Outback '01 2.5 4eat VDC project

So couple years ago i bought myself my first subaru ever and after long time thinking took outback against forester. Didint had budget for newer one so went for some 2nd gen that i found

Top original, lower 2"" lift with BFG TA KO2 215/65 R16
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It was 2001 subaru outback 2.5 4eat eith rear LSD and early VDC package. All weather with heated seats, windows, climate control.
It has rear self leveling shocks still ok condition so i left them just put 2" spacer on top. Not sure is it made car harder and less comfy but it can take load very well. But its not soft car to drive fast on bad roads
Then i cut front bumper and put steel skid plate just for engine. Diy it myself from steel sheet from scrapyard
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or just some boards under and trees there is lots fallen small trees arround i was cuting then into small peaces and putting them allready some on other side.
but i dont have hi lift. buy it. i could but cant find close. order and wait i cant because car stuck and i need it out.
borrow. maybe if i find someone who have one in first place and lives in my small city.
to borrow would be best thing really. i would test it if its works and see if i need one and if i like it.
yes air bags jacks are cool would like to have one of those. not so cool if you don't have space where to put it safely.
at least in middle car its just sits there and all mud there is frozen by now. and i dont think i wanna dig that mud from under car because at least for now car supported on that mud in middle. if i start dig it car no longer sits on it and it might just sink even more to one side. to lift now that side from front would be good thing if i could do it. i have just space from front or rear. i have some space under rear diff . maybe small lifter could fit there. so rear diff could lift some. but front car must be first because its in worst situation. if i lift rear then front sinks even more. car facing front down hill. so all weight is on front. so when i tried to pull it backwards cars didin't moved and strap snaped .
boards as those should work.
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maybe first put some peaces of trees under to get sink them in mud then board on top. i allready put there some tree peaces . just not enough they just sink down. well if it cant stand there myself my boots sinks so you can imagine how bad its there. plus temperature is like -5 celcious and water on top of that mud too. cant lean on it , cant do nothing or you will be just all wet and cold.

its so good to have axe in car all times and folded shovel at least. but for that mud folded shovel wont do . will bring full size shovels tomorrow.
now all i need is hi lift. then cut plenty of trees into peaces sink them and bring some boards. problem will be if i cant find hi lift tomorrow.
 
don't stress mate i did the same thing...... in my own front yard lol
any farm houses near by?
try find farm and maybe ask owner if he has a tractor ,
offer to pay him with money or beer to pull you out
maybe quicker than trying to find a hi lift

good luck mate

1WD
 
i wish theres no tractors or farms around.
i dont know anyone near with lifted 4wd. any city 4wd wouldnt even go there. i know. :)
il show how im thinking i could use hi lift on my cars front. without any metal bull bar just simple way ...
i tried that spot on other side and my small bottle jack lifted front and wheel from ground just on that spot. so im thinking i could use hi lift there too and lift much much much more and get car from mud.
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why im stressing is : its freezin cold. and hard to work there. and then one side is wet mud in freezin temp. imagine how pleasant is that when your feet sink in wet mud in freezind temperatures. sure in summer i would just enjoy mud all over there. haha.

about pulling out. well my fresh bought come along coudn't even move car and strap snapped. so means car just dont wanna move at all. its sits in middle on exhaust and on floor. its just sits on it with all weight. pulling car harder might just brake something. and first thing exhaust will go i think. and with that could come more problems. because im not draging car on some soft ground or mud i'm dragging my car now on hard as rock mud.
so yh that adds stress too. car is in middle forest. just sits there. i cant just walk there because too far so i must ask uncle to drove me there. but i must have there all stuff that i would need right away.
right now i have just original subaru lifter and some small mitsubishi bottle jack stuff. its lift car from ground but not enough to lift it from mud
ill try to sleep now some and think of where i could get hi lift tomorrow because i still dont know.
 
What about an air/exhaust jack? We call them "bull bags" here.

This would at least break the suction seal between the mud and the floor pan.

Good luck!
 
^ yeah, I already suggested that in my last post :iconwink:
 
Air jack here is still new thing and they cost like 3 times as hi lift. They cheap in alibaba but not here .
I allready got car out. With much digging and lots time liftinf car then repeating until i could put trees under wheels. Hi lift in that situation could lift car in one go maybe. And i did maybe 15 times liftinf then suportinf then lifting again and so on. I brought teo uncles with me and one fwd car which could pull me some forward. Because ground was frozen almost so normal car could go there now too. But mostly it was free from digging and lots lots lifting with just small bottle jack.
Exaust broke in two places and because exaust was packed to body in rear it was smashed to rear diff cv rubber and it broked.
So i think its just one damage there because we pulled car on its belly. If we could not pull just lift car it would be without damage at all.
So i welded exaust tubes and its again good to go. Mud was all over so i washed car with high presure and its going ok again.
 
Next time maybe you can just call local Subaru/Forester/4x4 club and get help right away?.. Or I'm missing something?
 
local as in other city .. ? yh we have those. but to call to get help... thats not how its works here i duno maybe other places people more friendly and helpfull there but not here. still local would be in other city and noone will drive from another city to some place they never been don't know how to find and such. plus i dont know those people o just talked couple times in forum maybe.
next time i will carry at least come along maybe and later could be even hi lift and i can do it myself. i like more to do stuff alone and drive alone here anyways. i never yet drove with any of those local as of country subaru club guys. they pretty boring i think. and i just drive when i want where i want.

it was all fun there until i made mistake myself. and it doesnt look bad.. this car can drive fine in mud or anything untill it have traction with ground, but when any car no matter how tuff 4wd looses traction wheels with ground its just sits there and does nothing. if that ground that its sits is hard you cant do nothing
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cvyehHf8w&t=1s"]Subaru outback offroad mud - YouTube[/ame]
my mistake with pulling out car was trying do that myself too much and then trying to pull with another car while car was still sitting on hard ground and exhaust was just pushing against driveshaft with that exaust was pushing against one side of rear diff cv rubber and snapped that too. so that was not best idea.

and i got out not by other car pulling me out but by lifting my car and putting trees under wheels and repeating that over and over until car was lifted to point when wheels actually got some traction . and at that point i could just dive off myself too. i got little pull with other car but not so much as factor it was.
pulling out car on just mud , soft , wet no matter is another things. you dont have hard surface under car so yu wont damage car . this was as car sits on concrete and one side car is in deep mud but center car still sits on concrete . would you pull out car by force ? dont think so. so i snapped exhaust pipe in 2 places because of that .
another lesson learned : lowest part of car is exhaust . and its bad .i will try to change it somehow so it would go more in that tunel where driveshaft is maybe. or put some protection for it then.
one thing could do all job i was doing there today would be hi lift. i would lift car so much faster maybe in one try even and then even pull car with it if needed.
instead i had come along which didint helped without lifting car still. so still some higher jack is needed with some along at least. or normal jack but lots of stuff to put under it and different size. thats how i did it. and noone would carry bunch of wood cubes in car with jack all times.

thats how i lift it up from mud. that driver side was all in mud until door. it doesnt look much in picture but it was trap made by underground water or something. you cant see it from top and you feel it just when you enter it . and then you done.
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and thats exaust that i welded back.

so i was using my existing bottle jack to lift car but that took multiple times over and over and lots of wood boards, blocks and stuff
that yellow is bottle jack and that exact point that i lift all front of car actually. strong enough even now so if make it even stronger would be good point to lift front
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so on same spot could go hi lift alone. no block needed no nothing just some board stuff under it if its sinks down. but one strong board i could carry in car. instead of like 5-7 small ones for that bottle jack.
 
Well done Scalman!
I was about to suggest that if there were any decent sized solid trees/branches around that you could use some to lever the car out.
Old school recovery/Bushman - you'd be amazed at what you can do with some good rope and decent timber, we were using them for centuries to move heavy stuff :)
 
yh simple method that works most times . lift car and put trees under wheels and repeat many times until car got out and have traction. that way you minimize damage to car . i tried to pull first and then dig and lift and exhaust was gone. but later was easy to weld back. was nice sound too. exhaust ripped off just after catalyst. imagine how it sounds after catalyst ...wow loud and cool.
see if i would had full front bumper i would need to dig so much more to free side of car and then put there many many wood to make some ground for jack to lift car and then repeat that many times. but do it from front is much simplier if that front is not on soft mud . mine was on it at first so i had lots problems there but later i got on harder mud as it was -5 celcious outside.
funny thing is i was driving that place multiple times and it was so easy so i made it harder and got into trap. nature is scary sometimes haha. but natures gave me there lots of fallen trees that i cut them into small peaces to put them under wheels and under jack even.
about exhaust hanging low. i saw someone somewhere lift it some more so it was almost same level as bottom of car. i think it need custom tubes then and it could be lifted some more into that tunel where driveshaft sits and make it more offroad capable. or make skid plate or something for it. not sure. wouldn't wanna losse ground clearance from that tho
but then if that exhaust will rattle and touch car bottom thats problem again. tho its not so hot there anymore after catalyst. so no prob of heat from it i guess
 
Glad to hear that you have all four wheels back on solid ground, Scalman.

Well done.
 
after proper washing car night some night driving again testing 48w LED's

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from side new reverse light and front 48w LED and low beam
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those leds maybe loosing some of its power on ground just in front car. still they doing good job. maybe on bumper they wouldnt light so much ground, but in all distance wouldn't be bigger too. and my leds bended flat when i got stuck in mud, as i thought. good thing they have space there to fold flat so they not braking. they would brake maybe if go backwards

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allways thought that oem car floor mats for driver are too small as they not cover left side where you keeping your muddy shoes, right side is getting allways dirty as well but thet left side is just allways in mud or stuff. so i decided to buy home mats, not for cars. and i found this 45x75 size one ... could be some wider on sides but its covering that worse spot on left so now you can keep there your dirty shoes no prob.
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could be wider like 55 or even 60 maybe would cover then all that bad area where you keeping your shoes. but its enough too. and its just some 3 euros. im changed this allready for new one yesterday.

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Nice looking trail
 
yes just its short and not so much demanding. well untill you get stuck on it haha. no really now its frozen so nothing serious but looks nice. i went on that in summer on wet mud and was ok too no prob.if you stay on tracks youll be ok. but where is fun to always follow tracks :) someones must make new ones too

thats how it went there in most fun part
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3cvyehHf8w&t=5s"]Subaru outback offroad mud - YouTube[/ame]
other parts is more simple just some ups and down and places where you could lift 1 or 2 wheels.
 
thats all that track i made video earlier
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_cf8Cn7LH8&t=103s"]Subaru Outback mud offroad - YouTube[/ame]
same place with some snow
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk3O-_9I1C0&t=36s"]Subaru Outback '01 forest track offroad - YouTube[/ame]
 
so here it is . thing that not so much do for their subarus. Hi lift jack. bought 48'' model.
was little too long to fit in trunk so i cut some of it and if fits now perfectly as i wanted . it wouldn't move even if i left it just as it sits there.
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made add on from tube and secured it with 2 bolts so it wont move or slide. later will think of something to make that tube more grip not just flat surface as it is now. but car holds as that too. wont move or slide or anything as from normal jack. its very stable when you lift it .
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its not scratching door or pushing to it. its just touching that protective plastic cover on doors and that it . works very good with that 200mm tube add on now its reaches all places on sides car to lift it .
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not just sides. i can lift from front too its even more easy to lift that then on sides.
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That square tube is a good idea, perhaps fix a piece of tire (with rivets) on it to protect the chassis.
 
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