February 2020 – Stuff!

I was super stoked when Rally Armor finally released mudflaps for the 2020 Outback!! I’d been waiting since I bought the car in November 2019. Rokblokz had them weeks before Rally Armor, but I the RAs looked so much nicer. As soon as they became available, I bought them and BOOM, in 3 days they had arrived. Here, I document my install of the Rally Armor UR mudflaps for the 2020 Subaru Outback Onyx XT. *Please note that I am by no means any sort of expert about cars or how to repair or alter them. I’m just an average car owner and like the way they look.*

Written: 02/29/2020

Rally Armor UR

Front Mud-flaps

Turn the wheel towards the direction you’re working on to free space

My car came with the OEM mud guards, so that wasn’t covered under the Rally Armor instructions. I assume without the guards, there would be clips instead of screws securing the liner and trim

Underside of the OEM guard. Remove the screw to remove the guard. I used a screwdriver for this

Initially used a screwdriver, but found a ratcheting wrench much easier. A ratcheting socket would be even better

The innermost screw was too deep for my non-socket wrench, so I used the regular side

Pull back the liner (somehow a bunch of leaves got into mine)

Because mine had the OEM guards, there are already polygon clips (?) where the screws threaded. Remove all 3 (2 outermost and one on the inner towards the middle of the car)

Side by side of the ones for the OEM guards and the Rally Armor polygon clips

Directions say to mount them onto the metal, one upper and one lower. It didn’t say anything about how the trim is attached there too, so I just slid it in behind

Same for the top. The directions say at an angle, so I followed the image, but then doing the other side later, I realized it doesn’t matter how it’s angled. So then, I just copied how the OEM clips were angled.

Shove the liner back into place behind the metal and plastic trim layers (mine was stubborn and needed a firm shove/fist) and line up the holes. My clips would move around, so make sure it’s still lined up.

3 washers and 3 screws. Two 1.5SS long screw and one 1SS short screw

On the innermost mount, take your INS5 fastener and pop it into the hole. Don’t push the pin thing inside the insert (make sure you’ve removed the OEM clip if your car came with the guards)

So here, I had a lot of trouble getting the short screw to seat in the INS5, so I ended up swapping out one of the long 1.5SS screws for the short 1SS. Worked like a charm.

Don’t forget to reattach the under screw. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but I don’t like the idea of leaving it empty.

Rear Mud-flaps

First thing is to remove the OEM guards just like in the front. There are two screws on the outside towards the wheel

This one was an absolute beast to remove. I slid my thin flathead under the middle part, then eased it out, having to switch to a larger flathead, and even though it came out, the rest was stuck in the car, so eventually I had to use pliers to pop it out. I tried to not break things, but I had to use a lot of force in the end.

There’s one more clip near the wheel on the inside. Good luck if you have big hands. Some more bit of force and POP it comes out.

Time to remove these two above where I removed the 2 screws holding in the OEM guard

Push the inner rivet pin in to unlock it

My thin flat head here again to ease it out. You could use a plastic pry tool, I guess. My lower one was extremely stubborn, while the upper one came out without any problems.

Next step is to put the sticker on the back of the metal bracket. Then, it goes on the underside of the car in an empty hole on the under trim, with the metal bracket’s threads pointing towards the front of the car. It will be where the inner portion of the mudflap will secure

Here’s the tricky part. I used a socket wrench, a shorter socket and then a deep socket to try and do this

Slide yourself underneath the car. I put the socket over the lock nut (set it up per the instructions with the machine screw). The nice thing is that the socket wrench’s handle (on the right side of the car) just hung out against the car while I tried to tighten with a screwdriver until I couldn’t go anymore with this setup

Then I switched to sitting up, and you can’t see if from this crappy image (Every inch of me was freezing at this point) but I’m holding a regular fixed wrench on the almost tight lock nut and then using a screwdriver under the car to tighten it up. I’d leave it a little loose at this point so that later you can still move the metal bracket around for positioning the mudflap. Just don’t forget to tighten it later.

Time for the 3 orange clips. Thank goodness for something easy

Make sure to remove the OEM clips first. The top two go between the trim and the metal (don’t worry about the uppermost hole. It needs to stay empty for easy maneuvering of the trim)

The bottom-most clip goes over the trim. I had a hard time sliding it on with my freezing fingers, so I just put the flathead inside the orange clip to keep it open and then easily slid it over where it needed to go

4 washers, 1 lock nut, and 3 skinny screws. Don’t forget the lock nut’s washer! Screwdriver and socket wrench time. It’s a tight working space. Leave them all loose until you position it all right and then make sure to tighten everything up. Don’t forget the rivet pin clip and the large clip underneath the car!!

All done!! Snazzy!! 🙂 Go around and recheck placement/positioning of the flaps. It’s nice that it’s so easy to do. Make sure not to overtighten anything!

In Conclusion

Perfectly doable for an amateur like me. I started at around 10ish and finished up around 1:30pm. Granted, I had help about 1/3 of the way through and I ran into quite a snag with the innermost mount for the front mudflaps, not to mention some time to realize that with the OEM guards you have to remove all the clips that came with it. I also did not understand the placement of the INS5 or .25 spacer. My help had to, well, help me and then it all made sense. Then there was the issue of the 1SS short screw not seating into the INS5, and then making the decision to swap one of the 1.5SS long screws with the 1SS short screw (since there were two holding the outer portion). The back was only tricky with the stubborn clips and mounting the metal bracket.

I hope this post will help shine some light on the installation. I ended up emailing Rally Armor and suggesting perhaps changing the front screws to all 1.5SS long screws, or better yet, just skipping the INS5 thing and making it polygon clips like the others and how Subaru installed the OEM guards. Seems overly complex for no reason. Maybe it’s for flexibility? I don’t know.

Enjoy a truly quality product and a badass look to your Outback!!

Who: Total n00B here!! I have never used a smoker before in my life, only propane grills. I’ve never started a fire before.

Why: I’ve been wanting this particular smoker for a looong time and FINALLY, I got it!

What: The Dyna-Glo vertical offset smoker. It’s cheap! I bought mine under $200 on Amazon. Given the extreme affordability of the unit, it does require a few modifications before getting going. I bought a high heat silicone for smokers to seal up the little holes and a smoker seal for the door. It still leaks a bit, but I just keep chasing them around.Today was the first day I cooked with it! Before, I seasoned the thing and WOW I am a super newbie. The short of it, though, is that I deem it a success!So, here are some pics:

Because I have no other choice but to use it on my deck, I decided to get a PVC protective mat and a heat shield to direct the heat away from the deck.

Chimney starter sitting in a small portable grill

The fire box with hot coals and a foil covered pouch of wood chips (when I cooked, I just threw the chips right on top of the coals, no foil)

2.5 hours of smoking two chicken leg quarters, brined overnight and dry-rubbed.

Conclusion: I still need more time to mess with it, however, I’m really happy with how it turned out. My problem right now is how to maintain the temperature which seems to drop quickly. Then again, I was using it in 30-40 degree sunny weather and given that the cheap metal is very thin, I’d need to insulate it if I wanted to use it regularly in cold weather. When it was sunny and warm, the smoker worked great! It’s a good thing I started with easy things (potatoes, chicken leg quarters, 2 burgers and hot dogs) and didn’t need to have the unit working for a long time. Even then, I had to do TWO chimney’s worth of coal.

Happy! 🙂

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Month: February 2020

DIY: Rally Armor mudflaps 2020 Outback Onyx XT installation

Rally Armor UR

Front Mud-flaps

In Conclusion

Dyna-Glo Vertical Offset Smoker