Tomorrow is going to be a great day

For the H2 anyways. I mail in the final payoff on the truck tomorrow and for all practical purposes it's all mine now. I do intend to keep it, but I am always looking for shiny new toys I have said a bunch of times that I want to get an H1 and if there ever was a time to do it, it would be right now. There are some pretty good deals out there in my local area that are all in the price range I have been thinking about.

But before I could utter the word Hummer I was smitten yesterday..at of all places..a Ford dealer. I took a test ride in a SVT Raptor and I think I might have found the new man of my dreams :giggle:. The 2012 Raptor is really really nice and in some ways I wished it was what Hummer could have been. So now I have a lot of thinking to do and deciding what kind of shiny new toy I really want to put in the driveway before the Mayan apocalypse hits this year

If it is a newer model, won't it be a toy boy????

CONGRATS! That's a great feeling. I remember paying off my H3 a couple years ago.

I don't do car payments but I understand the thrill of getting a new toy. Decisions, decisions. Either way a cool new toy. I am pulling for the H1 but either way you will have a great new ride.

That is great news New toy

Congrats on paying off the HUMMER!

Raptor----meh

I've test driven one and it's still a truck, just like everybody else has. Oh yeah, and it's a Ford--yuck

twinmill28 said:

Congrats on paying off the HUMMER!

Raptor----meh
I've test driven one and it's still a truck, just like everybody else has. Oh yeah, and it's a Ford--yuck

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I test drove a 2012 red raptor Saturday with the graphics package and I have to say it is very well done, inside and outside. They had some really innovative off road features that, if Hummer were still around, might have made it's way into the trucks. One thing I liked is graphically displaying the wheel location which would be great for knowing how far to the left or right one needed to go. There was a built in inclinometer, compass and graphical display of what wheels were engaged such as 4wd on, locked etc. The thing that really set it apart was that 6.2l engine though. This truck has some serious get up and go and the sound to boot and that's right off the lot, no mods.

Overall here is my (non-offroaded) opinion so take it all with a grain of salt. In my humble opinion. I think that as an apple to apples comparison an H3T alpha is ultimately better as an offroader than an SVT Raptor, since for the most part they line up feature by feature. Every cool new feature in the 2012 raptor came on the adevnture pkg H3T I bought way back in 2010. On a straight up open dirt road, the raptor would blow the doors off of any Hummer, but in the technical stuff that's where the difference lies. On one hand it would be nice to hit a dirt road at 75 mph, but on the other hand there is no where to do that within 1,000 miles of where I live even with all the backwoods dirt roads up here in the Berkshires.

The raptor despite ground clearance is still a truck, and even though the H3T is still a truck it was purpose built from the ground up for the offroading angles (approach, departure, etc).

Me personally, after 2 years of ownership consider the H3T a technicians 4 wheeler. Hummer finally gets it right and then they promptly shut down. Could you imagine if Hummer was still alive and they had an SVT team and took a stock H3T and sold it as a H3T raptor or something along those lines? How cool would that have been? But it won't happen and it never will, so the choices are more limiting with what's left in the marketplace. I can buy new or I can buy an 8-10 year AM General truck. That's the conundrum for me.

another cool thing is if you want to spend the money, you can have hennessey tune your engine and add other things. They have multiple tune packages, the biggest one gives the raptor like 800 horsepower.

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Keep us posted!

I like the Raptor, and I especially like that they are pretty close to "trail ready" right off the showroom floor, which most vehicles aren't. I like that there are options for forward looking cameras for "self spotting" and that the 2012's come with a Torsen front diff. It's a serious offroad machine.

One of the biggest reasons I like my H1 is how uncompromising it is. Before you make a decision, see if you can find a way to drive an H1 (assuming you haven't done so already). H1's have this amazing ability to put a REALLY BIG FAT GRIN on your face when you drive them.

Good luck, keep us posted ...and... oh BTW... we like pics

I say get an H3T Alpha, put of the UCP, Rock Bashers, 35" wheels, Hutchinson double beadlocks, a Slant Back topper, get a cargo slide, add a Thor Parts rear bumper with spare gate, Hunner skids, ... this is starting to sound familiar ...

I don't think the Raptor will ever be as good off road as the H3T, but I'm biased.

Good luck with your big decision and keep us informed!

LagunaH1 said:

One of the biggest reasons I like my H1 is how uncompromising it is. Before you make a decision, see if you can find a way to drive an H1 (assuming you haven't done so already). H1's have this amazing ability to put a REALLY BIG FAT GRIN on your face when you drive them.

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I took a 2000 H1 open top (HMCO I believe) on a test ride last summer. It was a nice yellow truck. Yeah it was nice, I'm not going to kid you, but I am trying to get the best bang for my buck if I can. You know that old line...when you have the money to spend you can't spend it no matter how hard you try? And what happens is next, you buy something and the thing you always wanted all along comes up for sale

That's how I ended up driving an Avalanche a few years ago. I really wanted an H3T but Hummer was late by a year bringing them to market. Yes in the end I ended up with the truck I wanted, but to my dismay, the H3T came out a year after I had the Avalanche in the driveway and getting out of the Avalanche was not going to be easy since I was upside down on the truck at the time.

Portager said:

I say get an H3T Alpha, put of the UCP, Rock Bashers, 35" wheels, Hutchinson double beadlocks, a Slant Back topper, get a cargo slide, add a Thor Parts rear bumper with spare gate, Hunner skids, ... this is starting to sound familiar ...

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I already have a 2010 H3T adventure, although with the 3.7L. This is my daily driver so I keep it pretty stock. For fun I have the H2 which I have put a lot of money into building into a true trail rig. Right now I go this way: daily driver H3T, back and forth to work, sunny weekends in the summer, I take the 2009 Jeep wrangler with the top and doors off (I've made quite a few mods to that truck as well), and for weekend excursions or offroading trips I take the H2. During the week, my daughter takes the Jeep to go back and forth to school. What I am thinking of is the "do I take the H2 or vehicle X" fun car for the weekends kind of decision. I don't want a sports car or some gas sipping car that anyone can own. I want something cool because it's the fun car or truck

Skeptic and I did an moderate trail run last year, him in his 3, me in the deuce and a buddy in a Raptor; I do admit I was impressed with it's off-road abilities. He ran everywhere I put the 2, and everywhere Skeptic put his 3; plus he did the 70mph dirt road Dukes of Hazard thing to flex the Fox. We'd posted a video of it somewhere. The Fox' work just as advertised---but on the third go-round we found their limits! Turns out skid plates come in pretty handy as well! And you're right, it did sound pretty righteous coming toward the hill right before it launched;the engine has a throaty rumble.
But as is the case with the HUMMER, I'd surmise a majority of Raptor buyers will never really use their truck except for maybe one or two jumps to try it out.
As for the graphics package--I haven't checked recently, but that was a $1000 upcharge for vinyl "mud" on the truck when I test drove it. Really---$1000 for vinyl mud!
I've had way too many bad experiences in multiple Ford service depts. to ever think about laying that kind of money down to chance being treated like a peasant when I come in for service. And I could only imagine owning a Raptor that you're going to end up breaking stuff (just like we do with the HUMMER's) that will need warranty coverage. Good luck with getting a Ford service manager to work with you on that.

Lots of issues with Raptor frames bending from people jumping them. There have been threads on numerous forums about it. If you don't plan on doing the Dukes of Hazzard thing then no worries.