pontoontodd

Welding - yes the welds on the strut towers look terrible but they're probably at least as strong as the original spot welds and adhesive from the factory. Normally I MIG weld thin wall steel tubing. If you try to do that with a continuous bead you either blow holes in it or have a cold start for the first 1/4" or so with no penetration. Hence the trigger welding or whatever you want to call it. Yes, on some of these parts, especially the winch mount, I could have run continuous beads and gotten better penetration. Spares - many of our trips are well over 1000 miles if you include highway mileage getting there and back. 500 miles off pavement a few times. That said we're not exactly in BFE with no other means of survival or escape. We have never broken an axle, had a few with torn boots and making noise but never had to replace one on the trail. Only one bent control arm so far. I like the rest of your list, most of those things we've packed, recently got some extra lug nuts and fuel pump. Thanks for the suggestions.

We've always wanted to drive across Michigan's Upper Peninsula off pavement, so a few weeks ago we flat towed my friend’s 01 Forester to the UP with my 99 OB. During the first morning of off roading I felt the brake pedal go soft while we were driving through the woods. We stopped at the next semi level clearing and discovered that a small stream of brake fluid would spray out of the LR brake line (where it goes into the hose) when you stepped on the pedal. Tried a few crimping techniques and eventually just left a small vice grips on the line zip tied to the subframe mount. I tried to avoid using the brakes the rest of the day and used very little brake fluid. I think it was also this day we decided to try a slightly swampy trail and immediately got the OB stuck. Put the winch on the back and winched it mainly out of the ruts, then pulled it out the rest of the way with the Forester. The duty cycle on the HF Badlands 5000# winch is only about 5% which makes progress very slow, but it did work. We also wound up using a snatchblock (pulley). If you plan to winch your Subaru a lot, I’d recommend going with a 9000# winch or at least something with a higher duty cycle. Considering we only used it twice during this whole trip, I'm glad I didn't spend any more money or bring something heavier. We also need a better tree strap to snatch block/winch cable attachment. Might have been able to get it out with the snatch strap and ramps, which would have been a lot faster, but we wanted to try the winch. We got to Escanaba and found an O Reillys open until 8PM. I pulled off the flare nut end of the line and got a piece of hard line, union, flare nut, and line cutting and flaring tools. Installed all that and bled the line in the parking lot and didn’t leak any more brake fluid the rest of the trip. We finished up while they were closing and one of the employees who had helped us came up and told us that he’d seen a bunch of lifted Subarus but had never seen one that’s obviously been off road. Wednesday morning we came across a tree that had fallen across the trail but pointed away from where we were. It was a bit too low to drive under. The trail was relatively wide and cleared out so we figured it went somewhere. We decided to attach the snatch block to a tree on the far side and pull the fallen tree away from us with the winch. As we were starting this process, two guys pulled up on an ATV and wanted us to get out of the way so they could get through because they thought it was supposed to rain soon. They were barely able to get the ATV under the fallen tree and both hopped back on it, the guy in the rear holding a couple of gallon jugs. Before we got the tree out of the way, maybe ten minutes later, they came back through. Shortly after that we sawed the top off the tree, which had gotten caught on other trees. Then we sawed partway through the tree maybe 1/3 of the way up. Then we resumed winching, which quickly broke the tree at our cut, and we were able to get through. That trail went on for miles with no side trails, driveways, shacks, etc. We eventually got to a stream where a bridge no longer existed to cross it. The remains of the bridge appeared to be downstream a bit and we didn’t see any good way to drive through/around and had to go all the way back. The guys on the ATV are probably still laughing at us for moving that tree out of the way to get to a dead end and we’re still wondering what was in those gallon jugs. It took us four days and 550 miles (about 90% off pavement) to get to the Mackinac Bridge. We went back on US2, which took about five hours and 300 miles on pavement. We each had a loose rear wheel bearing on the way home. The tablet GPS worked great and definitely seems like the cheap and effective way to go. I would definitely like to pack lighter in the future, but I'm not sure what to leave at home. For this trip we had a spare front strut w/ spring, both spare rear struts (no springs, I don't have any good ones or hats, and they're different left and right, correct?). Front spindle/bearing/hub assemblies which I'll probably leave home next time. Front control arms, tie rod (inner and outer), ball joints. Front and rear CV axles. I've had to replace a few fronts now (not on the trail). Radiator & fans. We've never had an issue on the trail but have heard it's a common problem and would hate to be in the middle of the woods with a bad one. Wheel & tire. Oil, air, and fuel filters, spark plugs & wires, fuel pump, fasteners. Any suggestions on what spare parts we should or shouldn't take?

I'm more concerned with the suspension bottoming than rubbing the bottom of the car, but I've thought about lifting it more. More inclined to get more compression travel. Right now I think it has about 8" of total travel and maybe 2" of that is compression, so it's super easy to bottom out. Even just hitting potholes in town without much cargo. My Impreza and my friend's Forester don't bottom out nearly as easily. Probably the easiest fix for that would be raising the spring perches on the struts. All that said, a little more ground clearance would definitely help at times. Glad you like the fab work. Most of those projects were 1/16" wall tube, even the bumper is much lighter than it looks, but I suppose that's all added 100# or so. The biggest weight issue is all the crap in the back. After our last trip the whole car weighed 3900# and it was down to 3450# after we unloaded the tools, spare parts, fluids, etc. I can even tell the difference sometimes trying to get up a difficult hill with or without a passenger. The first thing would just be to bring less stuff along. The current seats are leather and heated but not power. Are the cloth seats that much lighter? I've thought about stripping some interior sound deadening, etc but that seems like a lot of work for minimal benefit. How else could I remove some dead weight? I do like the AC, cruise, etc since we have to drive hundreds of miles before we even start off roading. The steel wheels and mud tires are 17# heavier each than the alloys with street tires! The Porkies are cool but I haven't seen many off road opportunities near there.

Picture of the Outback loaded up will all sorts of spare parts, tools, fluids, food, etc. The cheap HF cargo net works surprisingly well. One of the last minute upgrades before the trip was mounting a $100 android tablet from ebay on the dash with a RAM mount. With built in GPS and preloaded maps, this made navigating while driving much faster. We also threw CBs in the cars at the last minute. They worked pretty well most of the time we were within sight of each other. Also, had the threads on another Subaru scissor jack start to gall, so I've given up on them. Got a cheap bottle jack that has just enough travel to lift the car.

Made a receiver mount for a winch and added a receiver to the front bumper: Got a 24" piece of receiver tubing from Summit so I have plenty for adding to the Impreza. Used Anderson/forklift style electrical connections for the battery cables from HGM Forklift parts. They're rated for 350A. Also made a 15' extension cord so I can use it in the rear of the car: I don't plan to ever leave it on while driving so I'm not worried about the horrible approach and departure angles. This way I can keep it inside the car and put it on whichever end I want to go in the direction of when stuck.

I recently noticed one of the rear subframe mounts was bent back and the captured nut was starting to pull out of the body. I pulled the mount forward relatively straight with a come along, then removed it. So I welded/bolted some tabs on the body to make a better mount. The one towards the front of the car welds to a double seam in the body so it should be fairly secure. New mount: Did the same thing to the other side of the car to be safe, even though that side looked fine.

A few more things. Do you know where I can get a harness/pigtail that plugs into the driver's side rear taillight for trailer wiring? There's a loose six pin connector back there that I jumped into for now but I'd like to find the proper connector. Should I be worried about the steering rack being loose on the driver's side? It has been slopply, but not leaking, since I bought the car and is certainly not getting better. I think I can get one from a parts car soon but I've heard it's a PITA to swap out the rack. Interested in buying 15" standard steel wheels, 5 hole, 10 hole, or 14 hole.

Haven't made many big changes to the car lately, did have to replace a bent rear strut. I'm sure that shocks some of you. Also bent the last Forester steel wheel that was straight, still haven't bent any of the "normal" black ones. Minor thing but it made a big difference in cargo bouncing around vs staying put was a 4' x 6' elastic cargo net from Harbor Freight. Simple, fast, and effective. After breaking a few mirrors I finally found some folding Legacy mirrors, not exciting to most I'm sure: Also did some corrosion repair on the driver's side strut tower. Should have checked that when I did the passenger side. Everyone who has driven both of these cars thinks the Impreza rides better, or at least doesn't bottom out as easily. I do have winter tires on it vs the mud tires on the Outback, plus it has both swaybars which probably makes it harder to bottom out one corner, but I think the springing and damping must be stiffer on the Impreza. Never replaced a spring or strut on the Impreza and it has over 250k on it now. Getting ready for a big off road trip in September, so here are some more questions: Lighting - Ideally I would get at least two 8"+ HID spot driving lights but I would really like to fit something where the grill used to be. I could fit a 20 or 30" LED light bar but I keep reading they don't work as well as HIDs for long distance/spot use. Navigation - We've used smart phone GPS a few times now and it works alright but I really want a bigger screen mounted in the car so I can glance at it while driving. Leaning toward a tablet and USB GPS plug in. Communication - I have a couple of old CB radios we might use but I was also looking into renting sat phones, this place rents them for $30/week: http://allroadsat.com/iridium-satellite-phone-rental I was also looking into HAM radios a bit. We might have 4-6 cars/trucks on this trip so we might split up, at which point it might become impossible to find each other. Extraction - so far we've relied on shovels, sand ladders, and mainly snatch straps. I should really probably get a winch, but it would be nice to put it on either end (or side) of either car. Has anyone here done something like that with just a short strap and some kind of extension cord/jumper cables? Would a 3500# winch be enough for these cars or should I go 6000#? Any thoughts / experience on any of those things would be appreciated.

A little video and some stills from our trip to the Badlands this past Saturday. A good time as always.

You can also just remove the small end boot straps, especially if you're not doing a lot of river crossings.

You can get new hubs from Rockauto for $10-20 each. The wheel bearings can go for quite a while and just keep getting sloppier and noisier. I've been told the car will become undriveable due to the slop before anything catastrophic happens, but I wouldn't push it. You could try retorqueing the spindle nut, I've had them back off slightly even when staked.

When we went to Interlake we bent a control arm by hitting a huge rock over a blind hill. We were able to straighten it out enough by running a strap to a tree in front of the car and backing up a few times. Beefed up both of those when we got home. Video from that trip:

I also upgraded the screw jack:

When we were in Kentucky we bent a strut. Still drivable once we adjusted the camber bolt all the way positive. When we got home I straightened it and braced both front struts. Unfortunately one of them had no damping and the other wasn't great, so I replaced them with new ones that are not reinforced.

Thank you very much for this advice. I did this and we went back to Interlake over the weekend. As you can imagine by the name, there is a lot of standing water and the engine ran great the whole time, even after quite a bit of washing before we headed home.

Trying to get a set with the ball spline in the middle and fixed joints at both ends if that's what you mean by slip yoke. So the later ones should work, front and rear, just knock the ABS rings off? What year/model should I order for?

I've been trying to get the name/number of a retail distributor, so far no luck. Their main distributor is World Pac. Supposedly their return rate on standard replacement axles was 18%, with these ball spline axles it's 3%. I was going to get a set but they don't have the ball spline version for a 99 Legacy, just the normal replacement.

Alloy or steel? Can you link or post to a picture?

check out this thread http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/122602-99-obs-suspension-lift/?hl=%2Bbrand+%2Bfront+%2Bstruts&do=findComment&comment=1042022 also, these cars are pretty light, adding 500# will affect your performance more than it would most cars

If this car is that much slower than your LGT, are you sure there's not something wrong with the engine? Plugged air filter, etc? Brakes dragging? Is this with three other people and gear or just yourself? Have you driven another 2.2 OB before? Mine has the 2.5 DOHC and seems reasonably fast. More power is always better, and I've thought of turboing mine too, but you should probably make sure it's running right first. I'm not sure the forester struts are much taller than OB, and I think the springs are softer, so that might not get you much lift. I did a 1.5" strut lift front and rear, you could probably go 2". The rear shouldn't sit any lower than the front, although it looks like yours does, you might want to check if any of your springs are broken (look near the top perch). If you do anything with the struts or lift blocks, do it all and go as high as you can while you have it apart. Surprisingly, you don't have to protect the exhaust, it seems to stay intact regardless of the fact that it hangs below everything else. Oil pan and gas tank you should do something about. I put 215/75/15 Hankook Dynapro MTs on mine. They rubbed before the lift, almost never with the lift. I did go to Forester steel wheels since they're offset farther away from the struts. Those wheels are cheap but apparently weaker than other Sube steelies. If you have other Sube wheels with 215/75/15s they would probably have to be spaced out about 1/4" to clear the rear struts. If those are the type of roads you're driving on, you'd probably be better off with stock sized tires, the taller tires will just hurt your gearing more.

You're definitely right that the rear suspension binds up at full droop. I hadn't thought about the bushings having to flex sideways, but that certainly doesn't help. What amazes me is that, from what I can tell, the bushings are bonded to the inner and outer sleeves so they have to flex just to pivot normally. However, you don't have to compress the springs/struts to get them in, even with a 1.5" lift, so I don't think that really limits travel. Also, a flex pit isn't going to compress the stock springs and struts close to full compression, or you'd be bottoming out constantly, so that isn't going to show the full extent of travel he's getting. Northcoast - I like your rear bumper/tire carrier/plastic bumper trimming.

Makes sense, my 2.2 SOHC doesn't have this problem. I'll see how the grease works. Some of those things I would have liked to go slower but that was the minimum speed to get up hills, etc. You can see a few spots in that video where we didn't quite make it. Also, in a few parts the engine was wet and made no power below 3000RPM so I had to keep the revs up. Maybe over the winter I'll go dual range. All that being said, we did ride the trails there for maybe 18 hours, bent three wheels and one strut.

Unless you're going very slow all the time, don't put any grease in the CV boot. It will just cause the boot to balloon out at speed, sling around, and generally tear itself apart. Pack the joint full with a good moly grease if it's an outboard/fixed joint. The inboard/plunging joints don't need to be packed full.