What factors make Off Road Ability?

Back to the original question - People already mentioned the driver being the biggest factor because the car is not going to drive itself. Also the driver must not bite more than he can chew.

Here is an off-road recovery video on YT and Matt, the owner, uses an XJ Cherokee to do such. His car is definitely less capable than the ones he is recovering like the Raptor in the video but I think he is the biggest factor because to off-road and search for a line is one thing but to tackle many lines and go around vehicles on- and off-track to recover vehicles is another. He actually goes around his customers' vehicles to recover them.


As a vehicle, the Raptor is definitely much more capable than his XJ but it's just what he does with the XJ that makes it very capable.

In the video he mentions half a dozen Subarus who needed to be rescued just because they presumably did not have a sump guard. Again, this is biting more than what can be chewed.
 
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not bad short and simple outback 2020 x mode test on snow without snow tires. simple x mode not dual x mode
interesting how he was using x mode ON but VDC off later to get more wheel spin there.
i think there should be separate buttons for VDC and X mode , not just on screen.
 
My first proper test with larger winter tires in mud water and grass, didint aired down went with full 2.4bar . We drove for about 9 hrs in forests with local forester club. And what i found it was amazing so capable, so high that front bumper didint had any problems there even when dumping into deep water and coming off them.
When just need to get out of mud of water or get onto some hills that are slippery was using VDC with TC on , just on large hills where i needed momentum, used TC off ,VDC still worked good in braking wheels that lost traction, and i was lossing traction at times because didint aired down but never got stuck.
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Sadly noone filmed me there or took more pictures in best moments as we drove in group so everyone was just driving after others you couldnt do or go where you want or stop for no reason.
But what i found its amazing capable car i was even higher then some lifted foresters, some had snorkels, one had winch in front, but noone had proper recovery points as i did in front . Im still driving like that with shackle in front there. Looks more cool .
Had hilift jack in car too now i will carry it everyday.
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For me there it was that i had that front shackle in place one time i was pulled out to side as couldnt change direction from deep tracks, the. It was ground clearance that kept that front bumper up high and never catched front or rear bumper. Couple cars where stuck on deep tracks as they hanged on center and i never had problems.
So for me for this car and for my area forests those things that made my car capable are lift , larger tires 28.5' and proper recovery points with shackles ready just in case.

About VDC it was amazing. I saw foresters just spinning wheels when going on to mud hills and it was wet mud very nasty, so where they where going lots spin i was jusy cruising up with TC stoping some wheels and letting spin others, still those used winter tires no mud ones so in wet mud very hard, still managed.
Just found i have some problems with ignition coils and water. Just after another water splashing i got errors and like 2 or 3 cilinders was going misfire and stopped working. Then when all heat up and dry all went well again. So that is good i found week point that i need to fix, no other week points there. All links stayed in places nothing broke or anything. Sometimes when got bored i turned TC off and was flooring pedal going drift on mud or grass. That split more to rear is very cool on those VDC cars. Car is allways more rear happy .
Will make recovery points and hilift points next and then put skid plate onto gearbox i think and some extra protection in front to sides so less water would come to engine area from bottom.
Maybe some extra skid plate to protect front bumper lip.
That was amazing trip and amazing experience on full mud there.
 
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outback from 11:04 trying up hill. after he aired down to 1bar and it worked much better. but why do that with stock not lifted car with small tires.
merc after outback did nice, maybe better tires too more protector left, and more power for sure, so power helped there a lot.

more subarus in snow... im so envy for snow that we dont have at all for now this winter.
heavier 4x4 having more problems in deep snow because they heavy , power wont help there much or even wheels.
that old pajero great car , i was looking for those too when was thinking about what car to buy.
i think on deep fresh snow you need to air down as much as you can it will make huge impact to better. Not sure what else can help in that deep snow there.
what makes lot for off road capability is to be there not alone but at least with one other car, i remember when i was doing trip with subarus i was so calm all times because if something there is allways other car to pull you out, so its no problem to get stuck , but when you alone its different game, mostly its not possible to risk anywhere .

another cool video with lots older subarus outbacks and such lifted and not
 
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scalman said:
what makes lot for off road capability is to be there not alone but at least with one other car,
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Sure does. Can't remember when I last went off road with other people though :(
 
I know that when you offroad alone, you take less risks than when doing it with a group but if you are well equipped, you can go quite far alone. I like both ways of offroading.
 
yes agree but then you need more time to prepare to have all gear that you might need for doing stuff solo, thats how i allways do it anyway, this was like one two maybe 3 times in year that i could go with group , but thats mostly it . anything else need to be done alone. it might teach you a lot too about whats works how and how to rescue car best ways. for me first lesson was hilift jack. some axe , saw , shovel those all i carry all time in car anyway.
 
they made another one. this time with G wagon and couple other real 4x4 off roaders. couple foresters and legacy just welded their diffs as they said, so its like cheap locker just its allways locked full time. sure in snow its fine with welded rear diff . that legacy lifted a lot more again.

i remember when i bought mine 2001 0utback VDC in november it was allready full snow around so that was like best time for me to try it ... and now no snow at all and im on winter tires... so sure its last month of winter , give us some snow...
so as legacy with even more lift showed you need ,more ground clearance to go further, not too much but some more is allways good. as if i would buy legacy i would lift it to outback levels too.
they drove near lake and they said that police said to them that no closer then 100m to lake.
when you are G wagon and have 500hp and lockers and everything but you weight 2x as forester it can be hard like on deep snow.
 
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Rubicon , Grand Sherokee , Forester . from WK Sherokee with QD2 systems you can make very capable off roader on par with Rubicon even but more comfy. maybe some day i will try it too. looks nice , lifts easy .
its pure mud test and deep water , grass , so there are cars that do better in those conditions, more power needed too to spin those wheels easily, right tires, right psi, right skilled driver. as allways its easy to show one car worse then other if you chose wrong tires with wrong psi in them and driver doesnt know how to handle car.
how i would like to test my car in those kind of conditions, but with smaller group of cars like they did , where you can try same place couple times and such.
and ncie to see very different age cars, like ones are from old russian times like from 1960-1970, and other like chinese city off roaders couple yrs old , so that very different stuff specially inside
 
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that jimny with those tires looks just sweet, and goes very good, not sure does it have lockers but seems like not from how wheels are spinning
 
dude made ultimate mods for his forester

- 4.44 Final Drive Swap
- 1.47 Low Range Gearing
- Torq Master Industries r160 Locker (5 bolt)
- ADS 20kg Centre Diff - Cusco Type-RS 1.5way Front LSD
- Lengthened 5th gear for better highway drivability


i mean with enough money you can make anything
 
stock outback 15 xmode test in mud
that front bumper ouch
 
scalman said:
dude made ultimate mods for his forester

- 4.44 Final Drive Swap
- 1.47 Low Range Gearing
- Torq Master Industries r160 Locker (5 bolt)
- ADS 20kg Centre Diff - Cusco Type-RS 1.5way Front LSD
- Lengthened 5th gear for better highway drivability
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Thats not ultimate at all for me, Dedman's Forester is actually the most capable....

 
scalman said:
dude made ultimate mods for his forester

i mean with enough money you can make anything
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True. I remember when Mitre first posted a video about this SG. It was just a sweet little SG good enough for what we do. Now he's all in. I believe he has just installed the Monster Lift from SubieLiftOz!

scalman said:
that front bumper ouch
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I think the plastic/rubber surface in Subarus are for those scraping. Haha.

That diesel engine didn't need that much RPM.

jf1sf5 said:
Thats not ultimate at all for me, Dedman's Forester is actually the most capable....
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Even his old SF5 swam when he did water crossings.

Both SGs from Mitre and Dedman are getting up there. I am not sure though if Dedman has already replaced his 1.59 low range. Maybe he's just waiting for that 2.2:1. (y) Both are running legal smaller tyre sizes, though, making everything more and more interesting.

Also, don't forget the SF of @Jeremiahs22 which is what we need for high speed trail running or beer runs!
 
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ABFoz said:
I am not sure though if Dedman has already replaced his 1.59 low range. Maybe he's just waiting for that 2.2:1. (y) Both are running legal smaller tyre sizes, though, making everything more and more interesting.

Also, don't forget the SF of @Jeremiahs22 which is what we need for high speed trail running or beer runs!
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Yes, Dedman has the 1,59:1 low range with the 4,44 differential ratio. I'm pretty sure he will be interested in the 2,2:1 low range ! He is also running long travel HotBits coilovers.

Jeremiah22 has a very nice Forester at another level but I could never build such a rig here because of the road laws.....its only possible in the USA !

I'm not saying that Mitre's Forester is not capable with all the mods he has done, but its just not the ultimate Forester out there !
 
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I wonder how a Subaru would go with a body lift (e.g. subie lift oz) and long travel suspension (e.g. Hotbits) but no strut top spacers. That way you'd get a bit of extra height (2"?) and good articulation.
What do you think @NachaLuva?
 
That's what a few of us have. Dedman has 2 inch body lift and 4" lift from Hotbits and no strut top spacers. Plus 1.59 low range, 4.44 diff ratios, rear air locker, DCCD and Cusco front LSD.
 
Or just longer struts from other cars would work but its like nothing is compactible with subarus or its just secret i duno some fit some nissan parts there like longer rear links. Would be nice just to take 5-7 cm longer strut from some other model and put it there. You get lift and probably more travel.
Some guys find out that for 8cm sg lift you can just put 2cm longer rear link from some nissan car its just fits. But would be nice to just put all strut that is longer
 
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