AndyC

Road ratcheting would be eliminated by manual hubs, go for it!

The Lokka (sp?) is a full locker, not selectable. The nice thing about running a full locker up front is on the street, you don't know it's there. In the dirt, the ratcheting is far less noticeable. A front LSD is fine, paired with a rear locker is a formidable setup. But for my money, if I were to upgrade the front I would step up to a full locking diff.

Those are awesome, another option would be the front M205 and rear IRS out of a 2005+ V8 Pathy. There are lift options out there, UCA's. cheaper than custom.

What are the trails like in your area that you can fit a full width setup on?! I guess I'm asking what kind of terrain is your build directed at?

And on an '05 at least you can shut off traction control. Oh yeah, welcome to the world of ABLS which is great, TPMS (tire pressure monitoring) which sucks.

Having owned an '06 I can say it would be perfect for what you want to do. I wouldn't buy one as a wheeler, but they have plenty of grunt, tow well, are comfortable and reliable. As mentioned, the timing chain guides were a recall item, you can hear them go out, sounds like a super charger or ground noise. RPM dependent whine. Also the tranny cooler tends to make a milkshake with the radiator, but there are documented remedies. The diffs are weaker (R180 front c200 rear or a D44 variant in manuals and offroad package) but if you are not using it on the trail they are plenty strong. Plus's: amazing engine, rack and pinion steering which is effortless. Lots of interior space, room for an inflatable queen mattress in the cargo area. Just remember your maintenance items will be spendy. They are coil on plug, the hubs are not serviceable as they are one unit. Yet,for a modern vehicle, they are easy to work on. Hope this helps.

That really looks like an early '70s 1400 subie leone. Not sure about the bumper, but everything else looks right.

Yeah I'm on crapatalk... Hadn't used the edit function before. Went back to add one letter and suddenly, punctuation exploded! I guess that's what I get for proof reading.

Boy, don't hit the edit button unless you want your punctuation messed up!

Ha!I had an 1984 240 DL, peacock blue, that was a bad ass, comfortable, but obscenely slow ride. Loved that car. <br /><br />No setup is perfect, I would take my wife's wrx with blizzaks skiing any day over the pathy. But it will pass anything in the road but a gas station. <br /> If u were looking for a cheap vehicle, that got respectable gas mileage, capability, and easy to work on- Suby GL-wagon. Even had a transfer case. Here in Wa they still comand a premium though!

http://www.rockfordcv.com/rcvboot.htm

It's all me first and the gimme gimmes these days. Glad your guy is ok.

Add to that the fact that mpg is becoming a real selling point for manufactures. Anything that would produce any negligible downforce would have a negative effect on mileage.

Yep, leave a fingers gap between the front droop snubber and the bump stop. This will give you decent riffle quality. As HB said above they will settle. But 3in lift springs in the rear will leave quite a bit of rake with the front end (1-1.5in+) in my experience. Go ahead and crank the t-bars (keep track of the rotations so they stay equal) until you have the desired gap. Drive around until everything is settled, adjust, get alignment, drive!

You bet! Cv's are such a PIA that it's worth doing once, right!

They are an easy fix, but seeing how dirt is the enemy of a cv, I would just use it as a bandaid until I could do a proper cleaning and rebuild.

Split boot... Those belong in your trail repair kit, don't think I would want to run them for an extended period of time. Besides it is impossible to really clean and inspect the axle on the vehicle.

On a 16" wheel you'd be looking at a 255/85R16. I've had great luck with that in a BFG MT. One thing, the tire absolutely no floatation. It will cut through a lot of mud or snow, but it's not staying on top of anything!

I'm going to go against the crowd here. I would say replace the boots. Get a set of thermoplastic boots from Rockford. The only thing that takes a long time is degreasing your current axles. Other than that it only takes maybe 2-3 hours to do the whole rebuild tops. You will end up with a strong OE cv with very flexible boots for about $150-200 less than replacements.

From experience on a 3.3 (which probably sounded better than a 3.0L) it sounds like a popcorn machine on steroids, not in a good way! And zero low end torque.

$1500? You can replace the engine and tranny (make sure you get a cooler) reasonably on these rigs. What you need to look for is rust. Check the frame behind the passenger seat. Get in there with a hammer and anything that doesn't sound solid, inspect. Ask about the timing belt, look over the suspension components, ball joints, check the cv's for rips. If you can lift the front end and check the tires for play. Whatever you can to get some bargaining chips.

Are both axles sprung under?

The reservoir shocks really do shine in high speed situations. I like the idea and think it would look the tits for sure. Too bad you couldnt fit a set of hydraulic bumpstops in there, that would be quite the setup!

He is SASed with a front locker. Why were the hubs locked on the trailer? If only one hub is locked its going to piss the locker off as it wants to have both axles spinning at the same rate. Was it exhibiting the problem going straight or while turning?

Got to agree with these guys. On our last run, a buddy with a decent amount of wheeling experience brought out his 2012 rubi 4dr. Completely stock, it had a harder time through the trail than my pathy on 33's with rear locker. That being said, he now has a small lift and 35's. Probably a game changer! We will see, I'm glad someone is making an offroad biased vehicle these days, but for the cost? No way I would buy one.