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Beach Drivin' In A Soob? They Say NO??!!!


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Hey all- I was looking at all of these guys big 'ol trucks on this boating forum, and I decided to ask if anybody was drivin a subaru on the beach. These are all east coast guys, driving on the beach in expaditions with a cooler and poles in a bumper rack. They say the beach ruts would get us. What do you all think? I am in chicago, so I cannot really test this out. I know some of you are in NY and NJ. I think I would try if I was out there. I'm drivin a 92 Loyale. Come on guys!

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We drive on the coast all the time out west in WA and OR, and those crazy Australians take their subies out to the beach like mad max is coming or something. <-- I have no idea what that means.

 

 

Its easily done, just be sure to not give too much gas to get moving, and airing down immidiately when you hit sand to around 20 psi will save you a lot of headache later.

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A stock Brat has as much clearance as a Jeep Cherokee. 7.5" ground clearance. Even stock they do well - especially if you air down. EA82's are less - around 5.5". But with a little bit larger tires they do alright. They do get stuck easier than a stock EA81 though.

 

My lifted wagon with 28's has 14" under the rear diff. Aired down I can easily outwheel an exploder all day long at the "beach". I air down to 7 psi.

 

Beach ruts?? You're joking right?

 

mud_action.jpg

 

GD

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first of all low range would really help and you don't have it I assume since you have a loyale. Secondly make sure you take some wood and a good jack. Thirdly be smart about it...don't be a hero and try doing things you know you shouldn't do.

 

My buddy goes all the time in his suburban and it is easy for him with the tires aired down he most of the time doesn't even use 4wd but he is in a lot different vehicle too.

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Hey all- I was looking at all of these guys big 'ol trucks on this boating forum, and I decided to ask if anybody was drivin a subaru on the beach. These are all east coast guys, driving on the beach in expaditions with a cooler and poles in a bumper rack. They say the beach ruts would get us. What do you all think? I am in chicago, so I cannot really test this out. I know some of you are in NY and NJ. I think I would try if I was out there. I'm drivin a 92 Loyale. Come on guys!

 

ild like to find someplace here on Long Island in NY to try, but the 4wd permits are tightly controlled, and seem to be a huge secret on how to get one.

 

nipper

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A stock Brat has as much clearance as a Jeep Cherokee. 7.5" ground clearance. Even stock they do well - especially if you air down. EA82's are less - around 5.5". But with a little bit larger tires they do alright. They do get stuck easier than a stock EA81 though.

 

My lifted wagon with 28's has 14" under the rear diff. Aired down I can easily outwheel an exploder all day long at the "beach". I air down to 7 psi.

 

Beach ruts?? You're joking right?

 

mud_action.jpg

 

GD

 

Both my 87's gl and dl wqgon 4wd towered over stock ea81s and they were both oem....sitting taller than wagons and brats, and again have never seen a ea81 sedan where I live- and what is up with the oem nose dive they ALL had? A friend took one of the ea81 wagons seriously as a trail rider, when they finally got the front end to a good height the camber and steering went psycho.. the ea82 gens were very easy to deal with oem when it came to lift as well as bigger tires without even having a lift.

The loyale is meant to be a cream puff in comparison to some of the older "mini-tractor trailer" soobs, but they do indeed do quite well with taller tires, and lifting is so easy with a bit of ingenuity or professionally. The widest tires you can fit are great for sand more than height, but height is welcome if you are intentionally spinning having fun, digging in to it. Then again, if the tires are wide enough, like sticking out of the wells, you could fly around like "the big dogs" (as some locals would say) with no problems at all. :)

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keep your revs up, MOST subies are a little light on torque and if your let your revs drop too much you may get into trouble.

 

Use a gear lower or low range if you have it.

 

Take a snatch strap, its only polite.....even if you use it to pull others out.

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http://offroadingsubarus.com/downloads.html

See the video "Dune Run" on that page.

 

With my street tires (215/60R15's) I got bogged enough that I needed 1 person to push me out in soft sand (this is even with a welded rear diff.)

 

With my Mud Terrains I only got bogged when I reversed down a dune backwards which I really shouldn't of done, so on normal beach driving I wouldn't of got stuck, even in the really soft sand (this is without a welded diff, even better with.)

 

So tread is a very important thing. Although the street tires were hella fun to drift on the on the flat sand next to the river outlet. And the welded rear diff gave it that bit extra oversteer :)

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I took my bone stock 82 hatch to longbeach and had a blast....then i got stuck in the dark in soft dry sand. If you stay in the moist sand its no prob. yea and make sure your boots are good...i needed new cv joints within about a month after that cuz one boot was torn.

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I took my stock BRAT to Pismo Beach dunes once.

 

Not a star performer b/c of the low HP and I was running a single range tranny at that time, but it did get the job done.

 

Air down, keep momentum up and drive smart.

 

Off roading a stock soob takes brains and finesce in places where a truck or jeep can just mash the skinny pedal.

 

BW

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I drove me '81 sedan about 600kms of beach over a week long period, 200kms of that were with a camper trailer on the back. Only trouble I had was a cutting called Indian Head where even modified Landcruisers were having trouble.

 

This was at Fraser Island, The world's largest sand Island, about 3 hours drive and a 30min ferry from me. 175kms long, and up to 25km wide.

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Air down' date=' keep momentum up and drive smart.

 

Off roading a stock soob takes brains and finesce in places where a truck or jeep can just mash the skinny pedal.

 

BW[/quote']

 

So true... Around here I watch everyone slippin around because they don't know how to drive. (In the snow) SUV saves the world , right? W- RONG! My little guy goes every where I have taken bigger trucks. It feels alot better to me to be able to basically drive around the very deep crap, instead of being so friggin large (and tall) that you gotta keep it in the center and take what ever there is. What about airing down? We really only get snow here, and flotation is not what you want. Better to dig deep to pavement. But on the trails, mud ect... What PSI for stock tires would give me good off road performance?

Its all about the driver, the car is just a tool. (Well, not just- :banana: )

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Hey all- I was looking at all of these guys big 'ol trucks on this boating forum, and I decided to ask if anybody was drivin a subaru on the beach. These are all east coast guys, driving on the beach in expaditions with a cooler and poles in a bumper rack. They say the beach ruts would get us. What do you all think? I am in chicago, so I cannot really test this out. I know some of you are in NY and NJ. I think I would try if I was out there. I'm drivin a 92 Loyale. Come on guys!

My wife is from St Augustine Fl and I met two Subaru owners there (97 OBW and 95 Legacy) who regularly accessed the 4WD-only beach access points with them. The attendent at one told me he was flat out amazed to see the Subarus blow throw all the ruts.

 

Momentum is your friend.

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nice.....hey scott it looks like u have way bigger tires in the back....how did u do that, if u had same gear ratios front and rear wouldnt that blow a diff? or do you have like 4.111 in the rear?

 

 

stock 3.9 front and rear

those are wore out 31 x 13.5 swampers on the back , in the sand your spinn so much the ratio didnt matter, it was a test, the car went better with the 215/75-15 snow tires all around, only issue I had was heating up , only had one fan on the rad, highly recomend 2 fans and a override switch if your playin in the sand

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