Is a lift kit worth the trouble?

I would like to have more ground clearance in my SH Forester as some of the tracks I have been on have deep wheel ruts that you can't get out of. I researched lift kits, looked at a few SHs with 50mm kits fitted and I couldn't help but notice there was no increase in ground clearance under the rear diff. As this is the piece of mechanical equipment I want to get up in the air a bit more I began to expand my research to see if there was any way of lifting the rear of my Foz in a way that includes the diff. I am thinking lifted springs, even 25mm higher would be better than strut spacers but I can't find them available in Oz. Does anyone know if I am headed up a dead end track with this or is there a better way? (don't worry about bigger tyres as I've already got the biggest that are practical and legal in Qld)

You should get an increase in clearance for the diff with a lift kit. As the diff is bolted to the body, if you lift the body you lift the diff. Another option is to fit taller tyres, although this has drawbacks as well. Do you have a sump guard fitted?

What Rally said. A strut top lift will definitely lift your Diff. I've got a SubieLiftOz one. Does the job well and doesn't affect handling noticeably on my SG, not that I throw it arond the corners anyway..

And get a sump guard if you don't have one.


Edit: Ahh, you've got one.

Whether you use 1" strut top spacers or raised springs, you are still lifting the body and diff. Trouble with both of these is there's no camber or caster offset so the handling isn't as good.

I don’t recommend raised springs, they give a harsh ride & reduce articulation offroad, meaning less grip & more wheel spin. Stock suspension or Kings standard height springs & KYB struts give a nice ride & are the best for offroad

A 2" lift has camber & caster offsets so you keep the good Subaru handling.

With a 2" lift, normally you have a 2" rear subframe spacer kit to maintain the stock suspension geometry & droop. Yes, this will mean the diff is still at stock height but that shouldn't matter, it's the engine sump that's the lowest point in a Subaru & is easily damaged, that's the really important bit to lift up.

Clearance under the diff isn't so important as it's tucked up high out of the way & is a solid chunk of iron. You're extremely unlikely to damage it even doing crazy hardcore 4wd tracks.

If you want, I can do a 2" lift kit with camber & caster offsets & 1" subframe spacer kit. Feel free to PM me for details

Lift kit as top spacers increases ground clearance as much as spacer is thats all point of lift kit. But if your shocks are shot you should change them first . dont do lift kit on bad tired shocks ad they will get worse.
Lift kit plus little taller tires gives even more ground clearance. But not too high or too wide tires as that would come with power loss which will come to increased mpg as well .

For me, I think I have a car that does overland and off-road equally well and a better compromise than most. But with any talk of lift kits, you only go as high as you need to. For a lot of people standard height is as high as they need to go.

well you must know what you need from car. i knew from start and i knew what i will loose to it as well so never regreted nothing i did to car. you must know where you will put car and what you need to be safe there and get back home from there. thats when you start your list on paper or in head . i remember i had 4 passengers in car , so full car , adults not kids. and some bags in trunk as well. and i took car to some forest path i was driving alone with empty car, so i thought will i perform worse there or maybe better. its was ok , car sit little lower but it was enough clearance still.
point is you need to know those things before you go somewhere. lift ,tires, skids and recovery gear is main thing for any light or more hard trips you need to have.
even before buying car you need to learn what it could do and what you could do to it, how much is better or worse then other models and such things. i chose what i needed thats why outback and not forester.

People new to this stuff don't really know where they want to go or what their car is capable of. Rather than learn how to drive what they have, they are encouraged nto buying a lift kit which is totally unnecessary in many cases. And so they end up with a car that is worse on road for no benefit to them off road if they knew hoe to drive the standard car. Hence why I say learn how to drive off road, then see if the standard car will go where you want to go. If not, lifting it is worthwhile. I find most people don't know how to drive. One trip last year 2 of the guys go stuck going up a hill. Yes, it was a tough track. Both were standard cars. They asked for my help. I got in and just drove up the hill. Neither of them are interested in lift kits now, they just want to be better drivers first and have a car that's better on road too. It's possible to have that compromise.

its good that someone can help them on those trips. imagine that none had any experience and they end up stuck and damage cars and cant get out .
for me lift didnt made car worse on road at all, nor the tires. so kinda no loss there. i even like car without rear sway bar more . do those SH are so bad ?

Anyone going on those tracks without experience or ability are nuts. Lift kits and tyres wouldn’t have helped them anyway. Decent diffs would have. Maybe I am more demanding of cars than you as I find such things (tyres, suspension) make a far bigger difference on road than off road.

I tend to side with Rally here.


I've taken my stock outback into situations where the limits are my confidence in getting out again, not the car's ability. My rule of thumb is 'only drive into it if you think you can get yourself out', as I rarely travel with others.



For the 0.5% I use it offroad, as much as I keep thinking about a lift, I can't really justify it, and am sure it'll compromise on-road ability.


It could certainly do with more ground clearance -- but I know its limitations then plan and drive around them.



I think a skid plate and mods to the bumpers for entry/exit angle would be more benefit to me - these are the bits that bump and scrape the most, and are the two things which I'm reluctant to tackle any heavy sand without.



That, and get a good shop to tuck my 3" liberty B4 exhaust up into the body properly.

It's fine to say drive a stock height car on a nice smooth track but do that on most 4wd tracks & you get damage underneath while you learn. Then there's the rutted entry/exit onto most beaches, the extra clearance is needed so you don't drag your belly through the sand & whatever is hiding in there.



That's why 99% of people say do the basics...lift, AT tyres & sump guard. Then get out there & have fun while you learn without damaging your car!


Despite the trash talk, SH Foresters are fine. In some ways the SG is better, esp the interior, but in others the SH is better, esp VDC. Same as in some ways an Outback is better & others a Forester is better

With you on the sump guard. But you would need to either making a big mistake or going on a pretty difficult track to damage your car. That trip I referred to was difficult, yet only one of the cars had a sump guard. That car had all terrain tyres, and was one of the cars I retrieved. The other 2 cars made it past the point he was stuck, only for one of them to get stuck further on. Putting a lift kit on without having the right skills means when you do get stuck it will be harder to get you out. As I said, most people don’t need them. They just need to learn to use what they have, which will do the job.

In motor sport, we say the same thing to newcomers. Learn car control first, then do your modifications. A couple of weeks ago I jumped into the passenger seat of a wrx at the skidpan. It was his first time out, first course. He had modified his car before he had leaned to drive it. He got it all wrong and couldn’t do the handbrake turn correctly. I told him what he needed to do for the next 3 runs, then I jumped out because I had to compete myself. He had taken everything in and next time out he got it right. In fact he did really well. But then he couldn’t do the slalom. History has shown at the skidpan and on the circuit the most effective and cheapest way to go faster is to be taught how to drive for those to whom it doesn’t come naturally. Exactly the same for off roading.

Rally said:

With you on the sump guard. But you would need to either making a big mistake or going on a pretty difficult track to damage your car. That trip I referred to was difficult, yet only one of the cars had a sump guard

Click to expand...

We have different ideas of "difficult" lol


On my very 1st trip offroad ever, we did a medium difficulty track that smashed the underneath of my car, the exhaust & fuel tank in several spots. If you came on a offroad trip with us, several of your views would change overnight.


It's not unreasonable to expect newcomers to want to learn how to drive offroad in a more capable vehicle, doing it more easily & safely, & with less damage. I would say it's unreasonable to throw someone in the deep end in a stock vehicle & say "well, just learn to drive better!" while they damage their car...

i see lift outback as just saving your front and rear bumpers. not much changed for me in driving it on road.i drive it at 120km/h highest speed no more.i see ricks or branches on road i know i have more then enough clearance for them and they wont hook up to my bumper . you guys making such a big deal on that lift . like it would totalyl destroy car on road. you need to drive car pretty hardcore on street that you could feel not so tight cornering or more boaty feel on tight corners. if i would need street car i would just bought legacy for that.
its very simple when you scratching or ripping off bumpers you need to do something with car or stop driving into those places.
you make it worse offroad if you starting put those harder springs. then you just have lift but no use of it .

I would say that as soon as you think you are going to try your car off road, you should add a sump guard and because you will probably love driving off road, sooner or later, you will add a lift kit and depending where you want to go and do, you will make more modifications...or not !

it became so much off topic just everyone decides what he want for himself.

It’s not a pissing competition. If people want to destroy their cars then that is up to them. I suspect most people don’t. My experience has been most people want to test the water and are satisfied with what they find, with no desire to go further. Clearly you like the idea of lift kits because that is what your business is all about, making and selling lift kits. I am not against lift kits per se. Jumping in at the deep end is not a good idea and should not be encouraged. You can always get a lift kit later if you need it.

I don't think anyone is off topic but sure some of us speak for themselves...

Thanks

Thanks for all the sage replies. Seems I should have bought an earlier model Forester. Seeing I've had my turn at driving fast on both gravel and tarmac and gotten over it, on the limit handling isn't such an issue for me. Now I prefer the progress to be slow and steady so I can enjoy the scenery in my declining years. We are a one car family so my SH is all I've got and my wife loves it so I have to make the best of what I have. Having said that, last Sunday's run through the Condamine River Gorge with its dozen or so rocky river crossings and one steep, slippery exit convinced me that my traction control gives me a distinct advantage in some situations. I got confused by the radio chatter of other club members about using the snow button. Snow button??? I have a SubaXtreme sump guard and one size bigger AT tyres but still found ground clearance (under the sump guard) a minor issue on a level 1 track. I've never seen a comment about the sump guard actually reducing ground clearance (it does) so even with the bigger tyres, clearance is still standard Foz. I conclude then that I should get a Subiliftoz 2 inch lift kit and stop worrying about the diff.