Help with my Battlewagon?

[Sasquatch SC]

First of all, the rig...

This is my 2019 Subaru Outback 3.6R Touring
What I have done (so far) that is relevant to my problem:

2" Lift Kit​

17x7.5 Sport Edition P3 Wheels - Anthracite​

29.5" Kuhmo Road Venture AT51 Tires (P245/65R-17)​

19mm STi Rear Sway Bar​

Adjustable Whiteline Front End Links​

​

Shortly after I added the lift, I went to visit some family out of town. It was a 3 hour trip. Luckily, I only had to go about 50 miles on the interstate. But that time on the interstate made something very obvious to me: at highway speed with some wind the car's handling has become abysmal. Before modifications, this car could cruise at 90 and it was smooth. Allegedly... it would do that at 90. As a responsible and diligent motorist I would never exceed the posted speed limit. *cough cough* To add some stability, I put on some wheel spacers with the thought - wider track, more stability. Here is the rub - literally - they rub horribly. I'm not sure if it is rubbing on the front and the rear, but it is definitely doing a lot of rubbing on the front. I am taking the spacers off after work today. I will have only done about 15 miles with the rub happening.

So what are my options? And before you start suggesting I start hacking away at the car - it hasn't even reached 3k miles on the odometer.

 

[madcratebuilder]

You have plastic wheel well trim, you may be able to cut, trim, heat, bend enough for tire clearance.

 

[chuckoverland]

Cut hack cut. Jk that sounds like a bummer. I was too lame to lift, i just got tires and wheels on the trek. I want to wait till modding crossovers for offroad takes off and more options and knowledge are available online.
Hope someone here can help.

 

[Sasquatch SC]

Cut hack cut. Jk that sounds like a bummer. I was too lame to lift, i just got tires and wheels on the trek. I want to wait till modding crossovers for offroad takes off and more options and knowledge are available online.
Hope someone here can help.

I have some ideas - but it is going to involve getting another bumper for some trial & error before I put anything into play. For now, I took the spacers off the front, left the ones on the back.

It has been a labor of love & quite a few headaches to get mine where it is now. W/ it being such a new model & being a Touring there wasn’t a lot of off-the-shelf stuff for it.

There is A LOT more stuff out there for the Treks than the Outbacks. If you haven’t already, you should check out www.lpadventure.com. Their main focus are on the glorious boxer powered chariots that are Subaru’s. Also, I see a lot of really good looking Crosstrek builds on Reddit in the r/battlewagons sub.

Before I went w/ the Outback I gave a lot of consideration to the Trek & the new Ascent. I ruled out the Trek bc it couldn’t tow enough for me to pull my boat. I ruled out the Ascent bc even though it could tow an even bigger boat than I have now - I couldn’t justify having a 7-passenger SUV as a single dude w/ no kids. This is my fourth Subaru but I owned 2 Chevy Silverados in the mix. The build quality on a Subie is unmatched though. Other than the tiny bastard child of Subaru & Toyota, the BRZ, there isn’t a single model Subaru that isn’t a bad choice.

 

[Wawa Skittletits]

Welcome to Overland Bound and congrats on your new Outback! I have a lot of experience with lifted 5th gens so here are my thoughts on a couple things..

Unless you're going for a 'look' there is no reason for spacers that large on this car. You gained some width with the wheels and you gained some more with the tires. As it is 245/65 17's barely fall in the turning sweet spot with aftermarket wheels so wheel spacers at only 2" lift are automatically going to cause issues. Those issues run deeper than simply trimming/removing plastic.

Next up.. handling. First I'll mention that for all intents and purposes we drive the same car except mine is lifted higher, I don't run a rear sway bar at all, and I have the aero of a barn door in a tornado. I have zero handling issues on the highway and I throw mine into corners on my drive to and from work on the regular. Granted at this point I'm running higher spring rates at all 4 corners but I didn't have any issues when I was only 2" on stock springs either. This is a understeering world champion from the factory because the front sway bar is doing a great majority of the work. It was actually difficult to tell the difference with no rear sway bar but lets talk about things that will affect highway 'handling'.

- A bad alignment will leave the car feeling unsettled for a couple reasons
- AT tires are simply not going to track like the low rolling resistance OE highway rubber

These are the first two things that came to mind when I read your first post. In the future feel free to ask me (DM) or the large OB Subaru community (Subaru Registry) any questions you might have about your Outback. We'll get you squared away.