Alrock's Hummah build - designed by man, finished by Mother Nature

[alrock]

Figure I might as well jump into the build pool and discuss the evolution of the Hummah. This will perhaps be more of a history story - something to pass onto the grandkids - and hopefully I won't put you to sleep.

The Hummah came home on May 1, 2007, with but a few miles on the odometer. Shortly thereafter (May 12) I had to take it out to the desert to test it out and de-shine that brand new paint.

Here she is in her early glory. Yes - 32s, nerf bars, and abundant chrome trim. Chrome may not get you home but it does get you laid.

Got my first pinstriping that day, though it was just a flesh wound

It took one more month to bend the nerf bars but of course I didn't remove them. I just tied a rope to my buddy's Jeep and straightened them back out.

I heard of this magical placed called Moab so a month after I got the Hummah I devised a road trip that involved seeing family in KS, work in Denver and Breckenridge and playing in Moab. In Breckenridge I bought my first Wells book and hit the trails - only to find they were all closed due to mud season. Nonetheless I found some forest roads and areas to play.

Look at all of the mud (and that it still has four mud flaps!) :wink:

While exploring in Breckenridge I came to a dead end so I backed up, turned right and BAM, drove over a tree stump. The stump ended up wedging between the crossmember and my tire and bent my propshaft. It also tore the weights off of the inside of my wheel. I didn't realize the propshaft was bad at first so I just had the tire balanced and I drove to Grand Junction. It was about 180 miles and it was like I was driving over the rub strip on the side of the highway the whole time.

I realized the closest replacement part was back in Denver so I went back and picked it up (240 miles). The dealer said they didn't have time to install it so I went back to Grand Junction and had a Chevy dealer put it in. Nearly 600 miles in a day with that propshaft vibrating like mad. UCP was now high on my list of mods.

I picked up my buddy Jason in Grand Junction after he flew there from Phoenix and we did some intense (for us) offroading in Moab, June 2007. Gemini Bridges and Shafer Switchbacks! Please note the nerfs are still on and I declined to drive down this ledge

We did tackle other gnarly ledges

While UCP did not get installed next I realized it was really important to have two shiny exhaust tips sticking out of the back. Here's my Gibson exhaust. Plenty of Armor-All on these tires

Clear turn signal indicators were soon installed too as was the OEM ucp. But because of the Stump, the OEM didn't line up and we had to weld on some extra metal to get holes in the right places. Sometimes it rattled.

I soldiered through the rest of 2007 without many more mods, but I did install a CB and mounted the antenna to the spare tire mount.

I finally leveled the H3 in January 2008 with Bilsteins, TD bump stops and poor judgment, putting the height at 24"

February 9, 2008 I finally made it onto a "real" trail: Charouleau Gap. Carnage for me included 1 tire (I ended up cutting 4 of those RTS over various trails), 1 center cap, 1 exhaust tip, 1 license plate, dents in bumper, 1 mud flap and nearly the entire fender liner. Mother Nature is beginning to exercise her influence.g

March 2008, with about 18,000 miles on the odometer, I finally upgrade to the BFG A/Ts in 295/75-16 as well as the Rocky Road Super Sliders

I begin to celebrate the scars from Mother Nature

In June 2008 I have a new bullbar style light bar built with the 2 KCs I got in Lake Havasu as a raffle prize. I also learn how to high center the truck so only one wheel is on the ground, which happened right about here.

Basic Auto Zone light switches in the OEM holes, minor trimming required.

I wheeled in SoCal with some good people

All four KCs installed with the last two off of eBay. I did a cleanup with a small Jeep group. There were two burned out vehicle carcasses and one Jeep pulled out one carcass and I did the other since none of the other Jeeps were willing. This was a burned out Jeep Cherokee. There was a lot of flaming on the Jeep boards because a Hummer pulled this Jeep two miles across rocks, dirt and sand to the park exit.

 

[06 H3]

Im gonna love this build! I like how it started with 32s chrome nerfs and no UCP, then before you know it, I see the hummah its going up hells gate. :corn:

 

[alrock]

October 2008 was my first wheeling trip to Moab with the Black Sheep. Learned about what a bad propshaft can do when this happened to Neo's truck. Also forced me to be trail leader the next day on Fins. Guess it didn't matter that I had never run it; none of us had. Through terrific luck I did not flip the Hummah when I accidentally drove off a 30" ledge. If I didn't hit it square I would've flipped.

With Moab mud still on my truck I did my most memorable obstacle to date on Sutherland Trail near Tucson. I even got USA Today to post this pic with their American Cars feature.

Water fording is tested, December 2008

I had previously installed an Airraid filter along with their open box but after discoveries like this I went back to the closed box. It would be another year or so before I went back to paper filters

Starting to see cracks in the Hummah's armor. First of a few axle seal leaks.

Rear leaf spring hangars. The BA skids had been put on before to provide a slide at the U bolts. Springs were losing their pads so I bought some new ones from Skyjacker and got those to fit.

Was bored once on a work trip in SoCal so I devised this Hi-Lift install using the OEM crossbars and standard hardware

I begin to really enjoy Mother Nature's pinstriping. Indian Springs Canyon, April 2009

March 2010 Jerry S. and I spend six hours buffing the scratches out of the two sides.

Around this time new tie rods, inner and outer, get put on as the old inners were worn out from being cranked to 24". I come down to just under 23.5". This would end up being a stopgap measure.

March 2011- the big repair. First "symptom" was the grinding that came out of the truck due to no oil in the transfer case. Had been like that for 100 miles or so, probably due to this.

Of course the base H3 as the 2.73:1 transfer case and since I had to pay for this one I upgraded to the 4:1. It's actually a bit less expensive than the base one. The dealer wanted $2700 for the case and install. I gave them $2700 but only if they did the case, the steering rack and a few other items. There was one install issue in that the next day the SERV 4WD, etc. lights started flashing and I took it back in. They said the TCCM needed programming as it was now a 2010 encoder motor vs. my 2007 one but others here have since argued that I may have been fed some BS on that excuse. I was on my way to getting an Adventure model H3, one piece at a time.
New steering rack due to the cranking and lot of offroad use.
New crossmember. First one not under warranty, 4th overall. (Had 5 total before ScorpWorks fix)

New diff/engine brace

Also in 2011 I replaced:
2 upper control arms for bad ball joints
1 lower control arm for worn bushings
1 lower control arm for a bad ball joint
Another crossmember
CV boots, twice
Rear prop shaft u-joints
Front prop-shaft for bad CV joint (u-joint had already been replaced)

 

[JGBB04]

Chrome may not get you home but it does get you laid.

So will duct tape & cloroform :giggle: oops wrong forum never mind carry on

 

[Pappibri]

Love the adventure so far...

 

[HUMMER INVESTMENTS]

Love the title and the build! What else do you plan to add to it?

 

[Neo]

this is a fun thread :cheers:

 

[Bigunit]

...more...more...more! :corn:

Great thread.

 

[Hans3T]

:corn:

 

[D.Kinsey]

Very cool thread....you got as much in you're rig as i do....:thumbs:

 

[BW_Hummer H3]

This such a cool build, it has changed alot since you bought it.

 

[alrock]

As I do this I realize that I'll have to backtrack every now and then.

The Charouleau Gap "Break 'em if you got 'em" run at one point had the Hummah between a rock and a hard place - more specifically, the rear tires were in a rut and when I tried to back up the diff was hitting a rock. It got me thinking and I ended up with a Purple Cranium half spider

We went on a night run with a novice CJ owner that lost control of his Jeep resulting in a tumble down the hill. Seeing his equipment and tools everyone made me realize I needed a little more security for what I carried so I picked up this box to secure some tools, parts, compressor, fluids, etc.

The case fits in the back with this cooler and the optional Safari Straps Cargo Net securing it all

So, after the "Big Repair" on the next trip to Moab I had the Hunner front leaf springs welded on. While in the shop I saw a scrap of spring steel and asked the guys to tack it onto the OEM UCP so I wouldn't poke any more holes in the transfer case.

I think it was this same trip where one of the Bilsteins was blown out and when I tried to get a replacement from the original vendor I could not get a single reply from him as to whether they were in stock. I ordered elsewhere and got a different Bilstein so I was running mismatched shocks in front.

July 2010 I get a "deal" on five BFG KM tires (older ones, not the KM2s) along with five OEM rims, center caps, some spare tie rods, torsion bar keys and shock extenders. The keys and extenders are still hidden in a closet somewhere. The tires only had about 10,000 miles on them but I soon learned they suffered badly from dry rot.

As for my five BFG ATs I sold them for $200 total. Usable tread varied from about 10% to 80% as I kept slicing tires and replacing them one by one.

I had to recycle my old chrome rims as the beads were so trashed that weights could not be hung. But I got $60 for them - woulda been more but the chrome lowered the price at the scrapyard.

In October the other Bilstein gave out so I went with an interim solution - used Adventure shocks from Twinmill. If y'all need to know what a bad shock looks like, this Bilstein is it as it was covered in oil.

I had been running the Cobra 75 radio as seen here but wanted the full size radio. When my 75 died I upgraded to the 29 - 50th Anniversary Edition

I also relocated the antenna from the spare tire to the roof, figuring I'd get a better ground plane as well as a better ground. I ran the Coax under the plastic trim and down the A pillar. The mount was two Firestik L mounts bolted together.

In early 2011 I also fixed my Gibson muffler again as the original installers FUBARed the whole thing. I had that shop tack another piece of spring steel onto the UCP

I really wanted to stop this smoking issue that occurred up steep inclines

Plugs weren't the issue, even though some were rusty.

 

[alrock]

I didn't have the oil burning issue fixed yet but I figured I could improve the Hi-Lift mount so I bought Hi-Lifts bar mount and used that on the OEM cross bars

February 2011 I went to Utah for a work trip and decided to go in for a tire rotation. They rolled this out, and another just like it. I was being cheap so I ended up just buying 2 KM2s to replace these dry rot tires.

On a snow run in Sedona I learned that small rocks can take a truck off the trail; trees can save you from sliding off mountaintops and it takes a lot to convince Cotilo that pictures are important in a time like this. (I think she's unconvinced)

Still haven't figured out the burning oil issue but there's oil in the intake resonator and the throttle body gets really dirty

April 2011 I finally beat the bypass to the Wall on Steel Bender. Still got the KMs on front. May not sound like much in that I took the bypass but while it may be easier it's also slightly more idiotic to take it

Oh yeah, I picked up a set of wheels in SoCal for cheap. Solid spoke chrome. Used one on the spare for a while. So far I've bought four sets of wheels, some with tires, and never spent more than $125 total for a set. Deals are out there.

For this Sedona trip I finally get matching KM2s. Jerry S. does the same.

November 2011 I meet Dwaine and he shows us the right way to fix the crossmember. Thus began the ScorpWorks crossmember bushing product.

December 2011 - change the plugs again, clean the throttle body again. Still more oil being used. Then, the good news. At 98,000 miles the dealer tells me my cylinder head is bad and they replace it under powertrain warranty. Woohoo!

Jan 2012 MaxPF hooks me up with a rear locker from his K5 Blazer and installs it for pizza and wings. At that time we also replace a frozen rear locker, replace the rear axle seals as a routine maintenance item, and realize the shocks I got from Twinmill are finally dead. Bilsteins go in.

Finally comes the Gobi Stealth rack with Rigid LED lighting. One 10" E Series and two D2 Duallys

Gobi Hi-Lift mount used. I also use a Firestik mirror mount to mount my CB antenna to the passenger side of the roof rack since the lighting power was run up the driver's A pillar

I decided to fix the A pillar trim with a final repair using rivet nuts and black screws

I got new switches from otrattw.com for the lights

The grill goes to black with two cans of Duplicolor bedline and one can of clearcoat

Thanks to Rocky for this picture

I finally make it up Hells's Gate

Thanks to Hummer Investments for the picture

 

[HUMMER INVESTMENTS]

Probably otta thank my Dad Lance for taking the picture He needs to get an account on here

 

[alrock]

tomp lo-pro axle mounts went on in 2011 courtesy of a deal with Bigunit. Notice the difference between the bumper of 2012 and that of 2007 below

2012 - no exhaust tips. Funked up plate. 2" extra clearance (one rock at a time) in the center of the bumper