2017 Forester XT: Tiny overlander with big dreams

[Steve]

I emailed primitive and they advised not to powder coat or use linex without any reason. Any ideas why?

I sure can't imagine why that would be the case. Several of us on the subaruoutback.org forum painted our aluminum Primitive plates. The conventional wisdom was that the shiny aluminum would reflect heat back toward the engine, where a flat black would absorb the heat and dissipate it over a larger area. Fact or fiction, I don't know, but I rattle canned both sides of mine with three coats of black chassis paint.

Photos here: Steve's Cross-Country Subaru Outback

 

[WhatTheZo]

Cool!! U can catch me on 280N every morning and afternoon. :) I like your build plans. Looking forward to see it through! Btw any tips on installing the skid plate?


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I would get some ratchet straps to help hold them up when installing them. Its sometimes hard cramming a second person under the car and you learn a good technique after a couple of oil changes.

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[camgunn]

Lools good man. I got get the wife's 05 outback xt fixed soon.

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

Finally had the time to install the rear diff skid plate, just in time for my Alabama Hills trip.

I have learned to in the future always wash the mud of the car before working on the undercarriage. Dropping chucks of dirt suck when you are laying under the car [emoji37]

Testing out a new water storage setup, using 2 3.5 gallon water bricks. will keep them on the roof for the next couple of days to see if they start leaking or have any issues with the sun beating on them.

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[Joey83]

Great thread! :D

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

Had a blast exploring some new areas of California that I have never visited before. The Subie did amazing, over 900 miles and a average MPG of 23 with a fully loaded down car.

Day 1:
After a long drive we got to Alabama Hills and had to have the obligatory shot at the Face of Alabama Hills:

Alabama Hills were pretty crowded since it's a 3 day weekend but after bouncing around some roads we found a nice spot to set up base camp.

The road to this spot was pretty rocky and consisted of many sections that were fields of 5 to 20 inch boulders but the car did pretty well overall. I did hit one section where I wished I had the 2 inch lift on the car already but was able to make it through with minimal carnage. I think the Skid plates might have just paid for themselves:

Alabama Hills was an amazing place with great hiking and amazing night night skies so here is a photodump of a few of my favorites:

And of course there is that amazing night sky of the desert

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

On Day two of our trip we packed up the car and started driving to Mono Lake. We made sure to take the Movie road as far as we could before hitting pavement again.

On the way to Mono lake we stopped of at the Crowley Hot springs to wash all the desert dust off.

And stopped of at Mammoth Brewing to refill our beer supplies and grab an amazing lunch.

Mono Lake Tufas were amazing and a place I have been wanting to see for a long time. Its is just such an alien looking landscape.

After exploring the Tufa reserve we starting looking for a spot to setup camp for the night. Original plan was to camp out on the Black Point Beach but while driving down the Test station road we found an offshoot road that looked like it would be interesting to check out and ran into this amazing camp site

Nothing is better than a good campfire and a good view

Well maybe except for this night sky

Next morning on our 3rd day we packed up the car again and headed out to Bodie to check out the old town before starting our long trek back home

It has been an amazing weekend, now its back to reality and planning for the next trip.

 

[Young Satchel]

Dude!

Such an awesome trip report and you killed it with the photos as I have come to expect.

I get so jealous of the landscape out there. I'm an east coast boy at heart, but my pops is from Northern Cali and I spent much of my childhood running around on that coast: Highway 1, redwoods, the High Sierra, Lone Pine, Point Reyes, Big Sur. God, it's just beautiful country out there.

So happy to see you out there enjoying it properly with your wagon. When are you planning on installing the lift? I found the extra 2" was a big help for me. Especially since when fully loaded the rear is nearly stock height [emoji23]. Of course now I want MOAR. But that's another story....


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[escape_the_paradigm]

Dude!

Such an awesome trip report and you killed it with the photos as I have come to expect.

I get so jealous of the landscape out there. I'm an east coast boy at heart, but my pops is from Northern Cali and I spent much of my childhood running around on that coast: Highway 1, redwoods, the High Sierra, Lone Pine, Point Reyes, Big Sur. God, it's just beautiful country out there.

So happy to see you out there enjoying it properly with your wagon. When are you planning on installing the lift? I found the extra 2" was a big help for me. Especially since when fully loaded the rear is nearly stock height [emoji23]. Of course now I want MOAR. But that's another story....


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Thanks!
Yeah I have been guilty of ignoring the Southern California for last few years, but trying to explore more and more of that area.

I am probably going to do the the lift at about same time as a new set of tires on some smaller 17 inch wheels. Current tires have about 20K left on them so I think lift and tires will be a thing for next season.
This season I am concentrating on everything for base camp, communications and navigation.

 

[WhatTheZo]

First gouge in your skidplate: Worth it!

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[escape_the_paradigm]

A couple of more shots form this weekend that are my favorites:

Chewbacca is my new overland buddy:

And a Night shot of the cam from Alabama Hills (With a bit of PS magic)

 

[OuterLimits]

A couple of more shots form this weekend that are my favorites:

Chewbacca is my new overland buddy:

And a Night shot of the cam from Alabama Hills (With a bit of PS magic)

Brilliant Photography!!! TR

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

Started work on the front bumper guard. Hoping it will protect the plastic bumper in case I misjudge the approach angle.

Don't judge me too hard as i suck at welding and dong tis with a 30 year old flux MIG welder.

Part one which is the lower mounting brackets and the main bar are completed:

Next step will be to start working on the corners that will follow the contour of the bumper to the fender and a small bull bar that will be used to mount some lights.
I plan to run brackets from the bull bar back that will bolt to the bottom of the bumper core to give the guard 4 solid mounting points.
I also plan to use a 2 inch 1/8 plate that will run from the corners of the min bar back to lower mounts to keep the whole thing stiff.

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

Made some more progress today and its starting to look like a real bumper guard. Decided to stop for the day with the temps outside heating 90 its no fun cutting, grinding and welding in the garage

Just have the portion that reaches to the wheel, bull bar and bracing left.

P.S. I have learned that compound angle cuts are a real pain.

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

Did a quick weekend trip up to Big Sur. Big props to @Michael for a great write up on the Big Sur trip, was very helpful.

The area Coast Ridge trail and surrounding trails were a perfect place to explore in the Forester. But I don't think I will every camp here here, the bugs here were just insane.
We ended up packing up at 7 in the morning and taking off as the amount of flies and mosquitos were unmanageable even when using 100% Deet.

But on to the Photos:

After a bit of exploring found a great spot minus all the bugs to setup camp

Once we had the camp spot figured out we went to explore some more and see if we could find a trail that would get us closer to the coast.

Fired up the drone and did some recon

After our hasty escape form the bugs in the morning we made it down to Monterey and grabbed some breakfast and started looking for a nice beach to relax on for the dat

We got really lucky and fun those great dunes with a nice empty beach. Wish I could drive my cars on the dunes but that would probably only end with me doing a lot of digging.

Overall another great trip now its time to get back to work and resist scratching all this damn bug bites.

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

And a quick Drone video of the are. Still learning how to be smooth with it.

 

[escape_the_paradigm]

One more quick video from the Beach.
I can wait to find some open trails with little tree coverage to do some drone videos of the actual driving.

 

[Young Satchel]

Uggggghhhhhhhh; drone envy is strong! Great shots and trip report as always my man [emoji1305]


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[escape_the_paradigm]

Uggggghhhhhhhh; drone envy is strong! Great shots and trip report as always my man [emoji1305]


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I actually ended up picking up the drone for dirt cheap of BHphoto. Got a refurbished phantom 3 advance from their used section for 300 bucks.

 

[odingrey]

Another bay area '17 FXT here! Digging the build! And definitely digging the lights on the bumper, might end up copying you on that one...

I think you, krzyboy2o and myself are the three Foresters in the general area.

Have you figured out a full sized spare solution yet? I know some people managed to get a full sized in the stock location if you take the foam out and air the tire down a bit. Some others just put the tire off on the back with a custom bumper, one of these, or on the roof.