[mdschurtz]

Figured I should go ahead and start my member journal:

I bought the car about a week ago on 10/19/13. I have desired a subie for some time now and having a puppy that will grow large, I wanted something with alot of room for her to hang out in the back. I was in search of a Forester or Outback and this one happened to pop up on craigslist.

Here is how she looked when I bought her.

That was on saturday and I bought a roof basket and threw it on the racks.
Sunday began work:

on the trip back to school:

a little instagram love:

and lastly today on Kayak duty:

My Plans:
New mudflaps (either black or red)
2" lift
general grabbers (have not decided on size yet, suggestions welcome)
Hella 500's up top (already have)
light bar up front
shifter bushings and short shifter (already have)
fix what ever leak is underneath, landing on the exhaust, and smelling

I want this to be a very light duty off road rig. Something that I can tote around town that still gets decent gas milage but can take me to my climbing/camping spots. Any other rock climbers here?

 

[Irongrave]

Nice starting point. Foresters make great tail head vehicles room for everything and the AWD and ground clearance to get you there with out issue. I use mine for bike hauling duty quite a bit.

 

[CinderBlock]

Looks like you wasted no time painting your wheels gold. Very nice addition.

 

[TheWinnman]

Very nice start!

How are you planning on doing your lift? Springs? Spacers? Both?

What 'yak are you paddlin?

I look forward to readin your journal!!

 

[mdschurtz]

Nice starting point. Foresters make great tail head vehicles room for everything and the AWD and ground clearance to get you there with out issue. I use mine for bike hauling duty quite a bit.

thank you. This will be used for Bike duty aswell. actually about to pick up a santa cruz superlight frame for the new build. :woohoo:

Very nice start!

How are you planning on doing your lift? Springs? Spacers? Both?

What 'yak are you paddlin?

I look forward to readin your journal!!

I would idealy like to do spacers and then moving the mounting point on the strut up. there is a thread where someone did it here but I do not know it off hand.

I'm paddling an old wave sport ace that I got from a coworker for $50 so can't complain about that.

Looks like you wasted no time painting your wheels gold. Very nice addition.

Thank you! The wheels were all pitted and had corrosion on them. They got cleaned up and painted.

 

[TheWinnman]

I'm paddling an old wave sport ace that I got from a coworker for $50 so can't complain about that.

Nice! Wave sports are good yaks, especially for that price! My brother has given me the yak bug, and I am still lookin for a boat, but I think I better get a lesson or three before I make an investment...:shrug:

:icon_biggrin: Your lift plans sound pretty solid, I look forward to seeing how you do it. I may or may not convince myself to do one too :icon_cool:

:rock::rock::rock:

 

[JarHarms]

I love it that all these SF journals are popping up. :biggrin:

 

[mdschurtz]

Nice! Wave sports are good yaks, especially for that price! My brother has given me the yak bug, and I am still lookin for a boat, but I think I better get a lesson or three before I make an investment...:shrug:

:icon_biggrin: Your lift plans sound pretty solid, I look forward to seeing how you do it. I may or may not convince myself to do one too :icon_cool:

:rock::rock::rock:

I live in some flat land though so moving to the mountains will present some more opportunities for me to get out in the boat and on the mountain bike.
Can't wait to move out west, weather that is west nc or west USA

I love it that all these SF journals are popping up. :biggrin:

I actually love the body style. Can't wait to get this thing where I want it.


anyone know what size tire is appropriate for a 2" lift (not looking to kill my gas mileage but want to up the size some)

 

[TheWinnman]

anyone know what size tire is appropriate for a 2" lift (not looking to kill my gas mileage but want to up the size some)

I believe the largest tire we can run, without a strut swap from an '04 or later, is a 215/65-16, as seen here, and here, and here.. Hopefully that helps!


If you wanted to do a strut swap, I believe that its a direct swap in, and it allows us to run a 215/75-16.. BFG has several awesome tires in that size... :woohoo:


:icon_biggrin:

 

[mdschurtz]

I believe the largest tire we can run, without a strut swap from an '04 or later, is a 215/65-16, as seen here, and here, and here.. Hopefully that helps!


If you wanted to do a strut swap, I believe that its a direct swap in, and it allows us to run a 215/75-16.. BFG has several awesome tires in that size... :woohoo:


:icon_biggrin:

Nice. Well the suspension lift I will be doing will hopefully take care of the tire fit problem with the struts because I will be lifting the whole strut essentially. I am going to check out some all terrain tires in that size. Something I can do some light offroading and drive around in the snow without a problem when I head to PA for christmas

 

[CinderBlock]

I live in some flat land though so moving to the mountains will present some more opportunities for me to get out in the boat and on the mountain bike.
Can't wait to move out west, weather that is west nc or west USA



I actually love the body style. Can't wait to get this thing where I want it.


anyone know what size tire is appropriate for a 2" lift (not looking to kill my gas mileage but want to up the size some)

Move to WNC before moving out west west. Once you move out west west, you won't want to come back.

 

[mdschurtz]

Move to WNC before moving out west west. Once you move out west west, you won't want to come back.

That is what I'm afraid of. I love the mountains but my family is all up north east.


anyone know if these will bolt up to an sf:
adjustable trailing arms

 

[TheWinnman]

Move to WNC before moving out west west. Once you move out west west, you won't want to come back.

Truth! While the East coast is pretty awesome, the West coast is brilliant!

As far as the adjustable trailing arms, I have read of a few people on here using something similar to those, but I don't know for sure.

 

[mdschurtz]

Truth! While the East coast is pretty awesome, the West coast is brilliant!

As far as the adjustable trailing arms, I have read of a few people on here using something similar to those, but I don't know for sure.

I need to get under my car monday night and see if they look like they might work. definitely want to go that route if I can for the lift. I like the adjustability aspect of them if I want to keep going higher. overall I would like around 4" of lift.
1" in spacers
+
2" in strut lift
+
1.6" in spring lift
=
4.6" of lift

wil do 3.5" of subframe spacers

215 75 r16 tires

so overall i guess that would be around 5" of lift




How do these motors hold up to pushing larger tires

 

[TheWinnman]

I need to get under my car monday night and see if they look like they might work. definitely want to go that route if I can for the lift. I like the adjustability aspect of them if I want to keep going higher. overall I would like around 4" of lift.
1" in spacers
+
2" in strut lift
+
1.6" in spring lift
=
4.6" of lift

wil do 3.5" of subframe spacers

215 75 r16 tires

so overall i guess that would be around 5" of lift




How do these motors hold up to pushing larger tires

The motors are more than capable of the larger diameter, but the speedo will be somewheres around 7% off. There will be some power loss, but not so much as it makes the fun of the larger tires pointless.

There is a gent on here that was running a similar setup as you are planning. Also, check out this crazy lifted beast!!

Your plan is epic! :woohoo: If only I had the budget... :shrug:

 

[mdschurtz]

The motors are more than capable of the larger diameter, but the speedo will be somewheres around 7% off. There will be some power loss, but not so much as it makes the fun of the larger tires pointless.

There is a gent on here that was running a similar setup as you are planning. Also, check out this crazy lifted beast!!

Your plan is epic! :woohoo: If only I had the budget... :shrug:

I plan on doing this over a long period of time so budget is an issue for me aswell

check out this thread for an easy 2"
lifting a GL

 

[TheWinnman]

I plan on doing this over a long period of time so budget is an issue for me aswell

check out this thread for an easy 2"
lifting a GL

I've seen that lift idea done on the older Subi's, I just don't know if I would trust my own ability to do it right, just yet.

I might have to convince my machinist buddy to help me with something like this, which is quite a bit more involved than the 2 inch tube lift, but i think its a bit less precarious, IMO.

Also, if you are thinking that this lift will clear tire fitment issues, I think you will find you are mistaken, the larger tires won't hit the fender wells, it will rub on the lower strut/spring plate-thingy, which is why struts from a newer Foz helps, their clearance is larger between the tire and the strut! Bluefox and the others. makes some great points in this thread. I want to lift not just so I can be better off road, but I love the look and stance of a lifted foz!

 

[CinderBlock]

I need to get under my car monday night and see if they look like they might work. definitely want to go that route if I can for the lift. I like the adjustability aspect of them if I want to keep going higher. overall I would like around 4" of lift.
1" in spacers
+
2" in strut lift
+
1.6" in spring lift
=
4.6" of lift

wil do 3.5" of subframe spacers

215 75 r16 tires

so overall i guess that would be around 5" of lift




How do these motors hold up to pushing larger tires

I know some of the guys here who are crazily lifted have to lower their transmission other driveline parts to keep everything happy. I'm not sure at what point that has to be done tho.

 

[mdschurtz]

I've seen that lift idea done on the older Subi's, I just don't know if I would trust my own ability to do it right, just yet.

I might have to convince my machinist buddy to help me with something like this, which is quite a bit more involved than the 2 inch tube lift, but i think its a bit less precarious, IMO.

Also, if you are thinking that this lift will clear tire fitment issues, I think you will find you are mistaken, the larger tires won't hit the fender wells, it will rub on the lower strut/spring plate-thingy, which is why struts from a newer Foz helps, their clearance is larger between the tire and the strut! Bluefox and the others. makes some great points in this thread. I want to lift not just so I can be better off road, but I love the look and stance of a lifted foz!

So there is a thread I think I posted earlier about lifting by adding extensions to the bottom of strut where it connects to the hub assembly. which gives me extra clearance with larger tires.

I know some of the guys here who are crazily lifted have to lower their transmission other driveline parts to keep everything happy. I'm not sure at what point that has to be done tho.

Yeah I was planning on dropping all that stuff a bit after I do the lift.

 

[TheWinnman]

This thread?

If thats what you are plannin, then yes, the tire clearance issue is done away with, I apologize, I must have misread your previous post! My bad. :icon_redface:

If you do go that way, it should be a great bit of fun to hear your stories about the build! :Banane35: