NC Forester Build

[nc_forester]

Current/Past Mods

Exterior:
CURT XL roof basket
Yakima round bars and towers
Tepui Kukenam 3 Baja Series RTT (old setup)
Vinyl wrapped headlights (old setup)
Custom painted front bumper

Interior:
Blox Racing weighted shift knob

Engine/Exhaust:
2013 Subaru WRX STi sedan catback exhaust
Welded manifold flex pipes

Suspension:
Anderson Design Fab 2" front spacer lift
Anderson Design Fab 2.5" rear spacer lift
Anderson Design Fab 2" sub-frame and multilink spacer

Drivetrain:
Group N STi 5MT polly transmission mount
Torque Solution pitch stop mount

Armor:
Primitive Racing 3/16" front skid plate with oil filter and drain bolt cutouts
Primitive Racing 3/16" differential skid plate

Recovery:
Smittybuilt D shackles front and rear

Lighting:
Hella Valuefit 500 LED
MOSTPLUS 6k LED headlight bulbs

Wheels and Tires:
17 x 7.5, +48mm Sparco Terra matte bronze (old setup)
235/60/17 Cooper Discoverer AT3 (old setup)

15 x 7, +10mm KMC Nomad in matte bronze
215/75/15 General Grabber AT2

 

[nc_forester]

So why did I go with a Subaru? Well, I've owned a lot of cars in my short lifetime and over the past 5-6 years I had 4 Subies and two Hondas/Acura. I did the low car thing for a long time and as I get older, my back cant take getting in and out of slammed to the ground cars not to mention being 6', 5" didn't help either. I wanted to move from the Subaru cars and get a Forester or Outback, preferably an XT BUT just like the 4runner/tacoma community prices were outrageous. I also wanted a manual transmission and so I was able to find my 2010 Subaru Forester 2.5X Premium through my dealership network. I traveled up to Subaru Southpointe in Durham, NC where the car was located and Im glad I had put a deposit on it when I first saw it cause apparently the manual Foresters sell pretty quick (I guess they dont get traded in too much). The car had only one owner, someone from New York who later moved to the triad area, had 105k, and was in relatively good condition. It did have some rust on the exhaust which I will eventually get to but the rest of the undercarriage components were great.



Car was purchased August 15, 2018









In addition to getting away from the lowered/slammed community, I wanted a car that could haul my camera gear and would allow me to sleep in when I go to track events. Im a freelance photographer who specializes in automotive photography so I find myself at a lot of different race tracks in the southeast and having something that can haul a lot of stuff is great. I soon realized that I am still too tall to completely lay down...but at least it does everything else i need it to do. Leading up to the overlanding/offroad thing, I once had a 2000 Nissan Xterra back when I was a broke college kid. That thing was stock...af but I still took it offroad whenever I could...street tires and everything, even to a few intermediate trails at Uwharrie OHV. I had that thing for 6 months and I just didnt have the money to do the stuff I wanted to. NOW however, Im able to do everything I want.

 

[nc_forester]

Fast forward a 1.5 months later and I started modifying the Forester. The great thing about Subaru, is a lot of models have interchangeable parts. My generation Forester shares almost everything in common with the 08-14 Impreza/WRX/STi and in some cases 15 - present WRX/STi. I went ahead and had my exhaust taken care off since it was pretty much a rusted hunk of metal. The amount of rust falling off the hangers and around the flanges was ridiculous. The SH forester exhaust can be swapped out with the 08-14 WRX/STi sedan models only and is a direct fit from the cat back (or where the downpipe would be on the turbo models). It gives the car a nicer sound to it but because of the equal length headers on the NA cars I dont get that nice Subaru rumble, but cold starts are still pretty cool. I got my replacement exhaust from my friend Corey and his 2013 STi sedan. Another problem area were the heat shields around the stock manifold. They tend to rattle...a lot...and it doesnt stop. I went ahead and had them all cut out and removed.

 

[nc_forester]

October 11, 2018

A week later I had ordered my wheel and tire package. I did countless hours of research as to what would fit and what wouldnt on stock suspension. I wanted a wheel brand that was proven and a good tire brand the performed well but didnt sound like a helicopter going down the road. I ended up going with some 17 x 7.5, +48mm Sparco Terra in matte bronze and for tires I went with 235/60/17 Cooper Discoverer AT3s. The setup barely fit inside the wheel arch. The rear fender liners had to be removed in order to fit the rears on but the fronts remained on. I did have minimal rubbing but only at full lock. The Coopers were great and I would recommend them to anyone. They were quiet for daily driving, handled phenomenally in the dry and wet, cut through dirt and mud but werent too grippy for some snow hooning in an IKEA parking lot.

 

[nc_forester]

November 02, 2018

Picked up a Curt XL roof basket from a 5th gen 4runner that we were selling at work. It was a nice birthday present from my General Manager.

 

[nc_forester]

February 24, 2019

I used my tax return to purchase a RTT from Backcountry.com made by Tepui. The model I got was the Kukenam 3 Baja Series in Blue/Grey and got it on sale and shipped to my job for $1000. The setup was pretty straight forward but I kind wish I had some help. I started the installation after work in the shop at 6PM and didnt finish until 8 something. Luckily I had some people in the shop to help me lift the tent on top of the car. I also went to the REI and picked up some longer round bar rails (becuase I though I would need them for the tent but I didnt) but they've been on the car ever since.















I ended up selling the tent later down the road because it wasnt ideal for the stuff I was doing at the time. It became more of a hassle if anything. I would like to do another one a few years from now but on something like a trailer setup or a clam shell for super fast setup and put away.

 

[nc_forester]

(May, 2019)

I had the headlights wrapped in yellow film which looked great imo and helped cut through fog and dirt but would not pass NC inspections. The headlight bulbs were replaced with MOSTPLUS LED bulbs which look similar to 6k HIDs. They were $50 on Amazon.

 

[nc_forester]

August 2019

Got together with some of the Mtnroo North Carolina members and drove up to Asheville. Subaru was doing their Road Trip Tour to REI to feature the new Ascent. I dont travel to Asheville a lot but my god I have never seen so many Subaru's in one place...it was mind blowing. Weren't there for too long and after we had grabbed some lunch we drove West towards Cherokee to go and drive Heintooga Round Bottom Road.

Taken from blueridgemountainlife.com
"Heintooga Round Bottom Road is rugged and remote 28 mile and mostly one way gravel road that weaves its way down to into Cherokee North Carolina. The road offers views of pristine forest, wildflowers, wildlife, and creeks. You’ll drive through and along side often untraveled areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Heintooga/Balsam Mountain Road are usually open from late May through October. They can close during at anytime though due to fallen trees or severe weather."

It was a great road to do, easy to moderate in some places, great for a first time driver. I want to go again with a bigger group and possibly camp this year.

 

[nc_forester]

I had forgot to mention that 2 days before Christmas 2018, my sister had backed in to me so if you see any scuff marks on any of the pictures its not from any excursions lol

 

[nc_forester]

September 2019

I took a trip to the OBX for a car show ran by Sumospeed. They are a car club/movement located in VA Beach and they host some awesome events. This event happened to be in Kill Devil Hills and we were only there for a few days so I wasnt really able to visit and explore a lot of areas. Many years ago my dad has a beach house out there and the year of Hurricane Sandy pretty much destroyed everything but before that when I had my Xterra, I drove up and down the OBX, includng Corolla/Carova. Unfortunately, we had a storm a month or so prior to us coming out for this event that closed the beach access in Carova so I wasnt able to take the Forester out. Bummer. I also had sold the RTT because it wasnt as great as I thought it would be and became more of an inconvenience.

 

[nc_forester]

October 2019

I got together with Williams Subaru Charlotte to host a Mtnroo / Charlotte Suabru Club event for the 2020 Outback and Legacy launch. Of course another event was made the same day after I had set this up and only 5 people showed.

 

[nc_forester]

Nothing really changed with the car from November till about January. In November I went on a couple trail rides both in Georgia and Tennessee.

The first trail ride was down in Toccoa, GA and I drove down to meet with the North Georgia Subaru Group. Its a trail system thats just southeast of Helen, GA and maybe 40 minutes from Clemson/Anderson, SC. I did not take any pictures of my car because nothing was any different about it but did snap off some of the other guys.

 

[nc_forester]

The second trail ride was about 30 minutes south of Johnson City, TN. The event was organized by Mtnroo NC and our tour guide was a guy named Richmond local to the Unicoi/Erwin, TN area. He took us up the Pinnacle Mountain Fire Road where there were plenty of car and ATV trails. Our total group had about 7 rigs. Before getting to the meet-up spot, I met my buddy Matt in his Lexus UX somewhere near Morganton, NC. Matt's 2019 Lexus UX is pretty rad and features the RS-R Jouge coilover suspension on a set of Falken Wildpeaks. You'll see him a lot in some of my pictures. Its the little FWD that could! I cant wait to see what he does with it...maybe some R&D with LFD_Offroad.

We all met towards the end of the fire road. There was a gate that had been locked (for good reason) that led all the way up to the Fire Tower. That hike actually sucked going up, and affirmed how out of shape I really was LOL. Once up at the top you had access to climb the fire tower which btw was very sketchy. The stair were essentially vertical and it was wet from on and off rain during the day. It was foggy so you couldnt see much from up there but I would like to revisit on a sunny day. Many of the trails we did that day had a mixture of water crossings, inclines, declines, etc. It was a good little test for everyone. A second trail that we did drive was a little hairy at times. It was very narrow and very rocky, it was not a comfortable drive, and it was down pouring and getting dark.

 

[nc_forester]

Here's a video from the TN trail day

 

[nc_forester]

December 15, 2019

Mtnroo NC got up for another trail ride, this time up Old NC 105 and then down Maple Sally. Old NC 105 is for the most part a maintained gravel road on some parts. The south side of the trail starts near the Lake James area and travels north towards Linville, NC. There are plenty of trailheads, camping, overlooks, etc along the way. The road snakes along the Linville Gorge which offers spectacular views either from the trail itself or from Wiseman's Overlook. Toward the top of the trail is Linville Falls, which I still have not been to.

 

[Maverick9110E]

damn man, awesome pictures and ride! I traded in my 2011 Outback last year for my current F150. Bought it from the same dealer you got the Forester from MtnRoo is good people. I live up near Raleigh if you ever need anything up this way and happy to ride with a Subaru. They are great cars to do way more than people realize. We took our out on the beach in Hatteras/Ocracoke all the time. Loved it.

 

[nc_forester]

Here it is, 2020 and NOW I'm finally getting to the fun stuff of the build! Months of planning and saving and researching is starting to pay off. Here we go!

With all of my past cars/builds, which were all manual, I always got a weighted shift knob. It made every throw really solid, the shape feels great in the hand, and usually looks good. At some point in the future I would like to have a custom engraved knob made but for now this one works just fine. I picked up this Blox Racing knob and at a weight of 490 grams its decently heavy.

From their website
"The BLOX Racing 490™ Spherical shift knob is CNC-machined out of high grade, billet stainless steel and then custom-weighted for maximum performance. Each shift knob is then PVD-coated for superior hardness and wear resistance."

I've bought crappy knobs in the past where the coating or finish didnt last but so far this thing hasnt seen any aging, so its good in my book.

 

[Maverick9110E]

Love them, everytime i grabbed mine in the summer though i felt like the guy from the Home alone move:

 

[nc_forester]

In the 1.5 year of ownership I started to develop a few clunking noises. One was that 2 wheels studs nad snapped off on my front right wheel and the other was due to a completely failed transmission mount. The bushings were shot and on one side I was able to completely move the rubber. When I would drive and take off from a spot, you could hear and feel the transmission moving back and forth which is a sketchy feeling. I initially just wanted to replace the part with an OEM part but then looked into the Group N STi mount which features urethane bushings. Its also really made for race cars for more feedback and response which in-turn produces for noise from the trans. I took a chance on it and I have no regrets. It does create more noise in the cabin but is super solid. I also went ahead and replaced the pitch stop mount located behind the upper air box thing near the firewall. When the old on came out there wasnt any sign or failure but I thought it would've been something to replace anyway. The pitch mount is made by Torque Solution and I have bought products in the past from them, like a short shifter and bushings for my old LGT.

 

[nc_forester]

Love them, everytime i grabbed mine in the summer though i felt like the guy from the Home alone move:

I try to park in the shade at work as much as possible and now I have a garage at my apartment so this shouldnt happen...or I throw a towel over it