Year in Review

[06 H3]

Guess I’ll chime in....

2017 was a year with little to no wheeling. Work was busy and took up most of my few brain cells. Late in the year I bought a Jeep ZJ from a friend and will most likely tow it to Moab come April.

One of my New Years resolutions will be to get out and play in the dirt more often, be it in the Power Wagon or in the Jeep.

Another New Years resolution is to win the lottery so I can build my dream H1


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Awesome! Thanks for chiming in. I think you will like the ZJ

[cgalpha08]

Well this year I totalled my 2008 alpha. And bought an 09 alpha. Current plans are to Rancho the front and SOA the rear. I also did no wheeling last year (was without a hummer for half of it). Here's to 2018!!

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[RamRod]

2017 has been an interesting year to say the least.

But to keep it truck related:
Put on a new Roof Top Tent, built a new bed rack & roof rack and wired it up for forward facing (50") and side lights(2x 6"). Imported 5 snorkels and installed one for my truck

Parts that still have not gone on, but are sitting on my shelf: poly bushings front and rear, Starr HID headlights, extended shackles, and high clearance leaf spring mounts...
I really need a garage for the winter time up in the PNW so I can get thee parts on!

[Enter Hummer]

I joined the best online forum 1 year ago today, and bought my H3 right before that. All I can say is I love it even more than when I brought it home!

I re-did most of the steering components (rack, pump, tie-rods), got a new transfer case installed at GM, built a custom tool box, did a ton of mild wheeling, did a tune up, replaced crossmember bushing with OD kit, and trashed the paint with scratches. I ordered parts to rebuild my front driveline also.

Next year my main focus will be on armor. I ordered Schwarttzy skids and can’t wait for them to arrive . I should have enough junk done next year to start a build thread!

[06 H3]

WOW!! It's time again to start this thread. Amazing...2018 was a great year. The hummer got a bunch of use and abuse even though I had a crazy year personally outside of wheeling. I went on UA a 2nd time all the way on the east coast which was a dream come true. I got to winch on backdoor during the race at king of the hammers and then move from so cal to nor cal, get engaged and buy our first house!

I was hoping 2019 would be a bit mellower but work asked me to take on a new challenge so I will be moving to the Idaho, Montana or Eastern Washington area within the first 3 months of 2019. Now we need to decide if we try to keep the house in Sacramento and rent it or sell it and move on.

With all that said...
Trails/Events
-1x Sledgehammer
-1x Clawhammer
-Part of outer limits until my buddy broke and had to turn around
-Lots of wheeling locally doing recoveries down south before I moved. With plenty of rain out came the idiots.
-I didn't necessarily wheel but got to take the hummer up to mammoth where it dumped multiple feet of snow in one day and had fun in some snow drifts
Wheel trails in multiple states for UA
-Maine (rocky mtn terrain park) Frank n beans and greased marbles...Dragon's tail on day 2
-Vermont-drive through
-New Hampshire (jerhico mtn state park and mtn mud run park)
-New York (northeast off road adventure park)
-Pennsylvania (AAOA)
-New Jersey- drive through
-Connecticut (crazy 8's)
-Massachusetts-drive through
-Mormon Emigrant trail for snow wheeling!
-Sand Hollow (after Christmas)

While I didn't get as much hammer trip wheeling in UA, moving, and the rebuild after UA took up a ton of time

What I broke
-Trans
-Eaton HO72 driver side axle shaft
-add a leaf

Mods
Well I did a full rebuild after UA and was down for the longest period its ever been down
-New motor mounts and rereinforce frame side engine mounts
-80k take out OEM trans to replace my old one rebuilt by a dumbass
-rebuild/replace all suspension joints and bushings
-New 14in travel Fox shocks with compression adjusters
-Rebump front end for more uptravel (3.75-4 to 5in)
-Anti wrap bar
-Rear Truss
-Front sway from FJ80
-air bumps front and rear
-replaced hub seal
-fresh t case setup (New chain and output gear)
-New crossmember for flat belly and more clearance
-clock t case 20 degrees
-fresh leaf springs and rear bump rear suspension for more travel
-u bolt elim spring perch kit
-new rock lights
-new sliders by cutting the pinch seam and making a new one netting 2-3in of ground clearance
-rugged radio headsets
-metalcloak coil springs

If I remember more I will add more.

Plans for 2019 Mods
-205 doubler
-6l80e
-rewire accessories
-shock tuning
-suck down winch
-molle panels for storage solutions

2019 trips
-Moab
-Hammers
-explore new wheeling in the area I move to
-follow U4 west series to pit and help my buddy who is racing
-Depending on water levels Fordyce

[rascole]

Quite the year you had. Great memories for sure. Now a whole new area to wheel in, sounds exciting. I have friends in Coeur d'Alene, been there a few times, beautiful and cheap but I hate snow so good luck. As you climb that corporate ladder make sure to make them a sponsor here.

[06 H3]

Well 2019 was a crazy year, kind of a **** show year. We sold our Sacramento house and moved to Idaho and dealt with a LOT of behind the scenes BS that had nothing to do with the Hummer or moving personally! I don't think I would have ever imagined moving to Idaho but my fiancé and I absolutely LOVE it. Not much went on modification wise or wheeling wise for a decent chunk of 2019 due to the craziness but now we are settled and not going anywhere for a while.

Trails/Events
Wrecking ball (hammers)
Blueberry (Hammers) 2x
Preran the first 90 miles of the KOH course for my buddy who was racing, this was SUPER FUN!!!!
Sledgehammer (Hammers) 2x
Rubicon 2x (Once in the Hummer once in my brothers JK)
Then I messed around in Prairie city and Ridgecrest for my buddy racing.


Mods
6.2L, what a random but welcomed upgrade due to an unexpected issue with the 5.3
14in 2.5in coilovers with DSC adjusters
Premier Power Welder
NP205 Doubler
Suck down winch
Re design the front 3 link
Redhead steering box
new 1410 driveshafts

What I broke
I broke a 5.3L
my front suspension was worn the hell out so it was all replaced and redone but I guess it didn't technically break and leave me stranded on the trail.
doubler issues

2020 Mod plans
I want to put a more modern transmission in it and have it programmed for MY CONTROL, I am tired of letting the computer decide what's best for me. Zero Gravity Performance can do a 6L80e swap that has auto mode and manual mode that truly allows me to decide what's going on, if I want to start in 4th gear, I will start in 4th gear unlike the OEM computer overriding it and starting in 1st.

I contemplate an 8HP70 but since its a dodge trans getting the integration to work is a challenge but its a badass trans. I may go the route of the 6l80e and pick up an 8HP to mess with in the future since they are cheap.

Trips for 2020
KOH 2020
I'd like to do Moab
High Sierra trip
Explore the rock crawling in Boise

Closing comments
I would say my final run of the year and decade was a roller coaster, probably a representation of what the decade and year entailed. I learned a lot over this decade. I graduated High School, College, got my first job, got my first job out of college, went from a stock H3 to a rancho kit, to a SAS, to a V8, to one ton's, 40s, roll cage, I wheeled in CA, AZ, UT, and the east coast, achieved my dream of UA. Got Engaged, bought a house, sold a house, bought another house. I was a newbie when I was posting in 2010. Now I have gone through the various ups and downs, the fun times of building a rock crawler and the times that make you want to throw a damn wrench through a window.

I want to continue to push the H3, the challenges will become bigger and harder as the room for improvement becomes slimmer but that is when good things happen, usually with trials and tribulations.


While we may not be on here as much as we used to I still appreciate all the fun times I have had with the people who started this forum and hope to continue to do so in 2020 and the decade to come!

[alrock]

Well Chris, we'd like you to do Moab! Hopefully you can keep up with us on the trails. You're pretty much just around the corner up there in Idaho.

No changes to the H3 this year except for some minor upkeep. Clearcoat is starting to fail pretty badly in several places. Didn't move, didn't change jobs, but I did get to a few countries for the first time including Thailand, Singapore, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Egypt and Brazil.

[JPaul]

2019 was a rough year for me as well. Broke the rear diff spider gears in Moab during Black Sheep week ( I swear one of these times I will be there for the whole week!), also broke the new front swaybar links on the same trail and popped a CV boot.

Had the rear diff rebuilt with 4.56 gears and an ARB locker, did the same to the front diff (which is only halfway in right now). Added a snorkel and got maybe halfway through installing the rear power system. I think that is pretty much it for mods this year.

I spent most of my time working and selling our house in West Valley and moving up to far northern Utah (spitting distance from Chris if I try real hard), and wishing I had time to work on the H3.

For next year I want to get the front drivetrain and steering all back together and get her back on the road. I also want to finish my rear power, install my ham and CB radios, and it will be time for new tires, hopefully before the next Black Sheep run. I'm not sure what else I will get to since the new property and house are going to probably keep me pretty busy, along with having to travel down to Salt Lake at least a couple days each week until we can finish getting our datacenter moved at work.

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[LagunaH1]

Boy does time fly......

Went to Moab
Started a new job
Worked like a madman
Got older and crankier

[cgalpha08]

A few big things

Solid axle swap, spring over

Got engaged.

Lookin forward to 2020!

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[06 H3]

Man, I am behind. I will make this quick since its almost new years. As we all know, 2020 was a ****show. COVID and govt bull**** had me 2nd guessing a lot of things. Work had me grounded at home for 75% of the year. With that said I feel like I "sorted out" the Hummer better then ever. Life was crazy the past few years, it was go go go and rushing to the next off road trip so I really got to get things dialed. I was plagued with 205 doubler t case issues at the beginning of the year but I did get that all sorted finally but it did require me to leave the Hummer in socal from January to mid Feb.

MODS
-Lap belts- great for wheeling and if your belt gets locked, I still use my factory belts most of the time and those offroad.
-Re wire the offroad accessories with "Trigger" panels that use wireless communication to the accessories, its pretty cool
-Made a super useful rear cargo storage rack and extended the factory storage cubby for more room (part of "sorting out" the Hummer)
-Lots of maintenance, repacking wheel bearings, kingpin spring delete, etc.
-Rear shackles, its amazing my factory ones made it this long! I went to ruffstuff shackles
-roll cage hi lift mount- Definitely needed to do this years ago after ditching the rack.
-Rear half doors
-205 doubler redux to finally fix it.
-43's!

Trails
-KOH for a full week in Feburary, drove the hummer the most in a single day, 850 miles on 40s!
This trip was a ****show but the Hummer put in work repairing, recovering and fixing rigs.
-Ran a few trails outside of Mountain Home, Idaho in March. Boulderdash, Gauntlet and 1 more I forgot.
-Ran Topripper, upper and lower gatekeeper, and meatgrinder in April
-Didnt wheel from April to July (busy with a dumb F550) but drove the Hummer to the Rubicon and back in early July
-End of July I ran Lone Pine, that trailed KICKED MY ASS but it showed me a tough rock trail local to me.
-September I participated in Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge in the Hummer, drove it to the event and home!
-October I did some dirt road therapy with a local H3 guy who was closer to stock
-Then I didn't wheel again till November as I was busy fitting up 43's but I did a test run on meatgrinder and lower/upper gatekeeper.
I wheeled but not enough, I spent a lot of time working on the F550 and and some plans were cancelled.

Carnage
-Bent a main leaf spring
-205 doubler issues in the beginning of the year
-bent the hell out of a driveshaft
-Lots of dents/scrapes, Idaho trails are tight!
-Brake caliper issues, I had a seized caliper then I kept breaking caliper bolts but I think I have that sorted. It was weird that it was flawless for 5 years and then gave me some issues...

All in all 2020 was a tough year mentally. I am glad I got the 205 doubler fixed, Bowman transmission really helped out of that and those issues are sorted. I feel the Hummer is rock solid and after a "break" or slowdown year I have the Hummer in a better place then before.

2021 Wheeling

I hope for 2021 to get to KOH, Moab, and Fordyce along with some local wheeling....

2021 Mods
I still hope to do a 6L80E one day.
Fix my currently malfunctioning fuel gauge.
Other then that, fix what I break and just enjoy it, I dont have much planned immediately because my money is going to the STUPID F550 tow rig that has been a disaster basket case of a truck so far. The previous owner sucked and did crap repairs but hey, for 5k on a 20 year old truck, its expected.

So really 2021 is enjoying the Hummer more then this year and keeping to my goal, wheel the hardest trails I can while maintaining a vehicle capable of driving 500+ miles at a shot. With 43's I might have to reel myself back a tad and remember the streetability part. I may pick up some fresh 40's and extra beadlocks, we will see.