Yeah...Legacy's Rock!

[georryan]

So last weekend a group of us decides to go up to the snow. Now the snow hasn't been too good the last few days because it has warmed up a bit. We had a caravan of five vehicles: A lifted Toyota, a lifted Jeep Cherokee, a Bronco, a lifted Ford pickup, and my Sport Sedan. I figure for the snow it will be great. Plus, I had just put on my snow tires the day before and couldn't wait to use them again.

Well we get up to were we were going to go origionally and there was no snow, so we decided to head up to Black Snake. That is a trail mostly used for 4x4s. A friend tells me to park my car and hop in the back of his truck when it starts to get too bad. "We'll see, I'll take it as it comes" I replied.


We start going up and a ways into it it becomes fairly clear that snow won't be for a bit and there it has definately rained. The trucks went off on harder branches to get some 4wheelin fun in and I stuck to hte main road. Further up though, the road become spotted with slick mud and rather large ruts, larger than my clearance anyway. I just ran my tires on either end of the rut and did my best not to slide into them. I slide a little here and there but the little beast kept it's footing with little effort on my part by playing with the gas and what not.

When we stoped at the top of the moutain, my friend jumps out of his truck and yells "Your a beast!!! Your car is amazing!!" The Bronco driver, who was driving behind me joins in by saying: "holy cow, your a trooper, seeing you car slip here nad there, I didn't much mind slidiing into those ruts but you just kept gioing! I'm impressed."

Oh and just before the rise we saw a friend of mine from school, he had driven his car up so he could do some Shotgun clay disk shooting. He had a subaru also. They were the ONLY cars seen up there that day.

Here is a picture of the car after the trip, but it is kinda hard to tell. The dirt onthe side is actualy crusty mud, and there is mud spashed up on the spoiler and windows, but a lot of it got washed off from puddles and some rain.

http://cs.wwc.edu/~georry/PDRM0192.JPG

Yeah I'm proud of the little car. It is sooo sure footed. The snow tires helped out a lot, though.
-Ryan

[evolutionmovement]

Awesome!

Plus you got better gas mileage on the way back and are probably a lot more reliable, too.

I've seen older Subarus pounding through some relatively serious stuff, also (even lived through some). Imagine if Subaru made a serious offroader? Maybe a limited edition Forrester jacked up with skid plates and the dual range transmission they offer elsewhere (it's about the same size as a Cherokee). I think it would be perfect just as Jeep is planning to introduce a sissy soft roader (stupid DCX).

Steve

[Brat4by4]

I've gone places people wouldn't imagine in my brat. Even pulled a full-size GMC Sierra Z71 when it got high-sided back in the truck playground. Took pictures, got him out, then shot up a super steep hill that was right there. He was pissed at first then later actually admitted that he was impressed when I went up the hill.

Took my wagon out to the offroad place and same old story, dual-range is a beast and there wasn't anything I couldn't climb. Pretty much the only limitation is super deep ruts made by 30"+ tires.

[georryan]

hahaha yeah. That's awsome Brat. I've got a couple stories from my GL-10, the only limitation with that car is it isn't dual range. It has an air lock instead. The front differential can lock up with a flick of a switch, and the rear has limited slip, so the thing is a beast, but for any hill that would need some low range action you got to give it some gas or give it a running start.

[ciper]

You also have the power advantage. Those guys probably lost a good chunk of power the higher you went while your turbo just kept pumping harder.

What type of tires do you run?

[georryan]

True, I forgot to mention that. The biggest thing that turbo does for that car is give it staying power. I'd go over passes and the car wouldn't lose speed. Even fully loaded it would have to be a pretty big pass and a long one before my car would start to lose speed. The thing wouldn't necissarily accellerate up the hill, but if I hit it at 80 it usually could keep the speed up the hill.

I had some cheaper tires on it. I think if I were to have some tires with better tread it would have done better. Even with the ones I had though, it pulled up hills pretty well.

My brother is driving it right now and just put a new set of tires on it. I'm not sure what he is running, but they look like they have a good tread.

The kind of hills I'm talking about that would need more gas, are ones that are pretty darn vertical.

[legacy92ej22t]

Ya Legacys rule! I remember I was trying to track down my brother
in-law a few years back at his hunting lodge. A couple guys told me what feeder he and some other guys were working on but said I wouldn't be able to make it in my Legacy . I did a creek crossing through 2-3 feet of water and went up a rocky, leaf covered dirt road (if you can call it that). When I got up there all these guys were crapping their drawers! Some of the guys had gone up on their four wheelers because they were worried about getting stuck in their Durangos and Explorers! A couple guys in lifted trucks that made it were razzing me saying I was screwing my ride up but Subarina had no problem whats so ever and I didn't know what all the fuss was about. They should see the crazy sh*t me and my friends used to get into out in Oregon.

[georryan]

I'm starting to that most people that drive lifted trucks never see the potential of their vehicles. I have a friend that does push his truck to the limit. And when I do stuff with my car he just smiles and goes, "yeah Ryan's a beast, and so is his car." The majority of people out there though, that warn ya and say what you can't do, they probably never know what their vehicles will do because the play it so safe. In all honesty though, I doubt you pushed your car to any real unsafe level of terrain. Niether have I. For most of those 4 wheelers, going through that terrain is like spalshing puddles for us. It's a no brainer. hehe

[123c]

I've gone to some very scary places in my brother's legacy before, like one time we went on this very muddy road near Pullman, WA. We couldn't even hardly stay on the road, and the car almost went into the ditch several times.

Another time we took it on this road that had at least a foot of snow on it, with several downed trees also. Somehow that car was able to manage to make it through the snow, and around the trees. When we had to go down a hill, it was able to make it down, and hardly even slid...

My car is another story, I am scared to take it off road in bad conditions, because I fear of getting stuck because of too much wheel spin, and because my tires just plain suck...

[ciper]

"because my tires just plain suck"
That is pretty easy to fix.

[123c]

"because my tires just plain suck"
That is pretty easy to fix.

I know it's easy to fix, and I am planning on fixing the problem either this spring or summer when I have an extra $500 for new tires

[georryan]

Tires make a HUGE difference. I was driving home for thanksgiving and was slowing down to make a turn off of 97 into a gas station parking lot. I found myself sliding forward, so I quickly downshifted and continued going. I gave my self extra room to slow down when the next gas station came up. Although, I did some sliding around in the parking lot. There was a fresh layer of snow on the ground btw. That was in my re-92's on wrx rims. I now have my stock rims on the car with my snow tires, and the grip in the snow and ice is sooo much better.

[LaureltheQueen]

Western Washington doesnt get enough snow to warrant the usage of snow tires. I'll stick with my hoopty tires til a get a set of wrx rims.

[123c]

I hate snow tires, and yes, people don't need them in Western Washington, unless they are going over the passes alot. The reason why I don't like them, is that if you have a good set of all season tires, then you don't really need the snow tires. I am a huge fan of Michelins, so that is what I will probally buy...