el_freddo Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Wow, that’s some damage to the outback! Will the plan be to straighten out the front end and go again or reshell the setup again? Cool that the flat towing went well. Over here in Oz we’d get hammered hardcore if we were found towing like that. Our laws state that the towing vehicle must be 1.3x the weight of the towed vehicle. So you can’t flat tow a like-for-like vehicle. But you can often tow one on a car trailer… We’re so backwards like that, and our authorities are complete Nannies about towing weights and vehicle weight limited etc. I swear our ADRs require lower weight limits than other markets. Anyway, I digress. Glad you got it sorted. Cool little solo day trip it seems! Cheers Bennie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontoontodd Posted August 4 Author Share Posted August 4 10 hours ago, el_freddo said: Wow, that’s some damage to the outback! Will the plan be to straighten out the front end and go again or reshell the setup again? Cool that the flat towing went well. Over here in Oz we’d get hammered hardcore if we were found towing like that. Our laws state that the towing vehicle must be 1.3x the weight of the towed vehicle. So you can’t flat tow a like-for-like vehicle. But you can often tow one on a car trailer… We’re so backwards like that, and our authorities are complete Nannies about towing weights and vehicle weight limited etc. I swear our ADRs require lower weight limits than other markets. Anyway, I digress. Glad you got it sorted. Cool little solo day trip it seems! Cheers Bennie I have to look at it closer but yes my current plan is to cut out and refab the lower radiator support from scratch, probably 2x4x1/8" wall rectangular tubing or similar. Might increase approach angle a bit and probably be stronger. Then finagle the hood latch/upper rad support back into place. Right after it happened I thought about just buying another rust free car and swapping things over but I think it will be easier and cheaper to repair this one. There don't seem to be many laws regarding flat towing, certainly not much enforcement if there are. I can't say I recommend towing something as heavy as your tow vehicle without brakes but we've done it a number of times now. It has become increasingly common over the last 5-10 years to see two or three cars hooked together driving down the interstate, likely all purchased at an auto auction. There are stories that people operate trains of up to six of these cars with more than one powering the assembly. Trying to rent a tow dolly from Uhaul on the other hand took some finagling. The van I used is a 3/4 ton, we've towed a 20' enclosed trailer with it. Eventually talked to one guy who helped me figure out which options to tell them I had so their system would let me rent a tow dolly to tow a FWD wagon, I definitely wasn't going to tell them I was going to be towing a Subaru. And the tow dolly has surge brakes, so definitely safer than flat towing from a braking perspective. That day trip was great, every time I take it off pavement I'm reminded that the first gen Impreza with EZ36 is like a cheat code as our friend A said. Didn't bother airing down, never had to use the low range or even lock the center diff, never got stuck. Also reminded me how many trails there are in the UP. My GPS log is up to 5400 miles of unpaved trails up there. There are definitely some repeats/overlapping trails so let's say we've been on 3-4000 miles of unpaved UP roads but I would guess that is about 1/4 of the unpaved roads/trails there. The one loop I did I probably would have turned around where (or before) that picture was taken it was getting so overgrown but I was still following a trail on the GPS. The other area I wound up in there were no roads anywhere on my map for miles yet quite a few roads/trails I was exploring, some of them quite wide and smooth. "Connected the dots" too as we like to say - go off the end of one road on the map and wind up on a different road on the map miles later. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Numbchux Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 Oh yea, according to Uhaul, I only use their equipment to move 90s Corollas and Civics 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pontoontodd Posted 2 hours ago Author Share Posted 2 hours ago B straightened out the upper radiator support on the Outback. We cut out the lower radiator support. Hung a straight radiator and the condenser from upper support, hood closed, and started mocking up a new lower support. Got a piece of 3" square tubing to use for that. Put the main bumper beam back into place, squared it up, and cut a new mount for the passenger side. Will post pictures of all that later, planning on doing some fab tomorrow. The main damage to the engine seemed to be where the oil cooler/filter threads on to the block. I tapped it deeper and used one of the longer pipes we'd made when I did the same thing to the black Outback. Also like that time though the block has a hairline crack which was spraying oil everywhere. I cleaned this one out and then poured some super glue in the crack from the inside and outside. Then applied three layers of JB weld. Not real pretty but I ran the engine for a bit and I didn't see it leak a drop. So fingers crossed that will be a semi permanent fix. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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