Hey guys, came over here from pirate. I originally was going to copy and paste everything over but decided not to. I have a build thread going back to day 1 on Hummer4x4offroad.com and going back about 6 years ago when I did a SAS on my H3 on pirate. I’ll just highlight the main points, but for details on certain things you can go back to one of those threads or ask here and I’ll go into detail.
My dad bought a 2006 Hummer H3 brand new back in 2005. Luxury package, no adventure package unfortunately (4:1 t case and rear locker.) It’s drivetrain was a 3.5L 5 cyl/4L60E/BW4493 (2.64:1) IFS with a 7.6in diff up front and a 10 bolt rear
Years later I got his H3 and started hitting dirt roads. I was a black sheep immediately with people outside my typical friends that went on dirt roads with me. Typical comments like Hummers are gay, your mom gave me a hummer, blah blah blah, it didn’t bother me much except when I had one Jeep guy who wouldn’t acknowledge me. Years later I realize he’s one of those idiots who bolted on a bunch of crap and was all about “Jeep life” but really a clueless poser. It kind of motivated me to use an H3.
So I wheeled it with stock IFS for years and 35s. Broke the typical ifs crap. 1 Tie rod, 1 CV, and was on my 4th front diff when I pulled it for the SAS.
I did do a 4in rancho lift, swapped out the 2.64:1 case for the H3 4:1 t case, added a factory rear locker and for a short time I had added the factory front locker. It was a nice improvement over stock in terms of capability but the drivetrain strength still suffered.
The rear rancho lift springs sucked and the factory hangers are huge so I did a spring over conversion with the factory leafs. That was a huge gain in performance.
Anyways, being tired of breaking shit and just running my first hammers trail (clawhammer) with IFS I was ready for a solid axle up front. I actually picked up a Chevy D44 with 5.13s and a locker on my way home from hammers. I did a 3 link up front, 14in travel shocks, coil springs from a ZJ, custom Crossmember for longer links then left the rear alone with the spring over and threw 5.13s in it. I kept the factory front brakes because the kicked ass and ran tone rings to keep the ABS happy then threw 37s on it.
That D44 lasted a year or so but I had issues with it from the start. I found out the housing was junk. I did find a retubed ford HP44 to Chevy specs, bare housing so I swapped everything over and ran that with some success for a few years on 37s.
I then blew up the 5 cyl and swapped in a 5.3L V8. I lived in so cal at the time so I had to do a CA smog legal engine swap which I did. The H3s did come with 5.3L’s in 08 and up but mine was an 06 and wasn’t plug and play. It wasn’t a horribly difficult swap but not plug and play either.
This entire time the H3 was my daily driver and weekend wheeler. In 2015 I finished school and then in 2016 I got a job that had a company car so that’s when I stopped daily driving it. Around this time I was hitting Hammer trails as much as possible. Around that time I put RCVs up front with the ford HP44 and swapped in an Eaton HO72 rear axle and ran 40s. I did that for about a year but changes happened for Ultimate Adventure.
I always wanted to go on Ultimate Adventure, it was a dream of mine since the beginning and I felt I finally had a chance. So I applied in 2017 and I got into the dirty dozen. They were concerned about the D44, 40s and a V8 powering a heavier rig. I told them I had a 1 ton axle I could swap in before UA. Well they called back and said I’m in! I now had less then a month to do a cage. Which was done by my buddy and I had to not only swap in this 1 ton axle but put it together which happened to be a D70 centersection, Chevy 60 outers and Chevy shafts. So those few weeks were a THRASH but we got it done, drove to UA (so cal to AZ) then ran UA, drove back to so cal, then the next weekend from so cal to the rubicon, I logged 3k miles in a few weeks on a rig with 40s, it’s what I had dreamed to be able to do.
Early 2018 I moved to Nor Cal for work and I ended up getting to work on the Hummer in a garage for the first time, until that point all modifications were done in a driveway and learning as I went along. Only rear change I did early 2018 was mini boat sides. They weren’t even really boat sides but I cut out the pinch seam, closed it all back up and built heavy beefy sliders that gained me quite a bit more clearance.
I got invited back to UA as the returning reader for 2018. It started in Maine and ended in Pennsylvania. I never trailered the H3 before but it was 3k miles away and I had a wedding the day after UA so I had to fly out. I drove the H3 about 350 miles from Nor cal to so cal, met up with him so we could use his truck and I found a POS 8 lug dual axle trailer we had to fix up and drove across country!
That UA was a blast and opened me up to a whole different type of wheeling, hit the gas hard early and don’t stop, I struggled with it but it was a learning experience. We logged about 1k total miles on UA, I took off for the wedding, he drove back to so cal. Then I drove the H3 350 miles back up to Nor cal.
After that UA the rig needed some love, I bent some frame side motor mounts, changed a bunch of bushings, Johnny joints, new shocks and springs, I did a high clearance Crossmember, clocked the factory H3 4:1 t case and then drove from Nor cal to so cal for Christmas, then went to sand hollow with my friends, then stopped back at my parents house in so cal then drove back up north. It was a little over 2k miles in a couple weeks. 20 min from home I had a weird knocking noise. I chipped a piston on my 5.3
At this point My fiancé and I knew we were going to move again for work and I was traveling a lot so I picked up a 6.2L on eBay, had a weekend or two to swap it in, add some wires for VVT, gingerly drive it 10 miles to a tuner and get it tuned. From there I then drove to KOH and pre ran the first 90 or so miles of the race course. It was a blast!
We ended up moving to Meridian, Idaho and its been great. At this point I was tired of the lack of uptravel and coil springs. So after we got settled in I ripped out the coil spring setup and went to 14in travel fox 2.5in DSC coilovers and air bumps. The Hummer now does so much better in desert whoops then it ever has. I actually think with outboarding the coilovers as much as possible for stability and less uptravel it actually worked better in the rocks with the old setup but for overall performance this is 100% better. I also ditched the H3 4:1 t case for an NP205 doubler during this time. The chain case was just not holding up anymore.
So where am I at now? Well the current setup is
6.2L from an 08 Escalade/ 4L60E from an 08 H3 alpha, NP205 doubler, D70 front to Chevy 60 specs Selectable locker, Eaton HO72 with a Detroit locker, 5.14 gears.
3 link up front, 14in 2.5 fox coilovers, air bumps, rear spring over with factory leafs, crappy bilsteins and light racing air bumps.
Hybrid cage, part exo part internal, finally did a storage system in the back for longer wheeling trips. Premier power welder, have a set of regular full doors and then half doors I can bash up on.
It has done its job very well. It ain’t a buggy doing buggy stuff but I think it does well for a big SUV that can drive 800 miles to the trail and 800 miles home.
What’s next?
I’d like a 6L80E and link the rear, I think linking the rear can be a game changer if I can do the geometry right. The 6L80E is just another thing to further it’s on road comfort and ease of driving.
Since moving to Idaho I have learned that the trails are TIGHT. Much tighter then hammer trails, and everyone I have run with are in smaller rigs with 39-42in stickies. Making my 40 in DOT tires not so big anymore. I believe a TJ on 37s or a Toyota on 37s is an equivalent setup to me on 40s due to my bigger rig and that’s what all my friends ran. I think 43s will help a lot with the people I have run with here and the trails I’m doing. I need to think of ways to make the rig act smaller and more nimble.
I totally get that at the end of the day the guys I’m running with are either buggies or juggies and my H3 won’t ever be that and I won’t cut this into a “huggy.” If I ever wanted a Hummer Buggy id do that with another H3 not this one but with that said watching Stephen Watson of Offroad design wheel his big Chevys he makes a big rig work so damn well and behave like a smaller lighter rig even though it isn’t and I think that’s the goal. I’m happy with what it can do but I’m ready to take it to the next level when funds allow.
My dad bought a 2006 Hummer H3 brand new back in 2005. Luxury package, no adventure package unfortunately (4:1 t case and rear locker.) It’s drivetrain was a 3.5L 5 cyl/4L60E/BW4493 (2.64:1) IFS with a 7.6in diff up front and a 10 bolt rear
Years later I got his H3 and started hitting dirt roads. I was a black sheep immediately with people outside my typical friends that went on dirt roads with me. Typical comments like Hummers are gay, your mom gave me a hummer, blah blah blah, it didn’t bother me much except when I had one Jeep guy who wouldn’t acknowledge me. Years later I realize he’s one of those idiots who bolted on a bunch of crap and was all about “Jeep life” but really a clueless poser. It kind of motivated me to use an H3.
So I wheeled it with stock IFS for years and 35s. Broke the typical ifs crap. 1 Tie rod, 1 CV, and was on my 4th front diff when I pulled it for the SAS.
I did do a 4in rancho lift, swapped out the 2.64:1 case for the H3 4:1 t case, added a factory rear locker and for a short time I had added the factory front locker. It was a nice improvement over stock in terms of capability but the drivetrain strength still suffered.
The rear rancho lift springs sucked and the factory hangers are huge so I did a spring over conversion with the factory leafs. That was a huge gain in performance.
Anyways, being tired of breaking shit and just running my first hammers trail (clawhammer) with IFS I was ready for a solid axle up front. I actually picked up a Chevy D44 with 5.13s and a locker on my way home from hammers. I did a 3 link up front, 14in travel shocks, coil springs from a ZJ, custom Crossmember for longer links then left the rear alone with the spring over and threw 5.13s in it. I kept the factory front brakes because the kicked ass and ran tone rings to keep the ABS happy then threw 37s on it.
That D44 lasted a year or so but I had issues with it from the start. I found out the housing was junk. I did find a retubed ford HP44 to Chevy specs, bare housing so I swapped everything over and ran that with some success for a few years on 37s.
I then blew up the 5 cyl and swapped in a 5.3L V8. I lived in so cal at the time so I had to do a CA smog legal engine swap which I did. The H3s did come with 5.3L’s in 08 and up but mine was an 06 and wasn’t plug and play. It wasn’t a horribly difficult swap but not plug and play either.
This entire time the H3 was my daily driver and weekend wheeler. In 2015 I finished school and then in 2016 I got a job that had a company car so that’s when I stopped daily driving it. Around this time I was hitting Hammer trails as much as possible. Around that time I put RCVs up front with the ford HP44 and swapped in an Eaton HO72 rear axle and ran 40s. I did that for about a year but changes happened for Ultimate Adventure.
I always wanted to go on Ultimate Adventure, it was a dream of mine since the beginning and I felt I finally had a chance. So I applied in 2017 and I got into the dirty dozen. They were concerned about the D44, 40s and a V8 powering a heavier rig. I told them I had a 1 ton axle I could swap in before UA. Well they called back and said I’m in! I now had less then a month to do a cage. Which was done by my buddy and I had to not only swap in this 1 ton axle but put it together which happened to be a D70 centersection, Chevy 60 outers and Chevy shafts. So those few weeks were a THRASH but we got it done, drove to UA (so cal to AZ) then ran UA, drove back to so cal, then the next weekend from so cal to the rubicon, I logged 3k miles in a few weeks on a rig with 40s, it’s what I had dreamed to be able to do.
Early 2018 I moved to Nor Cal for work and I ended up getting to work on the Hummer in a garage for the first time, until that point all modifications were done in a driveway and learning as I went along. Only rear change I did early 2018 was mini boat sides. They weren’t even really boat sides but I cut out the pinch seam, closed it all back up and built heavy beefy sliders that gained me quite a bit more clearance.
I got invited back to UA as the returning reader for 2018. It started in Maine and ended in Pennsylvania. I never trailered the H3 before but it was 3k miles away and I had a wedding the day after UA so I had to fly out. I drove the H3 about 350 miles from Nor cal to so cal, met up with him so we could use his truck and I found a POS 8 lug dual axle trailer we had to fix up and drove across country!
That UA was a blast and opened me up to a whole different type of wheeling, hit the gas hard early and don’t stop, I struggled with it but it was a learning experience. We logged about 1k total miles on UA, I took off for the wedding, he drove back to so cal. Then I drove the H3 350 miles back up to Nor cal.
After that UA the rig needed some love, I bent some frame side motor mounts, changed a bunch of bushings, Johnny joints, new shocks and springs, I did a high clearance Crossmember, clocked the factory H3 4:1 t case and then drove from Nor cal to so cal for Christmas, then went to sand hollow with my friends, then stopped back at my parents house in so cal then drove back up north. It was a little over 2k miles in a couple weeks. 20 min from home I had a weird knocking noise. I chipped a piston on my 5.3
At this point My fiancé and I knew we were going to move again for work and I was traveling a lot so I picked up a 6.2L on eBay, had a weekend or two to swap it in, add some wires for VVT, gingerly drive it 10 miles to a tuner and get it tuned. From there I then drove to KOH and pre ran the first 90 or so miles of the race course. It was a blast!
We ended up moving to Meridian, Idaho and its been great. At this point I was tired of the lack of uptravel and coil springs. So after we got settled in I ripped out the coil spring setup and went to 14in travel fox 2.5in DSC coilovers and air bumps. The Hummer now does so much better in desert whoops then it ever has. I actually think with outboarding the coilovers as much as possible for stability and less uptravel it actually worked better in the rocks with the old setup but for overall performance this is 100% better. I also ditched the H3 4:1 t case for an NP205 doubler during this time. The chain case was just not holding up anymore.
So where am I at now? Well the current setup is
6.2L from an 08 Escalade/ 4L60E from an 08 H3 alpha, NP205 doubler, D70 front to Chevy 60 specs Selectable locker, Eaton HO72 with a Detroit locker, 5.14 gears.
3 link up front, 14in 2.5 fox coilovers, air bumps, rear spring over with factory leafs, crappy bilsteins and light racing air bumps.
Hybrid cage, part exo part internal, finally did a storage system in the back for longer wheeling trips. Premier power welder, have a set of regular full doors and then half doors I can bash up on.
It has done its job very well. It ain’t a buggy doing buggy stuff but I think it does well for a big SUV that can drive 800 miles to the trail and 800 miles home.
What’s next?
I’d like a 6L80E and link the rear, I think linking the rear can be a game changer if I can do the geometry right. The 6L80E is just another thing to further it’s on road comfort and ease of driving.
Since moving to Idaho I have learned that the trails are TIGHT. Much tighter then hammer trails, and everyone I have run with are in smaller rigs with 39-42in stickies. Making my 40 in DOT tires not so big anymore. I believe a TJ on 37s or a Toyota on 37s is an equivalent setup to me on 40s due to my bigger rig and that’s what all my friends ran. I think 43s will help a lot with the people I have run with here and the trails I’m doing. I need to think of ways to make the rig act smaller and more nimble.
I totally get that at the end of the day the guys I’m running with are either buggies or juggies and my H3 won’t ever be that and I won’t cut this into a “huggy.” If I ever wanted a Hummer Buggy id do that with another H3 not this one but with that said watching Stephen Watson of Offroad design wheel his big Chevys he makes a big rig work so damn well and behave like a smaller lighter rig even though it isn’t and I think that’s the goal. I’m happy with what it can do but I’m ready to take it to the next level when funds allow.
