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What did you do with your H3 recently? NEW

lowtrac

Well-Known Member
Messages
222
Location
Georgia
New alternator. Not terrible, but I still don’t recommend it.

e5813e9dbf58b2ddaf8cd6e6298bb741.jpg



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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Weighed the Alpha with a full tank of gas and nothing in it, nor did I have any skids on it. So basically bone stock and empty except for the Thor parts bumper and my winch. 5,320 pounds. GVWR is 6,001 lbs.

Not terrible, but certainly not what I was expecting to find. Front axle came in at 2800 pounds and the rear axle at 2520 pounds. Seems when I am in it 58% of that weight goes to the front and 42% to the rear axle. GAWR for the front is 3,050 lbs and the rear is 3,400 lbs, so I'm already super close to the front axle rating. So as it stands now just adding myself and one other passenger would put the truck over the front GAWR. Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Winch weighs around 85 lbs, not really sure about the Thor bumper but what I could find in my conversations with 4speed is the Gen 1 weighed roughly 90 lbs, I haven't seen numbers for the Gen 2 yet, but I'd estimate maybe another 40 pounds at least for the heavier pods. So say roughly 130 pounds for the bumper. So that is 215 pounds right there hanging off the nose.
 

lowtrac

Well-Known Member
Messages
222
Location
Georgia
What are you not recommending?

Having a dead alternator. Lol.

Not sure if the Alpha is any better (my other 5.3 trucks have been really easy) but the i5 is a pain. It’s almost like they hung the alternator from a string and built the truck around it.




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JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Having a dead alternator. Lol.

Not sure if the Alpha is any better (my other 5.3 trucks have been really easy) but the i5 is a pain. It’s almost like they hung the alternator from a string and built the truck around it.




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If it makes you feel worse the alternator on the 5.3 is right on top of the engine, it's super easy to replace it. :wink:
 

650Hawk

Well-Known Member
Messages
480
Location
SoCal
Weighed the Alpha with a full tank of gas and nothing in it, nor did I have any skids on it. So basically bone stock and empty except for the Thor parts bumper and my winch. 5,320 pounds. GVWR is 6,001 lbs.

Not terrible, but certainly not what I was expecting to find. Front axle came in at 2800 pounds and the rear axle at 2520 pounds. Seems when I am in it 58% of that weight goes to the front and 42% to the rear axle. GAWR for the front is 3,050 lbs and the rear is 3,400 lbs, so I'm already super close to the front axle rating. So as it stands now just adding myself and one other passenger would put the truck over the front GAWR. Seems a bit ridiculous to me. Winch weighs around 85 lbs, not really sure about the Thor bumper but what I could find in my conversations with 4speed is the Gen 1 weighed roughly 90 lbs, I haven't seen numbers for the Gen 2 yet, but I'd estimate maybe another 40 pounds at least for the heavier pods. So say roughly 130 pounds for the bumper. So that is 215 pounds right there hanging off the nose.
Keep in mind that the weight on that front end is multiplied by the number of feet from the axle. If that bumper/winch combo is 2' forward of the axle centerline, then the weight transfer to that axle is actually 430lb, not 215.
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Keep in mind that the weight on that front end is multiplied by the number of feet from the axle. If that bumper/winch combo is 2' forward of the axle centerline, then the weight transfer to that axle is actually 430lb, not 215.

Thanks for making me look up a bunch of stuff I didn't really want to have to care or think about. I guess I need to go weight the truck a couple times to see the effects of load positioning and axle weights, once with additional weight on the trailer tongue and another with the bumper removed (since I want to figure out how much the whole setup weighs anyway, I should have checked it when I was installing it but lacked the foresight at the time). I tried searching around but could not find any discussion about it anywhere.

At any rate, my truck without the bumper seems to be weighing in a few hundred pounds more than GM's figures. Heavier tires than the stock load range C 285's and the rock rails surely add a bit to that number, but I don't think it's 300 pounds or so. Probably about 50lbs or so for the extra tire weight and the rock rails, while somewhat heavy, aren't 100 pounds each for sure. But now I may end up taking off both the bumper and the rock rails (want to try to straighten the one side out anyway) and weighing it to see where it really is at stock.

If I was just offroading it on short trails I wouldn't be looking at it so much, but I am planning on building this out more for camping and longer ranged trips than just wheeling it in Moab, so trying to keep it around GVWR and GAWR's is becoming more of a goal for me.
 

USMC_315

Well-Known Member
Messages
590
Location
Northern VA
Small update. Had some major issues water leaks in the H3 over the summer. Luckily Geico covered it under collateral. Shop steam cleaned the headliner to remove water stains and replaced ALL of the carpet brand new. Turned out the sunroof drains were clogged with pollen and other small debris.

So, I get it back and you’d think everything is fine and dandy right? Wrong. There was another leak that was overlooked in this whole process, that luckily Geico classified as the same claim. It was coming from under the glove compartment and explained why the front passenger footwell was soaked. Come to find out, this cabin air intake drain had also clogged so water was overflowing into the cabin in heavy precipitation. Cleared out, new carpet was steam cleaned all throughout the area and I’m good as new.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m actually going to try and do a big update on my build thread this time. Keep a look out if y’all are interested. Hope everyone’s been doing well on here!
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
Weighed the Alpha again, this time without the Thor Gen2 bumper and 12k Badlands winch so that I could get some good comparisons.

W/ Thor bumper/winch, full tank of gas, no cargo/passengers
Front: 2,800 lbs
Rear: 2,520 lbs
Total: 5,320 lbs

W/O Thor bumper/winch, full tank of gas, no cargo/passengers:
Front: 2,560 lbs
Rear: 2,580 lbs
Total: 5,140 lbs

And for interest:

W/ Thor bumper/winch, full tank of gas, no cargo, 1 driver
Front: 2,940 lbs
Rear: 2,620 lbs
Total: 5,560 lbs

W/O Thor bumper/winch, full tank of gas, no cargo/passengers and me hanging my fat butt on the rear bumper:
Front: 2,460 lbs
Rear: 2,900 lbs
Total: 5,360 lbs

Stock ratings:
Front GAWR: 3,050 lbs
Rear GAWR: 3,500 lbs
Total GVWR: 6,001 lbs


So the Thor bumper w/winch weighs ~180 pounds according to the CAT scale. Obviously there is some rounding there since it was designed to weigh thousands of pounds so there is a little bit of resolution error. For example, I weigh almost 240 pounds, but the difference between the first weigh without me and the second weigh with me is only 220 pounds. So there is clearly some error margin there (about 0.2% which seems pretty darn accurate for something like this), part of which could be attributed to it being a different day and temperature. At any rate it's close enough for figuring. I weighed the bumper/winch on my bathroom scale however and it came up to 187 pounds. Which in any case is far less than I was expecting.

Another interesting thing I learned is that it is not as simple as "for every foot away from the axle weight transfer is 2x the weight being added." While that is true for a simple fulcrum and lever, it clearly is not that simple when dealing with a vehicle. Instead of that, I only saw a weight transfer of ~60 pounds from the rear axle to the front axle due to the weight of my bumper hanging off the front of the truck. So the total weight added to the front axle by simply adding the bumper and winch came out to a total increase of about 240 pounds, give or take 20 pounds. It's also apparent from the measurement when I stood on my rear bumper, only ~100 pounds transferred to the rear from the front axle. So the front bumper was a 33% increase on the front axle due to weight transfer, while the rear was 42%.

So while empty of cargo the front axle with me in the truck was almost to the GAWR of 3,050 lbs, once I start loading up the rear with cargo that is going to shift a little, plus it likely won't add as much to the front overall. I will re-weigh though once I have a standard load in the back to see where I end up at. I might be over the front GAWR afterwards but we'll see by how much.
 

Odimus

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Location
Maine
ordered new led headlights, rear camera, Schwarttzy Rear camera mount, new stereo, and weathertech front to the trunk...now the waiting the game...
 

Rockhound

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Colorado
Did you order the LED bulbs or get a new headlight assembly? I tried the LED bulbs in my OEM lamps, not impressed at all, tried two different sets. Very white but they did not throw down the road at all, more like fog lamps, I found these, they seem to work: [FONT=&quot]EVO Lighting 93419 Spectras Halogen Bulbs H13 on ebay
[/FONT]
My low beams in the photo:

20200208_185413.jpg
 

Odimus

Well-Known Member
Messages
89
Location
Maine
Same ones FloridaH3 got from amazon...will install this week...will know a difference because of how dark it gets...
 

JPaul

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,400
Location
Way up north, UT
[video=youtube;M6_PM1HjKgI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6_PM1HjKgI[/video]
Neat. Have you taken it out on the trail or rough roads yet? Looking at the little bit of the design I can make out in the video, I'm concerned that there doesn't look to be much in the way of vertical and angular reinforcement. Looks like after a few good hard drops of the rear, or a washboard road, the bracket will bend downward until the bottom of the tire is resting on the bumper.

That's the reason the factory bracket is oddly shaped, it's designed to handle extreme and repetitive vertical forces from the mass of the wheel and tire being bounced up and down for tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of miles.

Your bracket looks like a terrific start, I can already see how you can add on to it easily for mounting other brackets for things like a hi lift and jerry can. I think if you just add some reinforcement to keep the main portion of the bracket from bending then you'll be well on your way to making a hot item.

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Rockhound

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Colorado
installed a foot switch for my lights
They are temporary (good thing they were cheap) temporary because they don't throw the light down the road as far as they claimed to. They are awesome trail lights though, extremely bright and a wide, wide pattern. I want them to go way down the road to spot deer/elk while i am crusing rural roads in Colorado. I will be going back to the hella 500s i have had on previous rigs. The hella 500s reach way out there..
I want to be able to use them as my brights at night on those back country roads. It's a pain to have to reach out to the dash every time i want them turned on or off. They are already on a switch that is right next to the steering column. Coming around a corner, down shifting, does not leave my hand free to dim the lights for oncoming traffic. Foot switch is the easy solution...

The lights:
20200212_094450.jpg

The switch:
20200212_094530.jpg

Installed and ready to use:

20200212_103826.jpg
 
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Rockhound

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Colorado
installed a engine core heater, 600 watt, installs into the lower radiator hose.
I using the hummer more during snow storms that the truck so it's been sitting outside under the carport.
It was -22 degrees the other morning. The h3 did not like that one bit. Very hard to start.

the heater seems to be helping:
20200212_103537.jpg
 
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Rockhound

Active Member
Messages
43
Location
Colorado
fixed my shifter. I hated having to press the release button every time i shift even just one gear up or down. Colorado has tons of heavy grades we constantly use our gearing to climb or to use the engine braking to control downhill speeds. Shifting this thing is a pain even offroad. Ten minute fix, pull the shifter boot and console trim. Used a small metal saw to remove the lockout detents on the shifter. I am not recommending anyone else do this. But it is very slick. I am still locked until i press the brake to shift out of park to reverse still locked to shift from reverse to neutral, and vise versa, but I can shift 1st, 2nd, 3rd, od, or to neutral just by moving the lever into the next transmission detent. Shifts so much easier and smoother.
 
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