Endeavoredh3’s Huggy (H3 Buggy)

[EndeavoredH3]

Now that the main truck is getting near to completion (I’d prefer to not cut into it since it’s sentimental), I got my hands on an H3 headed to the junkyard late last year. It is a manual truck.

It is rough, this guy bought it from auction and sold the motor, along with some other parts. I have a bunch of known good take offs that I can use.

Today I sourced a manual trans, tcase and driveshafts. They’ll sit in the back for now. The plan is to have it take my i5 when I v8 swap later this year.

This is going to be a dedicated offroad H3. The solid one ton axle works. With all the weight reduction you can do. It’ll be an experiment to see how much weight you can lose before it looks unappealing.

 

[rascole]

Plasma cutter her we come. Can't wait to see this, another Squeaky in the works.

 

[06 H3]

I always enjoy seeing these builds, I’ve seen many on pirate/irate and have learned so much. There’s 10,000 ways to skin a cat in the off-road world. What is the end goal? Ultimate rock crawler? Ultimate desert rig? A well rounded Swiss Army knife type rig? Drive it to the trail or trailer it only?

What is the build goal? Build it all out at once 1 tons, big tires, etc. or wheel it stock, break it, upgrade it, repeat?

I’ve seen it done both ways, no wrong way to do it, just curious. Mine was obviously upgrade as you go along and it costs more in the end. If you can swing it, it costs more upfront but cheaper long term usually to do it all at once because you don’t build a d44, then put money into it, then upgrade, then break the tcase, put money into it, then upgrade it, etc. it’s usually just lost cash.

I’m excited to see the weight reduction measures. Will you ditch the dash, back seats, hatch, HVAC, carpet, headliner, windows, cut roof off etc. that’s a cheap way to reduce weight.

From there I have learned you can have 2 out of 3 options
-lightweight
-cheap
-strong

If you want strong and lightweight prepare to spend money. Mine is definitely not lightweight and strong. It’s cheap and strong lol I wish I could do lightweight and strong.

There’s a few exceptions to strong and cheap. An example is the LT230 t case, gear driven and relatively lightweight. Pound for pound it’s stout, but if it breaks, there’s no upgrades like you can do on other t cases and you have to build an axle around it. All stuff to think about when building lightweight, strong and cheap exceptions are rare and when you find them they usually lack aftermarket support. My HO72 is an exception of that. Strong and cheap but lacks aftermarket support.

After that, I’ve usually found that it’s about $20 a lb for weight savings. A brake kit that can save you 40-45 lbs is like $850. It’s ridiculous but 40lbs here, 40 lbs there, all adds up to thousand plus lbs.

https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1506-we-build-a-lightweight-fuel-efficient-daily-driverrockcrawler-chevy-tracker/

There’s 7 articles, this is taking lightweight to the extreme. New frame, everything is stripped, very lightweight axles.

At this point to maintain the level of strength I have in my rig and to ditch the weight I have to ditch creature comforts and/or go with parts like an atlas t case (saves 70lbs) go with 9in axles with the proper upgrades but it’s like 8k to build a budget 9in nowadays. That can net me 300-400 lbs for both axles.

Just wanted to share some ideas and thoughts and look forward to the build. If you can get sub a 1 ton H3 sub 6,000 lbs id say that’s a giant home run. 1/2ton SAS H3 sub 5k lbs that’s an even bigger home run.

 

[EndeavoredH3]

The end goal is to have it be the "end all, be all" trail proven set up, but in stages. Getting it driving around is the primary goal, I want to weigh it before doing any cutting. Gross weight of the current h3 totals to 5800lbs. Im already ahead with the manual transmission. Saves about 40 lbs right there, no external coolers required. Starting out, itll get some silverado steelies, 37's/35's and a body lift of which will be the baseline.

My initial intinerary for this h3 is to make it lightweight and to do it cheap. But living in arizona there needs to be some luxuries. HVAC, AC/Heat and the headliner all need to stay. I plan on keeping some sort of stereo sytem, always been a preference but dont need anything more than a basic system.

Since this will be very budget in the begining; bumpers will get tossed, carpet, rear bench seat, useless plastic and other bits will be removed. I want as much weight in front of the rear axle as i can, so bringing in the spare tire is necessary. An idea in my head is to fabricate and modify the existing tire hanger on the rear swing door to mount onto the bench seat studs. Not sure if itll stand up or lay flat. If i cut off the roof like you mentioned, there will be a need to have some new form of reinforcement. This can become a single cab H3 with a rollcage very quickely if i get out of control with the angle grinder. I think we both know thatll turn into a full exo cage, which it ultimately will have but not until later renditions. The absolute unit of a rear tailgate needs to be adressed. Its structural, so i dont want to make it weak but something needs to be done.

Now, mechanically. I have multiple aluminum front diffs at this point, so itll be an experiement. Im hoping taking out weight will help some, but not entirely hopefull. If im satisfied with the weight savings, maybe its justified to do a d44 in the front and keep the 37's to be a nimble platform. Lots of the current d44 h3's are going to d60 and 14b's due to rig weight. I really like what the australian guy did with his setup. Very flexy and travely. I can chase the forever game of "It broke, whats the upgrade" but if you can run a LT230/np205/atlas and it operates well 90 percent of the time, then im willing to work with it. There will be an initial attempt to restain from chasing the weakest link.

In terms of goal weights. If i can get this truck in stock suspension form to damn well near 4k pounds it will be a massive win.

 

[06 H3]

Curb weight is about 4700 lbs. a manual H3 saves you 40 lbs. back seats I haven’t weighed but I’d guess 100 lbs so you have 560ish lbs to shed while going to a heavier rim and heavier tire. I’m excited to see where the 560 lbs come from. I need ideas to shed weight.

 

[EndeavoredH3]

Curb weight is about 4700 lbs. a manual H3 saves you 40 lbs. back seats I haven’t weighed but I’d guess 100 lbs so you have 560ish lbs to shed while going to a heavier rim and heavier tire. I’m excited to see where the 560 lbs come from. I need ideas to shed weight.

The steelies were a cheap way to go about it, im sure i can keep the stock 16" wheels and find a tire for it. I actually do have a set.

140 with the rear bench and manual trans, maybe another 40-80lbs with the remainder of the interior removed? I would like to remove the doors and weigh it after the inital weigh in. If its signifiate (which I know it will be) then ill either chop the doors or get rid of them all together. That deep into it then Ill probably remove the AC and keep the heat with the intention of having it strictly for fall/winter/spring schenanigans.

A winch and a plate/crude bumper (Easy enough to make yourself) will add weight, but there needs to be adequete recovery incase I pull a Vay on the rubicion. I plan on getting rid of the plastic rockers and adding box tube (More weight) so I can maintain clearance on the sides, then skid plates, etc. Losing the 560 is a fever dream if the body isnt trimmed, so well see how I go about it. I would remove the sunroof if it had one .

 

[Gpcalero]

Excited to see how this turns out!!