Steve's Cross-Country Subaru Outback

[Michael]

@steve its looking better all the time! Very nice ride!

 

[Robert OB 33/48]

Great ride, doing what it should do. And I think it looks very nicely worked on.
Wish I could do it so clean!!

 

[Steve]

I don't wash the car, so it is only clean due to rain. I'm hoping it gets a lot dirtier when we're on our travels, else I'm doing all this for nought!

Yesterday I ordered a 32" LED combo spot/flood light bar for my roof-top basket, and a Vlair 450P portable air compressor, both from Amazon. They started charging state sales tax for Ohio today, so I saved $25 by ordering last night.

 

[Inmused]

Great to see another outside-the-box build.  Looking forward to seeing how your Subaru develops over time @Steve.

 

[Steve]

Thanks @glen_wesley, but it isn't really very far out of the box. Our Australian friends will attest to modified Subarus being a staple in their outback, and where most of the best offered accessories are made. They also get (or at least got) low range transmissions long after Subaru stopped sending them to the USA. Websites like Dirty Impreza, SubaruOutback.org, SubaruForester.org, OffroadSubarus.com and more are full of folks doing amazing things with various Subaru models. My goals are pretty tame by those standards.

 

[Inmused]

Thanks @glen_wesley, but it isn’t really very far out of the box. Our Australian friends will attest to modified Subarus being a staple in their outback, and where most of the best offered accessories are made. They also get (or at least got) low range transmissions long after Subaru stopped sending them to the USA. Websites like Dirty Impreza, SubaruOutback.org, SubaruForester.org, OffroadSubarus.com and more are full of folks doing amazing things with various Subaru models. My goals are pretty tame by those standards.

That may be true @Steve, but I can tell you that here in Australia, it is incredibly rare to see a modified Subaru for off road use, even in the outback.  I have worked in the outback.  It's all Nissans and Toyotas.  There are old Brumbys still hanging around though.

That being said, yours is still far from the norm and worthy to be followed.  

Glen

 

 

[Steve]

I appreciate that, Glen!

The Viair 450P came today. It is much larger than I was expecting! I was going to put it in the spare wheel, but that ain't gonna work. Rear footwell will probably be its storage space.

It looks to be very well made. I'm pleasantly surprised. I'll have to compare the inbuilt pressure gauge against my good one.

 

[Steve]

Today I added the rear view camera that came with my new Garmin nuvi 2798. I still had all of the trim off from when I added the LED strips, and wanted to get things finished up. I mounted it between the left license plate light and the lift gate latch. The bracket is made to mount with two self-tapping screws or onto the license plate frame. I used one of the self-tappers, and also glued it to the plastic trim. I drilled a hole behind the plastic trim, and fed the cable through there.

I made the job extra hard on myself. I ran the power cable through the grommet between the body and lift gate, down the D pillar, removed the tail lamp assembly, fed the power cord to the tail lamp, and then looked to see which light is the backup lamp. Y'all know where this is going; the backup lamp is on the lift gate, right beside the new camera...

It is a crappy quality camera, but better than none, I guess. Or at least an added bit of security, as I'm already a fervent neck-swiveled.

I got all the trim back on, and somewhere over the past couple of weeks lost one umbrella plug. I'll find it somewhere, but that's one more item off my checklist!

 

[Steve]

Here's the crappy low resolution and way too wide angle. The first photo is from 15-18 feet in front of the red smart, and the second from 4 feet. By comparison, the camera on my daughter's Mazda 3 is very sharp and clear in all lighting conditions. That and the loaner 2015 Outback 3.6R (which was similar to the Mazda's) are my only experience with rear view cameras.

Oh, and the image is reversed, which on the Mazda and new Outback, it isn't.

Here's a photo at around 11:00 local, with only my LED backup lights for illumination. Not as bad as I expected, but still not much to write home about.

All in all, I'd recommend the Garmin nuvi 2797 rather than the 2798. The 2798 is $350 on Amazon, and the 2797 is $220. Plus, the 2797 can be found factory refurbished with full warranty for even less, whereas I couldn't find a refurbished 2798. (Although Amazon now shows the refurbished 2797 at the same $220 as the new one, so no savings there.)

 

[Steve]

Meanwhile, here's the output from the OPT7 32" C2 LED Light Bar. It is just temporarily wired to the battery, and the lamp is laying across the engine cover. Eventually, it will be mounted to the front of the Yakima LoadWarrior roof basket.

 

[Michael]

Meanwhile, here’s the output from the OPT7 32″ C2 LED Light Bar. It is just temporarily wired to the battery, and the lamp is laying across the engine cover. Eventually, it will be mounted to the front of the Yakima LoadWarrior roof basket.  

That looks like a pretty good beam @steve! That's an upgrade I need to do!

 

[Steve]

Not particularly rig related, but I thought I'd share. Yesterday, I picked up a power washer for $299 at Costco. I'd read about this one a couple of months ago on our local Subaru Facebook group, but we belonged to BJ's Warehouse. Since then, our membership expired, so we joined Costco yesterday.

To paraphrase the Xzibit meme, "Yo Dawg i heard you like Subarus, so we put a Subaru in your Subaru so you can wash your Subaru with your Subaru!"

 

[Steve]

Updates, finally! My daughter is getting married Saturday, and we've been busy on other things...

I just had new struts installed all around on my 2008 OBXT, using the 2004 rears for better load carrying without sag. I also had 3/4" Paranoid Fabrication strut spacers installed. And while it was on the lift, I had the 2" Hidden Hitch installed that's been sitting in the garage for a couple of years...

Photos from the guy who installed them, as I haven't gone to pick it up yet. Next is an alignment and a set of 225-60-17 Geolander A/T-S tires. That's a couple things off my modification list: https://www.facebook.com/rex.wagon.5/about…

 

[Steve]

I just got back from an hour drive on the turnpike bringing the car home. Wow, what a noticeable difference! I could tell by the end of the guy's street that I was going to appreciate the improvements, because it didn't dive when I put on the brakes. And it didn't bounce like an old Buick on the highway. This is going to make our cross-country trip much more enjoyable.

 

[Steve]

I took a quick photo today showing the "after" image of the new struts and lift, to compare with a previous "before" image. Sorta hard to tell how much higher it is. I guess I should have measured before I had it done. I'll get another little bit when I put on the new tires.

 

[Steve]

Today I received my order of a stack of four WaterBricks to store potable water. Each brick is 3.5 gallons, and fits flat on the rear floor. I'll only be taking two this trip, but they easily stack two high, giving me 15 gallons of water on future trips to drier climates.

 

[Steve]

That's better! Yokohama Geolandar A/T-S 215-60-17 tires and an alignment.

I'm glad I didn't go with 225-60-17 tires!

 

[TxTerra]

can you take some pictures of how you mounted your light bar to the loadwarrior basket? im replacing the old PIAA's i have on mine with a light bar and trying to figure out a good mounting solution so it doesnt move around

 

[Steve]

Hi Jason,

I haven't yet. I'm painting the basket, and haven't found enough non-windy days to get a couple more coats on it. We had a wedding here Saturday, so I've not been doing much car related stuff for a while.

But I have a plan! I'm using the FourTreks Modular LED Mounts. Pricey, but Luke is a pleasure to work with, they are outstanding quality, and made in the USA. Just select your tubing size and select it from the pull-down. NOTE, that if you have the LoadWarrior, the side tubes and upper front/rear tubes are 1.00" diameter, but the lower front/rear tubes are 1.125 (1-1/8)" diameter. I had to exchange my ring, because I assumed they were the same... http://fourtreks.com/modular_led_light_mounts.html

I plan on either mounting it behind the fairing on a spare crossbar I have, so that it is hidden unless needed, or below and in front of the basket.

I'm using the FourTreks Modula Awning Mounts for mounting my ARB 2500 awning to the LoadWarrior basket, too.

I hope that helps,
Steve

 

[TxTerra]

thanks man! that looks great