What have you done to your car today?

I got into the Rhino-Rack RPBS bandwagon. It was on sale just after the lockdown.
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There is a minor whirring sound but not as bad as the ones from the baskets. I have the coiled rope there which reduced the sound a bit but I may consider putting a proper wind fairing in front.

I scored a genuine tow bar at a decent price and have just installed it:
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The wiring will soon follow. I couldn't find an R79 connector for the trailer wiring. I will call Subaru tomorrow to check if JDM SGs came with a trailer wiring connector. It may have just been placed at a different location. If not, I will just wire the harness manually.
 
I have a Rhino Rack roof top tray. Its been great. Its taken a beating over 2 years. No complaints.
 
ABFoz said:
There is a minor whirring sound but not as bad as the ones from the baskets.
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what bars are is the rack mounted on? I've got S-wings on mine, look similar. Exceptionally quiet bars I've found., but not so keen on the way they lock onto the SG foresters rails, it's only a bit of ABS plastic doing the heavy lifting (clamping?). Mine snapped at the clamp after about 10 years (when a B double went past the other way while we had two Mal boards on them). I replaced the mounts and load the boards differently now. :redface:
 
Ben Up North said:
what bars are is the rack mounted on? I've got S-wings on mine, look similar. Exceptionally quiet bars I've found., but not so keen on the way they lock onto the SG foresters rails, it's only a bit of ABS plastic doing the heavy lifting (clamping?). Mine snapped at the clamp after about 10 years (when a B double went past the other way while we had two Mal boards on them). I replaced the mounts and load the boards differently now. :redface:
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I have them on a Whispbar which is exceptionally quiet as it is. Then, I used the Prorack U-Bolt Fitting Kit to clamp the tray onto the crossbars.
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The tray is snug fit because of this.

I think the whirring comes from just the front of the rack. I can either retrofit a plastic aerofoil there, but that would remove some clamping/hitching points or I can put a retrofit windshield in front similar to a Yakima Windshield.

I noticed though that there is a small gap between the mesh and the tray frame itself. I will try to cover that temporarily to see if the already weak sound will be reduced.
 
ABFoz said:
I got into the Rhino-Rack RPBS bandwagon. It was on sale just after the lockdown.
tlSCzaN.jpg

MGlpHxe.jpg

F66VQYD.jpg

There is a minor whirring sound but not as bad as the ones from the baskets. I have the coiled rope there which reduced the sound a bit but I may consider putting a proper wind fairing in front.

I scored a genuine tow bar at a decent price and have just installed it:
PpLw9fe.jpg

JJyF6oV.jpg

5N5BHWj.jpg

The wiring will soon follow. I couldn't find an R79 connector for the trailer wiring. I will call Subaru tomorrow to check if JDM SGs came with a trailer wiring connector. It may have just been placed at a different location. If not, I will just wire the harness manually.
Click to expand...
In mine, the trailer connections are hidden on the d/s boot floor. IIRC, I posted the wiring in my trailer build thread. I'll see if I can find it tomorrow. If I forget, please remind me, AB.
 
Ratbag said:
Eventually found it. In its own thread, here:

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Thanks, @Ratbag! I was just about to post that I have just found that same thread!

Hmmm. I looked twice for that connector. I even checked behind the panels but couldn't find the R79/trailer harness connector. Could it be that the Japanese do not tow at all? One of my brothers has been living in Japan for less than 3 years now and he said that he hasn't seen a passenger vehicle towing a trailer yet.

It looks like I am going splice the harness manually or make my own male-female connector around the same place as where the R79 connector is supposed to be located.
 
Finally got around to putting in my touring wagon dash with tacho in the L Series wagon. What a bloody job that was. I figured half a day, took more like 2 half days. With a combination of online help, a haynes manual, and good old multi meter I got there in the end. I wasn't able to find a real source of truth regarding the wire colours so in the end i found the best solution was just painstakingly test everything!

What helped the most was removing the centre info panel from the dash and testing with it sitting in my lap, and tracing the PCB to the wires.

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And the finished installation, complete with fancy red permanent marker on the dials to give it a slightly more modern feel!
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Nice work.
:)
 
Went down and visited Subaxtreme in Goulbourn on Friday on my way through to the Family Property for the Long Weekend, and picked up a new 6mm Alloy Sumpguard, and saw my new Bullbar in production.

Was also good to meet the new Owner of Subaxtreme, and have a good chat about the future direction of the company, which is very exciting. The new Parent Company produces a lot of offroad parts, and upgrades for the likes of ARB, Pedders and Whiteline, etc. And there are some exciting new products in the pipelines.

They're also planning on opening a new Brisbane Dealership as well
 
This is good for the community.

Subaru accessories and modifications are also heating up in the Middle East and South Africa. I was able to talk to one South African manufacturer of front and rear bars. Their products are geared toward remote touring and are very decently priced. They do not ship outside of the continent, though, because of shipping costs.
 
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It's moments like these you want to be very good friends with someone in the navy, even the merchant navy. Oh.. hang on. Covid. :(
 
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ABFoz said:
This is good for the community.

Subaru accessories and modifications are also heating up in the Middle East and South Africa. I was able to talk to one South African manufacturer of front and rear bars. Their products are geared toward remote touring and are very decently priced. They do not ship outside of the continent, though, because of shipping costs.
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I can't say too much about what he's looking at at the moment. But it's very exciting. He's already started work on a R160 Rear Locker (he already makes lockers for other 4WDs). If anyone has any product ideas/needs, let me know, and I can pass it on
 
Gee that's exciting, not long ago R160 lockers were just a dream and now we might even have two to choose from!
 
SquiresSquire said:
I can't say too much about what he's looking at at the moment. But it's very exciting. He's already started work on a R160 Rear Locker (he already makes lockers for other 4WDs). If anyone has any product ideas/needs, let me know, and I can pass it on
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Is he working on a lunchbox locker or a selectable one? Cheers.
 
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