Dans Subaru

Dan. · Post by **Dan.** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:06 pm

G'day, thought I'd introduce myself and my Subaru... and scrounge advice off some of the wiser blokes here - =D

My names Dan, I'm 15.. and this subaru is my second project car. After owning an EA and realising there was more to thrashing a car then limestone tracks, I looked into getting a 4wd, I had to be able to afford to run it, it had to be my daily when I get my P's and be able to carry four people in it... and I thought the subaru would be the best option

This is my '93 Subaru L-Series wagon;

Mods I've done since I bought it (a week ago)
- Installed Sony CDX-R5810 HU and Alpine Type S 12'' sub

- Took off the 'poofter stripes' that were on the back 1/4s... well one side anyway

Mods that I want to have completed in the space of the next six months;
- Custom tint by TKO (20% on three boot windows, 35% on the rest), I'll be putting a booking in in the next week for this...
- 2" or 3" liftkit (undecided yet, see this thread)
- 14'' rims and 27" offroad tyres
- Completing my stereo;
- Installing Blaupunkt splits for rearfill (ditching tweeters and crossovers)
- Purchasing/Installing splits for front stage (amplified, looking into Focal splits)
- 2x Pioneer 306C 12" sub's in custom boot install..

And alot more, which I can't be bothered trying to explain what I want to do

As you can see I plan on spending some $$ on her, she deserves it .. will keep this thread updated with mod's and 'offroad experiences'

Dan. · Post by **Dan.** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 8:24 pm

Now I've got a few quick questions on some things that I 'need' to buy in the next couple of weeks... I need to be 'self-sufficient' in offroading, and getting myself out of sticky situations.
I've bought a snatch strap off eBay last night, which is 10m x 60mm, rated to 8tonne.. while it might not be the best I got it for a score and it will do until it starts showing signs of breaking.
I'm looking into getting an electric winch, because i'm too lazy (more so my old man who I drag out 4wding with me

) to use a hand winch.. What sort of spec's should I be looking at, and how should it be mounted. I know that it will obviously have to be mounted on the roobar, lol, and most likely in the lower section between the bottom bar and middle bar... like so

But after drawing that image on MS Paint (paint skills ftw) I've thought, shit, thats not possible without cutting up my bumper so it'd have to sit on the lower bar. A family friend welds TIG so he'll be getting worked when it comes to mounting it

My other question is this;
What offroad equipment should I be taking out with me when I go bush? What I've thought up is this; snatch strap, winch, basic toolkit, shovel, and 10L of water. When I build a roofrack I'll also be taking out some 'planks' incase I get stupidly bogged, spare fuel and more water...

Cheers in advance for your help
Dan

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:42 pm

I doubt that bullbar would cope too well with having a winch attached to it. Your best bet really would be a hand-winch ... just don't get stuck

maudsland · Post by **maudsland** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 7:41 am

A snatch strap, isn't that a womans G string

Suba · Post by **Suba** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 12:00 pm

I would definatly not attatching the winch to that sort of roo bar , It would very likly just bend it, if it were a bumper replacement type you would or should be ok.
Can I ask how you are driving at the ripe old age of 15.

Mike.

Subafury · Post by **Subafury** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:08 pm

nice suba dan. i bet u cant wait to get all the mods done.
and yeah i dont think anyone here has put a winch on a subaru before because usually a big 4wd can snatch them quickly out of most situations. but yeh id like to see it work.

BaronVonChickenPants · Post by **BaronVonChickenPants** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 5:42 pm

Someone (Muddy I think) was looking at fitting one under the rear seats and feeding it to the bullbar, not sure if and/or how it worked out though.

Jordan.

Dan. · Post by **Dan.** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:46 pm

I would definatly not attatching the winch to that sort of roo bar , It would very likly just bend it, if it were a bumper replacement type you would or should be ok.
Can I ask how you are driving at the ripe old age of 15.

Hmm, yeah I was reading through some old threads last night (learned to use the 'from beginning' function) and seen people advised against putting a winch on my style of roo-bar. I guess the only viable way of mounting an electric winch would be to make steel brackets from the chassis rails to where I would be mounting the winch. It could be done I guess... but at the moment I'll look into getting a hand winch as previously mentioned, it would do until a good method of mounting an electric winch comes along.

How can I be driving at the age of 15? Haha, thats the reason why I drag the old man out with me - consider him as the chaufeur that drives me out to where I want to go 4wding, then I reap the benefits flogging it around; with him in the passenger seat haha.

Can't wait to get all the mods done, but I can't really do anything big to the car until I finish my corolla speedway car (see first pic, its in the background sitting next to the 'cage)... but I'm hoping to have the rollcage in that in the next month or so...

Though I'm pretty happy with the subi's capabilities offroad so far

and yeah i dont think anyone here has put a winch on a subaru before because usually a big 4wd can snatch them quickly out of most situations. but yeh id like to see it work.

Pretty much the reason I want a winch, until I get my licence I doubt I'll be 4wding with many other fourbys, and after playing the waiting game with my old EA in the pines for another car to tow me out - wasn't fun. Never let a mate drive my car again, you'd think he'd be right ripping nuts on a massive limestone intersection, but he aimed the thing straight for the sand.. wanker

Soobeit · Post by **Soobeit** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:38 pm

At least if you mount that winch to your car you know that your bullbar will get out of trouble!! bahhaaa! dont think the car will get out with it!
On a serious note, did you think of a remote winch? my old man has one, you can use them in all sorts of ways, front pull,side or rear. you just attach it to the car via cables to your recovery points and then run the winch out to your winch point. Im not real good at explaining things but I hope you get my drift. someone on the board will know more about them then I.
Does anyone have one?

Ozzy_Steve · Post by **Ozzy_Steve** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 3:24 pm

I don't know about any other Roos, but I recently took off the bullbar that came with mine. It was bolted to the front bumper bar (thin guage formed steel, no real strength at all) with 1/4 inch U section steel! Somebody had run into something in it, and so the front bumper had crumpled but the bullbar had no damage.

The front bar is bolted to the main body by four bolts, so it was easy to remove and panel-beat it back into shape (it will do until I can get hold of a new bar...)

Having said that, I would definitely not attach a winch to the front bar... it doesn't look like a structural member.