- Car specs -
2007 Forester XT Limited Auto
Struts - KYB Excel-G with low miles
Tires - Yokohama Geolander M/T G003, 225/65r17, under 300 miles so 17/32" tread depth, @ 25 psi
Added vehicle weight - ~200 lbs including Apex 5500lb winch w/ big winch plate, roof basket with spare wheel and hand tools, Pelican case with ~80 lbs of stuff in it, subwoofer, air compressor, another air compressor and battery jumper.
- Lift height -
Before installing the Rallitek springs, I measured my sag/droop at 6" front, 5" rear. I expected the new springs to lift me an inch but it actually lifted me about 2" front and rear. My OEM springs had 198k miles and 17 years on them so they were worn out it seems.
- Ground Clearance -
I measured at several locations on the car before and after but wasn't perfect with my methods. Reminder: I removed the 2" ADF strut-top spacers and added the Rallitek 1" lift springs.
Rear diff (no skid) went from 11.8" to 12.0".
Grimmspeed downpipe and Invidia catback measurements stayed about the same somehow, maybe cuz human error, which was 11.6" at the muffler, 10.2" at the midpipe resonator, and 10.3" at the cat in the downpipe. It's going to continue getting hit as I offroad, sadly. I want to find an OEM catback or get a custom one made with ground clearance in mind.
My camera that is stuck to the bottom of the AT pan seems to have gained 0.5" of lift, now at 10.5".
Primitive front skid plate went from 9.8" to 10.2" at the lowest point. Sorry, no oil pan measurements for you.
- Ride Quality / On-road Performance -
Still soft enough for me to daily it with the family, but noticeably firmer than my worn out OEM springs, as expected. My sway bars are deleted and these springs eliminated a lot of the resulting increased body-roll. Cornering was one big benefit I was looking forward to.
- Off-road Performance -
I barely have 40 miles / 2 hours back-roading with these, but I'm loving the increased firmness. I hit a bit of a jump that I've hit several times before and it handled it much better. I think I can actually catch air and land without worrying about bottoming out super hard.
My alignment was bad at the time, not due to the springs, so I shouldn't judge the way it wandered when I was hitting washboards on the gravel road. It was wandering on the highway, too, with a bunch of toe-in. Still, I was hammering the road pretty hard, drifting a bit in some of the faster corners and slamming big potholes that form in mountain backroads of the Rocky Mountains, and the springs handled it great.
- Cargo Capacity -
I can actually carry stuff in and on my car now without worrying about a big loss of ground clearance or performance. A big upgrade for me that I was looking forward to.
- Installation -
I did it myself with the Harbor Freight spring compressor tool. One tricky part is getting the tool off the rear springs once mounted to the strut. There isn't enough space to get the tool off, so you have to remove the 2 arms of the tool to free it and you might scrape the blue Rallitek coating on the springs (sad face). I had to compress 4 rungs for the rears. For the fronts, only had to do 3 rungs and didn't have to disassemble the spring-compressor tool to free it. The tool says not to torque it past 15 ft/lb, but I had it all oiled up and still needed over 50 ft/lb to compressed the springs far enough to mount on the struts. The tool is kind of a pile but it worked and I didn't die (the safety loop thing they provide doesn't actually fit onto it so it's kinda sketchy to use).
- Camber / Alignment -
I have front and rear camber bolts. All 4 were set to their maximum negative (lowest?) camber. I took the car to the local Subaru dealer to get it aligned. Here were the results:
Camber front: -0.2° | -0.9° after -0.3° | -0.3°
Camber rear: +0.4° | -0.1° after +0.4° | -0.1°
I forgot to tell them I added rear camber bolts. I might play with the left rear since it's +0.4°.
Toe Front: +0.96° | +1.49° after +0.01° | +0.02°
Toe Rear: +0.07° | -0.42° after +0.02° | -0.05°
Steer Ahead: -0.27° after 0.00°
Thrust angle: +0.24° after +0.03°
- Thoughts about adding strut-top spacers to go higher -
If you have good OEM axles, especially with those extended-travel boots, you could probably add 1" in front and 1.5" in the back. I don't think my current axles can handle it, which are old OEM rears and new Napa fronts. Eventually I will do subframe spacers front and rear and put my 2" ADF strut-top spacers back on. I've already dumped $14k into this rig, what's another $1k (or $60 in hockey pucks)?
- Concerns or issues thus far -
The only thing that kinda concerns me is how hard it clunks when the rears top-out, like when going over speed bumps quickly. I'm not sure why that happens and need to research it still.
Sorry for the novel. Hope you enjoyed it.
