Whenever you hit backcountry cow paths or the off-road park, you just expect to encounter certain vehicles. Toyota Land Cruisers, Nissan XTerras, every possible kind of Jeep ever built, and lifted pickup trucks—you know the drill. Lately, however, I've been seeing more and more Subarus out on the trails, and you know what? It's about time. The folks at Oregon-based Anderson Design & Fabrication agree, which is why they've built a business supplying top-notch body lift kits for everything from old Subaru GLs to the latest Outbacks to the excellent little Forester you see up top. Most of their products use spacers instead of a full spring lift to retain as much of the original ride quality as possible, but they'll also sell you a long-travel suspension kit for your Subie.

Anderson Design & Fabrication

There's just something weirdly satisfying about seeing a fairly normal Subaru smear shame on legions of mall-crawlin' Jeep owners who feel as if they need four-wheel-drive and low-range engaged just to pop over some rocks. Subarus don't even have a two-speed transfer case.

Yet with a mild lift, some additional skid plates, body protection, and perhaps a snorkel, these otherwise basic little cars look pretty mean and can handle some surprisingly tough terrain. There are many trails you can go on without ever actually needing four-wheel-drive anyway if you know what you're doing, so the Subaru all-wheel-drive system seems plenty capable for off-road shenanigans. Meeting owners who actually go out and try this sort of thing is the best. Just take a look at Justin Solis' Forester hooning up an absurdly steep hill at Hidden Falls Adventure Park without ever actually needing to have Subaru's off-road-oriented "X-Mode" on. It's beautiful and makes me honestly question why I see so many of these only soiled with bird poop and crayons out on the road instead of full side-coats of mud.

Anderson Design & Fabrication