singletrack

Yer new avatar and that car belong together. Small and stout. "Very dangerous over short distances". Now you need some Mythril rims, the ultimate in Middle-Earth bling. Can you take a pic of the underbody armor? I've been wondering what's going on with that car everytime I seen a pic.

I haven't ridden Nelson, but I know whats going on up there and its sick. I have some buddies who lived in Pemberton for a while, I stayed with them a few weeks several summers ago. Did lotsa riding around there. I'm gonna try and git 2 or 3 weeks for a summer road trip. Try an hit Whistler, Kamloops, Nelson, North Van etc. Lotsa places in the States to stop too. Anywho, haven't been up that way in a while, it'll be cool to git outa the desert in mid summer!

No cup-and-cone bearings on my bike! DT Swiss USA is based down the street from me, so I gotta run Hugi's. They're plenty strong, although my 240 FR split the hub flange twice, and my lower level Onyx hub blew up the freehub. Broke the pawls. I'm really hard on bikes though. I've been a shop wrench pretty much all my working life. Believe me, reliabilty is about the only thing I consider. That's why I ride a 45 pound "XC" bike. Anyway, my last 5 or 6 bikes have been from BC manufacturers, you Canucks know how to build um. Planning on going up there again this summer, haven't been in a few years.

Gimmie a little credit:), I understand the value of a locker. My concern is generating too much torque to one wheel on slickrock, and blowing stuff up. Out here, for instance, bicycles commonly tear hubs in half on slickrock climbs. I've blown up my high-end Swiss made hubs three times while hammering. That's at 1/3 hp, depending on what I had for lunch. Frankly, my Banshee is put together a lot better than a Subaru. You could say that its apple and oranges, but you guys take yer axles out to run on pavement. Well, typically the rocks here are gonna give you more traction than you could ever get on pavement. I think if the car went three-wheel under power in such conditions, the axle/stub would blow fer sure. I know it's an easy fix, but not one I really wanna deal with regularly. I have no [automotive] experience to base this on, it's just what intuition tells me. Won't know till I try I guess. Anywho like I says, I'll prolly end up with an LSD and a locker, use the LS mostly and put the locker in when I wanna do something stupid.

That's nuts, glad no one was riding shotgun. Ya know, aside from the roof it doesn't look that bad. I think you should just run it, full on Road Warrior style. Does it start?

Well, the LSD is gonna be in there most of the time, I'm not willing to give up shift on the fly for normal use. But I've got 3 diffs to work with, one will likely get welded at some point.

Yeah it was pretty nasty. All the north faces were mega-sloppy. We couldn't go above 25mph or so afterwards cause of the 50 pounds of mud on each wheel. Got a wicked shimmy. I had my roof/windows open, the car is full of that crap. The Willys were throwing so much, it looked like they were being attacked by a flock of birds. No doubt it would have helped that day. But mud runs here are very atypical. It hasn't rained/snowed in three weeks but still it's sloppy. Any wetter and both Willys and Ru woulda been stuck. That crap is insane. That said, it isn't like that 10 months a year. With rock and desert hardpack, traction just isn't an issue. I'm putting an LSD in the wagon, but me thinks a locker would be asking for trouble out here. Lemme ask you something, and I really appreciate and respect yer expertise on this subject, but in reading the old Rubicon threads, It seems you guys had two locked diffs and one LSD, right? Which one broke the most parts?

Safari is way early this year, March 19-27.

Dave and I know a few guys with built rockcrawlers here in GJ, and after months of incessant Subaru rambling, we finally got our friend Brad to go wheel with us. This is the north side of town, the remains of a 100 million year old sea floor. It's a stark contrast to the southern side where uplift, faulting, and erosion exposed 170 million year old sandstone. Anyway, this is the 29 Road OHV area, generally used by ATVs and motos. It's a BLM "sacrafice zone" where cross-country travel and other destuctive use is permitted. This kinda stuff isn't cool elsewhere in the fragile desert. The manocos shale that comprises the area has the remarkable abilty to retain water at the surface without absorbing any to the ground water. The result is trails that look dry, but are really the most herendous, sticky, slick, heavy and generally impassable mud you can imagine. We started out with 5 vehicles; a lifted Cherokee, 2 Willys, and 2 Ru's. The Jeep and the green willys had issues in the first mile. They're both broken in this pic, so it's hard to say who's at the working end of that strap. Anway, it was just a fuse on the Willys, but the Jeep got left behind. Obviously we can't do what the Willi can do, but in an area devoid of big rocks, we could definetly hang. Most of the wheeling was ridiculously steep off-camber climbs up to car-width ridges. BTW, Brad fabbed that purdy roll cage himself. There were a couple spots where the Ru's got skooled. Try as we might, me and Dave couldn't clear this ravine. But it wasn't easy for the trucks either. I lost my back bumper here, and Dave knocked his starter wiring loose. Dave says the plastic peeled off my bumper "like a bananna". Much to Dave's delight, I got stuck twice. This one resulted in my first winch-ride. The mud is so obnoxious that the only thing turning was my clutch. None of my wheels could even manage to spin helplessly. Anyways, sorry for the long write-up, it was really just another winter day in the desert. Brad's talking about Bangs Canyon next week, which is full of Subaru-sized rocks. Should be fun.

TurboXT: As long as yer OK, the real question is how fast were you going?

Yeah, it's the 29 RD OHV area. Just north of town, along I-70. You've been through here?

The DustyZap Hatch and the Safari Wagon made some new friends today. More pics soon. Lift. Tires. Done.

I never liked dog gates/crates myself; but then I never cared for leashes either.... Anyway, I think a crate bolted to the floor would work good. You could secure it with wing nuts so it'd be easy to remove if you wanted to haul something besides a pooch. Remember, installing a gate in the front and rear will limit your access as well. Now, here's a really good idea: I put a 35x40 sliding ragtop in the roof of my wagon. With the roof open, the interior never gets hotter than the outside temps, I feel totally comfortable leaving the mutt (or mutts) back there on a summer day. It's a lot more secure than leaving your windows down as well. Then again, no one messes with my car when there's an angry Randall barking at them. There's a thread on my woof, uh I mean roof here.

How's it turn with the big Libs?

I dunno if the meet is gonna happen for me - I managed to get a $70 speeding ticket in the wagon the other night. I used both excuses - "the big tires throw off my speedo" and "I dont think this car goes that fast" but Officer Dude still gave me a ticket... Anyway, that eats up most of my travel budget. I'll let ya know ifin I need that rack though, thanks! That's fer sure!

Just for simplicty. I don't think I'll miss it much. Think i'd be less likely to break stuff on-trail without it as well. You and Dave don't seem to have any problems without it, granted my car is a bit heavier. It also pisses fluid, which could be fixed, but for how long... I've never had any kinda car that didn't leak steering fluid constanly from everywhere. So fuggit. I've got enough leaks on the stuff I *need*.

I wanna remove the power steering on my wagon. I guess I can just remove the pump and hoses and leave it at that. I don't wanna do a hack job on it either, though. Should I just run the ps rack I've got dry or is it worth it to get a non ps rack at the jy? Is there a mechanical advantage to a non p/s rack?

Take off the roof rack and see it it still rattles. It could be the flimsy roof braces came unglued and are ratling around between the roof and the headliner. Edit: I just spoke to my dog, and he agrees it's the "roof".

Looks sweet! Do you have something planned for the bumpers?

Unfortunately, most spots "off the beaten path" have had a path beaten to them. No dogs either. F that. Yeah, here's that page with good route descriptions as well.

Moab, duh.:-p The city park behind Farabee's Jeep Rental is a good spot, lotsa parking. It's at the corner of W 400 North and N 100 West.... which sounds horribly confusing but in reality is only a block west of main st. There's a skatepark and public pool there; it's easy to spot. Just turn when you see the fleet of yellow and red rental jeeps. There's often a yellow Unimog setup for sight-seeing tours parked their as well. The tailings pile is mildly radioactive, I think we can do better. I know about a 1000 places we could camp, but it'll all depend on the size of the group we actually have. There's some undesignated spots that could handle 10-15 cars, but using such a site in this way is kinda irresponsible. Although, many do it anyway... Also, its prolly not a good idea to leave gear or standing tents in these spots. Most of the campsites within 10-15 min drive of town are BLM pay sites. Typically these sites cost $8 per vehicle per night. A large group will undoubtedly add to the maintenace load of the area, so we should just be good land users and pay up. Plus, we get fire rings, picnic tables, and outhouses. No water! These are fairly secure, tents can remian standing etc. Most of the really kewl sites are BLM pay sites anyhow, regardless of where they are. Along these lines we've got LOTS of choices, we can just play it by ear when we get there. Yeah, that's more in the summer. Hardcore river people will be there in the sping, but they don't wanna see us either. Either way, we prolly won't run into them on the trail. This is however, during prime mountain bike weather. That'll clog up the campsites a bit, but shouldn't be a big deal on the trails. Subaru is most popular ride amoungst mtbrs by a long shot, so most will likely be psyched to see us out their. Booze is a daunting logistical challenge. The beer at the market or gas station is 3.2. Same with the bars (including both breweries), except the Rio, which is a "private club" and can serve real beer. Membership is not very exclusive. There's also a state run lick-her store that sells real booze, as well as warm real beer sold in singles at bar prices.:-\

The Safari Wagon did a 5,000 mile road trip this summer. I'm sure your Brat can go the distance! Seriously though, if people from far flung locales (like LA) wanna come, we need to pin down a date so they can plan! Weekend of April 15th? There don't seem to be any problems with that date, any objections?

That's true but.... I know you're not trying to say that the ea-82 is a BAD offroader, but that's how it comes off. It's like saying the hatch is a better off-road rig than an OBS. Whilst that's true, it's no reason to give up on the Impreza. Lifted 3-door = Sickness!

Why do I get the feeling yer gonna pull one out of some box in yer garage?

Wait a minute, didn't I see this same post on MTBR?