Walmart in Mountain View and bought two Goodyears. There was a two hour wait so C did the mounting in the parking lot with a couple of prybars. K and I went to the tractor supply store and got a dozen ~8” hose clamps we used to hold his strut top mount together. B broke the RF lower balljoint (Amazon lifetime warranty) in the Forester, which also pulled apart the CV axle. Fortunately the balljoint came out easily and we were able to get it back together. His car was also running hot, the condenser is beat and the radiator was plugged with dirt/dust. We stopped a couple of times to blast out his radiator but that fix didn't seem to last very long. His engine is also still using a lot of oil, at least a quart per tank, doesn't seem to be going in the intake from the breathers or leaking. Any idea what the cause or solution to that problem is? C went to climb a long, rutted, rocky climb and his drivetrain was slipping about halfway up. We headed back out that trail the way we came but there was a long grade with some steep sections we had to drive back up. He thought the clutch was slipping so we spent some time pouring water in the clutch fork hole which didn't seem to help much. When we got back to the long climb out he couldn't drive it up. He said it was showing 30mph on the speedo but the car wasn't moving. I looked under the front and the RF CV axle bar and inboard joint were spinning but the outer joint was not. I tried towing him up the grade but didn't make it very far. I drove up to the top of the grade where B was waiting and got a spare front CV axle and some tools and drove back down to C. We swapped out the CV axle. C suggested towing him up just to make sure he'd get to the top rather than getting halfway up and having to back down. We hooked up the strap and went as fast as I thought was reasonably safe. Most of the time there was slack in the strap but I was pulling him a little on the steepest parts. He probably could have made it up under his own power but it was an entertaining ride and put us in a better mood. We were following what looked like a long trail on the map and came to a gate that was open but said private property. It was at a wide shallow rock stream crossing. C parked hard in the stream so we decided to follow suit for a photo op. C blew out a brake line in the Impreza when I started turning around in a giant dust cloud and he didn't see us until the last minute. We tried replacing the line but then the other rear line broke so we decided to just splice the rear lines together inside the car and bleed the brakes. While we were waiting for it to cool down we checked out the boat ramp I was turning around for. K noticed a big snakeskin and then noticed a snake. We saw at least two swimming around the rocks along the shore. Drove by the road to Sugarloaf Mountain, I thought at first we could drive to the top but the Forest Service had locked the gate. It was a mile to the top and there is a big fire tower so we figured that would be cool to check out. Walked to the top to find out we probably weren't supposed to climb the fire tower which was a big disappointment. The last night we camped at a campground that was partially closed with a spring and cave nearby. It had hot showers and we camped along the stream which was wide and shallow. B went back to the RV dump site and blasted out his radiator. We cooked dogs over a campfire and went to sleep. We packed up the cars in the morning and went to a picnic area with a cave and cliff amphitheater and ate bagels and cinnamon rolls. C stopped at the RV station to wash out his radiator and I hard parked the Outback on a sharp rocky curb which punctured the sidewall. I plugged it and aired back up. Plugs came out every hour or two so we eventually put the spare on, C was excited to see the electric jacks in action. One time we had to stop for that I pulled off the road in Mark Twain NF and after we plugged it we followed the overgrown trail there to a small pond. On the way back out that trail we did some hard parking on a small rock garden. We took a few other side roads/trails in Mark Twain that were fairly short dead ends. We were able to drive all three cars home. Outback just needs a tire patch. Impreza needs rear brake lines. Forester needs a new condenser and possibly radiator and probably tires. By far the most trail repairs we've ever done on a trip, a lot of them were tires. It was a hot weekend, highs of 90F and lows in the 60s, plenty of humidity and not much wind. But we had a good time and found some good trails. B is looking for a rust free Forester so any leads on that would be appreciated, let's say $3000 budget, under 200k miles, stick shift.

If you look at: http://www.monroe.com/en-US/e-catalog http://showmetheparts.com/kyb/ https://www.partsgeek.com/mmparts/struts/nissan/x_trail.html It does look like they have a little more travel than 1999 Outback struts, maybe an inch. Top threads are the same, so you could probably use Subaru top hats. Not sure about the bottom mount or offset for tire clearance and camber, pictures might not be those particular struts. For that matter have you tried putting Subaru rear struts on the front? I think the bolt pattern is the same, maybe not enough offset to give you good tire clearance, but they're definitely longer and have more travel. Looks like you could get an early 00 Xtrail with a 280hp SR20VET and six speed manual! Why not just buy one of those?

Yes, anything can be changed, but would it be worth the effort? You would have to modify or rebuild the subframe to change that, which some people do. I think longer links to get 13-14" of travel would be good enough. There will probably be all sorts of other things limiting suspension travel at that point. I should probably measure the bump steer with the stock links but I can't imagine it would be too bad. The BG links are still shorter than the axles, and they start out at more of a downward angle, so we have the same problem, it's not quite as bad. One of the main reasons we can get decent suspension travel out of the Subarus is that the CV axles are so long. I haven't seen many other cars, and virtually no trucks, with CV axles as long.

Yes, the inner CV bottoms out. I think this is mainly because the lateral links are shorter than the CV axles. On the 2000+ multilink, one of the links is very short. So as it swings down it pulls the wheel inward. The rear strut suspension does the same thing.

Did some measuring on the white 2002 OB H6 LL Bean wagon. Discs are 294mm and 15" alloy wheels from the 99 OB definitely don't fit. So I'll probably get 99 front brakes for that one. The coilover reservoir shocks I have from the a-arm setup have 6.5" travel so I can get about 10.5" of wheel travel in the rear with those, shouldn't be too hard to adapt. Droop travel seems limited by the inboard CV joint bottoming out, which it does on the rear strut suspension at full droop as well. Stage two will probably be getting 8.5" travel shocks (maybe just shafts and bodies to put on these) and making longer lateral links. At some point I'll see how much longer they can be with the stock CV axles, I'm guessing an inch or so like we did in the front. One of those links is really short so an extra inch would make a big difference. Thinking then I could get 13-14" of wheel travel.

Friend of mine has a 2001 or 2002 Outback a neighbor gave him with front end damage. Broke one of the cam gears and plenty of things in front of that. He is probably just going to part it out. Different color than either of mine and it's an EJ25/4EAT. I'm thinking I'll take the good corner lights off and probably the power seat switch. Anything else on these cars that tends to fail that I should grab? He is probably going to take the front struts. We'll take the CV axles and suspension if it's not all rusted together. Probably just complete rear subframe with diff if possible. Auto trans for the EJ is different than the one for the EZ30 according to the FSM.

It's possible but I don't know of any longer travel struts that would fit the EJ Subarus. The stock ones actually have quite a bit of travel for a street car, about 6" front and 8" rear. I've seen charts for shock lengths but not for struts. Try contacting some of the manufacturers - KYB, Monroe, etc maybe they can tell you. Keep in mind part of the problem with the stock struts for driving fast is that they have very little compression damping. Especially on the Outback, the rear struts sit near the bump stops at ride height. So they're very easy to bottom out. Which I think is what bends the housings. So you really want more damping, stiffer springs and/or more preload, and a stronger body. Racing shocks cost a lot of money for a reason. They solve all those problems and give you something at least close to the damping you want out of the box. The biggest reason they're so expensive is that they don't make many compared to a standard replacement strut. If KYBs had good damping, a strong body, sat in the middle of the travel at ride height, and they made them by the thousands, they would be cheap and would solve all our problems. But that would probably be too harsh for most people's normal street driving and no one else would want them. Then we're back to low volumes and high cost. Inverted struts are more expensive because they have more parts than a conventional strut. They need a little more maintenance but are much stronger. Again, most people don't want a strut they have to grease every once in a while on their street car that costs more money so not many are made, which makes them more expensive.

It's all relative I guess. DIY your own shocks from scratch would probably cost a lot more than buying parts from Fox, definitely if you consider your time. There are a lot of parts and some close tolerance machining. Tempted to try modifying a set of KYBs or something for better damping and strength. One of our friends might buy a cheap set of coilovers from ebay for his Impreza OBS just to see if you can adjust them stiff enough to keep from bottoming, price is cheaper than buying a full set of new stock replacement struts and springs.

I definitely want to find some SVX axles then. I believe the third from the left is a FWD Legacy axle. They are 677-680mm compressed and 730-735 extended. Outer CV is 5-12mm bigger diameter than what I think are standard EJ axles. The axles we think are normal EJ are 677/722mm.

I just tried this again, yes, unlocking all doors, foot on brake, all doors closed, (sometimes opening and closing door at this point), turning key from off to on (also tried from acc to on) ten times (also tried more than ten times). If I leave it on and wait, horn never honks. And I did check to make sure the horn is working. Then I was wondering if the alarm was even still working, haven't tried using the power locks in a year. Used the switch on the door to unlock and then lock all doors, closed the door, security light started blinking, when I unlocked and opened the door the alarm went off until I turned the ignition on/off three times. Which brings me back to seconding the original post, how can I just remove this alarm? Even if I got it working, would using the power lock button on the door cause the alarm to go off if I just unlock the door with the key? That's incredibly annoying. I have four street cars and it's nice to just have keys for all of them on my keyring rather than carrying a bunch of fobs around.

Went through a pile of front CV axles to try to figure out which ones were long enough for our longer control arms. Still haven't found out if the yard in town with the SVX has the axles for it, want to measure those. These are most of the front axles I have: Long story short the Legacy FWD axles are biggest and longest but still have a similar compressed length to the normal EJ front axles. The 02-04 Impreza sedan axles are long also, but don't have a lot of travel so the compressed length is longer than normal too, which probably isn't a problem. The joints on those axles are basically the smallest of any we measured though, so I'm guessing we would wear them out fast. Replumbed the catch can on the Forester, my friend has been going through a lot of oil and fouling some plugs. Five quarts in our trip to and from Arkansas. Was just plumbed between the valve covers and airbox as recommended, but since most of the blowby comes out the crankcase breather it wasn't catching anything. He now has the valve covers plumbed directly to the airbox like stock and the crankcase breather goes through the catch can. Moved one of the brake lines and reservoir to get a little more rear tire clearance. I got a couple of rear knuckles and a fender to replace one I smashed in Arkansas. Swapped out the fender and corner light. Put a new wheel bearing, seals, and hub in the LR knuckle from the yard and put that on the car. That shifted my alignment back to where it was before Kentucky, so I think in Kentucky I bent that other knuckle somehow. The front wheel bearings were a little sloppy so I replaced those. The bolt on wheel bearings are so easy to replace. They are Timken but one had grease between the bearing and hub, hopefully just extra from assembly. I'm thinking I might just replace all the wheel bearings every 20k miles to be safe. There are small body plugs right behind both front tires that were both pushed out of place so I resealed those, hopefully that will keep some of the water out. The windshield is cracked on both sides and has all sorts of welding/grinding spatter so it needs to be replaced. That will probably help but the wipers were not working well. I bent the passenger side arm up (probably actually bending the part of the cowl it pivots on), that spring was rubbing on the glass and making a horrible noise. The driver's side wiper was working better for a while after I bent it down. I twisted the outer steel part towards the back of the car and now it seems to be working well again. Changed engine and rear diff oil and engine oil filter. Got a stiffer spring for CB antenna before our trip to Arkansas which seems to keep the antenna from slapping the windshield but the part of the hood it goes through keeps cracking. Welded about a 2" square piece of sheet metal behind it and welded part of the bracing to the top panel. Got about 90% of the Fox parts I need for the front struts for the 2002. Need to get some parts laser cut and then I'll start on the long travel, bumpers, and skidplates for that. Holding off for a little while on the 6MT/R180, hoping this 52 mile 5MT will last the summer.

Video from our trip to Arkansas a couple weeks ago: One of our best trips yet, going back in a couple weeks, post/pm if you're interested in joining us.

Video from Mine made park in Kentucky. You can see the low range at work in the first few minutes of the video. Will have video from Arkansas up soon.

OP, if you figure it out, let me know, and tell me where you got the FOB from. I got one and can't program it, one of the first steps is turning the ignition on and off ten times and the horn is supposed to honk but mine doesn't. http://www.cars101.com/subaru/keyless.html#alpine

Try this: http://jdmfsm.info/Auto/Japan/Subaru/Legacy_Outback/2002/ You can always just start at jdmfsm.info and find your car. On our car, if we don't use the power locks, the alarm doesn't turn back on. If you do use the power locks, you have to turn the ignition on and off about a half dozen times until the alarm stops. Hope that helps.

According to the Subaru parts site, up to 2007 had VSS, the gear for that is on the front diff. Might be able to put that in a 2008+ but would probably require some bearing removal, not to mention trans disassembly. Now I'm thinking 04-05 since it has a plate front diff, that should be better in one wheel airborne situations than the torsen in the later cars. Assuming it still has preload by the time I get it.

Diamond auto parts in Fond Du Lac has a bunch of STIs. It appears the 2008+ 6MT has a plug in place of the VSS, do you know if a VSS can be installed? Is the internal speedo gear in these transmissions? Where is it? I was thinking about getting a 2008+ since there are many available and many are low mileage. Your PMs are full too.

Don't cry just fix it. I don't think a rear strut tower brace would do a whole lot and would make it harder to put large objects in the back of the car. We talked about putting in a rear roll hoop and some tubes down to the "frame rails." Hopefully this fix will last for a while.

I'm guessing the rust was more of a factor than the long travel. If anything the long travel makes life a little easier on the body since you're not bottoming out so hard. On my Outback I started breaking the rear strut towers loose years before we built the long travel, welded them back on and haven't had to fix them since. I don't know that long travel suspension is ever needed, but it often lets us drive faster and hit some jumps without breaking our cars. Once you've driven off road with decent suspension, driving with the stock suspension seems a lot less fun.

This is what the Forester strut tower looked like without the spare tire holding it down. Not attached by much. Most of the front seam was separated too. With a scissor jack and some boards we were able to get things back into place and welded as we went. Welded a few seams on the other side to try to prevent this happening. He is stepping up his rust free Forester search. PM me if you know of a good rust free manual trans 2000-2008 Forester for sale. I got a couple of rear knuckles from a junkyard and replaced the wheel bearing in one using some pieces of tubing and an acme screw. Much slower than using the press, but we can take it with us in case we have to replace one on the road. Thinking about going back to Ozark NF in a couple weeks.

We went back to Arkansas for a long weekend of trail riding. C had bought an Impreza OB Sport, lifted it, grooved the tires, built an oil pan guard, and removed the plastic bumpers. On the way to my house Friday morning the engine blew, big hole in the top through which you can see that the #2 rod is broken. He called me and I went out and towed his car back to his shop and we headed south. B met us at K's just south of Springfield in his Forester. We got to our starting point of Winfrey Arkansas around 5PM and met up with D and J from Texas in D's 1996 Impreza with Forester struts, wheel spacers, 225/75/15s, skidplate, snorkel, etc. Filled up with gas and headed east on 1705. That didn't work very well, trail was pretty narrow and rocky and we kept hitting gates on private property and it was dark and raining so it was a little difficult to see and turn around. Eventually we just decided to head to the nearest campground. Turned out to be a very foggy drive there, often with about 20' visibility, crawling most of the way there, White Mountain campground was at the end of a long dirt road but was nearly full. It was cold and windy but not too rainy, C cooked venison on the propane stove and we set up the tents. In the morning we all got up, J cooked eggs and bacon and we packed everything back up. Overlook near the office was pretty cool. We had a good day of trail riding, started out on relatively easy but scenic dirt roads, basically wandered east all day. The first problem we had was D's right rear tire rubbing on the spring perch. Noticed it when we got on pavement for a little while trying to find the next trail. He thought he'd bent a strut but it looked about the same as the other side. Only later did we find out he had small aftermarket camber bolts with plastic sleeves, C thinks it was related to that. He was able to adjust them enough to give him tire clearance. I let C drive the Outback for a while and we were on a fairly narrow but smooth dirt trail and then we could see that the trail was straight and uphill for a long ways so I told him to pin it. Once we got closer we could see that there were small humps, probably for erosion, all the way up the hill, about six total spaced at least 100' apart. Didn't seem like we were going too fast so I didn't tell him to slow down. Most of them were decent little jumps but one planted the front of the car into the dirt. Cracked the other side of the windshield but otherwise caused no obvious damage. Decided to get some video of both cars going up the hill again but C nosedived it on the one jump again and took it easy the rest of the way up. Later on we came up to a hump in the trail with a fairly sharp top and a fairly sharp muddy ditch on the far side. Didn't think the Outback or Forester would have a problem but wanted D to look at it to see if he wanted to do it since the trail was a dead end on the map. Got over it in the Outback just fine but then a minute later we weren't seeing anyone in the mirrors and went back to see the Forester stuck in the ditch, the RF IB CV joint had pulled apart. I pulled him out with the Outback and we replaced the axle with his spare front. We had gone down a fairly long trail and hit another dead end and were heading back out. There was a long switchback with a fairly steep rocky shortcut climb I decided to try in the Outback. D decided to try it in the Impreza and he got to the top without much drama, a little air under the front tires over a rock near the top. B got about halfway up and then had no drive, couldn't even back down. We got it back to the bottom of the hill and C thought the transmission was shot. After some more looking and letting the clutch in and out I saw that the RF axle had pulled apart again. This time we put on my spare Interparts Legacy FWD axle. He said it also started running rough again and after C put the old plug wires back on it it was back to running well. He decided to take the easy route. Then we realized that our shortcut didn't go all the way back up to the main trail. After we cleared out a fallen tree we were able to take another trail the rest of the way up to the main trail. Somewhere around here K pointed out what he thought were small mountain lion tracks. We decided to head to a campground near Ozone and first we went down to Clarksville to get C a tent and propane at Walmart and filled the cars up with gas. C got a box of fried chicken at the gas station that we shared. While we were there an old guy drove through in his red Pathfinder and C asked him if he would sell it for $500 (one of the themes of the weekend after he blew the engine in his Impreza). The guy starts telling him about how it's the best car he owns even though he has a couple newer Chevies. Then he asked us where we were from and what we were doing and says “don't you have mud in Illinois?” I hit a nice lane divider on the way into the Walmart parking lot and got a little air. B picked up a spare CV axle and met us there. On the way up the highway to Ozone, D pulled off into the closed Chat and Scat service station, his car was running rough. His snorkel ran through the front fender into the side of the airbox and the elbow at the airbox had come loose so he got a lot of muddy water in the airbox which had clogged the air filter. B ran into town and got a can of MAF cleaner for him, I ordered him a MAF sensor at the nearest parts store so it would be there in the morning if he wanted it. We were able to get a fire going eventually despite the wood being wet and cooked venison, potatoes, veggies, and seasoned apple slices J had brought. The next morning we just had bagels and cinnamon rolls and some jars of yogurt/oatmeal/fruit J and D brought. I told J to ride with me for a while so he could experience the Outback. We found a cool trail that went downhill and was fairly straight for a quarter to half mile with at least a dozen small humps on it that turned out to be decent jumps. Nothing spectacular but J thought it was great going down and back up. A little later we noticed no one was following us so we drove back to find out that D had tried to avoid a rock on a narrow trail and put the car into a dirt berm. The corner light was still in the berm and the headlight plastic was blown out but it was still attached and functional. He bent the fender back away from the tire and we kept going. We were heading down a trail that was a dead end on the map but we hoped would go through that was one of the narrowest most overgrown trails of the weekend and came to a stream crossing. It wasn't too rough or deep but there was a waist high bank on the far side that was very steep. I figured we should just turn around since it was a dead end on the map but D suggested we just climb up it and back for the hell of it. He decided to try it even though I tried to discourage him. He got up the bank without any difficulty and then drove over an 8” log on the far side. We had told them to go as far as they could and see if it was a dead end, which it was. I tried to turn around in some saplings near the stream crossing and got a 2” tree caught between the front bumper and tire and bent the fender and cracked the headlight tabs. At one point we were trying to see if another trail went through and it ended at a couple of private drives. We walked around a bit and saw a shot up refrigerator, an old shack, and a waterfall that C, K, and D walked behind. We drove to Alum Cove natural bridge to do a little hiking and make sandwiches. Eventually D and J headed to the parts store and home and we continued. I was trying to head towards the rocky hillclimb we drove when we were there in February. We were driving down a wide dirt road and came to a pine tree fallen across most of the road. There were muddy tire tracks around the end of it we probably could have followed but an old couple was cutting it up with a chainsaw so we stopped to help. By this time K was feeling ill. When we got it all off the road they said something about the school bus should be able to get through now. We followed a dirt/gravel road along a river and drove under a waterfall. The road eventually came to an 1/8+ mile wide river crossing. It didn't look extremely deep but the water was flowing fast so we turned around. We decided since K was feeling ill we might want to head towards civilization. The closest campground was Long Pond along a river so we headed up that way. The main road up there was paved so I decided that wasn't desirable and tried taking an alternate route. At first it was a gravel road and then we turned off on a goat trail. Not overgrown by UP standards but probably the narrowest rockiest trail of the weekend. It eventually came out to a pipeline grade that went back to the paved road on the map. We got most of the way to the road and then it was a very steep drop down. We stopped at the top and enjoyed the awesome view. Tried a side trail which came to an even better view. I had told C I thought it would go through since it wasn't overgrown but if it didn't then we'd just get to enjoy it twice. Back on the road B flashed his lights so I pulled over and they said there were sparks coming out the bottom of the car. All we could figure is that the heat shields on the cats had some grass in them and were smoldering. Due to the detour we didn't make it to the campground before dark but it was nice and we had a big level spot right across from the bathroom with running water. Cooked the rest of the venison and had the best sleep of the weekend inside of three sleeping bags. Mountain lion tracks in a streambed next to a quarter we put down for scale. B had pointed out his LR strut tower seam towards the rear of the car was pulling apart earlier in the weekend. I didn't think it was a big deal since it was towards the rear. Then I saw the 2-3” gap between the floor and the bottom of the strut tower through which you could see the foam around the spare tire well. We brainstormed some ideas for fixing it and K threw out jamming the spare tire between the top of the strut and the roof. We were able to do that with the tire deflated and propped up the top of the tire with a 2x6 down to the bottom of the RR strut tower. Then we inflated the tire and when C lifted up on the LR corner of the car at the bumper the gap closed up some. It did cause a bulge in the roof and wrinkle above the window. We figured we'd take it relatively easy and tried to get to the rocky climb from our last trip. I let K drive the Outback and we were heading to the opposite side of the river to get to the climb and the trail kept getting steeper and rockier downhill. I suggested we stop and walk down to see if we could cross the streams/river. We spent about an hour hiking to the bottom and checking out the various crossing options and didn't see anything feasible, but we did get directly across the river from one of the spots we reached last year. We hiked back up to the cars. The Forester had been idling the whole time and I took video of the tailpipe while B revved the engine and created a huge cloud of white smoke. I think he used five quarts of oil over the weekend. At this point it was after 10AM and we had a long drive back home and we all knew we should head back. We stood there and bullshitted for a long time and C pointed out it was the first time all weekend I wasn't eager to get back in the car and start driving. K kept driving and we took a different route towards the old ski lodge we had found on our last trip. He thought we should stop and clean the windows at the next gas station so we did that and fueled the cars. When C and I went to the bathrooms one of the cashiers started telling us about how they'd seen us a few times over the weekend, then we would pull off into the woods and they'd see us somewhere else and said “I know you had a good time this weekend.” The road had awesome views. One of the roads we took had a bunch of tight switchbacks going down and a cow tunnel under the road. We got up to the old ski lodge and parked near an old large metal A framed building and made sandwiches and bullshitted for a while. There was a large dilapitated round wooden building nearby that looked like it was being spray painted on the inside based on the plastic over the doors and windows. After a while a 4.5' tall lady came out by herself and asked what we were doing. We told her we were just relaxing and eating lunch and we'd leave soon. I thought she was pretty brave to just walk up to four guys that she obviously thought were suspicious. We drove around the rest of the lot, saw the top of one of the chair lifts, the post office, ski chalets (some of which are probably occupied) and headed north. Stopped at the candy factory and world's largest gift store. We got to K's around sunset. B's RR CV axle had been making noise all weekend and was apparently getting very loud, so we swapped that out in K's shop. We headed north and fairly shortly realized the LR wheel bearing on the Outback was very sloppy. I called Oreillys in Springfield and they had the bearing, seals, and hub. I parked the car a little way down a dead end road and we drove up to Oreillys and bought the parts right before they closed. We ate a bacon cheeseburger pizza at Mario's. Got back to the Outback, drove back down to K's, and replaced the wheel bearing using his lift and press. Headed home again, B went home to the suburbs. I dropped off C and got home around 4AM. Overall one of our best offroad trips yet, everyone had a great time. Not as large as the UP and farther from home, but we can't go up there yet and Ozark NF might have more good trails per acre than the UP, but it does seem like a little more pavement driving to get from one to the next is required than the UP. The trails are a good Subaru difficulty level too, I could do 99+% of the trails we were on in my stock Impreza.