pontoontodd

B and Z and I left my house a few weeks ago for a week long off road trip in my black Outback and B's Forester. Got most of the way to Little Sahara and camped at a lake in KS. It got very windy that night be we survived. We got to Little Sahara Sunday morning. Saw a bunch of golf carts being towed going the opposite way. It was Veteran's day Friday so we're guessing a lot of people had already been there Friday and Saturday, it wasn't too crowded Sunday morning. Everything including the golf carts had paddles on the rear and ribs on the front, and it was mostly golf carts with a few dune buggies. We aired down and installed our tallest flags. Entrance road is quite whooped out, we couldn't run it with any speed. I was leading the way most of the time and working my way around the perimeter or close to it thinking there might be some trails off into the woods but we didn't find any. The whole perimeter was a mess of trails through brush but very sandy, the interior was large dunes but not quite like Silver Lake or the Big Dune. At one point I did a lap of a bowl and realized I couldn't keep my momentum up enough and couldn't get out. I put it in low and locked the center diff and by backing up the opposite wall I was eventually able to power my way out in second. I got stuck another time trying to take a soft side trail but was able to back down and sideways back onto the main trail. Got stuck another time trying to climb a small soft hill. While I was stuck sideways halfway up the hill a couple guys came over the other side and fortunately for us immediately stopped but caused the following one to rearend the leading one. Don't think that did too much damage. Z hooked the strap on to the side of my front bumper and B pulled a little too hard and broke the side of the bumper but did get me mostly pointed in the right direction. Z ripped the piece off the rest of the way and we put it in the car. We were able to climb some of the highest dunes after a couple tries, it was a bit tricky to not carry too much speed over the top but have enough momentum to crest the top. While at the top of one of them we saw some cool looking dirt roads going into the hills to the west. After we'd been around the park once (took a couple hours) we decided we should leave – we'd kinda seen the whole place and if we stayed longer we're probably just wind up breaking something, getting really stuck, or hit a golf cart cresting a dune the opposite direction. Went back out to the parking lot, aired down, and made sandwiches. B couldn't get the Forester in high range (Subaru dual range trans), it just kept grinding like the synchros were shot. I had him shut off the engine. Then we slowly rolled the car back and forth while I put a big prybar on the low range shifter from the engine compartment. Eventually got it in high range where it stayed the rest of the trip. We had to drive around the block but we got to the trails to the west into the hills. They were oil tank access roads and also went by a few ponds. Some went to the tops of hills with pretty good views and the roads in general were pretty fun, a little rough but not too bad. We eventually ran out of those and tried to figure out another area with trails on the way to Big Bend. A ways south of there we hit some side roads. Eventually came to a gate so we went through, closed the gate, and continued. Not far from there we could no longer follow the road that was on my map. Turned back around to find about thirty cows on the other side of the gate. They associate motorized vehicles with food and water. There were some small jumps near the gate so I hit those a couple times to kill a little time but the cattle weren't going anywhere. Fortunately there was a cattle guard at the gate so I opened it and started waving them back. B was able to get in but then got kind of boxed in by cattle. Z eventually got the Outback in and I closed the gate. I was eventually able to wave a path through the cattle for them to drive through/around and I ran after them over the next cattle guard. Looked like the area around Copper Breaks had a lot of dirt roads so we went down there and camped out for the night. In the morning we started driving down some of the side roads looking for dirt roads but they were all gated/private. We basically drove straight to BBSP from there. Met slammo just as it was getting dark and followed him up the roughest trails we'd do all week to our campsite in the dark. Took one trail that was on the main state park map but kept dead ending in and along a wash so we took the long way around he'd taken before. There was an old dilapidated windmill at the site and a new picnic table. The next morning we trail rode the long way down to the only open ranger station. Cool desert mountain views, all the trails are what we'd consider Jeep trails, fairly narrow and rough. Took part of the main gravel road to the ranger station. They did have showers, bathrooms, water, and ice, all of which some of us got in on. We took the long way south to another campsite on a saddle. Took a hike down into a valley and hiked back up in the dark and set up camp. Saw several decrepit windmills, at least one with dead windmill, IC engine tossed aside, and solar powered water pump in their place, three generations of water pumping technology. We hiked to a waterfall one morning, it wasn't visible from where we were at through the vegetation. We did more trail riding the next day including a fairly overgrown trail that had some deep ditches crossing it that were a little challenging. It's funny to me that the Lexus certainly made it through/over everything but was often fairly tippy or scary to watch or ride in. My Outback crawled with similar ability but was much more stable. B's Forester had to go through with more speed due to a lack of low range but was also very stable and level. So the one place I had thought the Lexus would have a big advantage I think it was actually worse. Plus with the auto, slammo and I both thought it was not as smooth and controllable as the Outback. The road to a couple mines we wanted to see was closed so we hiked in to them on some of the smoothest roads we'd seen the whole time we were there. The mines were disappointing but we did see some cool grasshoppers. On the way back B and Z and I hiked down a wash for a change of scenery. Slammo took us to Solitario bar which is an unoccupied collection of treasures on an island of private land inside the park. We drove up to a state park that was fairly close to the start of the New Mexico Backcountry Discovery Route (NM BDR). We hadn't bought gas in three days, slammo and B both added some to their cars while we were in BBSP but I didn't have to add any to the black Outback. In BBSP we saw javelinas, a tarantula, and mule deer including a big buck. We also saw antelope and elk and more mule deer on the trip.

I agree with all of that except the auto trans fluid change. I've heard many horror stories about people changing auto trans fluid in cars and trucks that haven't had it changed in tens of thousands of miles and the transmission dies shortly thereafter. Have even heard this from people who rebuild them for a living. Hypothesis being it breaks loose all the varnish and sludge and clogs things up. Just my 2c on that.

Interesting. I was thinking more for the lower/closer ratios than durability but again I know almost nothing about the automatics. The 4EAT is bad enough, I can't imagine something worse.

2" lift shouldn't be too hard on your CVs and shouldn't affect power delivery or transmission life. If you're going to drive the car 99% on the highway and occasionally take it on trails like this, just go 1.5". If 99% trail riding I would go 2.5". 215/75/15 is the biggest tire you'll be able to fit without some crazy spacers or wheels, they shouldn't rub too much with 1.5"+ lift. Supposedly the 08ish Forester struts have a little more clearance, pretty sure the 2000-2004 Outback front struts have more clearance, but still 215/75/15 is about as big as you can go. As you mentioned your approach and departure angles will be much worse than a Jeep. At a minimum remove the plastic bumper covers or the trails will eventually remove them for you. AGX struts are a little better than standard replacement struts and aren't too expensive. Beyond that they get expensive but ride and hold up better. Lift springs would be worth looking into, that would be a better way to lift it than spacers as it will get you higher off the bump stops at ride height. Having done it, I would say it's not worth swapping to an H6 for mild trail riding. If you really want an H6 and obviously don't mind having an auto, I'd just buy an H6 Outback. With the five speed auto would be even better. The biggest advantage that Jeep will have over your Subaru is gearing. I haven't seen this trail you're talking about so I don't know how steep it gets, but any long steep grade will probably be impossible in your Subaru (this is all relative, we've certainly climbed some things without low range a lot of people would consider long and steep). I haven't driven many of the automatic cars off pavement but mine is terrible, certainly no better than a five speed manual, you still need momentum to get up short steep hills. It does work better in 1 or 2 than D. I wouldn't worry so much about ground clearance numbers. Worst case you scrape the bottom a few times, or a lot of times, it's steel and it's a 22 year old car, just make sure the oil pan and gas tank have good protection.

Rendezvoused at Z's new house at 7AM Friday morning last weekend for a trip to the UP. Someone noticed his car had a blown CV boot so we swapped out his axle with B's spare in Z's garage. Drove north out of Menominee, haven't done that in a long time. Went by some other trails and snowmobile trails and got to the Felch grade. After driving it in my car for a while I rode with Z. His car is definitely harsher but bottomed out at least a few times on the trip, not sure if that was sidewalls or suspension bottoming though. Definitely needs more tuning. Got up to Rapid River and hit the super whoops. Cars didn't seem to handle them too well or maybe the whoops are getting taller (sort of look like it). Fall colors were prime in some areas. We headed east and wound up at the same spot we'd gotten the white Outback stuck on our last trip. B noticed a different line through the swamp that looked easier so A tried that in my car. Got stuck of course, Z pulled him out with the strap. A tried it again farther to the right but wound up in the same ruts and got stuck again. Z started to get him out with the strap after a few hits but was digging his own ruts. I almost told him to stop because he was going to get stuck but his car seemed to still be driving fine and he didn't seem concerned. Then of course he got stuck. No standing trees within winching distance. Later on I noticed a large fallen tree we probably could have winched to. Z and B worked on jacking up the Forester with the bottle jack and shoving wood under things. A and I used the electric jack on the Outback and various wood and were slowly raising it. Eventually we got the recovery ramps under a couple of Forester tires and drove it out. Tried winching the Outback to the Forester but it just slid the Forester. Ran a strap from the front of the Forester to a tree and then the winch was able to pull the Outback out (after jacking and getting wood/recovery ramps under the tires). Z said he could hear the Forester's body creaking. We were probably stuck for a couple hours, a longer strap(s) and/or a high lift would have helped a lot but we only had two cars so we didn't have all our usual recovery equipment. Saw a porcupine crossing the road. We eventually got up to a campsite we'd found before on a little lake but it was occupied by a van. Found a different one at the top of a hill by the lake and camped there. That area had a ton of trails so the trail riding Saturday morning was good. Found a pile of random toys along a river and made PB&Js there. We tried going to the south end of the old bridge we'd found earlier this year to reevaluate fixing it. I think it was there we went through a super nasty looking mud bog that was actually fairly easy, just a few inches of slime on hard packed sand. Bridge could certainly be rebuilt, maybe even with the materials on hand, but it would take a lot of effort and fasteners we didn't have. Drove around the block (10-15 miles) to get to the campsite between two lakes. Nice night, no bugs all weekend really, lows in the 50s. We had a little campfire after dinner and some guys drove in with their UTV and just turned around and left without saying anything. Sunday morning we went up and hit the jumps just north of the campsite but they're blind so we didn't want to do that too much. Tried going east, there were some mudholes and bypasses around fallen logs but we made it a few miles until the trail ended at a turn. Couldn't figure out where the road used to go so we turned around. Moved some logs out of the way on the way back. While we were doing this an old timer showed up on an ATV. He warned us there were some mudholes the way he'd come and we said we knew, that's where we came from. Then I realized he thought we'd come the other way so I asked him if the road actually went through. He said that's what he was trying to find out, it used to be a road 60 years ago. On a couple of my maps it went all the way through. A couple of other ones didn't show most of what we'd driven but did show it going farther east. Typical UP navigating. Got stuck in a couple other deceptively soft swamps but got out with the strap in one and the electric jacks and ramps in another. No real issues all weekend, good temps, no bugs, not much rain.

No, it's on the driver's side and it's extremely short, the metal lines almost touch. I think the line goes back to the heater core.

Driver's side exhaust was squished pretty bad after the V2R, as was the skidplate on that side. First step was to remove the heat shields. Also bent one of the coolant lines a bit despite that starting about 3" away from the skidplate. That little hose was probably about to leak if not blow out completely so we got kinda lucky there. Here's now non round the part we cut out was: I used a steel cone and hammered it into the ends that we were reusing to make them round again and B fit some new tubing, 2" x .095" 4130 IIRC. Fully welded that, put the heat shields back on, B fixed up the skidplates a bit and reinstalled those, 99 OB is basically ready to go. While installing long travel on Z's Forester XT, I had to make a lot of clearance for our fabricated control arms at full droop. As you can see in this first picture it can't droop much. Just kept cutting and hammering until it fit. Got it to drop enough to be able to swing the knuckle into place. Capped and welded it back together. Another issue was that the control arm bushings on the STI are wider than the normal bushings, they stick towards the front of the car about 1/4" more. If we'd known this we probably would have just ordered STI bushings in the first place but since the standard ones are installed we just welded spacers in the subframe to compensate. Also welded our normal thick spacers on the outside of the subframe to keep those holes from getting worn out. So from front to back it goes big spacer, small spacer, no spacer, big spacer. Mainly for slammo and travelvw's benefit. Then I did the other side, went faster and turned out a little cleaner. Spacers on the LF. We also wound up having to cut away most of that little strip of metal that's blocking the view of the spacer in this picture for axle clearance. Cut that bolt shorter as well. So Z's Forester has long travel fully installed, drove it around town a bit, seems pretty good. Should be a blast off pavement. Shipped about half of slammo's long travel to him too.

Glad you liked the pics. Thanks, the V2R was quite a challenge, glad we finally finished it, can't imagine doing it again in a Subaru. Maybe eventually I'll post more pictures of the 6MT low range but without showing it to you in person or some kind of in depth video it would be hard to explain how it all works. The black Subaru still runs and drives pretty well so I will keep it for a while, I have plenty of other things to do. But the eventual replacement will be: Impreza wagon/hatch - probably first gen - lightest EJ Subaru, mechanical HVAC controls, more robust hatch than Legacy/Outback/Forester EZ36 on standalone swap over/copy many of the upgrades on the black Outback - 6MT/R180 with the low range, long travel, steel bumpers, skidplates, maybe fuel cell in place of spare tire well but no cage. thinking about fabbing engine and trans crossmembers/subframe since I'd have to space/modify them somehow and the engine crossmember has been a real weak point on the black Outback.

Z made this a while back:

I've seen several people put a transfer case behind a Subaru (or Toyota or other) transmission and put solid axles in a Subaru. TTB in the front would be hot. In my mind you might as well start with a Toyota at that point as it would be a lot easier. Also in my mind it's a different tool for a different job, Toyotas and Toyota buggies crawl silly but they're best when they're crawling, not going fast. How would you run the front output back through the transmission? Ideally you'd want the low range before the center diff if you want a Subaru style center diff. If you're using the NP231 2wd/4wd you would have to run the front output to the ring and pinion in the trans if you want a Subaru style layout. We are using off the shelf bushings from McMaster, it's just a lot of pieces and work putting struts together. Kinda wish we'd just made conventional struts with bigger shafts rather than inverted but our current design works so we're sticking with it.

We've been working on the long travels. I think this is all the housings - galvanized, painted, and ID ground. Prepping the tops Z's set is all assembled and ready to install on his car which should happen soon. Really just need a couple bushings and bumpstops to finish slammo's set. Front control arm bushing off B's Forester. Maybe the most worn out one I've ever seen. He recently replaced both his rear wheel bearings, another reminder we have to do the billet rear knuckles. Still need to get his dual range back together and back in his car too. Support for the trans skid plate on my 99 was quite bent after the Vegas to Reno. Bent it back about as straight as I could using a big piece of tubing and the floor jack. Flattened the panel back out in the vice and got it bolted back in. Definitely not flat but much better than it was. Hard to get a good picture showing how beat the floor of this car is, in person it looks like the ocean. Many of the skidplate bolts looked like this. Hard to tell in this picture but that rear strip (left) is about half the height it started out at. I welded another strip on there before we put it back on the car. Here was our main structural failure during the race. Hose clamped the driver's side of the steering rack back in before we drove home. Bracket was essentially disconnected from the crossmember. The way it cracked it couldn't quite fall out but there was zero weld left intact. Not pretty but welded it back in place. Should be good for the life of the car if we don't do any more desert races with it. Some of the many cracks I welded up, these were on the front crossmember near the rack mount. Put in new rack bushings and got the rack bolted back in.

Correct, those have a female splined rear output gear and I don't know of a good way to make that work with this design.

I've been waiting to post about this all year. Let me start by saying these won't be cheap, on the order of $4000 retail. This has been a few years in the making but we finally made a proper low range for a Subaru. Replaces the center diff of a 2006+ STI 6MT. Shifts between 1:1 high and 2.94:1 low. Center diff shifts between open and locked, no limited slip feature. We've had one in my 99 Outback for about five months now. We've had some shifter cable issues. It popped out of high on rough portions of V2R. It occasionally shifts into center diff lock also, most often on rough trails. Those problems will probably be fixed by a better shifter. Unit itself hasn't had any problems yet. Everyone who drives it says it's like cheating. Low range in B's Forester with the 1.6 dual range is equivalent to in between second and third in low with this trans. We hardly even use first low on climbs, second or third is usually plenty, even putt up some hills in fourth low (equivalent to about first in high). Finishing a few more we have most of the parts for, next one is going to slammo. These are some pictures from the mockup, not the finished product: Video from our test run at Badlands off road park, video never does the hills justice but at least watch the rock crawl starting at 1:15: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyDVQnRx-Dc I think we can fit the same thing in a 5MT which obviously has a much larger market. It looks like the easy way to do the shifting would be to use a rear case section from a pre 97 5MT with the access panel on top. No idea how the standard driveshaft and R160 will hold up to a 2.94:1 low range but I guess we'll find out.

One of the last things I did before we drove to Vegas was replacing the ignition switch that was shorting out. Has security bolts holding it to the column. I read about people slotting them or removing them carefully with a hammer and punch. I tried a little of that and just decided to weld a bolt to the head of these and use that to remove them, it wasn't too difficult. When I bolted in the new one I used socket head cap screws (left) instead of the break off bolts supplied (right). Turned the car on and off without blowing fuses. Still had to use the start button fairly often especially when the starter was hot. Can't take the key out in the on position anymore which is annoying.

B and I drove my 99 Subaru Outback to Vegas last week. We entered and completed the Vegas to Reno, the longest off road race in the US, in 17 hours 40 minutes. It was great to see most people cheering us on before, during, and after the race. Coming around a corner in the dark to a broken down buggy and our lights lighting up the three hairy butts of the guys who mooned us was hilarious. We were guessing a lot of the course workers near the end of the race may have been cheering since they finally got to go home more than cheering us on. Only 165 of the 294 trucks and buggies that entered finished. One flat tire and a shifter cable issue were the only mechanical issues we had. The course was consistently rougher than when we tried it in 2016 and 2017. There were very few sections, I'd say 10-20%, where we could go 40+mph without worrying about breaking the car. We have averaged 35-40 in past desert races and could have done that for a while on this course but probably not for 500 miles. Our average with stops was 27mph. We switched driving and refueled about every third pit or 100 miles (which at our pace was 3-4 hours). Baja pits fueled us and had tires at those pits for us. Thanks again to slammo for coming out and helping us. We did replace a CV axle and hose clamped the loose end of the steering rack back in place for the ride home. which wagon is more beat? Then we did a little sightseeing and trail riding and drove it back home.

We've been getting the 99 Outback ready for the Vegas to Reno. Replaced the rear wheel bearings and front brake pads and put on new tires and new (to the car) wheels. Already shipped a set of spare tires out to the pit service. Safety wired and cotter pinned all the suspension and brake bolts. Welded up a few cracks too. If I try to keep this car much longer that front crossmember will just be solid weld. After pressing together one of the rear wheel bearings it initially wouldn't turn. I had to put a bar on the wheel studs to break it loose but then it spun easily and smoothly. I've never had that happen before, has anyone else experienced that? Test drove the car for about an hour, at least half of that was at about 80mph. Couldn't tell if the wheel bearings or tires were making noise but didn't seem much louder than usual. Tire temps were all four the same and the rear wheels didn't feel hot when I got home. We got more parts for the dual range too. We need to assemble that and put it back in B's car but that will probably have to wait until after the V2R. Ditto the new long travel struts. If anyone wants to meet us at the Vegas to Reno let me know.

I have Hankook and BFG mud terrains on my Outbacks. B has BFG all terrains on his Forester. All of them are 215/75/15.

Also finally posted a video from our trip out west last year: https://youtu.be/Ngav72n_WQA

B got a few parts in for the dual range. The first gear he got is at least 20% wider than the one that he broke so that's a huge plus. I still wonder what that stamped gear with one less tooth than the first gear does. This new wider one doesn't have that. The mainshaft he got seems to fit too. One shoulder was about a millimeter different in length so I relieved that a little bit in the lathe. Also cut the snapring groove for the dual range synchro hub deeper like we did the last one. The mainshaft that was in it seemed fine but while we have it apart we're going to replace a bunch of parts. B has a whole list of parts he's going to try to get. When we figure more of that out I'll probably make a specific topic for dual range info we've found. Finally got all the long travel parts back from paint along with B's bumper, so we installed that. Will eventually post better pictures of it when we go on a trip or something. Not too heavy but it should protect the fenders and lights, provide a couple jacking/winching points, make for easier and more robust recovery strap wrapping, give him a spot to mount a few lights, and allow more airflow to the radiator.

We confirmed that it was the driven first gear on the dual range trans that was missing a tooth. B has a replacement on order. He already got a replacement main shaft that looks like it should fit. We did put the original (non dual range 5MT) back in his car for now. Replaced the driveshaft on the 2002 Outback, kind of surprising it was still driving like this, it was certainly making a lot of noise. Got all the new long travel parts galvanized a while back. Grinding shop finally ID ground them all a couple weeks ago. Hopefully we'll get them back from paint this week along with B's bumper. We've continued to do shock assembly as parts come in. We have almost everything now, just waiting on a few reservoirs. B also replaced the driver's side mirror glass on the white Outback, what a giant PITA that is. He also rewired the radiator fans and AC compressor to separate switches on the 99 OB. Neither ECU I have seems to run the fans when the temps get high so for the time being I can just turn them on manually. Rerouted some other cables while we he was at it.

Have done some repairs on the cars since the last trip. Been hotwiring the ignition on the 99 and that seems to be working fine, no more blown fuses. Ordered an ignition key switch from the dealer but that's at least a few weeks out still, if anyone has one they want to sell please message me. ECU still doesn't seem to be turning the fans on. The only other ECU I could find is one digit different in the part number but basically looks the same inside and out. We put it in and the car ran rougher so we swapped the old one back in. I think for now I'll just put the fans and AC compressor on separate switches. Will probably part it out after the Vegas to Reno so it doesn't have to last too long. Speaking of which, if anyone wants to join us at the Vegas to Reno (it's not a very good spectator event) message me about that. Got a few guys going this year I think. Replaced some worn out bushings on the 99 too. B ordered a main shaft for the dual range that we hope will fit. If it does we might replace some other gears too. Plan is to swap a stock trans in his car this weekend for now. At one point we had the (probably original) radiator out of the white Outback and I noticed the plastic water necks had turned white. Got a new aftermarket one (Denso) a few years ago which was fine for a while. A few months ago in Arkansas we went through some deep mud puddles and it's been running hot on and off ever since. Guessing it got hot down there and ballooned the tubes. Got one from the dealer ($220) and just put that in. So far so good. There is an aftermarket one with 2" thick core that bolts in but it's for four cylinder so water necks are different. Also it's Mishimoto and I have had to replace the mishimoto in my black Outback a couple times due to pinhole leaks (lifetime warranty but requires some fabrication to fit). Z and I did an autopsy of the Denso radiator, you can clearly see the ballooned out tubes (they should look like the ones at the bottom): I've always wondered what the ATF to coolant heat exchanger looks like and I was a little disappointed. Maybe the stock one is fancier. A little hard to tell from the pictures but just a hollow brass tube in the bottom tank.

Before the trip the dual range in B's Forester had started making a slight ticking noise in first gear. We weren't sure if it was the transmission or the engine since the frequency was about the same as engine speed. Also the driveshaft bolts in the middle of the (2010 STI) driveshaft in the 99 OB have been making noise under load in first and sometimes second gear for a while now. Seems the hanger bearing is just too flexible. The white Outback started making a similar but much fainter noise. On the way out of town we did a couple drag races between my 2002 white Outback and the 99 black Outback. They accelerate about the same which is kinda sad considering the black one weighs about 1000# more and they have the same engine. On the way north the white Outback was already running hot. We stopped in Escanaba to blast the radiator as best we could without disconnecting the radiator hoses at a car wash. We got to Rapid River and aired down and hit the super whoops. The black Outback didn't seem to take them as well as in previous years. I think I had been able to go 40-50 in the past over the more mild sections, this time 35 is about all I could do. It didn't kick the back end it just seemed overly bouncy. White Outback and Forester seemed better than before. By this point the white Outback needed to cool down. We pulled over in the shade and bypassed the trans cooler I'd installed in front of the radiator. That didn't seem to help much. We drove it with the heat on most of the weekend. At some point I realized I'd turned the heat up and it was at 80 but it wasn't blowing hot. It actually goes up to 85 and then it blows hot. Later on we realized it was at 84 and not blowing hot. Automatic HVAC controls are the bane of my existence. We wound up at the entrance to the big spring so we went there. We hit a stunt area the next morning with fairly steep and tall sandy hills. Z got stuck at the top in the black Outback. M tried pulling him out with the white Outback but it wasn't doing anything. We set up the winch and it pulled the black Outback out with ease. I did let it sit for a minute in the middle of the pull but it never shut off by itself. Then we aired down and Z was able to drive out on his own. We hit the climbs a bunch of other times in all three cars. At that point we headed to the campsite on the bluff along Superior. We walked down and along the beach and back up to a different campsite we've never stayed at. A got back to the cars first and removed the hood from the white Outback. He and I took a test drive to see if it helped coolant temps. It made no difference and while we were driving around with no navigational technology we hoped nothing bad happened since no one else was with us and they didn't know where we went. We set up tents and cooked food so people would know the site was occupied. Then we went back out for a few more hours of trail riding. After maybe ten minutes the black Outback completely shut off and I coasted to the side of the trail. The 100A fuse in the 2002 (H6 donor) fuse block had blown. We put in a fusible link and it fired back up and we kept driving. After maybe another ten minutes that blew. We checked many things and eventually I decided the only thing that could be otherwise unfused was the ignition switch. The start portion of the key switch has been working about half the time for the last couple years but I figured it was probably just old wiring. Also I've been able to take the key out while the car is running for years so it seemed believable that the switch was shorting out. We put the 100A fuse from the white car in the black car and just made a jumper wire for the fuse in the white car figuring the wiring in that seemed OK. I hotwired the ignition switch and it worked fine the rest of the weekend. The next morning we took trails to Grand Marais. At some point we stopped to reinstall the trans cooler in front of the LF tire in which did seem to help engine cooling a little. B and I headed down to the boat ramp to dunk the radiator in the white Outback after removing the fan fuses. He drove it in and out about a dozen times, didn't seem like a lot got washed out. By this point A pulled up in the black Outback and thought we should do the same thing since we'd gotten it stuck in a mud hole earlier that day (and used two cars to pull it out). I agreed it was a good idea so I spotted him as he drove it in and out of the lake. Didn't get a lot of mud out. I must have told him to go a little too far in as he said all of a sudden water was pouring into the wheel wells. When he tried to back the car out it stalled and wouldn't restart. We pulled it out as quick as we could with the white Outback. Started pulling back carpeting and removing the ECU. The ECU did look like it had gotten some water in it but it was fairly clean. Actually looks like it's had water in it a few times. Dried it out with some isopropyl alchohol. Thankfully it started back up and ran fine all weekend. We headed to the bar, this time with me driving the black Outback and M navigating. We took many side trails since we had plenty of time and not a lot of distance to cover. On one of the many side trails we picked up a vibration in the black Outback. A branch had broken one of the radiator fan housings and broke a blade off. We disabled that fan. Also noticed the ECU wasn't turning both fans on when the engine was hot. So we had to run the AC to keep the engine cool. Had to turn on the heat also for a little bit once. M cut off the opposite blade on the radiator fan and we hooked it back up. Went back out trail riding for a couple hours. White Outback still running hot so we had to keep stopping for that to cool. At one point we got back out to the main gravel road that goes east to the bar. Z was navigating, we told the guys we could just take that back to the bar and then hopped on a cool looking side trail in about 100 feet and did a big loop. Took another side trail close to the bar. There were some decent sized downed trees across the trail but we cut and moved those and drove over the rest, eventually looping back out to the trail we came in on. The next morning we mostly took main gravel roads/snowmobile trails to Pictured Rocks. Figured since the white Outback was still running hot and most of the guys hadn't seen them it would be a good idea. Hiked to Chapel Rock again, always amazing. On the way home we decided to hit one more snowmobile trail that was a pretty straight shot. It was fairly soft and washboard gravel so I had to run the black Outback in fifth gear just to maintain 55mph. White Outback was running hot again so we had to wait a while. Also on the way down there the black Outback picked up a pretty violent shaking under braking. The RF OB CV boot was badly torn, that axle had been making noise for a while. We drove down the road another ten miles or so to a shady parking lot and started swapping out the CV axle. Turned out one of the caliper bolts had fallen out and that was probably our main problem but we did replace the axle too. M reported being able to run the AC at 70+mph in the white OB on the way home but had to run the heat under 60mph. Fans both seemed to be working fine every time we checked them. A said the power steering was cutting out on him occasionally. White OB has much worse driveshaft noises now. Forester is definitely making noise in first gear, most of the weekend B tried to start in second gear low if he had to. The code on the trans is 502685 / 4D-TY754XKBAA. If anyone knows of a good source or even part # for a dual range (EJ) main shaft we could use some help. VIN # for a car with similar trans would help too. On Thursday I removed the radiator from the white OB and you can't see through the fins at all, they're basically folded over each other (and doesn't look like from pressure washing). Tubes might be ballooned out which might have buckled them? Ordered a new one from the dealer.

Finally test fitted the 3D printed knuckle. Bottom part broke off the first couple times I tried. Adding these longer wood screws finally did it. Need to make some minor adjustments - a little more clearance in a couple spots, can add gusseting in some other spots. The basic geometry seems good though. Big front CV axle fits and is in roughly the middle of the plunge travel and doesn't use much plunge travel. Looks like we can make the brake line and parking brake cable work. Pushes wheel outboard a bit but should still tuck inside fender at full bump. Planning on a trail riding weekend up north in about a month, message me if you want to join us.

Got all the long travel parts TIG welded and most of them galvanized. Waiting on ID grinding of struts, then need to get everything painted along with B's bumper. Z did some assembly with the parts we've gotten so far, still waiting on Fox for pistons and reservoirs. We went to Arkansas a couple weeks ago for a trail riding/camping/hiking weekend. We got to Hector AR around 2PM Friday. Slammo and J had gotten there a couple hours earlier and done some prerunning in Slammo's Lexus. They led us to an ORV area. I was impressed how fast Slammo could drive the Lexus over somewhat rough trails. We went to a little rock step up/waterfall obstacle and all drove down and back up it. I took the hard line in the black Outback. By this point some guy in a silver Lexus had pulled up behind us. The guy's ~4 year old daughter started yelling at him from the passenger seat to keep moving. When we all got out to a T intersection we went the opposite way he did. We eventually got to a “Jeep” trail Slammo had found on the map. There were a series of increasingly deeper/steeper mud puddles and Slammo nosed into one of them and got stuck. I was behind him in the black Outback so I pulled him out. I think on the next one, one or two of us had already gone through but he nosed in and the engine died. It did restart and then B pulled him out. At this point we'd noticed a slow oil leak from somewhere fairly high on the engine. He also had a low oil pressure light at idle. We turned around and went to a campsite next to a reservoir. Slammo got it stuck at least one more time and the white Outback wasn't able to pull it out without using momentum on the strap. The auto would just hold at stall speed with no tires spinning. By this point it had started raining and a few people were worried about the stream coming up five feet and flooding the campsite. The next morning it was still raining and we started working on Slammo's engine. We couldn't find any oil leaks in the morning but his low oil pressure light still came on at low idle. By this time it was noon and had rained all morning. We started driving and his oil pressure light started coming on even while cruising at 2000+RPM so he stopped at a small gravel turnout. We gave him a key to the white Outback and unloaded a few things out of B's car to leave in the woods next to a cow skeleton. We went trail riding for a couple hours while Slammo and J drove to town. They sent us a message saying they'd made it back with a U haul and trailer. By that point we'd gotten both cars stuck a few times and were in the process of turning around so we told him it might be a while. We got back to them and they headed south, they made it back home OK that night I think. We started wandering north on different trails and kept hitting dead ends/loops. Late in the day we headed on to a gravel road to a ridge/high point in hopes of finding a campsite. A and I found a decent one on a side trail. Earlier that day the black Outback's RF wheel bearing had started getting sloppy so M and A and B worked on replacing that. The next morning I finished the wheel bearing and we headed out for another day of wandering north towards Pedestal Rocks. We had a good day of trail riding UP style with a lot of tight trails. Got a couple flat tires. We did some long rough up and down grades. On one of them they had to give the white Outback full throttle a significant portion of the time and it and the Forester were running hot. We tried cleaning out the radiators with B's bucket in a stream which seemed to help some. We got to some big river crossings. We did one but M and A weren't quite able to convince us to do the second one. I think by this point we'd gone about 100 miles on the odometer and about 5 miles by air from Hector. We drove up to a campground near Pedestal Rocks. It was luxurious staying in a place with a picnic table, steel fire ring, and outhouse within short walking distance. We hiked Pedestal Rocks and then headed north. It was about noon Monday by the time we got to a gas station and we were all almost empty. It was a good thing they'd filled up the white Outback (and towed it with the Uhaul) and B had a gas can in his Forester, we went almost 72 hours without seeing a gas station. We stopped at a parking lot a little farther north as they were running hot again and made PB&Js and let the cars cool down. On the way home they were running the heaters with the windows open. For the last leg they were able to run the AC in the white Outback but B had to run his heater. We got home around 10PM with no major issues aside from a couple flat tires and hopefully just muddy radiators. After getting home B washed his radiator out and the water was brown for quite a while. I took off the front skidplate on the white Outback and blasted it out at the carwash and it's been fine since. Replaced the other front wheel bearing on the 99 Outback when we got home, it was a little sloppy.

I'll PM you. These struts are a lot of work though, I recently raised the price and don't really want to make any more unless I can get ridiculous money for them. And since I'm not really selling any at the current price I don't see that happening. Honestly I'd look into Hotbits or the Bilstein make your own inverted strut kits. KYB AGX are fantastic for the price but can still be easily bent by driving hard. 215/75/15 seems like the biggest that will reasonably fit without silly offsets/spacers or a lower strut lift and is already really too tall for any standard Subaru gearing. Even the 1.6 dual range isn't enough sometimes. If only somebody made a real low range for a Subaru...