Traveler III
Hi, my name is Steve, and I live about 25 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
I found this forum on Instagram. I think it was tagged on one of finlayforprez's posts (I'm morrisgarage on Instagram.)
We retired early four years ago, one daughter is getting married in August, and the other going off to college in September. Our plans are to get out and explore! We've car-camped for years, both before kids and with them when they were young. But they eventually grew out of it, so we haven't for several years. We've always tried to go on vacations where and when people weren't. Sure, we'd go to Great Smokey Mountain NP or Acadia NP, but do our darndest to avoid the crowds. We hated camping in RV campgrounds, opting instead for primitive or remote state parks. Really no opportunity in this part of the country to just find a back road, pull off, and set up on the roadside. That's where I envy you folks out in the western US. Around here, backroads are any that don't go due north/south or due east/west. The only gravel roads I know of in the entire northern half of Ohio are dead straight roads through Amish country, and you're avoiding cow patties on those.
Unlike most of you, my "rig" is nothing more than my daily driver. I have a 2008 Subaru Outback 2.5 XT Limited 5MT. That's a 2.5 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder with a 5-speed manual transmission. Unlike our Subie friends down under, we don't get the two-speed transfer case in the US. You may be surprised to find that the stock Outback has 8.7" of ground clearance. That might not sound like much to those with lifted rigs, but it is more than a stock Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee, and most other similar vehicles.
Currently my Outback is pretty much stock. I do have the roof rails loaded with some accessories. Once configuration is Thule crossbars with two bicycle mounts, and two kayak racks. The other configuration is a Yakima LoadWarrior heavy duty basket with an 18" extension, for an overall length of 62". I have an ARB 2500 Awning that will mount on either configuration. It isn't as high as an awning mounted from a Land Rover as you usually see, but it will provide plenty of shade after a bike ride, a paddle, or along the road somewhere while traveling.
Plans are to add a light bar and skid plate for those forest and gravel roads we expect to travel on out west. A 1" lift will be accomplished my adding spacers on top of all four struts. Not a lot, but the most without effecting suspension geometry and adding potential reliability problems. I'll also be replacing the nearly worn stock 215-55-17 all-season tires with some 215-65-16 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S tires, which will gain me another 1/2" of ground clearance.
I've got plenty of camping gear, water jugs, four steel 20-liter Jerry cans, etc. to load up for extended traveling. With this setup, I'm sure I can travel the highway comfortably, and drive on 90% of the gravel and forest roads to take us as far off the beaten path as we need to go to get away from folks.
That's probably enough for now. Along with this introduction, I'll use this thread for any upgrades I make along the way.
I'm going to order one of those spiffy badges you guys came up with. Those are really nice! Michael, can I reserve #202, or should I request that in the request thread?
I'm glad I found y'all!
Steve
I found this forum on Instagram. I think it was tagged on one of finlayforprez's posts (I'm morrisgarage on Instagram.)
We retired early four years ago, one daughter is getting married in August, and the other going off to college in September. Our plans are to get out and explore! We've car-camped for years, both before kids and with them when they were young. But they eventually grew out of it, so we haven't for several years. We've always tried to go on vacations where and when people weren't. Sure, we'd go to Great Smokey Mountain NP or Acadia NP, but do our darndest to avoid the crowds. We hated camping in RV campgrounds, opting instead for primitive or remote state parks. Really no opportunity in this part of the country to just find a back road, pull off, and set up on the roadside. That's where I envy you folks out in the western US. Around here, backroads are any that don't go due north/south or due east/west. The only gravel roads I know of in the entire northern half of Ohio are dead straight roads through Amish country, and you're avoiding cow patties on those.
Unlike most of you, my "rig" is nothing more than my daily driver. I have a 2008 Subaru Outback 2.5 XT Limited 5MT. That's a 2.5 liter turbocharged 4 cylinder with a 5-speed manual transmission. Unlike our Subie friends down under, we don't get the two-speed transfer case in the US. You may be surprised to find that the stock Outback has 8.7" of ground clearance. That might not sound like much to those with lifted rigs, but it is more than a stock Jeep Cherokee or Grand Cherokee, and most other similar vehicles.
Currently my Outback is pretty much stock. I do have the roof rails loaded with some accessories. Once configuration is Thule crossbars with two bicycle mounts, and two kayak racks. The other configuration is a Yakima LoadWarrior heavy duty basket with an 18" extension, for an overall length of 62". I have an ARB 2500 Awning that will mount on either configuration. It isn't as high as an awning mounted from a Land Rover as you usually see, but it will provide plenty of shade after a bike ride, a paddle, or along the road somewhere while traveling.
Plans are to add a light bar and skid plate for those forest and gravel roads we expect to travel on out west. A 1" lift will be accomplished my adding spacers on top of all four struts. Not a lot, but the most without effecting suspension geometry and adding potential reliability problems. I'll also be replacing the nearly worn stock 215-55-17 all-season tires with some 215-65-16 Yokohama Geolander A/T-S tires, which will gain me another 1/2" of ground clearance.
I've got plenty of camping gear, water jugs, four steel 20-liter Jerry cans, etc. to load up for extended traveling. With this setup, I'm sure I can travel the highway comfortably, and drive on 90% of the gravel and forest roads to take us as far off the beaten path as we need to go to get away from folks.
That's probably enough for now. Along with this introduction, I'll use this thread for any upgrades I make along the way.
I'm going to order one of those spiffy badges you guys came up with. Those are really nice! Michael, can I reserve #202, or should I request that in the request thread?
I'm glad I found y'all!
Steve
