2013 crosstrek vs 2011 Tacoma in mud head to head

Dirt Trek

Forum Member
Joined
Feb 9, 2019
Messages
30
Location
Northern California
Car Year
2013
Car Model
Crosstrek
Transmission
CVT
Me and a good friend of mine have been reviewing my crosstrek (stock) offroad and seeing how it handles against a typical(highly modified) 4x4. We are going to spend more time doing an in depth look at the car and its systems but just wanted to have some fun with this segment (part 1 of 3) enjoy :D

https://youtu.be/GcXKDhA5MmY
 
Was surprised how far ahead I could get in front of the Tacoma when I had TC off, granted he was in 2wd but I thought his larger motor and mud tires would balance that out. Nice thing is I can shut off TC with the push of a button while on the move. He has to stop or at the very least, slow down. That takes time where as the Subaru feels like it's always ready to go
 
Shift on the fly must be a Subaru thing ! Dual range works that way too, no need to slow down nor stop.
 
^ nope. My Mitsubishi Triton, with "Super Select", can do several things on the fly. Turn on or off "Anti Slide Control", RWD to AWD, AWD to AWD Centre Locked. However I do need to stop to go into low range.
 
One other vehicule I know of being able to shift to low range and back to high range on the fly is the Pinzgauer but there are maybe a few more.
 
Kevin said:
^ nope. My Mitsubishi Triton, with "Super Select", can do several things on the fly. Turn on or off "Anti Slide Control", RWD to AWD, AWD to AWD Centre Locked. However I do need to stop to go into low range.
Click to expand...

I have to stop to go into LR or out of LR. It is not exactly a hassle.

I keep it in 4H on dirt and faster, easy trail, and 4L on moderate or difficult trail and that's it. There is no switching back and forth.

Sometimes I am tempted to go faster in 4H uphill and then I remember that it is really not good for the transmission and I stay in 4L.

The biggest concerns with CVT are with that scenario. I could get my 5EAT easily over 250F on sustained climbs and CVTs are worse. I have seen a CVT get the AT temp warning light on where I had no issues with the 5EAT.
 
I reckon Subaru's CVT is a work in progress. They've come a long way so far and they've still got a way to go.
I can see them coupling it to a high speed electric motor as an end goal, whether it is or not time will tell. :)
 
Yes, everything is always a work in progress, but I think Subaru CVT is pretty good by now.

The issue is that Subaru has absolutely no interest in any serious offroad features and thus it cannot be expected that they would invest one cent in doing anything more than X-mode. It is quite amazing they went that far!

Not having low range is an issue even if the cars can climb just fine without it, which is only true of turbo and H6 models in the first place: it is much more dangerous when descending very steep slopes and the longevity of the transmission is compromised if the vehicle is used seriously offroad with any regularity.

Again, Subaru in the US is a snow/rain car with some dirt road and beach use. Since it is by far Subaru's biggest market I would not hold my breath for them to do anything beyond x-mode.
 
The cvt has it's issues and the crosstrek is definatly not a hard core off roader. But we are working to remedy that and see what needs to be changed to improve it's life and performance as a more serious offroad vehicle. Right now still just playing with the car and learning it's weaknesses, but going to start upgrading very soon.

Stage 2 if anyone's interested
https://youtu.be/1LSA-cpdx3Q
 
Yes. They won't give us the angles we need nor the low-range. They are very well-balanced vehicles though. You have a planted car on black top and that car can also play in the dirt. They have good mileage, safe, etc.

The most capable vehicle that I have driven is our old FJ40 with the 1KZ-TE transplant. It just goes anywhere but it does not ride well on black top. I like the feeling that with a Subaru, you are still driving a car and you can still attack corners somehow.

I like the console gaming effects that you placed in the last part of the video. I still think that the videos you do are much better than most Youtube automotive journalists. Cheers.
 
[MENTION=16269]Dirt Trek[/MENTION], another good video. Pretty tough comparison, bog stock Trek vs lifted truck on muddies, but you showed just how good Subies are.

One note, maybe pay more attention to the lines. Comparisons between cars using different drivers are always flawed. In the first obstacle the Tacoma takes a very wide line, opening up the obstacle & making it much easier. You took a very tight line on the inside, making it about as difficult as possible

This is something I always pay close attention to when comparisons are shown. There is a great example from one of the members here who did a comparison between his highly modified SG Forester & a stock SH Forester. The SH was obviously driven to fail. I'm not saying you did that, in fact the opposite, but it shows the way the vehicle is driven is just as important, if not more so, than the vehicle itself
 
ABFoz said:
Yes. They won't give us the angles we need nor the low-range. They are very well-balanced vehicles though. You have a planted car on black top and that car can also play in the dirt. They have good mileage, safe, etc.

The most capable vehicle that I have driven is our old FJ40 with the 1KZ-TE transplant. It just goes anywhere but it does not ride well on black top. I like the feeling that with a Subaru, you are still driving a car and you can still attack corners somehow.

I like the console gaming effects that you placed in the last part of the video. I still think that the videos you do are much better than most Youtube automotive journalists. Cheers.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Glad to hear! Was kinda skeptical about the video game portion but really wanted to try it. It did push my upload timeline back a bit though.
 
NachaLuva said:
[MENTION=16269]Dirt Trek[/MENTION], another good video. Pretty tough comparison, bog stock Trek vs lifted truck on muddies, but you showed just how good Subies are.

One note, maybe pay more attention to the lines. Comparisons between cars using different drivers are always flawed. In the first obstacle the Tacoma takes a very wide line, opening up the obstacle & making it much easier. You took a very tight line on the inside, making it about as difficult as possible

This is something I always pay close attention to when comparisons are shown. There is a great example from one of the members here who did a comparison between his highly modified SG Forester & a stock SH Forester. The SH was obviously driven to fail. I'm not saying you did that, in fact the opposite, but it shows the way the vehicle is driven is just as important, if not more so, than the vehicle itself
Click to expand...

Thank you! Ya still learning how to drive the car and set up challenges that are "fair". Have a snow vid I'll be working on after I upload stage 3 and I had TC on for the first part. Tried to make it up a small hill and completely failed plus the car felt very spastic with the TC kicking on while driving, I eventually shut it off and the car floated like a dream. Even up hills. You made some very good points though and it's something me and Jayson have been discussing, probably going to even swap drivers and compare them on and off road. Once the next two vids are done we are going to review the car, using personal experience and a lot of the info that I gathered here, and really take a look at it's function, and then we'll start discussing upgrades and how to do them right. Any other tips or things we can work on, let me know.
 
Nice. It would be nice to get another test with all your mods on.

That bumper cover return feature, by the way, is very handy. Cheers.
 
Lift! Tyres! (tires?)
Love it. :)
 
Ben Up North said:
Lift! Tyres! (tires?)
Love it. :)
Click to expand...

Ya we say tires over here lol. Those are 235/75/15 aaaaand an inch and a half lift. Wanted the 2 inch lift but can't afford it right now but definatly could use it, tires are rubbing during hard braking while turning or when taking obstacles. I've cut out pretty much all I can so I think an extra inch should help with keeping the tires from eating my car from the inside.
 
@dirt_trek: time to get torq master.

there is some ecu/FREESSM tuning for low-range and 50-50 torque. I'm interested in finding out more about it.

Always Traction Control off while off-road subie. :) newer one always has its VDC plus the newer ATV(Active Torque Vectoring)
 
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