Subaru newbie wants to know what will suit me best

[Dimitri]

G'day

i know pretty much nothing about subarus apart from the whole awd thing :P

i want a car that will pretty much do everything, daily driver, good on fuel, and good offroad in the hard stuff. (mud, rock, sand, hill climbs etc)

i have seen a few around with a body lift and larger wheels.

i think im asking the impossible, something that will go the same places that a hilux or patrol on 31" will goes but nice on road.

what's the older (around 1994-6) station wagons called, the ones that are sometimes seen done up on anything from 27" a/t's tires to 35" muddies

has anyone taken theirs off road in soft sand, deep mud, steep rock etc
cheers

[Barry1956]

Ideally you are after an early model Manual Liberty / Outback with the LOWER dual ratio gearbox.

A 4" body lift including 2" strut lift, with extended springs - e.g. Kingsprings - would allow for larger tyres.

Provided the tyres were only marginally larger in diameter these mods would remain street legal without an engineers certificate in most states , I think.

Even larger tyres may be able to be fitted without body mods with such a lift, but would not be road legal.

If you have a look through the varios threads you will find heaps of info in relation to these options.

I'm no expert, just know what I have read, but look for detailed threads by members who are, such as Alpine Raven and Bennie.

[spike]

most lifted and locked are L seires finished about 1992 i belive or the liberty but yeah rare to see them off road.
what your asking is a lot but into not completly inpossible, just really expensive.
my best bet is an older forester, dr gear box from an l sires, limited slip or possible viscous rear diff, lifted, bigger tires, maybe a engine upgrade.


its almost cheaper to buy 2 suabrus hahah

[Alex]

subis will go a long long way and impress, but the truth is itll never get as far as a patrol sitting on 33s or 35s.

Biggest downfall for offroad is the lack of flex and the lack of a nice low- low range.

If you do it cleverly tho youll have no worries getting to some pretty extreme places.

For instance a gen2 wagon coupled with a nice strong motor(nothing less than a 2.5) dual range gbox, 4 or so inches of lift and say about 29inch tyres will get a long way and will beat the big fourbys in the sand. It will just take abit more 'driving' in rocks and other places where suspension travel is required.

alex

[AlpineRaven]

Ideally you are after an early model Manual Liberty / Outback with the LOWER dual ratio gearbox.

A 4" body lift including 2" strut lift, with extended springs - e.g. Kingsprings - would allow for larger tyres.

Provided the tyres were only marginally larger in diameter these mods would remain street legal without an engineers certificate in most states , I think.

Even larger tyres may be able to be fitted without body mods with such a lift, but would not be road legal.

If you have a look through the varios threads you will find heaps of info in relation to these options.

I'm no expert, just know what I have read, but look for detailed threads by members who are, such as Alpine Raven and Bennie.

Yeah you wont find a very low range ratio in Liberty/Outback unless you modify the gearbox (gen 3 Liberty 1999-2004 has 1.42 low range)
See my signature for the gearset swap. Liberty & outback has 1.19 low range and its useless for offroad use specially hill climbs, over the rocks as you'll burn out the clutch.. The lowest you can get is 1.592 that you can get from L series gearbox or source Impreza gearbox which is AWD and already has 1.592:1 low range.

If its 2.5 litre, it'll automatically will be 1.19:1 low same with gen 1 & 2 Liberty.
Forester are 1.42:1 low range - I find it ok, but behind EJ20 is slightly not enough power compared to EJ22 with 1.59:1 low..

With lift kit, there is a few out there, starting from 2" to 4" with lift blocks. Even increase size of the tyres as well.
Cheers
AP

[AlpineRaven]

Oh.. there is a few people on here that have experienced on sand travels which they can tell you on here, (which is areas that I avoid as I hate getting on sand with the car! (gives me shivers))
Cheers
AP

[banger]

i have an l series with 27" and a 2" lift it goes pretty good needs an ej22 or ej 25 in it. in the sand it bogs down but it wont get bogged in 1st low range if you don't stop if you do stop in soft sand can be very tricky to get going again, and it can be a bit of a tiring car to drive on road i suggest 2 sets of tyres. me thinks liberty a bit more for comfort they just dont have that good center transfer case i was parked next to a lifted lib up the beach on 29"s i had to rock to get out but he had to get pulled out.