Every time I see Qman's Beauty and Beast signature, I am jealous. I would love to have both a street and offroad set of subarus. But my wife already tells me I have too many soobs with one (I say the same thing about how many wives I have, too).

 

How about this crazy idea: I have seen lowriders with hydrallics for raising and lowering them when the police are around. I am sure that a similar system (expensive hydrallics or cheaper mechanical means) could be used to make a Brat height adjustable. Has anyone thought about this, done it, or has ideas about how to do it? Wasn't there a soob model that could be adjusted an inch or so as a feature?

 

I know that there is more than one way to adjust the height of the vehicle (suspension versus frame). The steering shaft is a problem--although a splined shaft and sleeve that could slide would solve the problem. Obviously you would have to remove the bigger offroad tires before lowering it for street tires (preemtive mention).

 

The lift kits have quite a few blocks for lifting things, but how many critical points need to be supported? Could it be done with four hydrallic pistons and some rod and sleeve mechanisms that used pins to hold them at the other lift points (like those jack stands that use pins to hold them at various heights)? Any ideas or opinions (besides my apparent insanity)?

Most old 4WD Subarus came with manually adjustable suspension. This would be a suspension lift. Some pimped out models (like GL10, XT and XT6) could be had with adjustable pneumatic (air) suspension. Neither of which gain you a whole lot of ground clearance but are practical and swapable solutions you could fit into your brat.

 

Honestly you could go with a BYB 3" or 4" (body) lift, 27"-29" tires, and still have a perfectly street legal vehicle. Get you around daily and get you anywhere you dare to take it offroad.

 

What you are thinking of is not complete insanity and could be done. However its a lot of work, custom fabrication, and the all mighty $$$. Think wife doesnt like the Subaru now? Wait till you develop a fully custom hydrolic suspension system

kinda funny i was thinking about something like that the other day, except i was thinking alot simpler and lower cost as well. i was thinking about midifying some air shocks on all 4 corners though. prob never try my idea though, because if i get into adjustable suspension i would end up dropping the frame rails to the ground instead of lift stuff. so i think ill most likely stay away from it lol

i wonder if you could custom fit airbags ontop of the strut tower.. this could be a start?

It could be a start. Maybe I could install bottle jacks at strategic points and plumb hydrallic lines to a single piston under the rear bumper where I could raise and lower it. Ah, maybe I should just buy another brat like Qman.

Ah, maybe I should just buy another brat like Qman.

 

go for another

 

(left one is 5" lift off-roader, right is 3" lift streeter)