Is The New Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness Actually A Capable Off-Roader?

Nathan check it out our friends over at Bean trailers called and said hey we've got a Subaru cross trip Wilderness we'd like you to review and our new bean stock 2.0 so what are we doing today today we're going to do some light off-roading we're going to review this vehicle we're going to take it towing with the bean that's right can't wait to bring you this video let's go hit it Subaru does not work with tfl so we don't have a ton of hands-on experience with newer models but Nathan and I are both really excited to get our hands on the Wilderness version of the Cross Trek because this is the off-road trim with all these gold accents yeah that's right and these accents and all the cladding mean off-roading yeah that's right now Nathan what ises the crust trip Wilderness compete with well it goes directly against the bronos sport and of course the Jeep Compass yeah and we have a ton of off-road experience in those Vehicles so I'm really excited to see how the Subaru Compares but the Wilderness doesn't only give you some visual trim it gives you about 0.6 in of additional ground clearance for a total of a massive 9.3 and we also have underbody protection and tires that's right these are Yokohama geolander ATS I've actually used these before they're quite aggressive off-road yeah the gold trim continues up here on this integrated roof rack and out back we're going to find Our receiver what does a cross check tow this one can tow up to 3500 lb which is pretty good and we're going to find out what does that mean in the real world with beanock 2.0 all right Nathan first time on a MOAB Trail in the cross trk what are your first impressions well I think that you and I would agree that the first things that you need to do in order to make make a crossover any vehicle more off-road worthy tires and height yeah I mean those are really important and that's exactly what Subaru did here and they've been doing it for a while but this one 9 in over 9 in of ground clearance very good idea tires are great so you're already off to a good start I believe it has better ground clearance than both the Jeep and the Bronco uh Bronco sport I should say it's performing quite well suspension is definitely probably dialed in more for Road and this is all secondary right right yeah I mean first and foremost if you're designing an off-road Focus crossover you do have to realize that 99% of the time its life is going to be spent in parking lots and on the road exactly so it is a little stiff yep but it is doing a good job of clearing some of these rocks and Moguls were going over that's exactly it and they want the vehicle to be able to be driven home but in addition any automaker this is Ford this is Jeep this is Subaru if they're building a vehicle that's taller with more aggressive tires they're losing MPG and they have to maintain good MPG so there's that trade-off how far do you go with it right and this vehicle is a really good example of where you can go with it and still maintain good economy so the Wilderness cross Trek starts at about $3,290 about $1,100 more than the limited and the interior design is meant to be very rugged and durable so we have these almost wet suit like seats which feel like they're going to do a great job of repelling dirt a very kind of plasticky Dash dashboard but once again nice and durable all-weather Subaru Wilderness mat we've got a chi wireless charger here a nice chunky screen in here with all of your integrated features and then leather wrap steering wheel with more of that gold trim I do like the analog gauges quite a bit it's got Subaru eyesight system so we have adaptive cruise control and a bunch of the safety gear overall a pretty comfortable place this one has power seats heated seats so it's quite well equipped and Nathan how is the rear seat room so Tommy's uh over 6 ft tall and he's back and I have plenty of leg room actually surprisingly I thought it would be smaller in here I have decent head room if I were Roman who's taller uh his hairpiece would definitely be rubbing against the top here uh but in my case I just have enough space uh actually these seats aren't too bad back here I have USB and USBC plugs but I do not have a rear air vent something to keep in mind but overall it's actually a decent amount of space and Nathan for a company so driven on dog friendliness the lack of rear air vents is quite surprising it is indeed so the back seat fits a Nathan quite nicely but how about the trunk no it doesn't quite fit me but it's still fairly large but your dog probably would be a little uncomfortable back here as well but smaller dogs would be fine yeah I mean the hatch opening is fairly small for the big Beres Mountain Dog folk out there also the lift over is a little bit on the high side considering how tall this thing is all right Nathan we got just a little river crossing here it's like we're in a Subaru commercial there we go there's no dog in the back seat yeah no skis on the roof no problem that didn't care yeah now Nathan this does feel quite a bit more carlike than something like the Bronco sport bad lenss wouldn't you say agree 100% but they did something Tommy I got to tell you I'm very happy about one thing and I I'm we're not doing a super commercial come on we're the last people to do that but they did something to make me extremely happy What's that name I have a place to put my shoulder or elbow on as we are driving that is padded in other words on the window s right here next to me this is padded now I know that sounds like what's the big deal about that you'd be surprised how many cars just have a hard piece of plastic here I like driving cars with window open and I like being able to hang my arm out there and it's so nice to have a nice piece of padding right here I really like that yeah it is that is quite nice now let's talk about the powertrain Ean 2.5 l flat 4 182 horsepower 178 LBT of torque that's not a ton especially compared to some of the vehicles in his class that's right actually if you think about it you know that little Santa Cruz I drive actually puts out more torque than this but slightly less horsepower and it's enough but it's just not a lot now we got our first little obstacle here and we're going to see how the Subaru articulates so we're going to lift up on the front right wheel just like that now I'm watching while you're doing that our driving statistics which is a screen that shows what's going on where the power is going it looks really good graphically but it's not really showing us much in terms of which wheels are losing traction so so that worked pretty well and that was in normal mode but let's try that again what we're doing is we're picking up opposite ends of the car and then forcing the traction control to engage um and actually that did work much better than I was anticipating but let's try it again in the dirt X mode ah dirt X and we're going to see how that performs now of course famously this car does have a continuously variable transmission uhhuh and we're going to see how the torque delivery is sometimes is hit and miss with cvts so we're going to take the hard line here and tell me according to Subaru this has symmetrical all wheeel Drive symmetrical as opposed to non-symmetrical all-wheel drive definitely performed a little better there's no wheel slip yeah like none or very very little that I could detect so actually quite a big difference by going into that X mode there interesting yeah very interesting yeah so Nathan we do have this driving statistic page what does this show us well it is showing us you know our angle approach everything else in that respect also showing where the power is going but it's not a very good graphic in that respect it's just kind of like yeah yeah power is going that way kind of but I'd like I'd like to know which tire is really slipping and what it's doing and I I'd like to know what the articulation is if you're going to show this but the graphics look good and this is not like a super challenging Trail but it's perfect for a crossover really we've got kind of this cool little Cross Hill here yeah this this is going to challenge it over here a little bit more there we go and let's see how the articulation is and how the traction control system works so taking it super slow and then we're going to start lifting up wheels and tires yeah so now we have both wheels off front right and left there we go and this is typically where the CVT starts to struggle but actually it's figured it out we got a teeter totter here and we're down we're down down go so pretty good actually you know were you in the X mode yeah that was X mode that was the dirt X mode that's probably as far as you want to push a car like this you know what I mean we got a little approach angle test here see if we're going to use that little front skid plate at all the nose does stick out a little bit I will say that oh pretty good A lot of clearance in the rear yeah which is good H worked all right yeah I mean my only real criticism is the ride is very stiff now of course we're running like 35 PSI tires we could air it down um and that would definitely improve the ride by quite a bit yeah but then you lose ground clearance then you do lose ground clearance yeah in a crossover you don't have a lot to lose exactly and this I think at 9 in or just over that I think that's ideal for a little crossover yeah look at that pretty good for a little guy you got the hill of sink control working not bad at all yeah did all right so before we can get to the towing we have to show you guys what we're about to tow and this is something really cool I'm here with Drew how you doing buddy good how are you good so Drew you're with Bean trailers and talk me through what we're looking at here so this is our brand new beanock 2.0 Okay so we've had a lot of off-road trailers for a long time everything that we have starts in the high 20s we have a lot of people asking us for something more affordable but still high quality and off-road capable so with this trailer we pulled out the rear Galley to save weight and cost okay so we cut the weight down to this one starting at 1175 so we towed out here at the Subaru cross trck really good for people that have smaller tow capacity vehicles um it still has the same single piece fiberglass shell that we have on everything else and starting price on this one's $159.99 wow so starting price under 16 Grand four single piece fiberglass shell steel frame it's got the timbran 2000 HD independent suspension this one that we're looking at here does have the 4in lift inside structurally is composite so you don't have wood in the sidewalls or the floor or the structural parts of the trailer uh we do use it in the Cabinetry because it looks nice it's kind of a high quality we use a high quality Baltic Birch so walk me through um um some of the features on this model so this one has the optional door on this side it does yeah so standard again to keep things as light and low cost as possible we we make most things options on this trailer so this side generally would just be a flat wall uh you can upgrade it to a single large window like you can see over on our green trailer over here or you can upgrade to the second door and small turn window here so compared to some of the other beans I've I've had some experience with without the galley it really extends the length in here right it does it does it really opens that up in the back so normally your Cabinetry is going to come out there everything that we have stored underneath is where your rear kitchen would be so that's where your stove and your fridge would be for that rear access removing that allowed us to open up that entire area so we have the big rear storage shelf we have all of that storage underneath everything's running through that Goal Zero so that's acting as your inverter your usb chargers your 110 outputs all of that and it's also the DC output that's running the fridge in the front the lighting in the trailer The Fan all of that so it keeps it really simple keeps it upgradeable by the customer if they want to bump that up in the future yeah and uh walk me through what you've done to kind of keep the weather out so is this unit insulated how does that work uh so it uses a uh hexe air insulated um composite wall so I usually expect cold weather 10 to 15° warmer just with body heat um but we have like brigam you had a uh heated blanket last night that he was running off his Goal Zero stayed cozy all night I just Ed my sleeping bag and it totally comfortable it was probably I would guess mid 20s last night it got pretty chilly but it was nice in here and you kind of mentioned it earlier Drew but this unit sits really high off the ground yeah yeah so you're able to kind of tackle some pretty challenging terrain yeah so so that green trailer with our our Bronco um Brigham actually pulled that through poison spider crazy the entire trail with that trailer and the Bronco that we use for work you have the side table that locks into your Jerry can mounts nice so you can run this modular it's got the little cutout so you can run sink and cutting board or you can run two cutting boards two sinks oh jeez One Tap off um and then you have two options for this so if you look under the door you actually have a slide in storage under here that we made weathertight and then we have a undershelf mounted package so you can see the secondary table there which you can do one or the other or you can do both and you can actually utilize the slots on the side of this table to create a nice little like L-shaped Island so you can actually run that table off of this table nice so one of the cool things about these teardrops is you have a really big area for storage in the front yeah so with this uh we made a kind of a lighter weight tray than what we had on our other trailers it's still nice and structural so if you don't have things on here you can stand up top to get to your roof rack uh we do put solar and 12vt plugs on the front there so we have really liked this iceco 55 it's their outdoor rated fridge it's dual zone so you can run fridge and freezer and again that's just running off of that Goal Zero and is it all custom configurable to the client's needs yeah yeah so pretty much everything we build is built from the ground up for the customer uh you get to order custom order all your options and everything with that we do have we tend to try to have a couple inventory models on hand usually they sell out pretty quick so if uh if we do have them they're not they're not always available but yeah most things are custom built and how many colors 18 different standard color options and then about 90 upgraded color options so something for everybody so you got an option so starts at about 16 this one behind us as equipped where do you think this one's sitting I'm thinking this one's probably sitting in like the 24 range uh average out the door recently sales I've seen 21 to 22 um but we've sold them as cheap as 17 and then you can all kinds of stuff to sweet well Drew thank you so much yeah absolutely I really appreciate it now we're going to go tow [Music] it all right Nathan first toe now that we made it to that giant mud pole we're going out in the trail in the cross Trek and the nice thing about this bean stock 14 to 1500 lb as equipped so fairly lightweight little unit which means that um it doesn't have that big of an impact on the driving dynamics of a normal crossover no you're going to feel it when you're speeding onto the freeway you're going to feel it with the gas pump I think those are going to be noticeable but this is aerodynamic not a ton of drag I mean it doesn't have the giant giant tires on it so I think it's a pretty good compromise yeah right and um look 182 horsepower 178 lbet of torque in this cross trk CVT it's not a ton of power but if you had to accelerate and speed up it's okay I mean you're not going to pass someone on a two-lane road with much of a hurry with the CVT but it'll do its job you know so I know for a fact uh years ago when we did talk to uh Subaru people that they have always been geared towards Towing they've always wanted their cars to be better Towing Vehicles than the equivalent competition and I think they're staying to that I think this thing Towes pretty good for a small car yeah I think you're right Nathan um handling is pretty good as well um you know one thing you do have to note is if you uh want trailer brakes this cross trick you're going to have to have a wireless or integrated brake controller yes um and then of course you're going to need the receiver back there but yeah I mean this is really the big advantage of the beans over a bunch of their competitors is a this one has the 4 in of ground clearance and the offer tires MH so when you're going over rougher roads like this not worried about punctures you're not worried about grounding out and we also have the independent suspension on this be so we've got plenty of clearance yeah the underside is all flat too so it's h you know fairly easy to slide it over something if you really had to yeah and if you really want to go crazy you can even get it with rock rails right um but be it's just so small and lightweight and maneuverable that you don't need something like a full-size truck or a defender or you know a Bronco to tow this you can do it with typically any vehicle is going to be just fine yeah pretty much your average crossover shouldn't have a problem pulling this yeah we can get through that that'll be fine shouldn't be a problem have a good day Nathan the side by side guy not so sure we're going to make it through the water crossing here well not only is he from Texas but he's a Marine so if he says so then I guess we're done yeah okay go all right Nathan we got an audience with these dirt bikers yep going to build up a little bway in the Subaru go a little puffier than we were expecting I think Nathan yeah I would [Music] agree and it's good pulled it through touchdown woo we got one more little uh soggy bit here kind of Rocky at the bottom of that that's exactly you can hear it and it's clinking around and I think that's deceptive that's actually uh the tow hitch making all that noise not rocks and that's one of the things one of the things about towing with unibody vehicle right is that you get a lot of those kind of clunks and vibrations into the vehicle that's why body un frames are sometimes a little little little quieter to tow with yeah I would agree and and you know if you're serious about Towing then get a truck so overall guys the cross trck really performed very well both off-road in our little test and towing the bean and Nathan what are your final thoughts one interesting thing about Towing the bean normally I tell people that they really should have special mirrors on their vehicles if they didn't come equipped with towing mirrors but this thing is narrow enough to where it wasn't isn't that big of a deal a lot of these trailers stick out really really wide and it makes it very difficult for you to see around them so that's a big plus for the trailer as for towing with this vehicle yeah as long as you're not going over 2,000 lb I think it works quite well yeah it really works well it's perfectly suited for this unit if you want to tow off-road you can buy yourself a Bronco beanock 2.0 is one of the most versatile units out there from on-road to cars to massive off-roaders you got a lot of options on what you can do with them and a big thank you to Bean for sponsoring this video check the link in the description below if you want to learn more or head over to beant tr.com we'll see you next time so while I'm doing a little bit of Solo driveing in the Subaru a couple little things first of all for extra points can you name three songs that mentioned Subaru in them they are considered rock songs all three of them to a certain degree I'm just curious to whether or not you're able to do that second of all um just very important point I used to own a Subaru I actually had a 99 Forester and it was really good and my wife beat the Daylights out of it and it still came back for more but it had a manual transmission and that's something that this does not have which is kind of a shame

Channel: The Fast Lane Car

Views: 94,695

Keywords: subaru, teardrop trailer, crosstrek, travel trailer, small travel trailer, best teardrop trailer, bean trailer, camper trailer, small camper trailer, trailer, off road subaru, subaru off road, subaru crosstrek wilderness, bean camper trailer, bean stock, bean stalk, bean stalk trailer, 2024 subaru crosstrek wilderness, crosstrek wilderness, subaru crosstrek 2024, subaru crosstrek, 2024 crosstrek, subaru wilderness, 2024 subaru crosstrek review, new subaru crosstrek

Id: 77ejZI-Qv28

Length: 19min 22sec (1162 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2024