For more information on the fabrication of this truck visit my site at www.SubaruBrat.com .

Just a few snapshots of it taken at the dirtpile.

A great deal has changed lately for the truck. I have upped the lift from 8 inches to 12 inches and the tire size has increased to 33x16 Super Swampers. Rear shocks were replaced with a longer RSX and the fronts were fine as is. A steering stabilizer has been added. It is a Rancho unit for a Toyota. The driveline has been modified a bit as well. I now have the Subaru tranny outputing all power to the rear shaft and driving a Nissan transfer case. The Subaru tranny is locked in low giving me the proper gearing to compensate for the 33s. The new low is provided by the Nissan Tcase. To provide power to the front wheels a BRAT rear diff has been placed in the front and is driven by the Tcase. I also added a new roll bar, lights and some other details.

The major details on the truck are the engine, lift, and tires. Ordinarily foot wide 30in. Super Swampers would not be that big of a deal, but considering this truck originally had 4 lug 13 inch wheels it is here.

In it's stock form the BRAT is a very capable truck that will perform well in off road terrain your would not expect it to be capable of. Those very same features are greatly enhanced by these modifications. The suspension is a four wheel independent design, no big deal today on 4x4s, but Subaru did it in 77. The drivetrain integrated the transfer case into the tranny so that the drivetrain remains tucked up under the truck and allows for superior ground clearance. In fact, the truck is front wheel drive when in two wheel drive. Furthermore the 4WD system is shift on the fly at any speed and 4LO can be engaged at any speed the gearing will allow you to be under redline, again this is common today, but Subaru did it 20 years before it mainstreamed into the market.

The Engine:

The original EA81 is allot like the Hurricane 4 in the Wyllis Jeep, strong and bulletproof reliable. It was not up to the job here so I swapped in the ER27 horizontal 6cyl. The problems here are all due to the size of this engine. It is wider than the subframes so they had to be channeled. The engine is also much longer than the stock 4cly and comes within about 2 inches of touching the grill. This means that a front mounted radiator was out of the question. The solution was a top mounted radiator that flips up for servicing the engine.

The radiator itself:

This of course means that it breathes through the hood, this pic also shows the new color of the truck that I am shooting.

The lift was another complicated matter. The BRAT is a unibody vehicle and in lifting it a tube subframe was fabricated to lift and strengthen the truck.

An example of how the frame was fabricated:

The rear was also done in a similar fashion. This pic shows the trailing arm tortion bar design and you can see the subframe too.

The power, clearance and suspension now allows a set of much larger tires to be mounted, further increasing the ground clearance and overall performance. The stock 4 lug pattern limits wheel options so the hubs were converted over to 6 lugs allowing any Toyota type wheel to fit.

Allowing me to mount these:

On these:

The truck is now a foot wider than it is tall and needs these to cover the tires: