THIS Off-Road Mistake in a Subaru Cost Him Thousands

Transcript

Speaker: If you want to learn about some of the most common dangerous mistakes that off-roaders make when they first get into the whole off pavement driving thing, especially in Subarus, this episode is absolutely for you. and then we're going to give you some practical tips that you can apply to your off-road bag of tricks. Before we jump into this episode, I just want to remind you guys that the Subia New Podcast is still out there kicking harder than ever. Go check it out if you want some more Subaru themed podcast content. you can also check out the wave podcast it's just called the wave like the subi wave you know what i mean that's a great podcast and those dudes are actually technically knowledgeable i pretty much just know enough to get myself in trouble those guys are actual subaru mechanics who work on these cars for a living and then huge shout out to the sponsors of the show anderson design and fabrication definitely your go-to for all lift kits skid plates and off-road parts for Subarus and then Melee Design Firm. They have literally everything you could need to get your Subaru set up with a solid battery that's powerful enough to handle winching and all the crazy stuff that comes with off-roading in your Subaru.

Speaker: Without any further lollygagging, let's go ahead and jump into this banger. Thanks for coming on brother, I really appreciate it. Yeah of course, thanks for having me. I know it was Well, we started chatting, what, a week ago? Yep. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Can you introduce yourself to people? Let them know what kind of car you got and let them know where they can find you if they want to get in touch with you for whatever reason. Sure thing. I'm Jim. I am the owner, operator, builder of Little Ruby Subie. It's a 2015 Outback Premium.

Speaker: I've done a lot to it. It definitely stands out at the school pickup line. ah You can find me ah mainly on Instagram at little Ruby Subie. I've got a tick tock. I don't do too much on there. I've got some videos.

Speaker: um You can also find me on Facebook on ah on the offroad roos page. I'm one of the one of the admins and one of the founders of offroad roos. So yeah, you can find me there as well.

Speaker: ah heck yeah well what are you drinking today uh it's just water right now um i've got some knob creek smoked maple up uh wait what's that ah is that whiskey or something yeah it's bourbon sick i think it's bourbon and i got some so i'm a big time old-fashioned fan i uh so do that i've got some real maple syrup that i use that i swap out the simple syrup with real maple syrup um yeah throw some bitters in there then i got a whiskey smoker got a couple years ago for christmas so uh Yeah, it's good. I got the ice cube maker that makes like the cubes and the rounds. The ones. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, you so feel free to help yourself to tasty beverages. I'm all about it, man. Coffee, whatever. Man, I'm really excited that you agreed to come on because I don't talk to a lot of, ah was it Fifth Gen Outback? Yeah. Yeah. I don't see a ton of them yet, but they're getting to that age where

Speaker: they are getting to that point where somebody can pick up 120,000 mile, you know, used one for less than what they sold for, you know, new. Right. I remember man, when I was selling Subarus, I think I did a deal on a touring package. Um,

Speaker: fifth gen Outback. I'm pretty sure that person paid like almost 50k. It's like, dude, I'm not trying to beat up $50,000 worth of sheet metal, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I think i got mine used. Um, so this is my second fifth gen Outback. Um, i had 2016, leased that,

Speaker: And then started traveling for work and was driving a lot and figured I probably shouldn't go too far over on the mileage. Now, luckily, my buddy owned the Subaru dealer, so they waived the over mileage fee.

Speaker: Yeah, massive help. Shout out to A&T Subaru up in Sellersville, Pennsylvania. Jeff Allen, you are awesome. Thank you. ah We bought two Outbacks and a Legacy from them. I've done car shows up there. he that That place is awesome.

Speaker: Yeah. But yeah, I think I got it with like 50 something thousand miles on it for that's the sweet spot, mid twenties, something like that. It's got 167,000 on it right now. Um, did I think I got it six or seven years ago. So I mean, I've, I've definitely put, I put a lot of miles on it.

Speaker: Um, And and we' I'm sure we'll get to this at some point in the podcast, but ah the the engine has about 30,000 less miles on it. It's ah it's not the original engine to the ah to the car. Yes, that was a fun day. um But that's the only mod that has been done. Not by me.

Speaker: Everything else on my car I've I've done in my driveway. um I just don't have the tools, knowledge, ah space to do an engine swap in my driveway. Yeah. If you got to do it outside, you kind of only get one shot because it's like, hey, if it rains, we're going to be in some trouble. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. My ah my garage is barely a one car garage and it's full of mountain bikes, tools, welder, just stuff. You know, it's just so much stuff, camping stuff. It's like I walk in. i'm like, what?

Speaker: How? How do I have this much junk? And like I clean it out several times a year and it just never gets empty. Well, you got kids, man. That adds a whole new level of complexity.

Speaker: Yeah. Three three boys. Actually, the my middle son just turned five today. Oh, congrats. Yeah. He's man. He was the last week every day in five days. It's my birthday. In four days is my birthday. He was so stoked.

Speaker: Yes. What? ah What's oldest and youngest? Oldest is eight and youngest is three. So, uh, pretty close together. Um, it's, it's very loud in the house, but, uh, but they they're, they're great kids. They're, they're really awesome. They all, they're always asking to go off roading.

Speaker: I love that. I don't know if going to be able to out, tomorrow, but, uh, know, probably the next couple of weeks we'll, we'll be able to get out. The trails are like an hour away. Um, but yeah, no, they, they love going out off roading. Every time we go out, uh, we're usually picking up trash, trying to clean up the trails. Um,

Speaker: you know, we offered is we do a lot of cleanups over in the Pine Barrens and surrounding forests. um So, you know, the kids are always like, let's go off roading. Let's pick up trash. I'm like, yes, let's. yeah Yeah. Like, let's let's make things better. If we go hiking, they're over. Always wanted to clean up. Um,

Speaker: So I think I've done a good job instilling, you know, leave, leave the place world a better place than than you found. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, I think um the the trash thing just pisses me off, man. Yeah.

Speaker: You know, if you keep trashing it. So I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. OK. Yeah. I mean, I'm still here. But ah when Instagram became a thing, you know, I I was doing like bushwhack hiking.

Speaker: Okay. Like I would just look at like old USGS maps and look for water features. Yeah. And then we would just cut in and be like, oh, cool. Nobody's seen this waterfall for a hundred years. Right. Sick, you know? Yeah.

Speaker: And I would post them on Instagram and people be like, where is this? I'd be like, sorry, I don't give out locations. Yeah. people started acting like, what think you own the forest? It's like, no, but you guys seem to, because every time I post a location, you destroy the place and then it gets shut down, dude. I'm over Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, i mean, we've ah so I think of over the past six or seven trips of the past few years, we're I think a little over 40,000 pounds of trash removed from the ah from the Pine Barrens and surrounding areas. I was actually just a messaging my ah my friend from ah Obsidian Overland. I've got his Lear light. It's coming out. Check them out. It's a okay. It's an awesome ah like LED strip light in the back. um

Speaker: But he posted a, he's got a third gen Outback with, you know, he had like a shelf or something. and i was like, dude, my Outback does more truck stuff than most trucks do. yeah I sent him a picture of a, a couch that we had found on the side of the trail. We wrapped it together with ratchet straps, threw it up on the roof. And for a day, I'm just driving around with the couch on the top of my car until we got to our dumpster and dump site. And, uh,

Speaker: But do that that trip was wild because we're we're in this one area and we see a pickup truck with just packed. The thing must have been 10 feet tall, just full of trash. He drove into the dump site, looked around, went, oh, I'm not dumping here.

Speaker: Turned around and drove away. And like we kind of want to chase after and be like, dude, just leave it with us. Like we're we're getting we're getting rid of it the right place the right way. Yeah. We know you're going to dump it. Just give it to us. Yeah.

Speaker: Boats, trailer frames, toilets. I mean, I think our last cleanup, I picked up seven toilets, like a full bathroom worth of tile. It just dumped dog yeah dumped on the site. Sorry, my dog. I don't know if but you hear my dog barking. He's no, no. your Mike's doing a good job. ah Perfect. um But yeah, it's ah I mean, it's it's definitely sad to see, you know, how much these things are trashed. But, um you know, we're we're doing a pretty good job. We we work a lot with the um, local department of environmental protections and local authorities. And, um, we've actually, we get to do, we'll get, um, well, sorry, I don't know to talk. I forgot. Um, we'll get special use permits, uh, to go into areas that are off limits to vehicles, even off limits to just hiking. yeah Um, like park rangers will sit there. If they see you turn onto that trail, boom, they'll pop you.

Speaker: Um, oh yeah, we'll, we'll get special use permits, get to go in these areas. And, uh, and get our cars muddy, do some, do some pretty sick off-roading. Uh, and then as well as, uh, his pulling trash out. So dude, that's so tight. It's, it's really cool.

Speaker: Yeah, I'm um'm straight up almost willing to throw hands over over litter bugs, man. Like, i'm I'm not a violent person. I prefer to mind my business. But if you choose to throw hands, I'll throw them right back. them Oh, exactly. I call you out for dumping your trash in my forest, bro. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, do we're finding tires from like the thirty s like tubed car tires. like It's just, it's it's insane. But yeah.

Speaker: Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's awesome to see the difference in these areas. And, you know, I mean, 40,000 pounds is not a little bit of trash. No, not at all. Well, thank you for doing that, man. I live nowhere near you, but... Hey, if you ever come out, we'll ah yeah but you'll you'll be able to join us. and We'll make sure you join us.

Speaker: One of the biggest game changers for me when I started taking my vehicles off-road and adding winches, off-road accessories, lights, all these different things, adding a good performance battery that could handle winching and off-road vibration, all that type of stuff, removed a burden off me that I didn't actually know was there. Now when I'm out in the forest and I've got to do some heavy winching, it doesn't even cross my mind that my battery is not going to be able to keep it up. Even if I'm running lights and running all kinds of other accessories, no problem. Same with airing up the tires, have no problems at all because now I have full throttle batteries in all four of the vehicles that I own.

Speaker: And if you want to get set up with a good battery, a good battery mounting system, strut tower braces, pitch top mounts, engine bay oil caps, all that kind of stuff. You can head over to Melee Design Firm, who sponsors the Dirt Subies podcast. Pretty much put anything in your cart that you need. Use code DIRTSUBIES at checkout. That's going to get you 10% off of your order. Huge shout out to Mitch and the whole crew over at Melee. They've been huge supporters of everything that I've been doing for the last six-ish years in the Subaru content space. So a huge, huge thank you to them.

Speaker: What's the terrain like, just so people have an idea? Yeah. so ah where where we mostly go in the Pine Barrens lot of sand, um sand, kind of clay, um sticky mud. Yep. A lot of very deep, unforgiving puddles. ah yeah we Luckily, we've gone on a couple of dry days that, you and it's great because can see just how deep these things are. And like it will be middle of my driver window um if you went through the middle. So yeah.

Speaker: You I've had to rescue a few people because, you I'll be leading. We'll have 20 cars behind us and car 17 is like, you know, Leroy Jenkins, let's go right right through the middle. And yeah, next thing I know, he's stalled out in the middle and we're having to drag him out. We pull spark plugs. Yep.

Speaker: Yes. Yeah. That's that's something I should have done on the on my fateful day. Yeah. Well, was this this week's episode or yeah I think you're talking about talking some about flooding last week.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. The most recent episode. Yeah. With the, with the homie. Yeah. Yeah. uh, yeah, I was out with, um, we actually, we were going to be doing a food drive, uh, trip. There's a radio show here. They do a, they call the camp out for hunger and they raise food for Phil abundance. And, um,

Speaker: It's a low a really big um food pantry around here. Like that whole week, they'll raise millions of pounds of food. that's And actually Subaru USA has been their largest contributor for the past probably 10 years. Oh, that's tight. Shout out Subaru. Oh, exactly. So the Sunday before they do, they call it the fill a trunk car show. So it's Porsche clubs, Jeep clubs. And then i was like, well,

Speaker: I want to get it on it because it's always paving princess Jeeps. So I'm like, yeah guys, we're going out Saturday, we're getting muddy and we're going show up and be like, see, we actually do like what our cars are built to do. Um,

Speaker: So we're, uh, me and, uh, Isaiah, he goes by court low. He's got a kick ass sandbar. Dude. This thing is beautiful. It's, it's awesome. Um, and he's also got a fifth gen out back. He's got the three six. I'm very jealous. so dude it nice Um, but we're, we're, uh, we're ripping through the trails going to the meetup point because we camped out the night before and, uh, turn down this road, bulldozed road and it's couple of little puddles and I'm just sending it cause I'm excited. I'm stoked. Uh,

Speaker: And I thought I was invincible. The next thing just plow into this well end into this puddle. I get about quarters of way through. I think it was just momentum engine dies. Merry Christmas on the dashboard.

Speaker: And, you know, I go to turn the key and just and just dead like not nothing. ah And yeah, I ended up hydro lock in my engine. i Probably bent everything we had. We didn't pull the motor apart because my mechanic wanted to get his core charge or whatever. Yeah. but um Yeah, like we we we should have pulled spark plugs, but it's the first time I ever. Yeah, I was very naive back then. um And yeah, it got pulled. It got towed out by a Honda Ridgeline, so I can't talk crap on the Ridgelines anymore. He saved me, dragged me out to the parking lot. Next day, we towed the tow the car home, pulled the spark plugs there.

Speaker: I was able to maybe turn the motor. 20 degrees maybe 40 degrees i couldn't get a full rotation by hand and uh just water spraying out when mechanic pulled the motor pulled the headers and all that just dumped water out of there it was it was properly shot like i i did it i did it right yeah yeah yeah i think i was telling you i like literally right before you and i were talking i recorded a video about this exact thing yeah and kind of telling people you know yeah i know it's fun to do this but just be cautious and know that these are the risks if you do get into a pickle here's what you do but best best advice don't Yeah, don't go full send. um

Speaker: Yeah, it was. ah Yeah, definitely. You know, check the waters, you know, find a stick. Just go out and check. um And yeah, I was just like, well, the first three puddles were fine. I mean, the fourth one's gonna be fine.

Speaker: And just, yeah, it was. Now the kicker, Isaiah and his sandbar drove right past me in the same puddle. Did he go around in a spot? I think I think so. So if if I was like three or four feet to the right, I'd have been fine.

Speaker: OK, I must just hit ah hit a rut and just boom right in. And yeah, that was ah eight hours on the trail and a very awkward call to my wife. ah sorry i nuked the hey so my car's not working anymore now luckily i was working from home so like it wasn't a horrible well i mean well it sucked don't get me wrong but uh it wasn't like i missed a week of work exactly yeah exactly yeah and like i could throw throw my kid in the trailer and you know ride them you know on my bike uh bicycle yeah mountain bike or whatever riding to school so uh was able to make it work that way but

Speaker: If you guys want to take your Subaru off-road, one of the biggest things you can do is install a lift kit and a set of skid plates. Anderson Design and Fabrication is a company that I've been buying parts from for basically a decade. I've spent thousands of my own hard-earned dollars with adf And now I am super proud to say that they're sponsor of the Dirt Subies podcast and you can save 5% on pretty much anything in the store by using code DIRTSUBIES at checkout. Massive shout out to them. I am so honored to have them supporting what we're doing over here. And if you're in the market for any off-road parts for your Subaru, go check them out as a thank you to them for what they're doing to support us over here.

Speaker: What's, um, cause I've got a whole list of things, like a checklist when it comes to like, you know, water crossings or whatever, everything you mentioned is pretty on point with what I always say, like, yeah grab your shovel, grab a stick, whatever.

Speaker: If you can't walk it, then at least depth check it from the side. If it's, if it's a puddle on a, on a trail, yeah if it's a river, you should probably walk it. Cause if you can't walk through it, you probably can't drive through it. Yeah. Oh, exactly. Yeah. And just not going full send.

Speaker: Like, I mean, you don't, yeah, you need to have a little bit of speed, but you don't want to floor it. Um, you let, let that, let that wake, you know, kind of put, you you're push it push the water out of the way and uh just a steady pace but yeah you don't want to yeah splashing looks cool yeah it's it's a great i have a great shot my dad took on my instagram i think it's one of my pinned photos just you know like rooster tail out either side it looks awesome but that puddle is only about six inches deep you know so and i and i knew that puddle i've been through it a lot of times um but yeah that was uh yeah A week later, I had a new motor in my car, and it was yeah that was good.

Speaker: You got super lucky, man. Oh, yeah. yeah And, dude, John, dude, he hooked me up. like It was the first time I'd ever worked with him. I called him up, and I'm like, hey, so floated my engine.

Speaker: Can you fix it? Because I don't want to take it to a dealership because they'll charge an arm and a leg, and it'll be a mess. Yeah. But he was like, yeah, just yeah bring it down, drop it off. We'll see. and next day he called me. He's like, yeah, i can get a new motor in. ah You know, it's and it's not a turbo, so it's super easy. And I'll get it done by the end of the week.

Speaker: Heck yeah. Boom. it was It was in and out. so Wait, who is this guy? Who's the guy that did the work? ah John. So it's JRADS over here Lenai, Pennsylvania. Just little, you know, tiny, tiny shop, kind of, you know, couple guy operation, but Dude, he's he's awesome.

Speaker: um I mean, when when I rolled in, he was working on a Mitsubishi Eclipse that was pushing 1,000 horsepower. They were converting it to four-wheel drive. um Yeah, it's like he does everything. And then, you here's my little 170-horsepower Outback yeah coming in here. like ah But, dude, ah the guys were all s stoked to see it come in because they're like, we don't see Outbacks like this. yeah So they were they were super stoked.

Speaker: Yeah. Those are the people you want working on your Subaru. The people who, yeah. Hole in the wall shop. Yep. Perfect. That's where I'm going. Cause they're not spending all their money on marketing and right new window, you know, whatever. It's like, no, no, no. These people are just about it. Oh yeah. Yeah. And like, he's a, he's a Subaru master tech and all He worked at dealership for a while and just started his own place and yeah, dude, he's, he's awesome.

Speaker: That's sick. Well, shout out to them, dude. Yeah, definitely. What, uh, When you went into the water, because I just, sorry, I'm just going to pick your brain about this whole experience. Hopefully your wife doesn't listen to this and get pissed at you. but It's years ago. It's it's over. okay She's over it. She's over right. Yeah. yeah ah How far in did you get? Was it like an immediate thing? I know you said you there was one point where everything you know sort of went down. Yeah. um How quick was it that the engine shut off? were Were there any signs ahead of time of the engine sputtering or was it just immediate?

Speaker: Oh, it was immediate. Yeah, it was immediate. um It would definitely it was the the puddle was deep at first and then shallowed out. And like said, I think it was just ah just momentum. They got me almost all the way through. I'd say was.

Speaker: You like 30 feet long. It wasn wasn't big. um But yeah, just dip down. i remember water coming up over the hood thinking, man, this is cool. You know, it seemed water shoot out of my hood louvers, all that. I was like, yeah, cool. so Yeah, whatever. Splashes. Woo. And ah and then just immediately done.

Speaker: Like it just just stopped. Yeah, it was. i mean, the water went straight into the OEM snorkel or oh yeah intake. It was just. Yeah. And I guess I tried turning it over a couple of times.

Speaker: and just nothing. And yeah, we were out there. So we're like, right, maybe the starters bad. So we swapped out the starter on the, uh, on the trail, um, swapped out the battery and just nothing. And, you know, after eight hours of this, we were just like, all right, we're, we're just going to call it. Um,

Speaker: next I've learned a lot since then. you know, we've had a couple issues since then. and I'm right, don't try turning the engine over. buts yeah let's pull but Let's pull some plugs, make sure we're good. Yes.

Speaker: But yeah, man I mean, luckily it was 65 degrees and sunny that day. it was a It was an absolutely beautiful day. um Had one guy in a lifted Jeep come by didn't make fun of us, or just like, oh man, that sucks. And then drove away. I'm like, you couldn't pull me? Yeah. I kind of want to get out of here. Get me out of there. Yeah. yeah But, uh, yeah, that was, know, that happened probably, yeah, nine, nine or 10 AM and, you know, like five 36 o'clock. We were like, right, it's, it's getting dark.

Speaker: I just want to get home. And, uh, yeah. So dropped it off at, uh, just found a random parking lot, uh, for some, you know, some like hospital or something. I called them like, Hey, I'll get this car tomorrow. It's dead.

Speaker: Please don't tow it. Uh, you I'll leave my number or whatever you need to call me, but, I'll be back with the U-Haul trailer tomorrow morning. And yeah, I towed it home. so Heck yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Was there any damage to, like, did the transmission take on any water or the front diff? No, somehow trans was good. The diff was your front and rear your diff were fine, even though the rear diff was submerged in water for seven hours.

Speaker: um i't I haven't extended the diff breather yet. I did the EVAP system. um That filter, I saw the, i think LP Aventure makes one and I saw it. I'm like, I can make my own for like $15 versus $70 or $80.

Speaker: So that was my very first trip out ever off-roading. that That light came on halfway home. I'm like, I'm done. My car's cooked. Oh, my God. And yeah, super easy fix for that. um But yeah, nu you know trans is fine. We flushed the diff fluids, all that. um Somehow all that was fine.

Speaker: Exhaust was fine. um We ended up doing a little exhaust work while it was in. He was like, Hey, man, I got a STI muffler. You just want to throw that on? Like, yeah, let's go. Why not? And then like couple of weeks later, I was like, let's do a resonator delete and then let's do a full muffler delete and let's go fully straight piped.

Speaker: And that that that was a bit raspy. I ended up ah yeah throwing a Amazon special resonator on. and I saw that. Yeah. For an F-150. Well, so the F-150 is my muffler now.

Speaker: ah The resonator, yeah I threw the resonator on first. That cleaned up the sound a lot. Okay, okay, got And then, yeah, my buddy worked for an aftermarket auto parts company ah years ago, and he just had it sitting around. He was going to put on, I think he has a...

Speaker: Oh, five, Oh, four, Oh five STI. Um, he was going to at some point put it on. It just didn't. and it just gave it to me. I'm like, perfect. Hell yeah. I mean, I'll freeze for me, man. Let's go. And, uh, yeah, chopped up my muffler delete and welded that up in, in about two hours. And,

Speaker: had a much better sounding Outback. My wife still hates it. it's She thinks it's too loud. she's She's not a fan of driving my car. She's like, as long as it works, whatever. But she hates driving it. She's like, it stands out way too much. I'm like, that's the point. yeah yeah Nobody's ever going to steal it because it stands out so much. like They can't hide.

Speaker: but Yeah. Oh, dude, that's ah that's a good point. All my cars are modified. My Jeep's modified. Both my Seabroos are... there's not another one anywhere within like 50 miles of any of them that look the same. Right. Yeah.

Speaker: What, uh, your, I saw that video of you welding that, uh, that exhaust. Yeah. Do you weld professionally or? Uh, yes and no. Um, my last job, um, I worked on trailers and snow plows and when I started, uh, they didn't have a welder on site. They just brought someone and I was like,

Speaker: I mean, I kind of want to learn how to weld. So if you guys send me to class, I'll be your welder and fabricator. So I took one semester at a community college of, you know, MIG welding 101. Let's go, dude. I finished the class and I'm like immediately welding couplers onto 24 foot enclosed trailers. I'm like,

Speaker: guys, like I literally just finished this class like last week and I'm now this holds. It's a 10,000 pound trailer, but all right. um So sick. Yeah.

Speaker: As far as I know, nothing fell off. Yeah. ah none None of the couplers. I don't work from anymore. So whatever. Um, But ah yeah, and then I found ah I live somewhat close to um as it Eastwood.

Speaker: ah They've got a yeah yeah they've got a distribution center not too far from me. So they've got a scratch and dent center or scratch and dent side. Dude, I got their MiG 250, like their top MiG machine for like 600 bucks. It had a so like a quarter inch scratch and knocked like $500 off. i'm like, done. Yes. we're Done. Yeah, yeah exactly.

Speaker: And then ah i yeah i I paid for it. I made a tire carrier for a buddy that paid for the welder. Oh, heck yeah. It was, it was, and then, know, I practiced, I made my own swing out carrier. Cause again, I can't afford a 12, $1,300 one. So I'm like, I got some scrap steel at work. I need to, know, practice welding. Let's make a tire carrier.

Speaker: And, uh, Yeah, somehow it didn't fall apart. And then, um, so that was a hitch mounted one. And I was like, I kind of want to, I don't mind it, but I kind of want to free up the hitch a little bit, get a little more ground clearance. So a year or two, actually, I think just, just about a year ago, um, I made a fully integrated, uh, tire carrier to my bumper, my bumper beam. So I, you know, holes in the rear bumper cause I've already cut holes in every other panel.

Speaker: Um, And yeah, got a the beefy hinge off Amazon and welded up and you know swings out. It's yeah, it's great. Super clean, super stable. I'm tempted to build a a bike rack on the back so I can throw a mountain bike on that.

Speaker: I've got a hitch mount now, which is fine. But. just a, you know, my intrusive thoughts take over a lot and having a welder is really bad when you have an ADHD and intrusive thoughts. Cause you're like, you know, I don't like my fog lights on the, out on the X, the you know, the size of my bumper beam, going to put them in the middle and 20 minutes later. Now my, my fog lights are welded up and you know, there's mounts welded together.

Speaker: um yeah so yeah. And people are like, so like, do you use CAD? Like, how do you design these? Dude, I just go, I hope this works. I'm the same dude. Yeah. It's like, I'm just, it's metal. So if I cut it too short, I just cut a new piece. Like, yeah. Or I can reweld it back on. Like it's, you know, it's not like fiberglass where, you know, you're kind of cooked. If, if you screw it up, it's metal, whatever you can, you can add metal, you can take metal away. Yeah.

Speaker: So yeah, it's a, it's, it's been a fun way for me to, you know, just kind of keep my hands busy and yeah. Yeah, I just, so you know, I'm i'm almost 40 and, you know, I went the the nerd route and went to school and make money that way. idea i was homeschooled as a kid, so never took shop class or anything like that. Maybe that's why i'm so weird. I don't know. But ah but ah yeah, just like six months ago, i also was like, I really want to get a welder and just get my hands dirty.

Speaker: just bought like an everlast multi-process joint yeah i don't want to keep gas like i i just my garage is already cluttered i just run flux core that's what i do too dude it's so dirt nasty oh yeah but don't don't use flux core on galvanized steel oh never right no oh my god that green gas coming off it's uh we'll sleep you'll see things let me let me clean this off with some brake clean right yeah oh uh also brake clean and welding don't mix either yeah that or anybody wait that's a lot of fire yeah doesn't it create like mustard gas i i don't know it was just a lot of fire and i ran away uh but yeah no the welding on the uh the galvanized i don't know what that it's like a sweet smelling green gas it can't be healthy for me but i mean the amount of grease and dirt like i was a bicycle mechanic and then the oh trailer mechanic now i'm a train mechanic so like okay i ate so much dirt and grease and nastiness that like

Speaker: Well, it's a little galvanized flux core smoke, you know, whatever. Yeah, dude. You got any tips? Any welding tips? Do you do stick at all? No, not yet. um Actually, the the company I work for has welding classes. So I was talking to my foreman about starting getting getting a TIG or going to the TIG class. Oh, dude. um And then, yeah, i want to learn stick. And then maybe I'll sell my welder and buy a multi-process. That way I can just do everything. I don't have a thousand machines. um So, yeah, now right now, just ah I'm a wire monkey.

Speaker: I think that's there that's what the derogatory term to cause or whatever, because MIG welders looked down on or something. But what whatever, dude, we're sticking metal together. Like it's I was telling my wife one point because I was welding a yeah like a suspension hanger on a big ass dump trailer.

Speaker: And I'm like, hon, It's incredibly peaceful using a shitload of part of my French shitload of electricity i don't care to melt metal and stick other metal together. Like, yeah, I mean, I'm in the hood, yeah put you know, put the hood on and just it's like I get this like kind of Zen, like the flow. Time slows down. Oh, time slows down. You're just watching the bead. It's like and then next thing you know, your arms on fire because the spanner, you know, burned through everything.

Speaker: Dude, spatter burned through my through my welding jacket, through the undershirt. I stood up and rolled into my armpit. I sat up. It went down my shirt. I'm like, I looked and there's just a scar running through everything. ye Yeah. Where the sizzle on the beard, you know, just hearing. a Oh, yeah, that dude.

Speaker: Oh, that's not good. Oh, that's that's burning hair or the spatter in the ear. That's fun. Getting getting it down the the ear canal. um Yeah, that's that's not fun. Yeah, that's a no, dude. No, it's I wouldn't recommend it. You run, uh, you ever run TIG before that? I have not. Oh, I've never done it. Um, I mean, I've, I've, um, I have run a ah TIG torch before. i just don't know what the heck I'm doing, but it's the most satisfying welding process. Like if I was to look at any welds, TIG is like the sickest, looks the cleanest. I mean, know it's not good for every application, but me just messing around with the torch. Like, Oh, that actually looks good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we we had ah right we would bring our welder in um to do aluminum trailers because okay we did we weren't set up for you can make aluminum. um But it's a setting a butter, dude. Yeah, it's it's a it's a pain in the ass. So, yeah dude, aluminum TIG welding is so freaking loud.

Speaker: It's just easy. Oh, OK. It's insanely loud. Yeah. but you know, whatever. Yeah. but Let him do it. and He's yeah. That's yeah. So at some point I'll, I'll learn tag, but yeah, for right now I, I've welded a couple of exhausts together. I've, I've did mine, did my buddies. Um, so, you know, it's, it's a job done.

Speaker: Yeah. Heck yeah, dude. Yeah. i was talking to, um, Patrick Anderson over ADF. And I was like, who welds your guys' skid plates? He's like, you're looking at them. was like, oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. I've got his, uh, I got his transmission insert, the little rubber, uh, rubber bushing. Yeah. Yeah, dude. When I first lifted my Outback, the first drive between like 17 and 20 miles an hour, it just gets this wicked shimmy.

Speaker: And I was like, holy crap. What the heck? Cause I had no idea it was going to happen. And, uh, I immediately was like, great. My car's, my car's done again. Yeah. Every mod I do, I wonderful thing about ADHD is and anxiety is that you're paranoid about everything. Yeah. you You don't let it just go untouched. Yeah. I can't be like, oh, that's fine. I'm like, nope, I'm going to, my car's going to roll and somehow an elementary school is going to catch on fire. Like it's just the worst case scenario. And every puppy on planet earth is going to die. Right. on my account Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Speaker: um But yeah, and I looked up that insert and i think I got the soft compound at first and it worked. But then I was like, you know what? I'm going to for the the medium, yeah the harder compound. They're makes it's a little bit louder. like or Turn the music up a little more. Yeah, the 80.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And yeah, dude, it's it's it makes such a difference. Like there's well i I still notice the shimmy when my axles are are shot, um but it's it made such a difference. So, yeah, massive shout out to adf Yeah. Heck yeah. Those, um, I've actually got three of those inserts sitting in my garage right now that put in a couple of my cars that i got here and then a friend's car. But, um, Patrick was saying, he was like, it's crazy. Sometimes,

Speaker: people will get that weird vibration in the driveline straight from Subaru without even being lifted. Other times people can lift, you know, two inches, not a single problem.

Speaker: Yeah. And then other times it's like, They do our basic economy lift and boom, there's an, actually no, it wouldn't be the economy lift. It would just be their basic two inch, but yeah, immediately like driveline shutter. Right. what Yeah. Well, I, so even like the the, from what I've heard, like the folks at Subaru don't even, don't really know why it happens. um I mean, I'm sure it has to do with with the, you know, the angle of the axles and all that. um But cause like the gen five outback,

Speaker: Uh, and I think even like the four outbacks or gen four is basically just a lifted legacy. Um, like the suspension, everything is legacy. They just lift a little more. So by lifting it out back, you're stretching it even more, making everything even more unhappy.

Speaker: At some point I'll do a rear subframe drop. Haven't done that yet, but knock on wood. I haven't, uh, haven't had any, any issues in the rear yet. Um, you know, I've, I've blown through countless axles up front.

Speaker: Um, mainly because I get junkyard ones because yes, sir. oh Brand new OEM ones are like five, $600 a piece. And it's crazy. Junkyard I go to is $45. So yeah. All right. If it lasts six months.

Speaker: Okay. Whatever. It's a, yeah, it's a, it's a nice drive up there and it's, you I'm, I'm down to about 15 minutes to swap an axle out. I oh hey i can field strip the, you know, the front of my car pretty fast now.

Speaker: Yeah, the you know what I think, I could be totally wrong on this, but I think um when you do the rear subframe spacers, I think that actually changes the driveline angle even more.

Speaker: Yeah, and yeah ah there's spacers for that, that the carrier bearing spacers. Yeah, carrier bearing spacers, yeah. That's the real fix for it is running that. but Yeah. Subaru drivelines are not not that great yeah yeah I mean it's it's a knock again knocking wood I'm still on my original transmission you know know people talk a lot of crap on the CVTs but I haven't had now tomorrow it's gonna detonate on me but uh yeah I haven't had ah haven't had issues on it so are you running like a cooler or anything for your CVT

Speaker: Nope. Nope. Not, not yet. That's a, that's ah another on the list thing to do. Um, I mean, I'm not out every weekend as much as I would love to be out every weekend. Um, so I haven't had any overheating issues. Um, my, uh, my new head unit has, i think it has a, uh, a trans cooler like gauge on it or trans temp gauge on it. So okay I can monitor that. Um,

Speaker: know, we've been out on 95 plus degree days and I haven't really had any issues. So I don't I don't really tow with it at all. My wife, we have an Ascent now. So, you know, we've got a little twenty five hundred pound pop up camper that we tow with her car. Yeah. And I mean, you can't even feel it behind it. is the Ascent can tow up to five thousand pounds. I get twenty five hundred is nothing for that.

Speaker: um So, yeah, I haven't really experienced too much transmission overheating or issues like that. Uh, well, I did have, uh, my valve body, uh, took a crap on me. So for about three months I was driving a front wheel drive out back. Um, did you know it or no? Uh, so I was driving and I noticed like this is kind of like weird shutter. And then,

Speaker: Christmas tree again. um And again took it back to took it back to John and he read the codes. He goes, yeah, two of the solenoids in the ah in the valve body died.

Speaker: um He's like, now, luckily, those are two solenoids that I'm able to source. So two you can get two for some reason you can't. um And he's like, you know, we can swap them out. It's like 800 bucks for labor and all that because it's somewhat you know, intensive getting in there and swap. It's intricate when you get in there. It's I've seen the inside of those things. No desire to play with it. Exactly. um So I found a eBay store that sold refurbished OEM ah valve bodies for like 400 bucks. Oh, let's go. Oh, yeah. Order it up. I think he charged me like 100 bucks to swap it out or something. and yeah I dropped off a couple hours later. goes, all right, man, you're done. yeah when picked it up So I so there's two things I haven't done. Valve, but yeah valve body in the engine swap is

Speaker: I probably could have done the valve body, but I think he said he had to ah pull the AC lines and all that to get down in there. And I'm like, I'm not messing with anything. Yeah. don't have them stuff for that. Yeah. Anything with the CBT is a huge pain in the butt because there's a process for filling the filling it back up or, you know, changing the fluid. It's got to get to a certain temperature before you drain it. I don't even remember.

Speaker: the whole you know sequence of events that have to take place but that's another thing where um i don't know if you follow unpaved pnw that my buddy derrick yeah he roached uh transmission after he did a did like a fluid change on the cvt himself he was like okay i thought i did it right but i guess i didn't uh I was like two quarts low. Right. Oh, dude. Well, so lately there's been a rash of people going, I went to change my oil, my engine, but I ended up draining my trans fluid every time, dude. Like, I mean, i roll under, maybe it's just cause I have some, I mean, I'm, I'm YouTube certified. I didn't, I don't have any formal technical training, name dude, YouTube official certified mechanic right here. Um, but yeah, I rolled under Mike.

Speaker: All right. That's it that's the oil drain pan. That's there. That's the that's the oil pan. There's the drain plug. i yeah I don't know. maybe i Maybe I just have better knowledge of that or whatever. Now I got a Fumoto valve and it's freaking awesome.

Speaker: Dude, it is so nice. Well, you know, there I've actually. I've heard of shops doing that to people's cars. So it's a common thing. People either like drain, um they're trying to do the, the diff and they end up draining like the transmission or they're trying to do the oil and they drain the transmission and then overfill the oh the oil site right and then blow the transmission. So it's, it's actually a common. They'll blow both. Yeah. Yeah. well yeah The quick service places. Uh, won't, I won't name them. Uh, but, uh,

Speaker: Yeah, I've heard that that there's been issues with that. I'm like, yeah i don't know. It's pretty obvious where the engine is and where the transmission is. but You would think. You would think. You'd think. Hey, let me ask you. Sorry, I i just love chatting with with people about whatever, but ah I should have asked you earlier on, what do you have for mods on the car? Like specifically, like how much is it lifted?

Speaker: What tires and wheels are you running? Just kind of give people a heads up on what you got on the car. Sure. Uh, so I'm lifted two inches, uh, running a, I think the tough country, uh, spacer kit, just two inch, uh, two inch kit. Um, perfect that was, I think, so I did tires first. I started off with the Pirelli Scorpion, uh, AT plus tires.

Speaker: Oh yeah. Great starter tire for, if you're just getting into off-roading, um, you know, great on the road, great, great off-road, uh, not super, super gnarly tread. Um, So I got the tires lifted.

Speaker: um I'm now running the Milestar Patagonia. They do. They they're sick. They're so there's they're so good. um Yeah, I don't think I've ever ah I aired down once when I went onto a beach just because that's super soft sand. But anything else I've done, i have not had to air down. I purposely dug myself in to a ah ah hill in the sand and no X mode or anything. And the tires are just like, yeah, what is dry pavement? Just right through.

Speaker: um So yeah, the, uh, the Milestar tires, the tough country lift, um, running OEM wheels. Um, I like just, yeah, I spray painted them.

Speaker: Yeah. A gun metal gray. What's before I, um, bug you too much more, what, what's the size on the Patagonias that you're running? So I'm running so wider than OEM. So I'm running 245, 65, 17. Perfect. Yeah. OEM is our stock is 225, 65. I might be able to go up to like 245, 70. I think actually i have a buddy.

Speaker: He's down in Florida or the Gen 5 Outback. He's running 265, Dude, it's, there it's in, the it's so wild. Uh, I'm yeah, I think he had to, had take a grinder and a hammer to some of the body panels. Okay. I was going to ask.

Speaker: Yeah. But, uh, in your case with, so two 45 65 is like kind of my go-to when I'm recommending an aggressive tire size. Yeah. Um, I can't remember what those are in terms of diameter over stock, but how hard was it to fit that on the car?

Speaker: not Not at all. i'm not but There's no wheel spacers. ah You probably should still be lifted at least an inch to to fit them on, but you know me being up two inches, I don't have any rubbing.

Speaker: okay I originally put them on when I had my ViperCut bumper. A couple weeks ago, i went back to a full bumper. I'm probably going to throw the ViperCut one back on because...

Speaker: It snowed and immediately cracked the bumper, the the new one. Now it was $90 Chinese special. yeah of ah So dude, it's sketchy as hell. a Back alley the warehouse next to a prison. like I supported the Chinese mafia. Sick. They got they got 90 bucks of my money, but it's tight. But yeah, I haven't haven't had any rubbing or anything yet. So it definitely fills the the rear wheel arches like it's um I think I probably need some kind of adjusting trailer arms, adjustable trailer arms just to center the wheel in the wheel arch. But I may have like three quarters of an inch before the ah before the body. So it looks a lot better.

Speaker: Yeah, um like it definitely fills out fills it out. yeah and it brought me up a whole other inch like go you know those tires so i i'm at 12 inches to the rear diff right now heck yeah and that's that's the sweet spot man like that's the sweet spot with these cars is about 12 inches of clearance 11 to 12 at the rear diff yeah but those uh multi-link spacers the subframe spacers in the rear that'll pull your wheel right back into the center but if you don't need it man screw it Exactly. Well, I mean, I got to do a rear upper control arms and all that because the bushings basically are Swiss cheese at this point.

Speaker: i I got so much other work to do, but you're telling me but that's not fun. Those those aren't fun. You know, so we are going back to list mods. You know, the tires lift. Sorry. um I'm running King Springs on the back. rear Overload Springs. OK, because when I put my tire carrier on, i had a little bit of a Carolina squat.

Speaker: um no thanks uh no i'm not i'm not one of those guys uh we got a couple of them around here and i hate it so much same the only car mod that i don't respect yeah exactly um so that that was a fun process uh because i'd never done springs before and you know and when they're compressed you're holding a live grenade it's a little scary yeah i made sure not to look you know look down the barrel they always kept i kept it off to the side yeah um uh did them on another buddy's car i'm like hey man you want to hold a grenade he goes no i'm like god yeah that's smart um don't use the zip tie method i've seen people do that compress the springs don't do that no um so uh for a while i was running a road sign skid plate um for about three years it was stop sign ahead uh sign i really wanted to get a road may flood sign because i figured that was that was fitting um

Speaker: But ah my buddy Angelo is trying to sell his Outback and he had some primitive racing skids. So engine and trans skid and I got really cheap. Heck yeah. I got some real skid plates on there now. oh That's good stuff, man. Oh, yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. The got the Nash Fabco rear ladder. um That was probably my third mod that I did. I love it. It's my widow ladder. I love it. I use it so, ah so many times. Heck yeah.

Speaker: kind of ongoing joke in the area that any any car event that I'm at, I'm standing on the roof. I got have to. yeah Yeah. I'm like a human drone getting the pictures up there. It's it's not ah it's not an official event until I'm standing on the roof of my car. Do you have ah back issues at all?

Speaker: No, not. the Well, I mean, I'm 38. So, I mean, okay you know, everything hurts. So but not nothing more than usual. Well, you know, people hate on those ladders, but honestly, i broke my but fractured my spine as a kid and then later on did it again like a dummy. And, dude, I'll tell you what, man, if I was having to lift some heavy stuff onto the roof, I mean, I i try to lift weights and stay in shape. But, man, that that type of thing is a game changer, you know. Oh, it's awesome. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. And ah so I also had rubber straps, so I'd have a shovel and an axe on the back as well. um I took them off just because where I work in in Philadelphia. I'm like, ah I don't want to have an axe on the back of my car in, you know, in Philly. Yeah, um you might need it. But I mean, I might need it. But, you know, somebody it's it's easier for someone else to grab it if on the outside car. I was going to say, keep it on the inside at that point. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: um the spare tire carrier again custom made um i've got a eight foot awning on the roof because uh okay they i'm pretty close to delaware and cape penlopen is uh if you get your surf fishing permit you can drive on the beach oh um and i'm irish and german i'm probably burning right now under this light um but you know what most of my lineage is actually irish german and some scottish and yes yeah so you you know understand sunscreen is me being bald is not good i'm always wearing a hat same yeah so yeah so the open up the awning and it's all it's great um or you know when i'm camping or car shows or whatever especially in you know middle the middle summer when it's 100 degrees out open up the awning and i'm i'm sitting pretty um

Speaker: Snorkel. that That was a big one. um That was my little insurance policy after after flooding the engine. um Yeah, I'm happy I did the snorkel. It was a learning experience because I had a lot of leaks in the system, a lot of issues. So like, would I recommend doing a snorkel?

Speaker: Hmm. Maybe. You know, it's, it's, you know, if you just want to do it because you might go through a deep puddle, not worth it. Yeah. um I had more water issues and wet mass airflow sensors after putting the, ah the snorkel on. um But, and then every heavy rain, I'm paranoid that it's going to, you know, I'm going to flood the engine again. Yeah. But um yeah, it it sounds really good. yeah You know, you turn the snorkel head backwards and you get that induction sound. It yeah sounds real good. Yeah.

Speaker: Can I actually pause you on this stuff? And I want to pick your brain about the snorkel. Sure. Because what you just said is is what I usually tell people because – My opinion, if you need a snorkel to go through it, a Subaru probably shouldn't go through it because a low gear.

Speaker: Right. in In a Jeep, if you do get bogged down, low gear reverse, you're going to you're going to be fine. But in a Subaru, it's it's like we have to use our momentum. And if it's deep enough that you need to snorkel, there's a litany of other problems. Oh, yeah. I mean, your fuse box is not that high. If you've got the you know the higher end models with the Harman Kardon sound system, your amp is right under your driver's seat. So if you get water in, you're cooked. um Yeah, it's it's Subarus aren't meant to go through deep water. I think what the fording the official like fording depth is like 10 inches. I think it's it's not a whole lot. Um, that's my max.

Speaker: Like when people ask me, what do you, what would you go through? I tell people, I don't go anything that's above three quarters, but half to a three quarters up my wheel. Yeah. Anything more than that. I'll come back in the Jeep.

Speaker: Right. You know? Right. Yeah. It's, it's, it's just, it's not worth it. Yeah. Um, so like, Oh, I'd say maybe 1% of me regrets putting it on. um It's definitely a big talking point. I mean, I'll pull up to the gas station. Someone's like, what the hell is that on the side of your car?

Speaker: That's a snorkel. Why? I flooded my engine. Oh, okay. Yeah. um But, ah and again, that was ah another Amazon special, you know, $40. It's, I think it's for a first gen forerunner. Okay. um And just made it work.

Speaker: I want to ask you about, because you you already alluded to this, but i I tell people all the time, this is not just some easy plug and play thing that's going to magically salt. You can't still you can't just float the freaking car through a river now. right the You have to figure out how to adapt some random snorkel and then make it a completely sealed unit.

Speaker: Can you explain the process to people of what the risks are of trying to do this and what you're gonna have to overcome? Yeah. So, ah I mean, biggest thing is you're cutting holes in your car.

Speaker: um You know, it's not like a lift kit where if you don't like it, you can take it off. Even the ladder on the back, it's sticky taped on, but you can take that off. Like you're taking a three inch hole saw to your to your quarter panel. You're also drilling holes in the but the A pillar. A pillar. yeah Yeah. So like that part goes all the way back. your oh Your panel is not that hard to replace. But like, yeah, I mean, you're you're not replacing the A pillar. You got to weld that.

Speaker: And then you're spatter is going to shatter your windshield. yeah It's it's just like, yeah, that that's your you're not going back. um Yeah. So, you you got that getting the angle of everything. Yeah, just get it lining up properly and then trying to route the route the hose. um So like mine runs right over top of my wheel. Look, I haven't seen it at full flex mainly because I can't look out there while I'm driving. But it's got to be a quarter inch away. Oh, man. from I mean, it's close. It's right there. It's right there. um

Speaker: And the air filter I used came with this like plastic corrugated stretchy tube. Oh, yeah. Which I thought was fine. Yeah. I thought it was fine. Dryer tubing, basically. Yep. And it cracks really easily.

Speaker: And you'll get holes. And when you're driving in the rain, the water's just gonna come off the wheel straight in. Right in, yeah. Yeah. So I've got it wrapped in about five layers of flex seal tape. Perfect. And at some point I'm probably going just weld up a metal, a full, a fully metal one, but whatever it's seems to be working now. um And then I had to cut up my OEM airbox to, for the math sensor, cause the auto zone advanced over here don't, they, they have a universal um math, you know,

Speaker: mount not universal for subaru so yeah i'm gonna have to of yeah so i gotta figure out a way to make that work um because again right now the the way i had to cut the the the mount the pipe doesn't fit on there really well got like you can crank it down but you kind of have to have it wedged sideways and i've noticed like if it's been really cold for a while and then warms up It scoots over and then i I'll start accelerating. I'm like, it's it's accelerating weird. And I look and it's just because it's just straight to the math. you there there's Yeah, exactly. So again, I have that wrapped in some tape.

Speaker: um So it's it's definitely a ah it's a bit of a process. um Yeah, it's like said, I don't know if I'd recommend it. It looks cool.

Speaker: But i mean, if you want to do it just for show, knock yourself out. Whatever. It's just sta slapped on if it's just can be for show. but I'm all about having, you know, modifications that actually work.

Speaker: Um, so I did, uh, did the same snorkel on my buddy's cross track. Um, that was, that was a whole other thing. Cause obviously very different car, but there's not a lot of room where the quarter panel on the frame. So like it's a three inch rubber pipe that I had to squeeze down almost to inch and a half, like maybe two inches. So like, and I noticed that after we cut the hole, so it was like, well, we're figured we're making this work.

Speaker: Um, And I know he had some issues um and like got I was like, dude, I'm I'm sorry. I didn't know all these issues. I was still finding them out when I did it for yours. And Scott Kroll.

Speaker: Awesome dude. Check him out on Instagram. He's got. Yeah. I've heard of him. Yeah, I know. know who he is. Yeah. So I did that snorkel ah in my driveway. okay And I mean, he's he's super chill. He's super cool. He's like, dude, I I understand. He's like, I get it, man. It's you're you're no fault of yours at all. I wanted the snorkel.

Speaker: So um But yeah, it's it's ah it's a major modification, very custom to everything. i had a friend with a Outback Wilderness and she wanted to do a snorkel.

Speaker: And just with the turbo and the up pipes and all that, I looked in the engine bay. I'm like, I don't think it's possible. Yeah. It's going to be very difficult and the water's going straight into the turbo then so like if something happens yeah you're you're even more cooked um so i was like just just be smart she's like i'm going through like three feet of water i'm like don't don't you're in an outback don't you need a straight axle swapped forerunner yeah yeah exactly dana 60s yeah 42 like three feet of water are are you smoking crap right yeah exactly like i mean i get i dude i get nervous

Speaker: in you like five or six inch deep water at this point. Yeah. still still having some PTSD from, uh, from that. But, uh, yeah, i mean, you know, like I said, it looks cool. It sounds good. It's a great talking point. Um,

Speaker: you know, I probably wouldn't people do need it. Right. But I, you know, there's so many people that are just like, that's sick. That means I can go through the river. All right. Let's no, no, no, not exactly. bro exactly Yeah. So yeah, sorry for, uh, uh, taking us on a detour there. Oh, you're good. But yeah, I just wanted to touch on that. Cause it's, it's such a,

Speaker: I don't know. It seems like a polarizing thing when you go on the forums. You're like, no, that's stupid. Don't do it. Other people like, you have to. Right. Oh, there' there's one Facebook group I've since left, but like there's such prudes on there. Oh, yeah. Like I'll post something. You ruined your car. How can you do that? And then one person's like, dude, that's cool. And then everyone's why would you do it? Yeah.

Speaker: Okay, whatever. Like it's, guess what? Everybody's rigs different. All right. If you would want to drive yours to get milk every day, that's totally fine. yeah So I'm driving down a dirt road to get milk. um Exactly. Yeah. But, uh, so, uh, you know, we got the snorkel moving onto the hood. Uh, got spike performance hood louvers. Um, Jim over at that company is awesome. Highly recommend it. I've got a affiliate link in my Instagram bio. Yeah. Sick. Okay. So it doesn't cost you any more. get a little kickback from it and you get some really kick ass hood louvers from a small company. I'm all for it, man. Oh, share that. What's your, what's your code? Just tell people right now.

Speaker: Uh, you know, it's a whole link. Like you just click it. got yeah link okay Yeah. It's affiliate link. Um, but yeah, it like takes you right to the normal website. It's just a little bit kicks back to me. I love that. I'm huge on making sure people get, you know, cause you're wrecking their stuff, man. You should get paid. Yeah. Yeah. I've got a link tree in my bio and all that.

Speaker: Um, but that was my first not going back modification. that that that was the That was the angle grinder to the hood. Oh, you went angle grinder, bro. How else am I going to cut massive holes in my hood? Yeah, no Dremel at all.

Speaker: Just straight. I mean, the the holes are, i mean, these these are massive hood louvers. Oh, yeah, yeah. um it was the first It was his first run for the Outback. He was like, okay I have don't have them on Outback.

Speaker: Let me know how they work. Um, and yeah, man, it, now he sends, ah like a little vinyl template so you can put on. So you're not just like, not just full sending it. Um, and I stuck them on, I measured a thousand times because my, my normal thing is measure once, cut twice. Um, not doing, not doing that for a hood. I got, I was looking at the junkyards at junkyard hoods and they're like $600 and,

Speaker: I'm like, he i guess we'll just try this. And, you know, sent the pictures to a bunch of different people. Like, is this going to look cool? Like, I'm freaking terrified right now. And ah yeah, man, put them on. And I was like, all right. Oh, I cut the holes. I'm like, well.

Speaker: Those are some big holes in my hood. ah Hey, them let me ask you about this actually, because I know how this stuff goes. Anytime you do one of those, not like no going back, burn the ships mods. I always come up with like three or four things afterwards where I was like, I can't believe I didn't just do this or do it that way. um After you cut it, was there, were you thinking would have been easier if I had drilled holes in the corners first to get clean,

Speaker: corners or would would it have been easier if I had a Dremel to do the corners and then do the rest with the angle grinder? Any tips there? Um, not cause I just sent it. I mean, yeah, probably probably drilling if you like drilling a quarter inch hole at each corner to get, you know, cleaner cuts. Um, but I just went really, really, really slow. Um, and I'm pretty good with an angle grinder. Um, so Yeah, I just just going really slow, make making sure, you know, just measure ah measure a lot of times, yeah a bunch of times. I've got a buddy with forester. He picks them up, so he wants me to do those.

Speaker: um And I'm like, you just make sure you're sure you really want them. um I also added some window screen underneath them just to keep like oh cool snow or, you know, obviously when it's hot, it'll melt, but yeah. Um, snow leaves, other debris. Um, I added those after about a week of having it, uh, having them on, um, that being said, dude, I, I love them. I mean, I'd say probably maybe the first week or first couple days after I'm like, man, I, I, I hope I did. I hope I didn't just screw things up. Cause like the battery sits right underneath it. Um,

Speaker: And but I, you know, I had no issues. Now, everybody on that certain, know, prudish Facebook group, they said that's the reason I flooded my engine was the hood levers. And my intakes nowhere near them.

Speaker: Like, what ah yeah. they're Like, well, you cut holes and you let water in the engine bay. It's not a sealed system. but Yeah. Like there, there are a lot of plus. I had a stop sign as ah as a skid player. There's nothing underneath.

Speaker: yeah um So no, hood louvers are not going to cause you to flood your engine. Yeah. And if you're worried, yeah right? Yeah. One of the things I tell people to do for water mitigation, dielectric grease on all your connections, because yeah people will say the same thing. We're going to get your connections. Bitch, it's a car.

Speaker: Exactly. What do you think it's made for? It's made to go through the rain, dude. Yeah. Yeah. But if you're really worried, dielectric grease, you'll get a better connection anyways, and it'll be easier to pull the connectors apart down the road. but Exactly. Dielectric grease is your friend.

Speaker: yeah Exactly. Did you ah did you paint or you cut before you put everything in? ah So my hood's aluminum. Oh, that's right. Yeah. yeah So also, aluminum dust flying around. That was fun. um ah yeah Clogged up a couple of the couple of the grinding discs, but whatever. Yeah.

Speaker: But yeah, yeah just, ah you know, if you're going to do those, um you know, get like a moving mat or something and cover your engine bay because you don't want those little flakes getting into getting in your alternator, getting in your you know AC compressor, all that. Like you don't want those flakes getting anywhere.

Speaker: Yeah, absolutely. So and then there's that like heat. It's like that like fabric, you know, baffle or whatever that mat that's on the hood. I just took that out um completely because I'm like, I'm not I'm not going to worry about cutting, you know, trying to make that fit.

Speaker: Yeah. um But man, it's it's cool and going through a puddle or whatever, seeing the steam billow out. Even sitting at a stoplight, the heat waves just kind of yeah deep everything's wiggling around. My wife the other day is like, what what's going on on the front of your car? i was like, oh, that's the heat escaping the engine bay.

Speaker: Doing its job. Exactly. Exactly. um So yeah, i can't I can't talk highly enough about the spike performance delivers. Those are awesome. Well, you're making me want to buy two sets. I want to get a set for the Jeep and a set for the Forester. I think the other thing that's cool is even if you kind of cut a little janky, stuff like that always has ah an edge around the top. So even if you don't make it look great, like I probably wouldn't drill holes in the corners. Who gives a fudge? and right Yeah, they're they're hidden and they rivet yeah through. So like there's yeah maybe an inch or so around a border that where it rivets. So you can shift it around a little bit and and really and make it fit really well.

Speaker: But yeah, getting, getting the metal screen, getting, you know some of the window screen, that's, that was a ah clutch move. Okay. So good, good tip. Cause I probably am going to get us at least one set of those here yeah soon. I'll use your link. There you go. Thank you. Um, moving towards the front of the car. Uh, of my more recent wads was a, a Badlands, uh, 5,500 pound winch.

Speaker: ah Perfect. I was going to ask you about this. Yeah. I, uh, I put that on cause I mean, I don't, I rarely go out by myself. Um, but if I'm leading trips, I want to be able to I mean, my first trip out, uh, my buddy Jake, uh, he's got an orange cross track. I,

Speaker: He didn't listen to me. I told everybody to go to the side of the puddle and he Leroy Jenkins it right to the middle of the puddle. Um, and I winched him out. So, uh, luckily it wasn't deep enough to where, uh, it was going to flood anything. It was just really thick, goopy mud.

Speaker: Uh, then he got stuck in. So anywhere. Exactly. Yeah, exactly. Um, so, uh, yeah, winched him out. Uh, and honestly I use, I've used the winch more for playing tug of war with the kids at car shows. Um, then, then anything. So it keeps them occupied. ah yeah and then people are just like why the hell is there a winch on the front of an outback yeah um so that was another fully custom uh thing i uh mounted right to my bumper beam um so i know i think rally tech i think makes a replacement mount yeah he can't afford it yeah so it's uh i had some scrap metal laying around and again uh no impulse control on an angle grinder and uh

Speaker: You know, did yeah cut cut it, reinforced it, all that. And, uh, seems to be, seems to be working pretty good. I, you know cut the hole in the bumper. So it's, it's a hidden, you kind of a hidden look, which is nice.

Speaker: that nice little fair lead right there. Yeah. Yep. Um, and then I've got, uh, So I've got the and the the remote control on my Viper Cup bumper. I have a mount right on the outside. Yeah. but Right now I just have it. plug Yeah. Yeah. a Little plugs. Right now I just have it zip tied on the inside of the engine bay. But the wire is long enough that it can be there and I can sit inside the car.

Speaker: Sick. Yeah. I've got the same setup right now. Mine's just zip tied below the grill. Yeah. Yep. I mean, i figure as long as I can be nowhere, now nowhere in the site, a line site or whatever, uh, wire of the cable.

Speaker: you know, obviously you'll, you know, put, you jacket or, ah you know, weight or something on it, but you still want to be nowhere, know, nowhere in danger. Cause if that line snaps, They'll be like, go ship and just chop people in half. Can you, uh, yeah, dude, that's, that scene is crazy. oh yeah. Can you, can you school people real quick? Cause, cause again, I mean, this is common knowledge for us, but I'm finding more and more. There's people who will message me and be like, I had no idea about airing down tires or,

Speaker: whatever so we all start somewhere can you give people some quick tips when they are winching obviously it's going to be different with the synthetic rope versus you know cable winch um i mean i always leave the hood up if i gotta to be so in the car when i'm winching but what are some of the risks that you run into when you're winching and what are some steps i mean you already mentioned a couple but how do you go about in that process Yeah. So, um, you know, having some kind of weight, uh, they, they make specific winch, uh, you know, cable weights, uh, a thick leather jacket, something that you drape over the line. Cause if it snaps the, the way it's just going to drag it right to the ground, uh, or drop it down. Um, getting a soft shackle for where, where you hook up to the vehicle.

Speaker: Um, cause if you have a D link and that snaps, that's whipping back. And I mean, there's, there's some pretty horrific videos of, the The link going straight through the driver's windshield and sadly through the driver's head. The person who is trying to help who exactly weren't even the ones stuck and they're the ones that got nuked with a deal to the face. And I mean, yeah it's brutal.

Speaker: Oh, it's it's horrific. na I don't like those videos. Yeah. um ah you know, going to a ah ah proper recovery point. So the um like that little eyelet on the front bumper. Let them know, dude. That's not a, especially if you're doing a kinetic recovery, a kinetic rope. yeah Do not mount to that because it will rip the front of your car off and you're going to have a really bad day. um My car on the on the subframe has two two loops on either other side. I'm pretty sure most of the Subas have them.

Speaker: Yeah, that's where I pull from. yeah Yeah, that's that's that's honestly your best bet. That's super sturdy. um I mean, I guess it could be sharp. So if you do a D link and then the soft shackle or something, um but again, again, mounting don't mount to the axle. Don't wrap around that. Don't wrap around the spring. I've seen people do that. There are videos of people do that. Like I think there's a Jeep Cherokee where they're they're doing a kinetic and they rip the entire rear axle off. like just mount to something solid um yeah and then make sure everybody is away like 50 60 feet away um and you get to safety you like i said i sat inside my car you throw your hood up i had the door open like i i made sure i was i was safe um know i had somebody spotting me because obviously i couldn't see i can see a little through my my hood vents but uh

Speaker: know, just making sure that they pulled out, have them in neutral. You know, don't have them try to drive because yeah they all of a sudden get traction take off. They're going to could wrap the cable around something. yeah. so Perfect. Yeah. You got to set it up like you're getting into a gunfight. Exactly. I mean, there's I got, I have the synthetic rope. Um, but i mean, there is so much tension in that, that, uh, you know, it's yeah, it's like holding, it it's like holding you know, like I say with the, the King Springs and it's, it's a live grenade.

Speaker: So yeah, just be careful. Energy stored in that, yeah in those Springs and in that line. Yeah, I don't talk nearly enough about this because there's not a lot of Subaru owners that are set up with a winch yet.

Speaker: Right. So I figured it'd probably be good to pick your brain about that because, yeah. and And I like how you mentioned soft shackles. Yeah. I think every Subaru owner everywhere should have at least two soft shackles at all times, man. They are they don't mar anything or rip metal apart.

Speaker: Um, I always keep D rings as well. Cause sometimes you have to have one cause a soft shackle isn't going to easily fit through what you need it to, but yeah, good, good tips. Thanks for, uh, of course putting the knowledge on us.

Speaker: but Another recommendation having a ah strap, like a, I think with it was a tree. Yeah. Tree saber. Yeah. Please don't wrap the line around the tree. It's not good for the line and it's going to, it's going to kill the tree.

Speaker: yeah We drive Subarus. We like the environment. Like we don't, we don't want to ruin. We don't want to kill trees. Well, in the, the, the, like I said, I'm not the smartest person on the planet, but I mean the physics of it, you're just tightening that loop and not getting your pulling power.

Speaker: out of the winch line. You're just right. Tightening that choke hold on whatever the object is. Yes. Exactly. Save around it. They're like 40 bucks, dude. Right. Yeah. it's It's totally worth it. If you use it one time, you saved a tree. Have you ever like tree law? Like people who cut down other people's trees like the government doesn't mess around with trees. Yeah. ah Yeah. Not at all. Especially yeah here where I'm at. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: It's crazy. Oh yeah. Um, also if you recover, if you're doing a kinetic recovery or any, cut don't wrap around the toe ball. I've seen that few times. Please just drape it over the toe ball.

Speaker: Yeah. Or don't try to do a a kinetic recovery with a toe strap. I've seen that, du and it's I've seen some sketchy, sketchy recoveries. kid you and Can you explain like kinetic slash dynamic recoveries when you say that? What what do you mean by that?

Speaker: Sure. So a kinetic recovery is basically, imagine a rubber band. So the rubber band is stretchy. As you stretch it, it just increases the pulling power and can you know kind of yank the person out.

Speaker: comfortably, I guess. I mean, it's not going comfortable, but it's more comfortably, more comfortably. um Whereas, ah you a static recovery is that that cable, that strap is not going to stretch length. Yeah, that it's a fixed length. Um, so what with that, you want to pull forward until you get a little bit of tension and then you can start pulling. Um, one of our trips I had to feel, felt pretty good. Had to pull a lifted Jeep out of a puddle that I had gone through. Um, and then later in the day, pulled a forerunner out of a puddle that I had gone through. Uh, so, uh, needs a driver mod. Oh yeah. Uh, on, uh, off-road Roo's, uh, YouTube page. Um, I forgot ah forget what the video is, but, uh, we have video of that and all the comments are, we thought the Jeep and four runner were there for the recoveries. We didn't know they'd be getting stuck. Um, but yeah, I used, uh, I didn't, have i didn't have a kinetic rope because right now my, um, I have an eco hitch, uh,

Speaker: Okay. Toe hitch that just is mounted to the bumper beam bolts. So I'm going to modify it and weld some panels on to go in and mount to the frame. or Yeah. Mount to the unibody. So I'm a little little nervous to do kinetic recovery with that because, again, I don't want to rip the ass of my car off. um But the static recovery again, yeah i i pulled up, got you a little bit tension and gently pulled them out.

Speaker: So and yeah was tied off properly, not draped over a toe ball. Yes. Again, that turns into a bullet. Yeah, those are not made. They're made to hold force going down. they are not Shearing force is not their friend. They will come off and come again right through your windshield. yeah Yeah. Hopefully. Hopefully it doesn't kill somebody else. Then you got to live with that. I'd rather take it to the face instead. Exactly. Exactly. um so out As far as outside mods, i mean, unless so i unless we're done talking about...

Speaker: have your eye can I'm down for whatever. All right. PS, you got to just let me know when, when you're, uh, close to bedtime. Cause I can literally talk all day. I mean, I work third shift. So like, I'm normally like getting ready to go to work at this time, but, uh, my wife, there's, there's a series we've been watching and oh what was it so it's an an outlander.

Speaker: Oh, I've never seen it. Is it good? It's, it's good. It's, uh,

Speaker: time trial ah time travel historical fiction thats piece it's uh it's uh you about this lady who touches rocks and goes back in time to scotland and sick fun and hijinks ensue um and it's like back in like the 1600 1700 so like there's a little revolutionary war action now um and it's it's it's a really good show we're on season eight of it right now um And, uh, it's not kid friendly.

Speaker: If you don't like gore, there's there's a lot of gore. You see a lot of blood. Um, yes, but it's in trails. I'm not interested. interested Yeah, it's, uh, but it's, it's a really good show.

Speaker: Um, so yeah, there, there's new episode on tonight. So, i get keep that point um, You ever watch that show dark? Did you ever see that? No. That's literally what it's called. It's just dark. Okay. It's on Netflix.

Speaker: ah It's also like a time travel, like mind bender. Yeah. Definitely worth spending a few binge sessions on. Okay. I think it's only three seasons, but. Oh, perfect. Probably not as entertaining as what you're talking about. Cause it's not as violent. I don't think. Yeah. Yeah. It's like said, Outlander, it's, you know, my wife watched it and I'd just be sitting in bed scrolling TikTok or whatever. And then I'd look up you're like, huh?

Speaker: And then yeah next thing I know, I'm watching the whole, see the whole episode. And yeah So heck yeah. Yeah. I love watching good, good, uh, Netflix series or Hulu, whatever. Like, yeah, I didn't use to watch TV. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, well, i got three kids, so it's like bluey and, uh, captain underpants right now. And then we watch that and then we go up and watch someone, you know, take a cannonball to their stomach. So you got to watch some brave heart to wash the blues clues. off big sally Exactly. Yeah. ah Yeah.

Speaker: But, uh, yeah. So no, mean, I'm, I'm good for a little while longer. Okay. Sick. Okay. Sick. So, but yeah, as far as outside mods, uh, I do have a roof basket, um, that I've taken off. Um, just cause starting to rot out. I've gotten, my buddy has one that I'm probably gonna, I'm gonna but get off him. Um, it's not gonna lie. It's been kind of nice cause I can use my sunroof.

Speaker: Uh, I can, I can have it open and not be deafened. Uh, when it's on there, like 20 miles an hour and above unbearable. Yeah. Uh, that turbulence. Oh, it's so loud. But, uh, You know, I had ah I've got a couple sets of Diode Dynamics pods, the SS3s for fog lights. And then I've got a set that I had up on the roof um right now. They're just sitting on my workbench trying to figure out um I might make a little light bar that mounts um to where the winch plate is.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. yeah Like a little metal guide on the outside. Why not? Yeah, make a little light bar on top. I got some scrap steel and again, introduce the thoughts. At some point, i'm probably going to make a light bar for down there because I would don't like having the pods just sitting around. I want to use them.

Speaker: um And then I've got nylite 60 watt spot floodlights for ditch lights. And then I have all that controlled with the Nylite six panel or six. Yeah, the six gang. Heck yeah, dude. Those are game changing.

Speaker: So I've got. oh it's great. Actually, that's how i control my winch. That's ahs my on off for the winch there. It does also come with a kill switch. um But I figure the, I can just click it on and off that way.

Speaker: I don't have to worry about tapping into a key on hit and all that and yeah having it on all the time. So. um For a while, I had made steering knuck lights. So I had ah had the SS3s. Yeah, because I my sway bars just.

Speaker: What happened? Sorry, inspector. I don't know. so yeah I don't know. yeah Yeah. It's just something happened to them. Um, so I had a open eyelet on my strut and, know, I see Jeeps have them. I'm like, I can make something like that. So I got some angle iron and, uh, mounted them down low and it worked out.

Speaker: It worked out well. Um, you know, I needed some adjustments now that i have the full bumper. It's you can't see them. Um, but, uh, yeah I had flood lenses on. I think having spot lenses would be a lot better.

Speaker: um So I might revisit that at some point. But it was it was definitely, it was cool. cause yeah Active steering, steer lighting and all that. um And yeah, so that that was a cool little project. I was bored one day. I'm like, let's see if this works.

Speaker: um So I still have wiring run down there. So we'll see if I do something with it. um And then on the inside of the car, um For a while, I had a kind of eBay special Apple CarPlay unit, um but the audio quality was terrible. like super Not that Subarus have terrible audio quality, but I put this in and it, like, okay waiting room speakers sound better. um It was not good. So... ah My buddy had a had a Gen 5 Outback that he put a Kenwood DMX 7706S. OK. Yeah. So aftermarket CarPlay head unit, um he sold that car and it was just like, hey, man, you want this? head Yeah, absolutely. Yes, please. So ah threw that in and immediately the sound system sounded way better um because it was imp proper, know, I had proper EQ and all that. Um, and then last weekend I was like, I want some more low end. So I found a Rockville, uh, under seat subwoofer. I think it's a 10 inch, 800 watt subwoofer that fits. Dude, it it's, it's so nice. Fits right underneath the driver's seat.

Speaker: Um, so yeah, all I had to do was unbolt the driver's seat just so could fit it in there. Uh, pull a couple of body, you know, the trim panels to run the wiring and, um, the head unit has a, has subwoofer out, uh,

Speaker: you know ports. So then there's a little, little dial that you can, you know turn the sub up and down. So that dude it it sounds so good. My, my five-year-old here, listen to some, to like some, some sets from Tomorrowland. My five-year-old's like, I want to go. i'm like, yes, let's, let's do it I don't know if they allow five-year-olds at Tomorrowland, but let's, let's, let's go to Belgium. Why not do it Exactly. So, um yeah, it's it sounds so good. my My wife, again, my wife hates it, but yeah she doesn't drive the car. the

Speaker: Any of the stuff made by Subaru, even within the last decade, I feel like they're they didn't do a bad job with the stock speakers in the cars. They're not bad at all. No, no. I mean, yeah.

Speaker: No. And then dude, get the Harden card in sound system. So I, a couple of weeks ago I got to drive the new, uh, outback wilderness in 26. It dude, it was, Oh man, think it's nice. Like originally i was not a fan of the styling, seeing it in person. It looks way better. It looks way bigger in pictures. Like it's still about the size of, of, of my outback.

Speaker: Um, But yeah, had that Harman Kardon sound system. Oh man, it was nice. it's it's Dude, it sounds so good. So that that kind of what is what ah inspired me to start working on the inside of the car.

Speaker: um So i got the sub and I'm looking at replacing the door speakers with something. So I reached out to Kicker to see if they would be willing to partner up with me. reached out to places. so anda hey Hey, the answer is no if you don't ask.

Speaker: So, and again, doing everything on a budget, whether, you it's, you finding deals on Facebook or, know, making it myself. It's, uh, it's been fun doing, doing everything just, you know, on the, don't want to say on the cheap, but it's budget friendly as possible. Whatever fits into your budget. Yeah.

Speaker: Um, this is actually the only question that I pre prepared. Um, you already, uh, alluded to it. I did want to ask about the outback and get, so, I mean, first of all, it's crazy that they let you guys just take one.

Speaker: Um, tell me about the experience. Did they say, Hey, don't beat on this thing. Or did they say, Hey, you can have it for a day. Just don't tear it up. Or did they say here, take this for a week, beat the piss out of it and let us know what happens.

Speaker: Yeah, so we had it for a couple of days. um So we ran a um ran event that we partnered with so with Subaru. We do a lot of work with Subaru of America. I live 30 minutes from SOA headquarters, which is really cool. I think Camden yeah or something. yeah in Camden. um Okay. Yeah, it's awesome. I've been a Subaru ambassador for the past eight years, um and they're kind of changing the program now, but I'm i'm still going be affiliated and helping out and doing events with them.

Speaker: And they really like what Offroad Roos is doing. And um so we did a ride-along event. So we got a we got the Outback Wilderness and a Forester Hybrid. And then we've got some other events planned. Can't talk about them yet, but Keep an eye out on the Offerterers Facebook page the event page. um But yeah we yeah, we had two authorized drivers. um So we were on their their insurance, you know signed the paperwork and all that. So it was me and Rob.

Speaker: ah We're the only ones that were allowed to drive it, but we could give rides to everybody else. And ah they're like, yeah, just watch it when you bring it back. It had 13 miles on it when I picked it up.

Speaker: So I'm like you you guys have seen my Instagram, right? Like you, you, that's just P. Oh man. Right there, though Hasn't been touched. It was like, it literally came off the truck and then they handed me the keys.

Speaker: Um, but yeah, I mean, I am eternally grateful for, uh, for the crew over that, uh, at SOA for, for allowing us to do that. Um, i mean, it was really cool having, we had some awesome conversations with people, you know they were asking questions. They were, was just cool to see their reactions in person to,

Speaker: you know, there's completely different Outback that, that that came out. Um, but, uh, yeah, I picked up on Thursday, returned it on Monday and at like 10 o'clock and at noon it was on a truck out to Winterfest out in Colorado.

Speaker: Um, So, yeah, it was ah it was a quick turnaround for that. But, man, it was it was such a cool event. You know, we we couldn't go. It had been we'd gotten a lot of snow and it was kind of melting. So the trails weren't you know, we weren't able to go to certain sections that we wanted to.

Speaker: But, you know, we were able to hit some trails and the the new suspension that they have on there. They've got like like electronically controlled rear dampers and all that.

Speaker: Really? It's so smooth. I mean, i like. you know just that's what, that was the biggest thing that everybody said was how smooth it was because it going from the Forrester hybrid, which is still a great car, still, you know, still good off road, but that's more, that's more like kind of road, it's you know, oriented. going to be heavy. It's got that fat battery. Probably probably feels like a mess. It was, i mean it wasn't a bad car. I like the Outback better. Also just, I'm in general, I like the Outback styling and all that better than the Forrester.

Speaker: But yeah, man, go going, going to the Outback, it was, it was like a lazy boy. Cruising down the new and entertainment center, infotainment center and all that. Like they did away with that, like kind of like iPad looking screen. They put physical buttons back in the.

Speaker: Thank you, baby. Yes. Like there's obviously there is still, you know, touch screen stuff, but like all your HVAC controls are still are are back to physical buttons. Uh, yeah, it's, thank God. They probably just got sick of replacing the infotainment. Right. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. So like the Forester had that, had that, the, the other style and I'm like, okay it's all right.

Speaker: But yeah, the new one, it dude, it's, and then the dash, um, like the gauges on it, that's all digital. That that's an LCD, LED screen or LCD screen. Um, okay. So like you can, you know, you can do, I had ways on the data, like on the gauge cluster. So I get a speedometer and then ways, um,

Speaker: That's so better, so much better than looking down into the right. I love that. yeah Um, and they also have like a full screen. So like you can, um, you know, have like three quarters of screen, have your car play and then the, the like Subaru buttons, or you can go full screen.

Speaker: Um, so yeah, the, the, the new redesign of the infotainment center is, is awesome. Right. It's, and again, leather seats, the, the, the Harman Kardon sound system had a sunroof, uh,

Speaker: Did it? Yeah. Yeah. It did have a sunroof. Um, uh, another cool feature, the side view mirrors, there's a button to fold them in while, while you're driving. So if you're going down a narrow trail or whatever, you can fold the mirrors in without having to reach out. Um,

Speaker: And, you like when you put in reverse, they tilt down. Yeah, they do. What they what they did was that it's the multiple cameras. So, yeah, the most of them have the rear camera. They have the approach camera. They also have cameras on the sides, like on the mirrors. So you can get the 360 to give you the top. Yes. Yes, dude. You got the top view. You can zoom in on both the forward and rear cameras. You can have the side cameras going um like you almost you have to look at the road, but you almost don't have to. that's so i don't think legally we could say don't look at the road but uh like yeah there's there's so many more angles to that you can see and so much more visibility um and yeah it's then there's a ton of little easter eggs around like little design things around the car um like on the back they have like the the measurements so like the side side and so you don't because i can't tell how many times i'm like all right get in the dresser get the tape measure measure and everything

Speaker: No, they have it. They also have how many dogs? dad like It's like yeah really two and a half dogs fit back here or whatever. so there's, yeah. Yeah. I was, um but again, um' I talk to Patrick a lot.

Speaker: And they bought a new Outback. And I was asking him, you know, because he's you know he's trying to design parts for that gin. And I was like, okay, you got to give me the the rundown on this thing. Like, what do you think? Like, to me, it looks like... Because I don't like what they did with the front end. It looks like one of those Jeep Cherokees, the the new ugly ones.

Speaker: um I think it's going to grow on me just like every other Subaru has. So, I mean, I... My initial reaction, I always temper it a little bit. i'm like, I know I'll, I'll learn to love it. Yeah. But, ah yeah, he was saying a lot of the same stuff that you said.

Speaker: um he was like, dude, the interior is such an improvement over the, you know, the 22 Outback that they did have as a shop car. Maybe they still have it, but,

Speaker: Um, yeah you said like the infotainment center so much better. So the interior just feels fantastic. the The seats are so comfortable. Yeah. I think it's like an inch and a half taller on the inside. Is this still running the two, four DIT turbo engine on the, in the wilderness trim? Yep. Yeah. So i I think zero to 60 on it is like 5.5 seconds, which is faster than a WRX. Well, because it's got the CVT, man. Like CVTs, you have zero boost lag because it you you don't have to let off the throttle. So you don't have any. And there's a way to torque launch it. I'm not going to say because you're not supposed to. um But dude, it's it's fast.

Speaker: Like it's. yeah yeah i didn't push this one because again it had 13 miles on it i really didn't want to blow the engine but um yeah like my wife's car has the she's got the the two four as well the ascent yep a pound car dude it's fast like It's surprising how fast that massive car is and then putting it in an Outback, which is even lighter. um but Yeah. when When I think Rob was saying that it's yeah that faster than WRX, I'm like, that's dude, that's insane.

Speaker: Like it's an Outback. It is crazy. My car can't get of get out of its own way. Like i I was toying with the idea of doing an ascent swap, you know pulling pulling the full drivetrain, all that out. But it it would be, I'd need the gauge cluster. I'd need the infotainment center. i It would be.

Speaker: You'd need the whole car. It'd basically be an Ascent wearing an Outback jacket. Then I was told the idea of doing the 3.6 swap because my gen came with it. So it'd be a lot easier. Yeah. But I can't find anything with less than like 200,000 miles on it. And I'm not putting that motor with that much miles on. So I don't know. Easy thirty six s are so sick though. They sound so good. Well, I think Porsche helped develop it.

Speaker: oh did they so like it's it's a ball it doesn't shock me at yeah i mean john was saying he's he's got a buddy i think either turbo or twin turbo is pushing 500 horsepower on it

Speaker: dang yeah i mean it'd be kind of cool to have 500 horsepower outback but uh you know my um my like i mean i'm I'm busy as crap right now trying to pay a house off, trying to fund of retirement and, you know, stack up as much money as I can.

Speaker: But if I decided to Walter White it tomorrow or if I got rich some crazy way, I would 100% out and, to-morrow buy an outback wilderness slam it take it out to cob somebody and be like get me as much power out of this as we can yeah like well i would totally turn one into a street oh yeah so i think crawford i think they lowered one of the new outbacks ice it's the white one right it looks it looks good yes like i'm not a huge fan of lowered wagons at least no lowered outbacks i've seen a couple gen fours i'm like yeah it's all right

Speaker: Dude, it looks so good. It looks so good lower. dude but So I think the 2.4, I think you can you can tune it to like 350 horsepower with no extra parts. Which which is a lot. That's a lot. No bottom end work. I mean, it's maybe not going to be reliable, but... I think the transmission can handle it too. the The newer upgraded trans. So, I mean, again, if you're launching it all the time, sure, it's going to detonate on you. But... um Yeah. Yeah, i mean, it's it's still pretty cool to know. You can just...

Speaker: you know, do a little computer magic and little yeah. yeah boom people And boom, you're, you're 300 plus horsepower. And, uh, yeah. Well, the, the thing about the, um, I don't know what the final drive is in the WRX is, but it doesn't shock me at all to hear that the wilderness edition probably has a better zero to 60 because it's geared way. Yeah. Like, you know, it has a much better gear ratio for 44, something like that. don't know. I don't know. I don't know. more soft like that But yeah, Yeah, I know in the WRXs, there they're kind of a middle-of-the-road gear ratio to where, yeah, you get acceleration, but you're also not running 4,000 RPMs on the highway. Right, right. Well, and then if you, so if you X-Mode it, it it drops even more. like It's not ah like an official crawler gear, but X-Mode will drop the gearing a little bit more. Honestly, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, I'll throw it on X-Mode because it's not as jerky. You have a little little more pedal control. Yeah.

Speaker: And, uh, yeah. And then it's, it's wild. Like if you're just accelerating normal, you turn X mode off and you can feel it change and you can feel the gearing go back to normal road gearing.

Speaker: I'll say again, I'm saying gearing rubber banding, uh, know, yeah, yeah, yeah. We're not talking about the actual rate, right. Right. But it's, yeah, it's the gear ratio, I guess. Um, yeah. So yeah, it's, it's pretty cool what the, you know, what it does. Yeah, I saw some of those photos of that car. You'll have to send me some more of the 26. Or it 26, right? 26 out back?

Speaker: I think so. Are they already doing 27? I hope not. It's it's the Gen 7. Yes, okay, there we Yeah, but um dude it's yeah the the only thing I wish... It came with gnarlier tires. Like yeah the the tires are there still Yoko's alter.

Speaker: No, they're something else. It's a little bit less aggressive. OK, I don't know if they went that for fuel mileage, um but I mean, that's that's the only thing. But also, yeah know, I'm running a super gnarly tire. Like, you know, I'd say the majority people buying it aren't going doing nearly as yeah much as what I'm doing with that completely stock. That being said, it could do it.

Speaker: But it can climb some of these, you super steep things that we're doing with these, with the OEM tires. Okay. Yeah. i'm Now I'm curious. I've, there's a dealership here in town. I should just go over there in a hoodie with shades looking like the Unabomber and but start looking through, see what they got on them Yeah, dude. It's, it's, it looks so much better in person. Yeah.

Speaker: So, and I'm, I had the same sentiment to how long you've been into Subarus. Uh, I mean, know, I, I watched Colin McCray race. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Speaker: yeah In the nineties and the early two, the nineties and yeah. Gran Turismo, Forza. I'd always get the sti Um, I think I got my first outback eight or nine years ago. Okay. So, okay. Yeah. I've, and this is our, we have, we had five now to four, two FX, a legacy and a ascent. Okay.

Speaker: So, well, i remember, um, after the, blah by like the GD WRX and STI chassis. Uh, you know, then, know, they had the Hawkeye was the same chassis, just a facelift.

Speaker: Uh, but then when the, um, those, what is it? Oh, nine to 14. The, when they introduced the hatch in the States, um, I remember a bunch of people being like, these are the ugly, this is not a Subaru. This is the ugliest Subaru they could have ever made. What did they do to the STI? And now it's like the most desirable STI ah yeah is an, is a 14 hatch. you know so it's exactly yeah it's one of those things where it's like i know that in stock form not a big fan of the vb chassis wrx even but mm-hmm

Speaker: couple thousand dollars of some tasteful mods completely different car oh my buddy uh it's scooby blue he's uh he runs he runs a car club called elite speed tour it's they do a lot of charity work they are awesome um but he's got a vb and uh for a while he had the like the undermount wing like they kind of go up and like mount under like oh yeah that go up and down and and mount underneath um he's wrapped it black he's got uh he replaced the hood vent with or the the hood scoop with um just like an open vent, like mesh vent. You know, a couple of braces. They're painted like high-vis yellow. Like, dude, this thing, look it looks so good. Yeah. It looks fantastic. Yeah. No Subarus look great off the showroom floor. So i I always try to approach it with that of, you know, hey, the moment I see one of these, with bigger tires, new wheels, and some basic modifications, maybe a lift. I know I'm going to look at this car completely different. It sounds like that's the case because I've seen them around yeah town and I don't mind them in person, but they look pretty good. Yeah. Dude, even a roof basket. Like there's a couple of cross tracks around here, bone stock, they throw a roof basket on the top. I'm like, hey. Totally different car. All right. Hey, all right.

Speaker: i I know I should be spending money on rear shocks and control arms and bill lower, you know, front lower control arms and ball joints. But those aren't fun. Like, yes, it'll keep me safe going down the highway because everything squeaks and rattles and pops. yeah But, ah you know, speakers sound a lot better.

Speaker: but Yeah, I agree. It's it's so hard to do maintenance items because you're like this doesn't make my car any faster, any more capable. This is dumb. Exactly. Exactly. exactly Hey, let me ask you this. So we we talked about the, and and I'll, and I won't keep you too much longer, but we talked about the crazy situation with the hydro lock.

Speaker: Yeah. What other kind of crazy trail stories do you have? What other wild stuff has happened? So we were doing a cleanup in the, i think it's Turkey Swamp, uh, wildlife maintenance or wildlife management area. Okay. And, um, we came up to this spot that had, I mean, the trail was at least 45 degrees and everybody's looking at it. Like, I don't know, should we go down it? Maybe yes, no. ah And I was just like,

Speaker: Let's give it a shot. Why not? So entering it, I should have gone straight down it, but entering, I came off to a side, off on the side. I didn't roll. Um, I, I saw the ground. Like I didn't see Scott. Do you have a rear facing photo of this on your IG? is this something else? Uh,

Speaker: No, i have. So there's a reel from me going up that that got like over 15 million views. Like it went. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It went insane. so um So, yeah, I don't have a video of me going or picture me going in, but ah it took three or four attempts to get up it i because I would I went to conservative way. Yeah. Yeah. Get up and just.

Speaker: CVT just it doesn't rock crawl. it did Yeah, not at all. Subaru is off road by going fast or, you know, with some kind of momentum. So, uh, Yeah, my buddy Rob, a different Rob. This is crazy. Yeah. What the fudge? Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. Dude, it exploded. I went from like 500 followers to 7,000 in like a day and a half. Every time I went on, it was like another thousand views. Another thousand views. Another million views. Another million. i'm like, what is going on right now? That's so sick.

Speaker: So, yeah, you see Rob running up yeah away from it um because he did ah did not expect me to go full send. And I'm like, I'm not getting stuck down here. It was before I had a winch. and I'm like, this is my daily driver. I can't leave this year. And um it's much easier to keep going than it is to go back.

Speaker: Like, oh, yeah. royal and It's terrifying. Dude, I backed down that thing three times. It's it's terrifying. Scary. Sketchy AF. Yeah. So yeah I was the first one that everybody else tried it. And then, know, one of my buddies had a his insane build, a Gen 4 build. And um he was going up and his driver's side wheel wanted to go straight. His passenger side wheel wanted to see what was going on over to the right and just went to tie rod action.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. the ah the The just everything detonated. So, yeah, i mean, that I'd say that was probably that was another gnarly situation um just because it was so steep. I had to go full send and yeah had a had a real go incredibly viral. I love it. Let me ask you. I got two more questions here. right. Anything you would do different modding the car?

Speaker: Uh, probably not do the snorkel. Um, you know, like i said, it looks cool. It sounds good. Um, now that it's figured out, I'm okay with it, but it took several months of a lot of issues.

Speaker: Um, figuring that out. Then, know, everything else I've been, I've been pretty happy with, uh, you know, all my, every mod has been for a reason.

Speaker: I haven't done anything that was just like, I just want to do this because yeah everybody else did it. like You know. Do I need the hood louvers? Probably not, but I know they let a lot of heat out, let a lot of steam out when I'm in bottles. um You know, they they work really well at the ladder.

Speaker: you lot of utility in the back, the full size spare and having this, the tire carrier has been, I had luckily haven't had to use it yet, but, um, you know, every time I do an oil change, I rotate all five of them through. So they're all wearing evenly.

Speaker: Um, I got a fire extinguisher on the back cause I was dropping my kid off at school one morning and walking back to my car with my buddy. I see smoke billowing out of my hood and I'm like, Oh, cool. My car's on fire. Awesome.

Speaker: Uh, it was just a bunch of pine needles stuffed up next to the cat. Okay. then He had some coffee and he dumped down. I'm like, dude, I got, I'll get you some coffee tomorrow. ah So I put a fire extinguisher on after that.

Speaker: um Yeah. I mean, there's there's there's nothing else that I would, ah I'm like, I shouldn't have done that. So. Cool. I love it. yeah um The other question I had for you, because my whole goal is just to help people.

Speaker: and give people information ahead of time so they don't have to make all the bad decisions I did. Um, I screw up so you don't have to. Exactly. Just like an older sibling, you get to see me get in trouble so you don't have to. Yep. Uh, this kind of a multi-prong question, but I'm kind of curious about, uh, you know, obviously Subaru is not the best with like steep terrain. Mm-hmm.

Speaker: But are there, if let's say somebody just bought a Subaru or is thinking about buying one because they want an off-road, like they want a Wheeler, can you kind of give some some guidance? yeah My opinion is that these cars are really good driving.

Speaker: off-roading as a means to an end, like if you're trying to go fishing or hiking or whatever in an area that requires a little bit of off-roading, that's where they kind of shine. um But can you maybe give some guidance on what the realistic expectations would be if you're going to get into this and do this stuff?

Speaker: Yeah. i mean, if you're going to be pushing, um, you definitely want full skid plates. Um, yeah, because that transmission sits right, right at the bottom. You don't want to rock ra over right there. Exactly. Um, full skids. I mean, it's again, you're not rock crawling. Uh, there's a couple places like AOAA, anthracite, uh, something outdoor area up here. It's, you know your Jeep would love it.

Speaker: It's a lot of hardcore rock crawling. They have more ah greens and blue trails, uh, you're really going to be doing much more than a, than a blue trail. Um, unless you trailer it there, uh, there is some guy, there's a dude on Instagram who, I mean, he solid axle swapped to Forrester. That's my homie, Jake, JG42. All right. Yeah. Dana's 60s under the SG. Yeah. So you can do that. All right. i But is is is he still rocking the ah he's still rocking the flat four on that, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's still it it has a Chevy transmission that he created a custom adapter plate for. OK, I think it's a Chevy transmission. But yeah, he's running Dana 60s, but it's all for naturally aspirated for banger.

Speaker: That's awesome. So, I mean, yeah, if if you want a rock crawl, Subaru is probably not your thing. um If you want to do some like lighter trails, you know over like they're great for overlanding. um Like rob my buddies, you know Rob, Nick,

Speaker: nick Will, they they did a um ah trip. They do it pretty much every summer, but there's a trip for the National Parks Foundation and they went out to Moab.

Speaker: They went to Colorado down through Texas. Like they it was like a 7000 mile oh road trip. I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. they They hit the the salt flats. um Like, you know, they're like, servers can do Moab. they yeah they They can do some of these, these you know, bigger areas. um But yeah, you're not gonna be rock crawling. You're not gonna be, you you need a little bit of momentum if you're going up anything super steep.

Speaker: Yeah. So just be smart about it. Have a spotter, you know, know your line because you don't want to yeah slam into a tree at 30 miles an hour yeah on a trail. Dude, thanks for the heads up because, you know, I fell into that same because I didn't know anything when I first started doing this. I just thought the more you lift a car and the bigger tires you put on it, it's basically the same as a K5 Blazer, right?

Speaker: Not at all. you don't have a low. The computer's going to shut that trans down. Yeah. Yeah. I had no idea what four low was. I didn't understand that a T case is the ultimate game changer when it comes to low speed. Because I mean, yeah you can get anything over a boulder. it just depends on how much you care about the car. Exactly. Yeah. Anything can off road as long as you don't care about it. Exactly. Yeah, being able to utilize low speed torque, absolute game changer. So yeah, as long as you're not doing anything where you're going to have, you know, a situation where you got to use momentum to get through something that's going to damage the car.

Speaker: Yeah, with Subaru, you'll be good. Yeah. I mean, like X mode does wonders for, you know, for slower speed. I don't have torque lockers yet. I don't know if I need them. because I don't do stuff like what Milton and Carrie and all those guys are doing.

Speaker: Yeah, they're going to need torque lockers. um I would love to. I just don't have the time. And there's there's not really anything close by because right now i either have to find child care if I'm going out for a day. Or I'm bringing all three of the kids with me and I'm changing videos while feeding them snacks while leading 20 people down a trail and trying not to roll my car. Yeah.

Speaker: So I'm i'm not going to be rock crawling while trying to do all that. Yeah. um But that being said, there there are cars that come out completely bone stock and they're doing they're keeping right up with me.

Speaker: like it's It's pretty amazing what these cars can do and how far they can go just bone stock. It's crazy, isn't it? Throw tires, a little lift, and skids on. Dude, it's i mean it's it's unbelievable.

Speaker: Yeah, that's that's kind of the saying around here is, ah no, they're not the same as a Rubicon on 37s, but they will shock the balls off you.

Speaker: Like yeah what they can do is unexpected. oh yeah. And that forerunner that's in four low all day, the Outback going to pass them going to the same campsite. Exactly. Unless it gets real steep, then you might turn around. But yeah. Yeah, but I mean, there's, I mean, three wheeling, I, you know, there, i have a couple of videos where, you know, I'm, passenger side rear wheels, four or five feet off the ground.

Speaker: Like, you know, I'm looking, my head's basically touching the dirt and it just dooooo scoots right through. And like, it's, it's pretty wild what these things can do. Yeah. Yeah. It's a little mind boggling. Oh yeah. Anything that I missed, anything that's popped into your head that we should cover?

Speaker: I mean, I'm sure there is. I could talk for another couple hours, but ah yeah the wife came down and gave me that look. yeah like so you know I'm sure you saw me look off the side like, oh, I'm in trouble. um yeah No, I love her. she she She lets me do so much. She's yeah she's fantastic. so That's the key to life, man, finding the right way one, dude.

Speaker: Oh, yeah. she's she's she's She's a saint for marriage. She gets a really good tax break being married to me. Hey, let's go. ah Dude, can you remind everybody again where they can find you online?

Speaker: Yeah. So Instagram is probably the best way at little Ruby Subie, TikTok at little, little Ruby Subie and Offroad Roos on the Offroad Roos community, the the public page and the group.

Speaker: um I'm on the admins there. So feel free to shoot a message, reach out to me. And I love helping people build their rigs and answer questions and all that. Cool. And then one more time, is there any affiliate affiliate stuff or discount codes that I can help you get paid with?

Speaker: Um, yeah. Uh, so it's, it's on my Instagram bio. I have a link tree. So there's, I've got a, Hey trip. I had you have a couple of their, their tailgate tent, um, some of their stuff. got phil it Yeah. It's great. It's great. Uh, I got an affiliate link for them. Oxido, uh, their lights. Uh, I got a link for that spiked performance.

Speaker: Um, there might be a couple more. They can find them. But yeah, it's, it's all right there in the link tree. Cool. And I've also have a link to the snorkel and basically all my mods, every, all the mods I have, I have links right to the, ah to the page. Okay. Right on. Well, yeah. i just always like to make sure that I give everybody a chance to get some bread. Yeah. Yeah. Well, dude, thanks for doing this, man. This was a ton of fun.

Speaker: Yeah, of course, man. This was great. Yeah. Good to, good to meet you put a face to the name. You brought the beard game to make up for what I don't have going on over the, near the chin. Yeah. I spared you from seeing uncle faster. I, I, I kept it.

Speaker: I love it, man.