Greetings, I'm Jim.
In my intro I posted that I'm helping my oldest son and his wife prepare this 2015 XT Touring for a 6 month or so trip to South America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. I haven't yet begun my research in earnest, and I expect I'll need to do a lot of that before we decide on which modifications and parts are appropriate, but I thought I'd introduce myself and throw out some of the issues I'm exploring for your amusement and consideration.
After considering vans, campers, towing a trailer behind the Forester, etc., we're leaning heavily towards a popup tent mounted to the top of his Forester as the least expensive and potentially most versatile arrangement. His budget is limited by not shoestring; let's call it shoestringish.
While you, or I, might go deep into making the Forester off road capable, that direction doesn't fit into his plans for bugetary and other reasons. While discussing capabilities he wrote me, "...I don't have unlimited budget and I'm not trying to build a super Offroad machine. Just a moderately capable car that has been lightly transitioned to be able to live out of." So that's the mission statement in a nutshell and the one I've sworn to follow.
One of the first issues we're tackling is what to do about a spare. We're looking at external mounts, which are heavy and expensive, possibly placing it behind the seats, which takes up a lot of room that could be used for gear, or placing a full sized spare in the tub where the narrow (R17x145 vs R18x225) spare is stored. So far I'm advocating for the full size in the spare tub approach because it's cheap, doesn't require an additional 100 lbs of hardware (class III hitch and tire mount), and the tire is protected from theft. The spare doesn't necessarily to be 225 width; it suspect 215, 205, or even 195 width tires will be adequate as a spare, and we're looking into that possibility as well.
The next issue I'll be looking at, and why I'm in this forum, is what will be required to handle the addional weight of the overhead tent, cooking and camping gear, and whatever else is needed for half a year on the road. At a minimum, and given my son's mission statement the minimum may be all that's required, he'll need higher capacity rear springs. Lift, if any, isn't necesary, but he also won't want to give up any of the clearance he has empty, so higher rate and/or longer rear springs will be required. That should be straight forward once we know what weight he expects to carry, what the present spring rates and lengths and suspension motion ratios are, and what springs are available on the aftermarket. I use Swift springs on my own project cars, but those are different animals.
We're also looking at tires, and specifically tires which are tougher than what's normally mounted for the poor roads he expects, but that fit the car without clearance issues. Most of which are availible have a single outer casing ply, which probably won't inspire confidence in Africa. Suitable offroad capable tires, with thicker casings, may or may not be available in sizes that fit without modification; I just don't know yet as I've not yet done much reading on that particular issue, but I will do so soon.
Of course there's lots more to research. Will he need higher temperature brake pads? I don't know, but depending on the loaded vehicle weight it might not be a bad idea. His car takes premimum gas, which he doesn't use now and will be non-existant in 95% of the places he visits, so there's an important issue that may be a problem depending on how well the Subaru ECM handles detonation. There will be lots of other questions once we begin this project in earnest, but these are the openers.
So, I'm looking forward to helping my son with his project and equally so to hearing from those out there that have faced similar challanges. Thanks all!
In my intro I posted that I'm helping my oldest son and his wife prepare this 2015 XT Touring for a 6 month or so trip to South America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. I haven't yet begun my research in earnest, and I expect I'll need to do a lot of that before we decide on which modifications and parts are appropriate, but I thought I'd introduce myself and throw out some of the issues I'm exploring for your amusement and consideration.
After considering vans, campers, towing a trailer behind the Forester, etc., we're leaning heavily towards a popup tent mounted to the top of his Forester as the least expensive and potentially most versatile arrangement. His budget is limited by not shoestring; let's call it shoestringish.
While you, or I, might go deep into making the Forester off road capable, that direction doesn't fit into his plans for bugetary and other reasons. While discussing capabilities he wrote me, "...I don't have unlimited budget and I'm not trying to build a super Offroad machine. Just a moderately capable car that has been lightly transitioned to be able to live out of." So that's the mission statement in a nutshell and the one I've sworn to follow.
One of the first issues we're tackling is what to do about a spare. We're looking at external mounts, which are heavy and expensive, possibly placing it behind the seats, which takes up a lot of room that could be used for gear, or placing a full sized spare in the tub where the narrow (R17x145 vs R18x225) spare is stored. So far I'm advocating for the full size in the spare tub approach because it's cheap, doesn't require an additional 100 lbs of hardware (class III hitch and tire mount), and the tire is protected from theft. The spare doesn't necessarily to be 225 width; it suspect 215, 205, or even 195 width tires will be adequate as a spare, and we're looking into that possibility as well.
The next issue I'll be looking at, and why I'm in this forum, is what will be required to handle the addional weight of the overhead tent, cooking and camping gear, and whatever else is needed for half a year on the road. At a minimum, and given my son's mission statement the minimum may be all that's required, he'll need higher capacity rear springs. Lift, if any, isn't necesary, but he also won't want to give up any of the clearance he has empty, so higher rate and/or longer rear springs will be required. That should be straight forward once we know what weight he expects to carry, what the present spring rates and lengths and suspension motion ratios are, and what springs are available on the aftermarket. I use Swift springs on my own project cars, but those are different animals.
We're also looking at tires, and specifically tires which are tougher than what's normally mounted for the poor roads he expects, but that fit the car without clearance issues. Most of which are availible have a single outer casing ply, which probably won't inspire confidence in Africa. Suitable offroad capable tires, with thicker casings, may or may not be available in sizes that fit without modification; I just don't know yet as I've not yet done much reading on that particular issue, but I will do so soon.
Of course there's lots more to research. Will he need higher temperature brake pads? I don't know, but depending on the loaded vehicle weight it might not be a bad idea. His car takes premimum gas, which he doesn't use now and will be non-existant in 95% of the places he visits, so there's an important issue that may be a problem depending on how well the Subaru ECM handles detonation. There will be lots of other questions once we begin this project in earnest, but these are the openers.
So, I'm looking forward to helping my son with his project and equally so to hearing from those out there that have faced similar challanges. Thanks all!
