Why I Chose a Subaru: Winter Car Camping

Hey guys, chase and get out again today, we're going to make it through the night quickly, we're going alone and we're going to try to take advantage of the last good weather we have before

winter

hits. I feel like it's going to get completely cold and snowy here soon, we have a blanket. of snow a few weeks ago and it has already dissipated a little, but we will see once it rises a little more. I brought my bike to try and go for a ride, my foot has been giving me problems and that's the type of activity of choice at the moment, so I'm going to spend the night and get a ride tonight or in the morning and I also wanted Share with you about my team.

I've gotten a lot of questions, just about the vehicle itself and how I like some of the things I don't like and why I

chose

it over other options. I mentioned in one of my other videos that I used to have a jeep for a while and then I had a tacoma and along with another truck and I loved them, they worked well for me when I had them but given my stage right now this vehicle just fits a little better for my needs and I don't think there is one vehicle that can do everything perfectly and certainly not for everyone, but I thought I would offer some of my thoughts that might guide you and help you make a decision on whether this would be a good piece of equipment. for you or not and just share some things that I like some things so here we go.

First off, I just want to say that I don't claim to be any kind of automotive expert or have any experience that would give me reason to tell you what to do or what to do. I think I've spent a lot of time in the mountains over the last few years, I've driven thousands of miles and yes, it's only been a lot of days, so I've learned a little bit through that and I hope to share it. My experience will give you a little idea and then you can make a more informed decision. The first thing I love about this car is the all-wheel drive system, so I know it's no secret that Subaru has phenomenal all-wheel drive.

I drive uh system and it works extremely well. I've put thousands of miles on snow and ice and gravel roads and stuff like that and it works extremely well on roads that I'm not used to having such good traction and sometimes I can In fact, I think they give me too much confidence and then the Braking doesn't hold up, but yeah, snow, ice, uh, anything that's not packed up off the road, this thing just flattens out, so if you're not planning on going. through deep mud holes or on any kind of deep unplowed road, then the all-wheel drive system crushes it and actually works better than any four-wheel drive system, even the ones I've used in the past when it comes For driving on slippery, sketchy roads, the number two reason is vehicle safety, so I know Subaru has very good crash safety ratings and that's amazing, but I've been able to see it first hand, so I work on time. complete as a professional firefighter.

So at work we get to see a lot of car accidents and how vehicles react to those accidents. Over the years I have had several situations where I have seen vehicles crashed and I am impressed. how well they protect the occupants and so even when I had a truck or just larger vehicles in general I always said if I buy a smaller car it'll probably be a Subaru just because they do a great job protecting. and give its occupants the best possible chance, so that's reason number two, reason number three for me is ground clearance, so I know it's a car, I know it's not going to have a huge amount, but I think it has about nine inches of stock. tires, wheels and suspension, and that's pretty good, it's actually more than an original jeep grand cherokee, so it's pretty good and I think that's partly due to its belly style, it doesn't have a big differential hanging out down, so it's just a pretty flat bottom and So it's nice when you're driving on forest roads and going over sticks and rocks and things like that, it helps protect the bottom and lifts up some bigger tires a little bit and we're not in them, you could get even more, so the ground clearance is nice. and on top of that the suspension is also very soft and nice, I guess that's because it's a car and not designed to carry heavy loads.

It's got a little bit less stiff suspension, so going over washboard roads or just potholes, things like that, it's a little bit softer than my trucks have been in the past, so that's pretty good too, see this moonrise holy cow i got a little distracted with the moonrise and now it's dark with no light so i won't be riding my bike tonight unless i want to throw a light on maybe i will idk , I found a nice campsite here, it's perched high up so it might be a little windy but I think the sunrise will be epic and tomorrow will be great too but anyway Fourth reason why I love this gear it's the built in roof rails and the hitch option so the roof rails that come with at least this model year I think they still make them the same way they basically just fold to the side so there's a rail that runs along both sides of the car and is nested in a roof rack that basically just rotates on the latches to the opposite side and you have a nice set of rails that you can mount things on and then whenever you want.

If you are not using it, you can turn them back and there are many options. I've heard the rating for the rack is only or the rails only weigh about 150 pounds, so it's not that tall, but it works great for placing cargo baskets. and uh boxes like sky boxes and my setup has one of each up there as well as an awning so it's nice to have them built in, I didn't have to buy them after I got the car and it's nice and just a streamlined design which can be folded when you are not using it and then clipped on.

I think you can order the car with the hitch. Mine didn't come with one. I bought it used and ended up putting a hitch on it. It only cost me, I think it was less than 150 dollars to get a hitch, so now I have the ability to haul a bike rack or a small roof rack and I guess I could even tow a trailer with it. If I really needed it, but I guess it's not the best vehicle for that, but I've seen it look great, roof rails and tow hitch. Okay, I'm a little hungry, so I'll set up camp real quick and start cooking. some dinner and then I'll move on to the last two things that interest me about this platform, well that rhyme, so shortly after I went

camping

, in fact, when I made that last video about

winter

car

camping

, I ended up covering up and That's how it was. stuck at home for a while and I don't think I've ever spent so much time at home so I got a lot done but I'm happy to be back out feeling good again without having to sleep 12 hours a day. and also back to work, so yeah, let's make dinner.

Dinner tonight is stir-fried chicken with some yakisoba noodles, so I have the noodles here, I already have some sauce and some frozen vegetables, kind of a mix of some peppers and broccoli and some other good stuff and then I have some of chicken that I need to slice up to cook it and then a little bit of soy sauce and a little bit of sriracha to give it a little bit of flavor. They also have my normal condiments that I keep in here, so I'll probably throw it away. a little bit of garlic a little bit of s p yeah, here we go, good, healthy, good dinner, so all good, the noodles look good.

I'm going to throw them on the chicken. The vegetables look good. I'm going to start adding noodles and chicken. I've already made my way. too much, but it's cold outside so this will last until tomorrow, maybe I'll eat it for lunch, here we go, a little scratch on the top, excellent, I have some food, I feel good again, it's cold, like this I'm going to have a the fire lights up, it's so nice to hang out by the campfire, I don't know why I enjoy camping alone from time to time so much, I guess I don't do it often, but it can be super fun just hanging out. hang out, read, listen to something, and if Always or when I'm out of commission like I am tonight, I just take this with me, probably shortly before it's a Garmin Inreach Mini, a little satellite texting phone, so which connects to my cell phone and has an SOS button so I carry this whenever I'm hiking and stuff on my own just in case and then I can stay in touch so I have to carry it around to charge it but I I'm loading and then I can text Sadie.

Come home and let him know I'm not dead. I will see you in the morning. Good morning it was a cold night but my sun is about to come up so I'm going to set up my drone and fly it from bed because I don't want to go out but it's really cool check this out it's time to make some tea or coffee, let's see, look at this, so another reason why I love this rig is probably pretty obvious on this channel, but it's the space it has in the back, so even with the seats on when I first had it , I camped in it a little bit, loaded up a lot of gear and all that, but now you can see how I set it up, took out the back seats, and built this camper inside. it's pretty spacious i mean i have plenty of room for one i haven't even slept in here maybe it's not optimal but yeah i have cabinets installed and all that so yeah the space inside is amazing and that's without Even using the roof rack, I think I'll wait a few hours before going for a bike ride, maybe go for a drive first because it's cold.

I'm going to wait for the sun to thaw some things, so I'm back. In the car now I went out and realized that biking and filming is quite difficult, so I ended up coming back, leaving my drone and going out for a nice little ride, so that was fun, but I just want to mention real quick my last What I like about this platform is the fuel economy, so the Subaru Outback with the 2.5, which is the model I have, so the smallest four-cylinder engine it has, I think it's advertised as getting between 26 and 32 miles per gallon and I found that it's actually pretty close to that, so with my setup with this roof box on top and on the roof rack and usually also a bike rack and then a couple hundred pounds of gear, I have averaged around 26 and a half. miles per gallon and that's over, I probably know about 40,000 miles in the last two years, so it can vary a little depending on the situation, but for the most part it's been about 26 and a half, including trips like this . in the mountains, on forest roads and then I even did a couple of longer road trips this summer to the midwest and up to Colorado and all that and that's where I sit so I think the box is what steals me a little , but Overall I don't think it's that bad, so it really gets good gas mileage and I've considered putting more aggressive tires on it or maybe even lifting it off the road.

I don't know, but I usually just think about the fact that I have this rig because of the fuel consumption and the size and at a certain point there has to be a pause when you start trying to turn it into a truck, you should probably buy a truck, so I'm not sure what the future holds for you. but overall those are the main things I like about this platform and there are definitely some things I don't like so I think I'm going to make another video and touch on those, but either way I hope they do.

Guys, you learned something, I hope it helps you make a decision if you're trying to decide between vehicles, but yeah, let me know what you think.