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Hummer H3 Build

So, my final task of the year for the hummer is complete. This was more of a sentimental thing for me. I’ve gone to prom in this H3 when it was my dads, it was at my wedding, been on 2 UAs, countless adventures across the western US and showcases the purpose of the build, versatility. I have to be honest though, it was only 3.5 miles away and I was worried my AG tires would shake the baby, is carbon monoxide going to get in the cab? Things I never thought about went on in my mind for a drive that felt long even though it wasn’t.

Thanks to my wife for not wanting to kill me. I can only imagine how fun getting in and out of that thing was after pushing a baby out.
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So now it’s time for some limited amounts of sleep. Schroeder bar showed up before going to the hospital. 1in OD, 30in, .825 active diameter, solid bar, 48 spline.

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I also bought Currie anti rock bushings since they are listed as 1in OD. They aren’t. So I need to return them.

So GGRR 4555 suggested I try some old 1 1/4 heims I had laying around. I actually loved that idea. I also had some old control arms laying around I cut up.

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I like this idea, I can shift the sway bar forward or back to help maintain sway bar link angle if I play with sway bar arm length and they can be spares if I ever run across someone with a failed 1 1/4 joint. I won’t have to worry about that because I am 100% FK now :flipoff2:

Arms showed up and Barnes heims showed up while we were at the hospital.

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The arms are beefy as hell being 1in thick. Probably a waste on weight but cheap beef. I’ll drill out 3-4 holes and make it double sheer on the arms and the axle end.

Not sure when I’ll get to it yet but hopefully soon. I need to start wheeling this to get used to the new setup.
 
Congrats again on the little one? If I would have showed up in my junk my wife would have called a cab. :laughing:

Did you stop by today? Even after I said no to?

When you get settled you still owe my wife a little baby cuddle time. :flipoff2:
 
Lincoln said:
Congrats again on the little one? If I would have showed up in my junk my wife would have called a cab. :laughing:

Did you stop by today? Even after I said no to?

When you get settled you still owe my wife a little baby cuddle time. :flipoff2:
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I was waiting for my wife to do the same lol

I didn’t, I ended up having to help my dad move my grandma 3 doors down at her assisted living place but tomorrow I’ll be free most of the day. I have the gift, just gotta wrap it.

Sounds good! :smokin:
ridered3 said:
That’s an awesome vehicle to transport the new addition home with! Probably the safest overall vehicle on the road.

Congrats on the new arrival.
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Thanks, that’s how it kind of started. I jokingly said, we should bring her home in the hummer. I quickly got a response of “that’s the unsafest way to do it, no.”

I said unsafe? God forbid….but what if we got T boned on the way home? Your car will hold up better?

She kind of ate her words and said I see your point and it’s only a few miles down the road but I wouldn’t want to do this if it was a 2 hour drive. Lol

That’s fair, 2 hours is a long time for her and the baby in the hummer after a few days in the hospital
 
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06h3 said:
Thanks, that’s how it kind of started. I jokingly said, we should bring her home in the hummer. I quickly got a response of “that’s the unsafest way to do it, no.”

I said unsafe? God forbid….but what if we got T boned on the way home? Your car will hold up better?

She kind of ate her words and said I see your point and it’s only a few miles down the road but I wouldn’t want to do this if it was a 2 hour drive. Lol

That’s fair, 2 hours is a long time for her and the baby in the hummer after a few days in the hospital
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That's awesome! I showed the picture to my wife last night and she said major props to your wife for going along with it, especially the step ladder. :lmao: She also said she was glad we didn't have a "streetable rig" back when our little dude was born.
 
06h3 said:
I was waiting for my wife to do the same lol

I didn’t, I ended up having to help my dad move my grandma 3 doors down at her assisted living place but tomorrow I’ll be free most of the day. I have the gift, just gotta wrap it.
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I only asked because someone dropped off a bunch of toys yesterday.

If you do come, it's not and shouldn't be a priority, don't wrap the present. The children's hospital does a little store where the kids can shop and make wish lists. I was there Wednesday night and the place was booming. Larger than I've ever seen it. Someone donated 20 wagons.

I would say your chances of getting hit on the way home are slim. Then I remember where you are at. :laughing: We went to Caldwell last night and I saw some narrowly miss rearending a cop. In the persons defense the cop was only doing 70 in a 65.
 
Started working on the sway bar setup. I have the mounts 100% complete. Not the most weight conscious setup but the Hummer is built around helping others on the trail, hell, I still carry D44 ball joints for traditional spindle d44s in the back. Anyways, I would really hate to do it, but if I had to cut off a 1 1/14 tube insert or rob a 1 1/4 heim to get someone off the trail I can. Thanks GGRR 4555 for the idea. I initially bought bushings from Currie and they were not the ID they advertised. In the end, I doubt it’s not much more weight, it’s 2 short tubes with heims vs 1 long heavier piece of tube.

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I have my heims, started drilling out holes in the 1in thick arms and wasted my last drill bit. I’ll grab more tonight so I can continue. After this it’s time I can actually test wheel it.

Also, for Xmas I got 2 things that I think are useful.

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A trail mater 10 ft trail rope. I have been using kinetic ropes for 7 years now, and I will never go back to traditional straps for pulling dead rigs out. My 30ft rope has done well for years in the desert. On the rubicon pulling out a broken rig, the strap was being pulled off of trees in tight sections even when used in half at 15 feet so I think I will enjoy the 10 ft rope.

Then the other item in the pic is a vevor 48qt. Fridge freeze. It’s a cheapo one but I wanted to make it fit in my lightweight “rock crawler version of an overland cargo setup.” I had a big canyon cooler in that spot. The canyon cooler has been phenomenal for 7 years now and kept things cool during UA 2017 in 120* heat in AZ. If I freeze water bottles and make it my “ice” my food doesn’t get soggy. Unfortunately, the last rubicon trip, I had my dinner get soggy. We all take a night for dinners and had to give my friends soggy food. It pist me off. So I’m trying this out.

I’d like to get a WFO concepts universal cargo rack to mount on the back hatch to still take the cooler on longer trips or trips with more passengers. This summer I should have 4 total people in the H3 on the rubicon so I may need the extra storage. Either way, it’s a cheap date to test out the fridge freeze life.

Here is the old setup. The vevor fridge freeze fits perfectly in there. I do lose about 27 quarts of storage compared to the canyon but I save on ice I guess

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That’s all I got for now.
 
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A fridge is so awesome.

Our last 2 week trip, we also brought a small yeti with dry ice just for meat and eggs, but there is 5 of us.

I like mine so much it stays plugged in in the garage. During the summer, I'll just grab it for ball games or trips to the river mine does have a battery, which makes it even easier, but the cig adapter isn't hard to plug in.

Only down side, I guess, is that you have to make sure the vents aren't blocked.
 
Got the sway bar done, I took it out in the snow, it’s so damn slippery out it’s tough to say how it feels because instead of hooking up and working the suspension it just spins but from what I can tell, it’s substantially improved.

I just want to pull the bottom springs and cycle it and make sure nothing collides, from my measurements and what I can tell, it won’t, but want to double check. I also need jamb nuts for my heim mounts on the sway bar setup. Other than that, it’s almost time to wheel it.

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EndeavoredH3 said:
Interested to see how driving characteristics change.
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I got it all cycled finally and everything clears. Hoping to wheel it next weekend. So far, more sway, roll axis is higher roll center is a little lower and expected the sway. Rides better. I feel like it has transferred more sway to the front then the rear having more sway.

More road time and some wheeling time will allow me to dial it in and then determine if I need to make changes. I’m committed to making it work better then my old setup, if I feel it leaves more to be desired, I’ll do the work. kind of the way it goes when your building a platform no one builds and your trying to figure it out on your own within the given build constraints.

Initial thoughts is rides better and smoother, but more body roll. This may be less of a me thing and more of a leaf spring vs coilover thing or a combo of both
 
I went wheeling yesterday! :smokin:

Hummer is 1000x better in the high speed stuff, when I was coil spring front, leaf rear, the leafs were better in high speed. Then when I went coilover front and the front did substantially better, then I added rear air bumps to the leafs that were too stiff and the rear got way worse. Now I’d say the rear out performs the front again but I also checked the nitrogen in the front coilovers because they are 4.5 years old and the pressure was at 125/150 so I may have to go through them or atleast put nitrogen in them.

Slow speed crawling it doesn’t feel any less stable then it did with leafs.

After one of the trails I hit an off camber dirt road that was muddy and it got sketchy and felt super tippy but to say the leafs wouldn’t have done the same idk?

I wish I could throw leafs in a link calculator to compare.

I have a few hits on the lower shock mounts and lower link mounts but I can’t say it stopped me in my tracks. I can see in very particular circumstances where if I’m not getting traction on 3 other tires and I snag a link mount or shock mount it could halt progress but so far, if I had 1-2 other tires grabbing traction I could muscle through it and slide over it. I’m sure sometimes it may push me off my line which could hurt but time will tell on how that works. That was the one concern of mine, leaf’s tuck up so high and I had the best clearance around, I gave that up but 2 trails I wanted to specifically run that have a lot of rocks grabbing your undercarriage didn’t hurt me yesterday.

I need to play with preload a little more but I’m guessing long term I will need more sway bar. On the highway on sweeping turns, the body is slow to return to center. My current sway bar rate is 74, stock is 178. I figure I will need to land in the 150 range because 178 with leafs that want to return to center and stay flat was too much. TK1 wanted me in a U4 bar which is 1 1/8, I’ve heard his setups are on the stiffer side so a 1in OD bar may be the ticket, that would get me around a 160 rate or I get a .95 bar for 130ish.

Sway bars aren’t too expensive in the circle track world which is the ones I have. About $130 plus shipping. I did research after the fact and saw an old thread on the old site claiming some guys were stripping out the 1in 48 spline bars which I have. That sucks, hopefully I don’t have the same issue. Either way, it’s a cheap date to mess around with sway bar rates.

Antisquat is in the 60s which is lower than my friends which I wanted to really test, I’m undetermined on how that works yet. I did one steep climb that I struggled to make back in the day if I had a spare tire on, I’d make it up but it was a struggle. Without a spare I would make it but have to spin my way up. Yesterday I got SUPER light on the front end like lifting a tire to roll. I immediately equated it to the rear is squatting too much. My buddy who has watched me on the obstacle atleast 5-6 times said I got higher then ever before and was on the wrong line so I’ll continue to watch it.

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I fell in this crack. This was a new line I’ve
never done, pass rear tire slipped in the crack and it got weird. B pillar tube saved the day again

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Lastly, I need to diagnose my fuel system. I have NEVER had this issue before, fuel would be pouring out of my evap canister and struggle to run, then it would clear up and run fine. This only happens on inclines or off camber situations. I moved my evap canister when linking it so I need to look into it

But, good first test run, drove it about 70-75 miles round trip on pavement plus the wheeling.

Edit: I had a weird driveline vibe at 65-70 too that I have never had before so I’ll have to look into that too
 
Enjoyed the detailed update. It’s so cool to see an H3 doing things it shouldn’t be doing :lmao:
 
can you get your roll center higher?

If you changed the orientation of the evap canister look for a ckeck valve. JK's have one you can rotate to correct it. I'm not positive but I wouldn't expect that much raw gas in it unless something else is wrong.

I'm pretty sure that's the same crack I tipped over in and dented the door. It looks bigger now.
 
ridered3 said:
Enjoyed the detailed update. It’s so cool to see an H3 doing things it shouldn’t be doing :lmao:
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Thanks, I know some don’t care for the details but I love reading about the details, what works, what doesn’t, then I can learn from it so I try to get into the nitty gritty and thank you. I try to put it in places it doesn’t belong :grinpimp:
Lincoln said:
can you get your roll center higher?

If you changed the orientation of the evap canister look for a ckeck valve. JK's have one you can rotate to correct it. I'm not positive but I wouldn't expect that much raw gas in it unless something else is wrong.

I'm pretty sure that's the same crack I tipped over in and dented the door. It looks bigger now.
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I can, I can probably put the track bar over the 3rd link.

I removed the lines and put a new one in which was just rubber hose. One the steep climb I had a steady pour of fuel coming out of the evap canister.

Top of meatgrinder on the right? Optional line? That’s the one
 
06h3 said:
Thanks, I know some don’t care for the details but I love reading about the details, what works, what doesn’t, then I can learn from it so I try to get into the nitty gritty and thank you. I try to put it in places it doesn’t belong :grinpimp:

I can, I can probably put the track bar over the 3rd link.

I removed the lines and put a new one in which was just rubber hose. One the steep climb I had a steady pour of fuel coming out of the evap canister.

Top of meatgrinder on the right? Optional line? That’s the one
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Similar thinking detail wise. Plus the info is there for posterity in case someone else decides to make a H3 into a do everything rig.
 
That would be it.

How big is the entrance? Years ago I would hit it at a slight angle to the right. When the back tires touched the front would float As it skipped back left I would push it forward a little and let it settle against the big rock on the left. Once there I made it every time.
 
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Lincoln said:
That would be it.

How big is the entrance? Years ago I would hit it at a slight angle to the right. When the back tires touched the front would float As it skipped back left I would push it forward a little and let it settle against the big rock on the left. Once there I made it every time.
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The entrance is decently big. Its funny you mention to the right, this was the first time I hit it and I wanted to have my entire rig more to the right but it is still so loose and the dirt was just about mud and couldnt get my ass end over. I will hit it again this time getting more to the right.


pennsylvaniaboy said:
Where did you get the bars and the arms?
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They are from Racing Bars OEM for ChalkStix & Schroeder Torsion Bars they have way more options if you call them. They can make anything you want...

Arms I got off ebay, I believe they are speedway arms and they are 1 inch thick so I do have a nice contact patch on the splines seeing they are so thick atleast.

It is a 1in OD arm at the splines with 48 splines. I currently have a .825 neckdown at the working surface of the bar with 14in arms.
 
I kind of had an impulse buy. These won’t be going on tomorrow but at some point since they are 20s

I bought entry level battleborn steel beadlocks in 2017. They have been great but have been used and abused and I have bent the lip of the steel ring a couple times.

I wanted new ones and have been debating what to buy, 17s? 20s? Forged? Cast? I’m trying to buy once cry once. Forged is expensive as fuck. I have bent steel rings before but you hammer them back. You can’t do that with aluminum so I thought forged but again, expensive as hell and I figure cast aluminum will bend/break less than steel. While I was deciding all these factors I had this mindset, 20s are probably the future, especially in the 42-44in tire range. At 500-700 a wheel litebrite is selling their forged wheel for $850 on northridge which isn’t terribly far off.

As I type this I’m basically catching myself from vomiting because I spent less on the battleborns then I would on 1 wheel today!!!! :barf:

Then I saw on Facebook marketplace brand new, never run, kmc grenade beadlocks in a 20in for $1900 out the door for 5. They are $3375 normally. Score, and done.

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I am torn on the “blingy” rims. They are bling. Being an H3, I have avoided bling since I have gotten the rig in 2008, with that said, I think my rig has changed. Back then, it was clean, no dents, no scrapes and to me bling on an H3 represented you didn’t use it and you looked like a tool. Now it’s more “ratty” with dents and scrapes so I think paying homage to the bling hummer scene can be deemed ok now.

Thoughts? I could also powdercoat them or something if the bling isn’t right.


As for tires? Well, Mickey has a 42x13.5r20 coming out in the Baja boss and a 44x14.5r20 too. Maybe that’s my future
 

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