2019 Subaru Outback on 2040-cars

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Custom cabinetry gives this Subaru Outback camper cred

Where there's space, there's wood to make it more functional. At least, that seems to be the ethos at customization shop Solid Wood Worx. The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company has turned vehicles such as the Ram ProMaster, Nissan XTerra, Toyota 4Runner, and Ford F-250 into small, livable mobile homes. The most recent project is a Subaru Outback, which uses a unique series of cabinets to meet a fairly complex checklist of asks.  Noticed by Motor1, the Outback belongs to an adventurer named Sean who is setting out on a six-month climbing trip. She reached out to Brian, a woodworker and former cabinet builder, at Solid Wood Worx with her vision of the Outback as a sleep-in camper. She wanted a flat place where she and her 80-pound dog could sleep, a slide-out kitchen with stove and fridge, storage for climbing gear, storage for clothes, and a designated space for a water supply. Possibly the biggest ask was an integrated solar panel with a battery and inverter for off-the-grid living. Brian made it all work.  With the solar panel and spare tire hitched to the Thule roof rack and out of the way, Brian built an interior platform that stretched from the rear hatch to the back of the front seats. Since this eliminated any use of the rear seats, they were taken out. The platform itself has built-in drawers, and the upper portion is split into two functional spaces. The right side has just enough room to fit a small mattress, but Sean looks small, so it should work perfectly. Beneath the bed is the sliding drawer that stows the camp stove. On the left side is a massive amount of storage that doubles as secondary kitchen prep space. On top of that is a small fridge that opens on top like a cooler.  With the kitchen area in its "out" position, a secondary panel opens up to the space where the spare tire used to be. Inside that, Brian's team fitted the wiring, fuses and equipment for the solar panel's battery storage. For this project, Brian used a 100 amp-hour battery and a 100-watt solar kit from Renogy. That power feeds an inverter, a few USB plugs, and the small fridge. Looking through the rear passenger door, there are even more storage spaces for things such as clothes, bedding, shoes, and a laptop. The water tank slides in behind the front seat.  In most of his builds, Brian uses three-quarter-inch nine-ply pine plywood that he gets from Home Depot. It costs roughly $35 for a 4x8 sheet, and each piece weighs about 60 pounds.

Driving the Ford Explorer ST and Volvo V60 Cross Country | Autoblog Podcast #613

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by West Coast Editor James Riswick. First they talk about driving the Volvo V60 Cross Country and Ford Explorer ST, with some thoughts about the Subaru Outback and Super Bowl commercials as well. Then they dive into the mailbag, answering questions and following up on the outcomes of previous "Spend My Money" segments. Finally they wrap things off with a new "Spend My Money," in which they help a listener pick a new car that will accommodate a new, tiny family member without sucking all the fun out of driving. Autoblog Podcast #613 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Cars We're Driving: 2020 Volvo V60 Cross Country 2020 Ford Explorer ST 2020 Subaru Outback Super Bowl ads Mail bag Spend My Money Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Junkyard Gem: 1992 Subaru Loyale Wagon, with Budget Cargo Carrier

Before there was the Impreza, there was the Leone. Sold in the United States at first as, simply, The Subaru, the Loyale name appeared on the last few years of the third-generation Leones. Here's a final-model-year example of the Loyale wagon in a Denver wrecking yard, complete with rust, outdoorsy-activity-themed stickers, and interesting homebuilt plywood upgrades. These cars weren't quite as sturdy as their successors, but this one reached the magical 200,000-mile mark during its quarter-century on the roads and trails of Colorado. For some reason, there's a mid-1990s Mazda Miata M Edition badge on the tailgate. Some Colorado Subaru dealerships sell "Rocky Mountain Edition" option packages, so perhaps this was the Loyale owner's way of joining the exclusive club for owners of Subarus with snow-grooved floormats and ski-friendly roof racks. In keeping with that theme of homebrewed upgrades, this car has a plywood version of the roof-mounted cargo carriers so popular with local Outback owners. Sure, it's a bit heavy and the lack of paint reduced its lifespan, but it got the job done. The skinny twine holding the box to its plumbing-pipe mounts looks a bit scary; I'd hoped to see some hefty lag-bolts going through the roof's metal into the box's underside, but did not find any such hardware. Tailgating this rig would not have been advised. Inside, a sturdy wooden floor covers the rear-seat and cargo area. Just the thing for lots of bicycle parts or camping gear! It's those little details that make an installation like this work best. A tire receipt from last year shows that this car lived in even-more-Subariffic-than-Denver Boulder, and that it was still running and being maintained in the recent past. Unlike nearly all retired Subarus of this era that I see in Denver junkyards, this one has not a single cannabis-dispensary sticker on the dash (in stark contrast to, for example, this THC-saturated '84 GL wagon). None of that lung-capacity-destroying weed for this Subaru, no sir— just healthy outdoor adventures! You could still buy front-wheel-drive Subarus in 1992, but this one is an all-wheel-drive car with 5-speed manual transmission and 90-horse boxer-four engine. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Before Subaru pitched their wagons as outdoor-activity-enabling adventuremobiles, they were sold as practical family haulers.