slammo

Will you maintain AWD in both high and low range? Also, are you integrating a DCCD with the six speed?

Hasn't been legalized here yet.

I love this picture. It feels very Cowabunga

Wow! Remind me not to relocate my exhaust. Do you have a sheetmetal heat shield between the muffler and chassis like there is in the stock application? Those are a pain when they rattle, squeak, and catch on things but in this case it sounds like it would be worth it.

Wow that rust is terrible. I know it'd be a lot of work to swap the cage over, but you can find rust free Outbacks with mechanical issues for just a few hundred bucks.

Nice work, that should better react the bending load on the front chassis rails and hopefully help your chassis fatigue issues. It's a shame the 2nd gen Legacy didn't come with the U-shaped subframe brace like the GD Impreza did.

Looks great, looking forward to seeing the new setup. It's so much nicer to work on and drive cars that aren't rusty, so I'm sure you're glad to have switched vehicles.

I've been putting a lot of thought toward this too. Any real truck starts off with a body-on-frame construction which solves what seems to be the biggest issue your build has faced, which is the finite service life of certain parts of the unibody. Then there's a wider selection of more powerful and/or reliable engines and transmissions, huge amounts of aftermarket support, readily available locking differentials and heavy duty axles, the list goes on. The two biggest downsides I can see are higher weight and initial price. The weight can seem substantial but I think it comes down to more heavy duty construction in all the components, and is proportionally smaller when you consider fully loaded vehicles. The price, well I guess that's why I still don't have one. Subarus are by nature low budget off roaders. They do ride and handle better than body-on-frame options, and make sense for 90% of people who just want to get to the next camping/hiking/skiing/canoeing/adventure location and aren't trying to find the toughest terrain their cars can handle. It seems like most people who get too serious into driving off-road run into the inherent limitations of the platform and often decide to switch. That's not to say you can't get around them - brace the chassis, swap in a 6cyl or turbo engine and STi 6-speed, use long-travel struts, etc - but it very quickly stops being cost effective. As for me, I think I'll continue driving the wheels off my Impreza as long as it lasts. The car will always be a compromise - the 2.2 won't win any races, the stock Forester struts are far from ideal, the chassis is starting to fatigue, the first gear isn't low enough, etc etc - but for the total of $2000 that I've spent purchasing, fixing, and modifying the car, it's hard to beat. I can't personally justify spending more on something that at the end of the day amounts to a toy at this point in my life, so I'll make the most of it for what it is. Just my opinion ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe a dumb question, but why not just build a Tacoma like (seemingly) everyone else?

Will using longer lateral links in the rear require modification of the trailing arms or axle?

IMO: Subaru alloy wheels are cheap and plentiful. Steelies have the potential to bend first and prevent damage to lateral links, but for the weight and space I'd rather just carry spare lateral links. Those don't typically bend bad enough to disable a vehicle, just put the wheels out of alignment. Keeping all four tires matching to keep the center diff happy is also easier when you're not bending rims and having to maintain multiple spares. Speaking of bending things, I never debriefed from the April trip to the Ozarks. Better late than never, right? My red Impreza did have a bent rear strut. The camber bolt was damaged on removal, but I don't think it failed in service. Installed a set of junkyard rear forester struts with stock bolts, so that's taken care of in any case. I think I'm going to install rear subframe spacers from an Outback to correct the rear camber rather than using camber bolts, mostly because the camber bolts reduce the tire-to-strut clearance which is a problem with my wheel and tire choice. Also a problem with my wheel and tire choice is the fact that I'm running 1" spacers front and rear. They're hubcentric and have not been a problem themselves, but they increase the moment on the struts by moving the tires out and I'm sure that was a huge contributing factor to bending the rear one. Unfortunately the tires are worth more than the car so for the time being I'm planning to stick with the spacers and just plan on replacing struts periodically. They're cheap enough from a junkyard and I'll try to be more careful hitting hard bumps in the future. I also beat the fender back into roughly the right shape and installed a secondhand headlight and corner light. Before: After: Good as new and ready to smash into more ditches! Now onto the good stuff, a few video clips of the long travel cars in the Ozarks. Again, these are from the April trip. Outback and Forester taking some yumps Outback on a rocky hill Forester on the same rocky hill, losing a CV joint Until next time! - "D"