1WD Foz's

1WD Foz's Foz

Howdy guys and girls,

Im new around here and thought id start a journal to document my hopefully awesome adventure modding my 98 FOZ.

It all started about 7 months ago when i came up with the idea of buying a second car for my wife and I to use for our 1 hour long drive to work, giving our Honda a rest.
Initially i was looking for a cheap Land-rover discovery also thinking we could use this to do some camping and light 4x4ing on our days off, but quickly realised that a Discovery would eat my money in fuel alone so started looking for a cheaper alternative.
Then i noticed a nice looking 98 on gumtree for $2000 no reg no rw, 189k
and seller says clutch may be due.....
I hesitated in calling him for about 3 weeks as i just wasn't sure about Subaru's or Foresters in general, then one day noticed he dropped the price to $1000
So i gave the guy a call and went and looked at it.... $900 was his lowest and the clutch felt fine.
I drove her home (with a permit).

Booked her in for a Rw the next week and listed defects found was:
~Replace wiper blades
~Rectify R/H tail light and stop light
~Replace drivers seat belt
~Secure spare wheel
~Secure battery
~Replace and bleed brake fluid
~Replace clutch & brake pedal pads
~Clean and rectify oil leaks
~Replace L/H inner cv boot
~Replace front & rear sway bar link bushes

So i did what i could and got mechanic to do the rest.
Next week i had rego

I drove it around for a couple weeks and started to notice that if i put my foot flat.... some times it would slip, so i looked up clutches on ebay and took a gamble with a relatively new melbourne based brand "Blusteele' as they had crazy low prices, $250 new ,shipped, with 12 month warranty.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Blusteele-Clutch-Kit-for-Subaru-Forester-S10-2-0Ltr-SOHC-EJ20J-98-02-w-WARRANTY/182301956674?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

I had it sitting there for when the Foz needed it and it wasn't long until i got the car bogged (in my front bloody yard mind you) :rotfl:
and the clutch was ruined after minimal attempts of getting out with road tires.

look at the damage to my Neighbours front lawn
luckily it only cost a slab to recover.

The truck that pulled me out :rotfl:

So i threw my car at the same mechanics that did my rw and they installed my clutch!!
Also had my flywheel machined and they found a leak in my rear main seal so replaced that while they where there....awesome!!

My wife and i started exploring how far down the dirt track this little foz could take us in places like Lerderderg State Park & LaL LaL & Bungal state forest. whilst we stuck to the chicken track mostly... I realised fast this was a capable little beast.
Next thing to go was me rear left shock...... i knew it was coming tho, and taking it offload didn't help a bit
So I ordered rear KYB's and standard Kings springs from Archm-suspension in Bayswater as they had the best prices and the boys down there are really nice.
you can find them on ebay

https://stores.ebay.com.au/archmindustries/

So i had them Installed and straight away what a difference it made, the rears must have been so saggy before cause it looked lifted when i picked her up lol

New rear kings springs and kyb shocks

Old ride height :rotfl:

New ride height

Then it was time for some new tires as i had a few issues with the old ones
I went with 4 x Yokohama Geolander G015 AT in 205/70/R15's

The last issue i had was the speedo died, subaru wanted $350
wreckers cost $10 and i got 2 :rotfl:

And im trying to figure out what this loud noise is coming from my rear passenger wheel area, it comes and goes ,sounds like a loud grinding noise majority of the time around 90-100ks.

1WD

 

[scalman]

Yh looks like if you wouldnt lift fory it would be good height but now its too high for trailer. Need to lower that now.

 

[1WD Foz]

Lmao
I did think it would go on the roof in an emergency.
I know it might not look the best not being level,
but I saw the slight tilt upwards as a good thing, please correct me if I’m wrong.
It latches on tight so I don’t think it would come off due to the tilt
It won’t have a worse drag as it’s so small, and fits snug behind the profile of the Foz.
it could potentially help quite a lot when I go down then up again abruptly, like when crossing a small dry river bed, which would cause the tow arm on the trailer to hit the ground , but with the slight upward tilt it has extra travel before it would hit.

Otherwise I would just flip it upside down like Kevin suggested.


1WD

 

[scalman]

Could be. As its so small maybe its not much matter for that angle. If you would carry somethinf heavy or large in it then it would be problem to not being level.
Not sure what you will carry it it anyways. As you could put that in your roof rack

 

[Ben Up North]

I don't like that angle... Still think you need bigger wheels too.

But you can't go past the price you got it for, it's a bargain. Don't paint it!

 

[scalman]

But +5 wheels will cost. Then why at all buy so cheap trailer if you will buy new wheels to it. So then buy trailer with bigger wheels for that price.
Then just lower that tow hitch

 

[subyroo]

I think this picture helps to explain a few things

Firstly if you look closely you’ll see a black “arm” that goes from the wheel to the silver structure.... that black piece is the “suspension” lol
It travels up and down with some sort of spring affect,
Not 100% but from looking at it I think both wheels travel independently from each other.

1WD

That suspension is called a Torsion Suspension, Google Duratorque Suspension or Torque Suspension.

 

[1WD Foz]

That suspension is called a Torsion Suspension, Google Duratorque Suspension or Torque Suspension.

Amazing
Thank you very much
That’s it exactly
Very interesting indeed as I’ve never heard or seen this setup before

I will try to flip the tow ball and see if that helps
Also while looking for tyres today I will ask about buying slightly bigger tyres for those cute little 8” rims which could also help to lower the trailer hitch a tad, from what I’ve found from researching..... 1” above level is ok but will see how we go as I haven’t measured how much higher mine sits but is definitely greater than 1”.

The main reason I got this trailer is because for staters it’s 175kg lighter than most normal trailers.
For sure it can’t hold as much as a bigger trailer... but I don’t need to carry that much extra as I have the roof basket and roof basket bag.
Just think.....3 people + a big dog, boot full of camping gear, roof basket full of camping gear and a mini trailer full of camping gear, and only 92kw or there a-bouts.....need I say more lol

And if I Had bought a bigger trailer to go prospecting/camping.....
my wife would fill it with rocks/dirt and specimens as she can’t help herself much when we start finding nice crystals/gems/rocks lol she just wants them all.
At least she can see there’s a clear limit to what we can bring home now bwahahahah


1WD

 

[Ben Up North]

And if I Had bought a bigger trailer to go prospecting/camping.....
my wife would fill it with rocks/dirt and specimens as she can’t help herself much when we start finding nice crystals/gems/rocks lol she just wants them all.
At least she can see there’s a clear limit to what we can bring home now bwahahahah

1WD

Very good point.

As a thought, to get it more level you could cut the existing bar at the front (Tow arm?? no idea what it's called) in the middle and weld a similar size length of box steel(?) above the the tralier end and below the front end of the arm.
Like this:

It's probably just my OCD that's kicking in with that angle, I've got no real world proof as to why it would be bad.

 

[1WD Foz]

I took Kevin’s advice and tried flipping the tongue and ball and I think this is much better
Mind you it’s sitting on slightly uneven surface and both tyres are flat but very firm so I’m guessing once I get the new tyres on and pump them up it will rise maybe 10mm or so but end of the day it’s a hell of a lot better than my first genius idea to point to the stars [emoji23]

Thanks everyone for for your advice

I called my local tyre dealer today and he confirmed he can get me 4.00 x 8’s so got him to order me 2 with a “M” speed rating (130k), they will be in and fitted this Friday @$60 each which I’m happy with.

Tomorrow I’ll get everything I need to make all the lights function properly and I’ll get a tube of that stuff Incase I get a flat,
then once the wheels come back she’s ready to go get packed for our trip next Wednesday.

1WD

 

[Ben Up North]

unfortunately, now your departure angle is really low.
It's made my OCD settle down but!

Why is your car tyre so flat, or does it just lookk that way?

 

[Kevin]

That looks much better - and the tow ball no longer blocks your number plate!

 

[scalman]

well if you towing trailer that departure angle doesn't matter anymore it will hang anyway on trailer arm if you go too steep.
nice job with simple fixing trailer height. so do you really need all that space to put stuff like car is not enough so you need trailer too. ? and all that just camping stuff ?

 

[1WD Foz]

unfortunately, now your departure angle is really low.
It's made my OCD settle down but!

Why is your car tyre so flat, or does it just lookk that way?

I know right
I wonder if it would be smart to flip the tow ball when I air tyres down just before I go offroad ?

I usually have my tyres on 38psi for road driving but they are on 35psi At the moment as I did some dirt roads coming back from a 4x4 trip yesterday
So maybe that’s why.
Just to be sure I’ll double check them now lol

1WD

 

[1WD Foz]

~Duplicate post~

 

[scalman]

mine always at about 2.4bar / 35psi as daily driving.

 

[1WD Foz]

That looks much better - and the tow ball no longer blocks your number plate!

Thanks Kevin, i wouldn't have thought to flip it lol
and thats a good thing it doesn't cover the number plate right? :rotfl:

nice job with simple fixing trailer height. so do you really need all that space to put stuff like car is not enough so you need trailer too. ? and all that just camping stuff ?

Thanks mate ill be more happy once its 100% done tho lol

When my wife, our dog and i go camping we fill the boot and 2 of the 3 back seats plus the roof basket with our stuff, but Because this time mum's coming along prospecting for smoky Quartz it now means
a) i can't fill my back seats with stuff at all as my wife and our dog will sit in back
b) Mum will be bringing her own tent/chair/bed/sleeping bag/prospecting tools


When my wife and i go camping overnight we normally take our:

# pop up 4 man tent (more like 2)
# 2 chairs and a fold up table
# 2 hd tarps and tent poles for my diy awning
# 2 x hd 4x4 sleeping mats
# 2 x sleeping bags/pillows/linen
# 2 x 30L(ish) esky's.... one for food.... one for drinks
(thinking of using my 100L esky for this trip)
# 2 x backpacks
# twin burner gas cooker and gas bottle
# 1 burner butane cooker
# about 10L of filtered water for cooking and drinking (overnight)
# about 10L of non filtered water for cleaning
# our cutlery and condiments bucket lol... which has all our plates, cups, knives, forks, spoons, cooking utensils, all our spices and coffee/tea/sugar
# tool bag and air compressor plus a shovel
# snatch strap and dog leads
# bag of ropes and pegs


Then on top of that if we are prospecting while camping we also bring:
# an extra shovel
# large pick and axe
# small sledge hammer and normal hammer
# a large 50L bucket which we use to bring all the raw stuff we find home in
# numerous small to medium containers for precious gems and crystals
# 2 small picks and hand shovels

plus im sure a few more things im forgetting
so definitely not light packers lol

and it doesn't help that i wanna leave my 2 x 12" subs in the boot all the time which reduces the boot size by 1/3 at least.

Thats just because...... I'm all about that bass....bout that bass..... no treble

:rotfl:

1WD

 

[1WD Foz]

Just found this on vicroads website

apparently i am exempt from registering my new trailer !!!!!!

Exemptions from registration
Under certain circumstances and depending on the vehicle type, a vehicle may not be required to be registered.

These vehicles include the following list that are exempted from registration, and can operate without registration:

agricultural equipment - vehicles without automotive power built to perform agricultural tasks off road. For example cultivating land, growing and harvesting crops and rearing livestock
trailers carrying harvester combs
bulk field bins for holding grain
bulk fruit bins
trailers (other than trailers specifically built to carry a boat) that are not used in the course of trade and:
weigh less than 200 kilograms empty
are not wider than the vehicle towing it
are not more than 3 metres long including the drawbar and any load on the trailer
trailers that are being towed by a registered tow truck
motor vehicles being towed* on a road or road related area

https://www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/registration/new-registration/exemptions-from-registration

it weights 75kgs empty
its not wider than Foz
its not even 3 meters long lol

yay :lol:

1WD

 

[scalman]

ohh .. ok mate.:lol: i wouldnt go anywhere with huge subs box in trunk even shoping. so yh you need trailer now because... you need to have sub box in trunk haha. imagine you need to take 2 weeks 5500 km trip. how many foresters need to follow you ? haha im joking of course. lol. i hate many stuff. so i pack light and its always enough for me. i know most stuff its not needed anyways .
why so many shovels and axes and hammers ? will you build house on track ? haha omg i cant believe how much you take with you.

:rotfl::rotfl:

 

[1WD Foz]

lmfao
maybe ill put subs in trailer and wire them up?????? bwhahaha... no.....:rotfl:
what can i say...... i like my Foz loud and obnoxious lol
Lets just say that list would be reduced to a few things if i went camping alone :lol:

If i went on a big trip like you mentioned i would definitely remove one sub :lol:

:iconwink:

We take a shovel and pick each so we can dig holes, as to find any gems you need to dig a little.
A lot of the crystals and gems are inside hard rocks so we need hammers to smash the rocks open
axe to chop firewood for fire :iconwink:

And even after all that I forgot something.............Beer :rotfl:

1WD

 

[Ben Up North]

trailers (other than trailers specifically built to carry a boat) that are not used in the course of trade and:
weigh less than 200 kilograms empty
are not wider than the vehicle towing it
are not more than 3 metres long including the drawbar and any load on the trailer...

...it weights 75kgs empty
its not wider than Foz
its not even 3 meters long lol

yay :lol:

1WD

W00T! Gotta be happy with that

And even after all that I forgot something.............Beer :rotfl:
1WD

I was thinking that a 30L esky wouldn't carry much beer..
That's one of the reasons that We bought an Engel, to carry the food that really needed to be kept cold (we put in on freezer mode when we leave home) Then when we get there it's great for a) chilling the beer that woudn't fit in the 70L drinks/cool food esky and b) for when the esky runs out of ice. The esky generally runs out of ice in about 2 days, despite it being a '5 Day Esky' partly because my missus likes ice in her wine and be we open it up to often (to get the drinks out)