New to me Outback SUV

A few weeks ago I purchased a 2006 Outback SUV. I inspected it for the drive well cracks and support tower cracks and saw no issues with either. It is one of the ones that are prone to failure but the strengthening kit was never done to it. the rudder was broken bit I bought a replacement and straightened out the slowly bent bracket and it works great!

It also came with the standard fins and 5 turbo fins and some drive parts for replacements I guess. There were 4 1/2 inch holes drilled in the gunnels up front that I melted some plastic into to fill, not the prettiest but not too bad either. Not too bad for $400.

I already replaced the worn out mesh pocket with new and also purchased some rod extenders and some little things for it. I took it out yesterday with the standard fins installed(don't want to press my luck with the turbos until I get the drive well shored up) and was out there for 20 minutes. Took it back onto shore and the inside was dry as a bone! Very happy about that!

I did think that the standard fins get it going pretty fast and it was comfortable to pedal but I can tell you that I did get a workout from just 20 minutes. 40s and overweight don't mix I guess. I will have to start working out again if I am going to be out there for hours at a time. I especially noticed it when I was doing sprint runs. Water was 40 degrees and the air was 58 here in Jersey.

I plan on keeping it simple for now. I will add an anchor line kit to it and maybe get a small portable fish finder to give me depths/temperatures and mark fish when they are around. A better finder might be in the cards in a year or two.


can't wait for the weather to warm up and for the fish to start biting again!

Brian