Lifting a Subaru ...........

If you want to do some serious off road driving, you need to have good vehicle height to keep out of trouble. Over rocky and broken terrain that means avoiding physical damage to the underside; over sand and through mud, that means avoiding a bottoming-out, dragging yourself to a stop, or filling the bell housing and engine bay with sand or mud; and through water, keeping as much as high and dry as possible. To do this there are a few things that can be done to Subarus.

Adjustment

First up, you can take advantage of the devices that Subaru have already provided. On some of the older models (MY) there are adjusters on the rear torsion bar (accessible under the rear seat/floor). These can be wound up with a spanner to provide more tension on the bar, and hence raise the vehicle height. Subaru doesn't recommend keeping the bar adjusted up for any length of time though.

Rear Torsion Bar Adjustment  and Front Strut Spring Seat Adjustment

On the same type of vehicles, and sometimes early model L-Series, the front spring seats on the struts have a small amount of adjustment available. Again these can be wound up to give a little more rigidity to the supension and a little more height. Neither of these adjustments provide a great deal of height gain though.

Aftermarket Springs and Shock Absorbers

Extra height can be gained by installing heavier duty after market coil springs to both front and rear. In Australia they are widely available through specialist suspension dealerships and spare parts outlets. Often referred to as King Springs (probably because one brand is actually named King), they are about 33% heavier duty than standard and provide both more tension and vehicle height. Just make sure that you get constant rate srings and not variable rate springs though. Constant rate springs have the same distance between the coils all the way up: variable rate have coils closer together at one end and have a much softer ride, defeating the intended height gain.

The standard rear shockers on later model L-Series can be replaced by the KYB type that were fitted to the 1986/87 model. They came with the three step adjustable collar, allowing you to adjust the tension on the spring according to your vehicle load. Even on the lowest adjustment, the vehicle will stand taller with these shockers as the collars are set higher than the fixed seats on the standard shockers; but on the highest stop, about 2 inches height can be gained. Only problem is that the back end will jump around (especially without a load) as the extra tension stiffens the spring action. A happy medium is to set the collar on the middle setting.

Lift Kits

The biggest height gain can be achieved by installing a lift kit. These usually come in a 2 inch version but some 3 inch versions are available. Some people mix and match - such as putting 3 inch on the front and 2 inch on the rear of Brumbys/Brats to level them out. They are also available in Approved and Non-Approved versions, depending on the state you live in. Approved, merely means that the lift kit design has been pre-approved by the motor registration authority and can be fitted without detriment to your registration or 3rd Party insurance. A post fitting inspection is still required though. Some state motor registration bodies don't appear to be overly concerned about having them pre-approved but may still require a post fitting inspection to make them legal. A lot of Suba drivers don't bother declaring the lift kits being fitted and run the risk of getting into trouble with the police, motor licencing authority and/or insurance company if they have an accident or get picked up for a roadside vehicle inspection - the choice is yours. These days, lift kits are available for just about any Subaru model. price ranges from around A$500 to $1200 depending on the model. Approved kits generally cost more than the non-approved. For example, L-Series kits may vary from A$550 non-approved to $695 for approved. In Australia, lift kits are available from SubaMods in Melbourne (03) 9546 9828 and Scorpion Motors (07) 3245 4342 or The Subaru Shop (07) 3205 4495 in Brisbane. For a price, they will even ship them overseas. They can be fitted relatively easily in the home garage - allow a weekend - but some heating and bending of the exhaust may be needed, as well as a front wheel alignment afterwards.

Lift Kit for L-Series

Wheels and Tyres

Wheels and tyres are the next items that can be changed to gain height. For Subas fitted with 13" wheels as standard, replacing them with 14" wheels is an obvious step - but they are not always easy to find - especially in America. In Australia they are more readily available. Steel spoked Speedies can be purchased new through most tyre and wheel outlets for around A$80 each (but there are stock shortages from time to time). The Speedies dont have exactly the right offset for Subarus though and they do tend to stick outside the guard a little. Nice wide track, but again it could attract the attention of the motor vehicle inpectors as it's not legal to alter the wheel diameter from manufacturers specs in most states. The answer is to keep a set of 13" rims with road tyres for around town and save the 14" rims with off road tyres for the trips away. If you can't get Speedies, you can use some early model Peugeot wheels - they have the same stud pattern, but again, the offset is not quite correct. They look really average, but they will give you more height. But if you are really lucky, you may be able to find or import Subaru manufactured alloy 14" wheels that fit L-Series (mainly in Japan). They look great but are as rare as hens teeth.

As far as tyres go, you are very limited in off road variants in 14". In Australia, there are about 4 or 5 brands to choose from. Of the bunch, Dunlop Adventurers and Coopers seem to get the best reviews. However, Coopers only come in a minimum width of 203, so will rub on the inner guards with most rim types. Adventurers come in 185SR14 or 195SR14 (80 profile) but beware of the 195 as they will also rub in most cases. Even 185 may cause probs, so test fit them before handing over the loot. The webmaster presently has Adventurers loaded and so far they have proved to be a good performing tyre in both off road and on road conditions. Another brand available in 14" are Khumos. The webmaster used these for the Simpson desert trip. They were great in the sand and for climbing over rocks but on a wet bitumen road they were incredibly slippery, bordering on dangerous. Couldn't wait to change them. Bottom line - do your tyre research to make sure you get the best to suit your driving requirements.

One added word of caution - if you increase the diameter of your wheels, you will gain height but lose power to the road - straight physics. If you want to maintain the power curve (especially important on non-turbo powered cars) then don't opt for the big diameter wheels. If you intend doing a lot of hill climbing, then it may be better to trade off some of the clearance gained by large diameter wheels by keeping a lower profile tyre on 14" rims. For this purpose, rally tyres, say 185-65-14, are ideal. They can be purchased second hand at some tyre outlets - contact your nearest Rally Club to find out where their discards go.

More serious Mods

The lifting mechanisms above are the more conventional approaches. If you don't mind doing a bit of structural work, you can add an additional set of shockers to the rear of L-Series - air adjustable or pump up shock absorbers. Because the standard rear shockers sit inside a spring, they can't readily be discarded and replaced by aftermarket air adjustables, however, you can add an extra set just aft of the existing ones. What is required is to weld a bracket to the top rear of the existing shock absorber mount (fitted with either a bolt/pin to take an eye type shocker or a flat bar with hole to take a pin type shocker), and a pair of flat bars welded to the trailing arms in which to bolt the bottom of the shock absorber. Just make sure there is enough clearance all around for the air bladder not to get fouled when inflated and that the additional shockers run pretty well parallel and in-line with the existing shockers. By pumping up the shockers, you can gain height and/or regain body height when carrying a load. Be warned though, the ride does get a bit stiff with the extra shockers installed so you might like to make them easily removable between off road trips. SWB FJ45/55 Landcruiser (front) air adjustable shock absorbers fit just fine on the rear of the L-Series.

Rear Air Adjustable Shocker Mounts

Top (welded onto rear of lift kit bracket)(10mm Flat Bar)        Bottom (40 x 8 mm Flat Bar)

(Sorry no pic of the installed shock absorber yet)

Up front you can also add conventional gas shockers behind the struts. These won't necessarily give you extra height perse, but they will make your front end stiffer and less prone to wallowing and dipping when going up and down in the rough stuff. To add those, simply weld or bolt in a flat reinforcing plate inside the engine bay (on top of the inner guard) behind the strut mounting area. Through this you will bolt the top end of your pin type shock absorber. For the bottom mount, fabricate a right angled bracket (with reinforcement) and simply bolt it to the strut with exhaust U-bolts. It doesn't take a huge amount of stress, so the construction, while needing to be strong, doesn't have to be nuclear bomb proof. Gas shocks to suit an XC Falcon (rear) will fit this setup.

Front Extra Shock Absorbers

      LH Front Shocker Mounted       Top Reinforcing Plate (6mm)           Bottom Strut Bracket (8mm)

Design and rear mount photos courtesy John Petersen - Thanks John