pontoontodd

We drove the Outback down to Interlake over the weekend and met a couple of friends with their woods buggy. This was the best place we could think of where we could run fairly rough but fast trails all day. Didn't really go that way for various reasons, one of which was that they had to crawl through the water holes to stay dry. I asked him to go as fast as he could and stick to the main trails. That didn’t really happen, but we did go 30-45mph on most of the main trails. The Outback seemed to bottom out more easily than I’d like when going 10-20mph, but when we’d hit similar rocks and ruts at 40mph it seemed to soak them up. There were quite a few other people out on the trails and not a lot of trails we could really go fast on, so we didn’t run a very high average speed. At one point we were back on some moderately difficult trails back in the woods and came to a difficult muddy step up. There were two lines that both looked very difficult for the Outback. They couldn’t get up either in the woods buggy. There was another line down through a water hole to bypass those. They backed up the buggy to get off the main trail and ran into the Outback. It did nothing to our front bumper but put a little dent in his engine cage. They were able to take the bypass, but it looked difficult. By this point a group of Jeeps had come up behind us and decided to watch. I was able to get off the main trail and out of the ruts much more easily than I expected and dropped into the water hole but could only get about halfway up the muddy climb out. I backed up and hit it again from a different angle and went right to the top. The Jeep guys all cheered and laughed and were quite impressed. At that point our friend said the Jeep guys would all have to do that or go home humiliated, and they all made it without difficulty. At one point we were trying a steep hill climb I was barely able to make in the Outback earlier in the day. We tried it once and didn’t quite get all the way to the top. Then the car kept stalling and it was cranking slow and eventually would not restart. We jump started it and went back out the easy way. Battery was only at about 10V at this point but the voltage did go up some when the car was running. After about 4 the sun was really killing our visibility with the muddy windows and we were getting frustrated with the slow pace and voltage and decided to call it a day. On the plus side we’d spent 6-7 hours in the car, most of that time strapped in with window nets up, helmets and suits on, etc and it was quite comfortable. It was hot without the AC on even though it was only in the 50s, so we had the AC on most of the day. When we were behind the buggy running fast the dust made it hard to see but it stayed out of the car. Being able to finish a desert race in the time limit will really come down to how rough the course is. We charged the battery overnight up to 12.3V. Put it in the car and by the time we got home it was up to 12.8V, so the alternator seems to still work. Even at idle it goes up to 13.5V.

I want to see your Brat flying through the air when it's done.

You hear the suspension much more than you feel it. If you're talking about the speed hump things on 30mph streets, you can hit those at any speed and hardly feel them. The sharper ones they have in some parking lots you can feel a little bit, but you can easily take them at 30+ rather than a crawl.

Here is the latest on the struts. Got some Fox shock boots and put them on the rear struts. A little modification was required but it's almost like the boots were made for the struts. The boots are fully compressed when it hits the bump stops, so hopefully they will last. This is what the front strut looked like. Way more sidewall clearance than we need. This amount of offset caused a few problems. One, it contributed to the friction/binding. Two, it caused clearance issues between the inner side of the spring and the wheel well and reservoir. Three, it made the strut swing front and back a lot when steered, which contributed to our hose pinching problem. So I cut about an inch and a half out of it. Also, it looked like the top plates were bending a little, so I gusseted them more around the slot to try to spread the load. Here is what it looks like welded and painted. Put the same shock boots on these, although I had to cut eight bellows off since the front struts are shorter. Enough clearance at the top of the tire we should be safe even with new tires this size. About an inch of sidewall clearance now. The ride quality in town is good now. I've hit a few things that send my Impreza flying and you can hardly feel them in the Outback now. Hopefully we'll put it to the test this weekend.

I've had the Dynomax super turbos on several cars, including a Subaru, and they are quiet. I've seen magazine comparisons that show they're about the best flowing / least backpressure muffler you can buy too. Seem to hold up well too.

I could go along with this, definitely still a gray area, but if the body and more than half the drivetrain are Subaru I'd consider it a Subaru. How about more details? Obviously a low range transfer case, but how about a six cylinder or supercharger? WRX calipers? Exo cage? Winch(es)? Locker(s)? HID/LED lights?

Now for the back end of the car. The fuel tank would only take fuel a quarter or half gallon at a time. It sounded like it was filling up the fill tube and then it'd kick off the gas pump and drain into the tank. I straightened out a couple of kinks in the vent line. When I took the fill tube off it looked like the flapper was sort of cupped, so I weighted the edge of that. While I had it apart I added a fuel level sender. This one ranges from about 10 ohms full to 70some ohms empty. Since the float arm needs room to move up and down freely, I rearranged the fuel cell foam like this. I wound up a piece of aluminum solder to keep the foam from shifting into this hole. Fun to install all this through a 5" hole in the center of the fuel cell. Added a fuel sock to the end of the pickup tube. These pictures sort of show how I wired the sender. For some reason I had to jump one of the wires from one sender to the other and then wire the other side of both senders to either side of the fuel level sender. The small plug near the top went to the passenger side sender stock. One terminal to the new sender, the other spliced to the driver's side. First picture is how I had it mocked up to test. Then I spliced and heat shrinked the connections. Here you can see which wires went where a little better. Taped and zip tied it all up after this. Driver's side strut and spare tire mount. Set it up so there's about an inch all the way around the tire in case we run something bigger in the future. Padded the rollcage tube so the strut didn't bang against it, but the two bolts hold it in place quite rigidly. You can see the 3/16" steel plate on top of the strut mount too. Passenger side spare strut mount. You can sort of see the fuel cell vent hose in these pictures. Has to go up and around the roll cage to prevent fuel coming out in case of a rollover. Rerouted vent hose and fuel level sender. Here's what it looks like with spare tire and struts bolted in. Loaded up with spare parts, tools, fluids, etc.

The tubing we'd added in front was ripping out of the radiator support during our trip back from Texas so we redid some of that when we got home. The bolt holes on the bottom of the front crossmember were nearly ripped out all the way so I welded a piece of plate on the bottom of that. Ideally we'd run the oil pan guard to the two bolts behind these also just to tie more things together but we decided not to this time. Using 1x3 this time under the radiator support instead of 1x1. Decided not to even try attaching anything to the radiator support since it's pretty torn up at this point. Welded two pieces of 1x3 from there to the front bumper and welded tow bar mount tabs to those. You can see the temporary tow bar mount tabs we welded on the front bumper to get home. Cut off the stock tie down loops. The passenger side was flimsy and they both were just hurting approach angle and not big enough to run a decent snatch strap to. Also bolted some 1" square tubes from the tube under the radiator support to the swaybar mounts. One more thing to tie everything together and hopefully they'll act as rock sliders.

Some more things we need for desert racing. 55W equivalent running lights in the rear, switched with the ignition, one amber, one blue. These things are super bright. Turns out there is a wire going into the hatch that is switched on with the ignition, so that was convenient. I think it was the white/blue one. Spliced into that and the big ground wire. BITD is specific about what they want in the first aid kit, so I went through the half dozen first aid kits we had and put together two that should qualify. Have to have a 1/4" x 2" driveshaft loop so I bolted this to the floor with some big washers.

We thought it would be nice to still have the dome light so I made holes to mount that to the cage gusset. Here is how the main cage turned out. The extra mirror is for the navigator so he can warn the driver when we're about to get nerfed. Below the window net you can see the secondary door latch we need. Tech guy wanted us to make the small polycarbonate "vent windows" to cover the rest of the opening the window nets don't cover.

I can't think of any reason this would cause a problem. It's possible when you're winching with the rear battery the voltage would drop low enough that you'd draw too many amps and blow the fuse to the rear lighter outlet. Or are you concerned about that happening when you're starting the engine? Regardless, you wouldn't have to plug or unplug the battery constantly. If you're really concerned about it, just plug it in when you go on a long trip every few weeks and it should be charged up.

Intentionally ambiguous, and I'm sure everyone has their own idea of what the ultimate Subaru would be, just curious to hear. At some point it stops being a Subaru to some people if it has a T case and solid axles, but again it's personal opinion.

I was surprised I couldn't find a thread like this on the forum. So what would be the ultimate off road Subaru? Year/model? Engine, trans, diffs? Or has it already been built?

The seat and harness mounts took almost as much time as the rest of the cage. Wound up tilting the seats towards the middle of the car to keep our helmets away from the rollcage. Using Mastercraft Sportsman seats, they were the tallest back race seats I could find. Used the stock seat sliders so they could bolt to the floor and weren't too hard to adapt to the seats. Removing the seat sliders from the driver's seat was a PITA. They were riveted, bolted, spot welded, and wire welded to the bottom of the seat. The passenger seat was much easier, I think one of them might be from a slightly older or newer car but they look the same. The U of tubing will provide harness mounts and bolted tabs to hold the seat sliders in place. Tech guy wanted us to add a tab on the front of the U so it wasn't just hanging off the roll hoop. Welded the U and the tabs on it out of the car. Bolted it all to the bottom of the seat before welding the U to the roll hoop. The seats rub on the center console so the stock seat belt latches wouldn't fit easily. Now that I have time I'm going to make those work with the race seats, buckling in a five point harness every time you hop in the car is a nuisance. After we're done testing/racing for a while I'll put the stock seats back in.

Here are the real bends with the mockup bends: Building the actual cage. We sleeved the bottoms of the main hoops so we could drop the whole thing down and weld the tops of the joints after most of the tubes were fit and tacked in. Actually worked pretty well.

I found out King and Fox both sell 2.5" shock boots, so I'm going to try those. We went to a desert race in Texas with our buggy and the Outback but they've had a ton of rain there so the race was cancelled. On the plus side we're basically ready for the next one. Plan on taking the Outback to Interlake in a month or so to see if we can put 200-300 miles on it in 8-12 hours. I'll start catching up to where we're at with this. These are pictures of the mockup of our cage out of 1.5" conduit (about 1.75" OD). This helped a lot, especially when bending the real thing.

We need to see some pictures and video of this thing in action. It makes those 39"s look small.

Copy that. A little less compression, I'll have to see how much we really need.

I like those, definitely cheaper. 5421K16 looks like it might work. Thanks!

Thanks for the reply. I saw those bellows on MMC but they seem a little expensive. Might try them. I can always slot some regular nuts, just figured if I could get some castle nuts for a reasonable price it would save some time and effort. Might not need them anyhow.

So, a few questions. Anyone know where to get long, large diameter shock / driveshaft boots? It looks like there are about a half dozen brands, none have sizes listed, and the ones I've tried are too small for these struts. Something at least 2.5" inside diameter and 12" long would be nice. This is going to sound like a stupid question, but what are the best Subaru sunvisors? We're putting a cage in right now so the stock visors won't work where they're at. It's almost not worth mounting them to the cage, they're so low friction they swing all over the place when you're driving. Is there something from a different car I should use? If the lights plugged in that would be great but not important. Anybody know where to get M12x1.25, M14x1.5, and M16x1.5 castle nuts?

Here's how the struts with offset springs turned out. Seems to reduce friction. If nothing else, these springs are half the cost and I only need one per strut instead of two.

That does seem early for the gas tank to rust out. Replacing the gas tank on a Subaru is very involved too, especially if it's rusty. You have to remove the entire rear subframe/drivetrain/suspension. Then there's all the hoses that go in and out of the gas tank. Sorry I don't have a link handy but I have seen a pretty good walkthrough of it on some Subaru forum, maybe this one.

Test fit a larger spring to the left front strut. Haven't driven the car, just set it on the strut. Seems to be pretty low friction, but so does the original spring setup on the right front. The rears seem like they have a lot more friction, judging by pushing up and down on the bumpers. I'll try this on the rear next. This is a larger tie rod (EV425) vs stock (EV257). The larger ball joint comes very close to the crossmember, so I'll have to watch the boot and make sure they don't get worn or torn. If they do, I'll probably try the EV240 next.

Tried this to solve the sticking problem. First cut spiral grooves in the bushings. Then installed the seals, packed with grease, and sprayed on some graphite: That didn't seem to make any difference. I have some larger OD springs I'm working on spring perches for that I can mount at an angle, hopefully that will reduce the binding.