I am a Delivery Service Provider for a paper circulation company. I have a 1999 Impreza OBS. Im looking to optimize my car for this purpose. My routes are very rural where the roads are atrocious.  Any suggestions, comments, rants, pics are welcome in this thread. Just don't get too off topic

Edited March 23, 201412 yr by OBSpaperboy

Are you handy with cars? Do you have some tools? Got a budget for improvements? Any specific problems you want to address?

here are some things you could do to help but they depend on how much you want to get into changing your car. You could upsize your tires a little perhaps just to help them roll the bumps and holes better. You could do an Outback/Forester strut swap lift and upsize your tires a bit more and you'd gain more clearance and more tire...

This place should be full of ideas, but perhaps a little more info will help everyone with more directed ideas.

Skid plates under the engine oil pan, and transmission oil pan if auto. They need protection, the tranny more so as there is a solenoid directly under the pan magnet which eliminates clearance. Cracked solenoids are common. 

 

Steel rims and high aspect ratio tires - alloys are known to be damaged easily on rocks and curbs, low profile tires have less sidewall and impacts distort the tires over more of the short sidewall causing even more damage. You can often beat out a steel rim, but a cracked alloy is toast. 

 

Mud and snow rated treads for more traction, if an all terrain is chosen, read up on the ratings on Tire Rack for the best recommendation for the dollar. Things have changed and the old school treads from ten years ago are sliding to the bottom of the list. 

 

If you do change the overall diameter of the mounted tire and rim expect that the speedo will be off, there are electronic correctors to get it back. They are necessary because the ECU does read that when choosing the fuel injection map.

 

Tie down or eliminate anything loose in the car, as the 4WD guys have learned. They might deliberately flip theirs over on the roll bars, but regardless of whether you meant to or not, things like toolboxes, Thermos jugs, and you don't mix well when for some reason the car is tumbling downhill out of control. No, we don't intend to do that. Yes, it happens on bad back roads all the time.

^^^ rear diff protector too.