lifted subaru trail explorer

[ferp420]

my old lifted roo daily driver has been retiered from road use the unibody is failing at the suspention mouning points so i took it off the road so i need a new daily driver trail rig and im tiered of smacking the exhaust and draging my belly

so now what
well my street rig is getting a lift its a 2000 subaru impreza wagon

im building my own lift its a simple 2" and the wheels and tires will add another 2 inches of lift for a total of 4 inches that should give me 10 inches clear at the lowest point of the rig thats better than most production 4x4s outhere i havent decided if im gona put a low range in it or not probly just lower the gearing to ether 4.11s or down to 4.44s and keep the single range i dont know if the low range is worth it or not for a mostly street rig the 4.11 are the easyest as i already have them set up and ready to drop in the 4.44s will require some trans building to put the gears in my trans the duel range is 3.90 gear ratio and cant be changed but dose have a low range to make up for it and it would cost more to install and more work the 4.11s are a drop in $0 mod and the least amount of work so thats what im leaning to



the lift im building has been around for well over 10 years and is solid some one drew the plans out on a bar napkin and then it was posted online and was nicknamed the napkin lift its basicly a body lift and spaces everything down lower i do have the suspention lift parts im just not feeling good enuff to install it this lift is alot easyer to install and will alow me to install the suspention parts one peice at a time so i dont burn out hopfully ill have the new wheels and tires on next week


i have the steel i need for new bumpers front and rear and ill make some simple sliders the rockers are already bashed in so sliders are a must hopefully i can keep the waight down but just incase i am building a new motor for it i have a spare thats getting a port and polish with a custom ported intake manifold and ill fab up some custom exhaust for it to

no tube fenders no big stingers nothing blingy just a fun little trail rig


pics to come soon

[TheLetterJ]

I don't know if it's because I daily drive an obscure offroader myself (lifted, locked 2wd 15 passenger van on 35"s) but I have been noticing more lifted Subaru's out off the beaten path in the last few years. I'd be willing to wager that a lifted Subaru would go all the places that your average Jeep yuppy would ever dare travel (obviously limited by driver, not vehicle.) Since my offroad travels shifted from the more extreme side of things, to more "backcountry exploring with the family" a few years ago, I've realised that I NEVER had to lock the hubs on my modified 4x4's any more (though my wife preferred me to since it meant we could go slower) and that just the extra clearance and bigger tires got us most places, and the locker was enough to keep a 2wd going down at least the easy 4x4 trails. On a similar topic, I've been seeing a lifted Miata (on what looks to be 30" all terrains) and a lifted Nissan 350Z locally, I think they've got us both beat for being odd.

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

I don't know if it's because I daily drive an obscure offroader myself (lifted, locked 2wd 15 passenger van on 35"s) but I have been noticing more lifted Subaru's out off the beaten path in the last few years. I'd be willing to wager that a lifted Subaru would go all the places that your average Jeep yuppy would ever dare travel (obviously limited by driver, not vehicle.) Since my offroad travels shifted from the more extreme side of things, to more "backcountry exploring with the family" a few years ago, I've realised that I NEVER had to lock the hubs on my modified 4x4's any more (though my wife preferred me to since it meant we could go slower) and that just the extra clearance and bigger tires got us most places, and the locker was enough to keep a 2wd going down at least the easy 4x4 trails. On a similar topic, I've been seeing a lifted Miata (on what looks to be 30" all terrains) and a lifted Nissan 350Z locally, I think they've got us both beat for being odd.

the lifted miatas are fairly comin as are lifted subarus the z car is kinda odd lol a side note i used 300zx struts on my last lifted roo build

the older subarus are practicly unstopable i cant tell you how many times i had to stop and wait for jeeps on the trail out in johnson valley just to putter right past them
the only down side is the lack of gearing options and the small tires
quick vid of my roo and some wheelin buddys and me pulling them off a bank with my roo and shreading my back bumper lol
https://youtu.be/qw170H_xn2s
https://youtu.be/mZSqd1stolc

my first offroad roo i built to play in ohv parks that werent any fun in the scout the roo made the cheasy parks challanging but there fun little trail rigs especialy with lock diffs the indepedent suspention makes them cushy in the desert

[ferp420]

one corner done no pics yet

[ferp420]

front done

[CM9000]

MCM is late to the party, but I too love lifted scoobies. If I had a GC8, id be doing the same thing you are..

[ferp420]

i was able to vet the wheels on this rig i still have to fight with clarence but what he dosent know is i have a bfh waiting for him i garentie that will solve any issues clarence can cause lol




it took some trimming but there on there


the back still needs some work i need to add a spacer to the link lol and move the wheel back a bit then clean it up fender flairs go on next month

[TheLetterJ]

A wee bit big there eh? What size are those, 235's?

[ferp420]

big naa not realy there smaller than my other roo lol
there 235 70 16s
they will fit just fine once im done
and once i change out the gears ill be back in buisness lol

[CM9000]

I had a set of 44's on my old 98 cherokke on a 4 inch lift. Its easy to cut things but im sure you got this. Going to space the subframes?

Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by CM9000

I had a set of 44's on my old 98 cherokke on a 4 inch lift. Its easy to cut things but im sure you got this. Going to space the subframes?

Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

44s on a cheroke thats big



i am gona space the trailing arms down but not a whole subframe drop i still have enuff range in the cv axles to not hurt anything im keeping my cuting to a minimum these tires are only 28.5" a true tiny tire rig lol im trying to save my gas milage lol

this is the 4th one ive built for my self and ive done a few for others aswell so ya i got this i am gona have to buy some more bolts though so my cost will go up another $5 so ill have about $65 in to this build

[ferp420]

ive run in to a snag i ether have to lift the rig more or go with smaller tires or cut the hay out of the body and im trying to not cut alot on this one
raising it more would look great and i have the parts but im not at home and doing work on the road just sucks so i dont realy want to build a sub frame drop kit right now i could pick up suspention parts and build a smaller body lift but then im back to building and modding away from home
i found a.amazing deal on some tiny maxxis tires that are about a inch smaller than what i have now so ill probably go that route then play with ride hight and suspention
gearing will most likly happen this winter

new rubber is on its way maxxis marauders there saposed to be realy good on sand and loose dirt so they should be perfict for my needs

[Hodaka]

Easiest way to lift that imp is to just throw Forester struts in it. As far as lower gearing, same thing: Forester trans and rear diff.

[ferp420]

not the easyist but ya i have those too i have a forester a outback and a legacy and 2 lifted loyales and this imp all lifted the 2 door pannel wagon has a 5" lift tube fenders big front bumper with a fat winch snorkle and light bar im probably the only one to build a ea82m to the point that it will keep up with a ej22 v2 gearing is just swaping transmissions and rear ends and i allready have those too the forester is being striped down the motor is geting the port and polish a new intake and new exhaust then will be going in the imp also the suspention will go on the imp the seats will go in to the scout the outback trans will go in to the imp the forester 4eat will go in to the outback the outback is now a 2 seater with a truck bead its gona be the side by side lol im gona pull the locker out of loyale and regear it for the imp so atleast one diff will lock lol
this is just a daily driver so i can get around my neighborhood with out bouncing the exhaust off of rocks on the way to the store and so i can go play rcs at more places its hard to carry a rc on a dirtbike lol if i wanted more i would toss the duel range trans in there and cut the hay out of the fenders then add a 6"lift on top of the forester struts thats about as far as a subi can go ive seen them on solid axles but the guy says it overheats real bad if driven on the road at all even with that big aluminum radiator another guy dosent drive his on the street at all and has no issues with overheating but he also has a doubler or tripler to so that might have something to do with it

[ferp420]

i got the new wheels mounted up and added another 1/2 " of lift in the rear its still rubbing a little bit but to bad ill see what i can do after the new fender flairs get here
also i added some lighting 3 6" led flood lights hidden inside the hood scoop and i got a cool lighted switch labled zombe lights

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Hodaka

Easiest way to lift that imp is to just throw Forester struts in it. As far as lower gearing, same thing: Forester trans and rear diff.

Yes Forester struts and suspension mount spacers.

This thread is a Ferp fap, love lifted Subies! Git r dun! You need one of the OZ 2-speed transfer cases too.

Oh and your old one that is ripping subframe mounts loose, get it all hammered back in place, sitting on level concrete, drop plumb line at key points (all four corners and a few extras incase), mark on concrete, measure, get it all lined up and square, tack weld. Add sub-frame connectors (front to rear) and maybe a couple extra braces, stitch weld (not complete welds end to end), recheck plumb line drops, take it to alignment shop and enjoy.

[ferp420]

the struts alone give to much lift for the alignment to adjust for the lift blocks are offset and move the struts in so no ne3d to adjust the alignment maybe the toe but the caster is still good i did that to the legacy i had to buy adjustable arms to get the camber back in specs

the old rig i designed a long arm kit and moved the mounts under the drivers and passengers seats of course that messed up the anti squat way to much so i have to build new mounts but that rig is just gona be the farm truck and loaner wheeler and genneral basher
i have a few old school ea82 duel range trans setups the guts are the same as the jdm and adm duel range trans for the ej just different casses they can be adapted but the clutch is smaller there are bandaids for that but it will always be a issue and this rig isent a wheeler just a adventure rig and with the engine work i have planed should give me goobs more torque

[ferp420]

heres a few pics of the old rig




traval time



wheelin shot





diving in to a mud hole
https://youtu.be/IXxKtU2hIAc

night run
https://youtu.be/h6FD0gXqCV0

demoing the old mobile in the pic above with the roo and its big winch
https://youtu.be/MP7e7XDl-aE

[Natedog]

Nice pics, thanks! Upper strut spacers with offset will work too. Planned engine mods for more torque?

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Nice pics, thanks! Upper strut spacers with offset will work too. Planned engine mods for more torque?

im building a new motor for it full port and polish and custom intake and exhaust nothing extreme it wont increse horse power much but should give me a good amount more torque

and ill still have the stock motor if it dosent work out lol

basicly the same thing i did to my old roo