06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

Storage:

I had my hi lift mounted off my roof rack back in the day. I didn't like having the weight up high but I think a 60" hi lift is the size I need and I cant really store it anywhere else. I never mounted it after doing the cage and either left it at home or ratchet strapped it to the cage. If I ditch the 2nd row seats I can fit the hi lift but I want to have the 2nd row usable.

So I picked a spot.






and made some mounts






I copied by buddy's idea which was to take a nut and weld 1/4 rod to it so you have a giant wing nut that doesn't require tools to get it on and off.

Finally a hi lift where I can get it on and off with ease and its hard mounted for safety.

The storage in the H3 is meh...I feel there is a lot of wasted space with panels that hide dead space. I also tried to come up with a solution that can serve multiple purposes. I do lots of different types of wheeling and I don't trailer my rig and I have decided to try and keep my 2nd row open for seating as much as possible. I do wheeling close to home, where I carry trail stuff, I do wheeling far from home but have a base camp. Where I have food, clothes and spares I may not carry locally but can leave at camp and then lastly I do point A to B type wheeling like the rubicon where I need to carry all the **** with me.

I started searching and I found out there is dead space in the fender well and dead space doing down the fender towards the 2nd row.






https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnFuVxtKm38&feature=emb_logo


So I cut out the cubby hole and saved an entire action packer worth of crap! I went snow wheeling in northern CA and realized with only 3 rigs there could have been many instances where we needed 250+ feet of rope to recover. I had some additional rope laying around and started carrying it. For how light it is I figured stuffing it down into the fender well was worth its weight in gold some day. I also put my welding stuff in the cubby area. It does take a little bit more effort to get to now but like I said in the video, if we need the welding stuff or 250 feet of winch rope, were probably in a ****ed up situation and we wont be going anywhere fast so having it take an extra minute or two to get to will be worth the additional storage gain.

I just mocked up some stuff to see how I want to build a little rear cargo rack for multiple wheeling scenarios. I will be using 1/2 square tubing to keep it light and take up less space.

The end goal is to be able to get anything I need without having to move 12 other things to get to it like I had to in the past (except the winch and rope stuff in the cubby.)

That's where I am at. The thread is now up to date and I will continue to spend my weekends and evenings trying to better my rig in what normally would go much slower given the virus conditions we have that has halted society.

I started making the rear cargo rack.
















The requirement was LIGHT! I know overlanders make cool but heavy cargo setups that are heavy and have drawers and a bunch of stuff. I wanted this to be as light as possible and as small as possible to maximize room and use the interior panels as additional structure to keep it stout like seen below.






I also added a rear light for desert wheeling at night so people can see me.






With the cargo rack done and the doubler fixed I went to go try it out and had a great day out wheeling in Idaho.

I didn't get any pics of me but it seems my doubler isses were resolved!











I did notice Idaho trails are a bit tighter then the hammers. I am not sure if its because of the U4 cars being so big that have naturally made hammer trails wider but this seems to be a more common theme.











Got the fender fixed up when I got home. The "pillows" as I call them take a beating and try to keep the actual sheetmetal clean.

After that I went to CA to pick up a 2000 Ford F550. I still plan to drive my rig to and from the trails but for certain trips tent camping is getting old, especially at KOH. I spend 10 days out there this year and the weather is bi polar as hell. One day its 60 mph winds, then rain, then 80 degrees out, then 30 out then snow, then sun. The weather is tough to camp in for more then a week at a time. The Hummer wouldn't tow a small camper trailer well, big RVs that can tow the hummer are expensive as hell so I went this route. The plan is on specific trips like KOH I will tow the Hummer on the flat bed and then pull a 20-25ft bumper pull camper trailer behind it. That seemed to be the cheapest route.

The truck is a 2000 Ford F550 7.3/4R100 auto trans, 2wd (for now) crew cab 201in wheelbase with a 16ft knapehide flat bed that someone added things to over the years, Dana S135 with factory 4.88s (14.25in Ring gear!!!) The truck has 386k on it and much to my surprise even high mileage F550s with the 7.3 were going for a decent amount. CA is banning F450 and F550s before 2008 in Dec. They are no longer legal and paperweights so I picked this up for 5k. It needs work but I knew that. I did 1500 miles on it and towed my brothers JK back to ID and issues were minimal. I had an original HPOP o ring leak but I replaced it and it made it back to ID no problem.






It is the max tow package so total GCWR in stock trim is 30k lbs vs 26k. the rear suspension is stout! I loaded my brothers 6100lb JK on the back and it squatted less then 1.5in! The motor felt it was there but the suspension and brakes didn't. I already did a CNC Stage 2 HPOP, new LPOP, new HPOP Lines with crossover line. Next up is Stage 1.5 180/30 Injectors, injector cups, the valve gasket harness (seems like a dumb design) KC Turbo, 4in downpipe, 5in exhaust, new up pipes and a tuner. Those mods I have seen on KC turbos facebook dyno over 900 lb ft to the wheels and 400 hp compared to 235/500.

I was contemplating an Allison 6 speed swap from CA Conversions but they are expensive! The real benefit to me is the .61 overdrive compared to .71 what I currently have. with 4.88s and 31's I rev at about 2500 rpm at 67. I will go to 33s and 2500 rpm will get me to 70 mph. That is the one downside I see with this thing and while I don't like the highway rpm I want to keep the 4.88s for when I am at low speeds around town. I will probably drop the 4R100 off at Bowman's trans have them Chris build it to handle the new power, swap a 4wd output shaft and slap a t case in there. I will swap in a front axle at a later point.

The overall goal is to have base camp setup at that truck for longer trips. I will put bedside boxes on it, carry all my diff setup tools, a generator, bring my plasma cutter, welder, etc. so whatever happens to me and my friends we have the closest thing to a garage on the lakebed or whatever other base camp type setups we have.






About 27 ft long but she fits!

I did have the LPOP fail when moving my parents from their rental house while they waited for the new home in ID to be finished but squeaky came to the rescue.






Got ID plates, I have a SQUEKY3 ID plate on order!

It was took a lot of work to make that plate look like that.






ID Engine legal swap approval, of course I live in 1 of the 2 counties that have smog in the entire state...






Then got to work on my brothers JK. I shaved the 14 bolt, replaced the johnny joints in the rear suspension, new seats, new fenders, fix the AC, redid the steering, fixed his cracked factory crossmember, and more. He doesn't give it much love so I got it all fixed up and nice again.






So that is where most of the time went after I got back with the truck. He came out to celebrate 4th of July in America aka Idaho and then drove the Jeep back 500 miles to CA with no issues!

Next stop for me Rubicon! (next post)

Next trip was a 1100 miles round trip to the Rubicon and back! It was a good test for the doubler since it was working offroad I wanted to make sure the problems would stay away with prolonged highway speeds between 70-80 mph.

I had 2 passengers, my wife and my sister with me. Here's a shot of all her loaded up waiting on my sister.






Space and organization wise this was the best I have ever been! I had our pillows on the top of the rack, all tools, clothes and cooler to hold food and drinks in the rack. Easy to get to most of it without having to remove other things which was a first!

CO2 tank between the rear seat and rack which had it wedged and couldn't move which was great then our camping stuff in a bag strapped on the roof with 2 gas cans. While I can run the rubicon with plenty of spare fuel left over I always get nervous in case things don't go according to plan and I need to go get parts for someone I just like the extra fuel.






Driving near Tahoe






I have been terrible with taking pictures lately so I only have a few. It was Me, my buddy in his land cruiser on 40s, my buddy in his TJ on 39s and a willys on 35s. Unfortunately the willys broke front and rear shafts and 2 leaf springs 1.5 mile into the trail! So he turned around and went out. Other then that everyone else was pretty much problem free except I had a seizing caliper which I ziptied on the leaf spring, put a stick between the pads and drove home that way.

great campsite!






The scenery just cant be beat on the rubicon!






Only other issue I had was loose 205 rear output bearing bolts which I think they were a tad short and I got some longer ones in Lovelock, NV to fix the issue. Other then that, 1100 miles pretty much problem free, good friends, fun trail and good scenery. I am learning that from Idaho to CA is DESOLATE, southern OR and Northern NV population is minimal. If issues arise your kind of ****ed as you can go 100+ miles without access to a parts store or cell service. From so cal to the rubicon you were constantly in cell service and an exit away from parts but that's ok, ID is still better lol.

After getting back from the rubicon and replacing my caliper I got ready for a local run. This was by far the toughest run I have done out here and I think I was outgunned by most of the other rigs.

The group I went out with were great guys, 1 was a TJ buggy on 39in stickies, 1 was a built TJ on 39 in stickies, 1 was a retired U4 car on 42in stickies, 1 was an old CJ on links with 39in stickies and then a YJ on 37in PBR's but he broke on the gatekeeper and parked his rig and then myself.

These guys were all MUCH lighter then me, much narrower then me, and had a similar tire size for being a much shorter rig then myself. All of them were linked and I felt for the first time ever my rear leafs were just not putting out enough articulation.

I was the only dumbass who didn't show up on a trailer, here is a sweet crawler hauler.






Here is a rig on the first main obstacle.






The holes were deep and they flexed you out quite a bit! I don't have pics to do the size of the holes justice but it was tight as well.






As I come up to the first obstacle I wasn't even sure I could fit my fat rig through but much to my surprise I did and I did with ease! When I got up to the obstacle above I actually got up on the ledge pretty quick but being much larger it put my rear tire off the rock and it would cause me to diff, I realigned and just couldn't get myself over far enough. I ended up winching and as I came over the one ledge and onto the next it just wanted to make me roll, I winched all the way through and if I didn't I would have rolled. I think rear links would have helped there and probably being on a better line.






I wish I could have done a front dig in this situation but the damn 205 SUCKS at getting out of gear. I wish I knew that when deciding on a 205 doubler. I may have considered an atlas if I knew they were such a pain in the ass.

As we continue on we get to this tough spot






This TJ buggy was rubbing cage, it was tight!






I tried to climb over it and it worked in the beginning then didn't work, I fell off the rock and hit my half door. No worries that's what they are there for.

I got through another tough spot which I was super happy I was able to accomplish and then towards the end we come up to these fins.






A little sketchy but I made it.






As we get to the end of this section you can see the rock actually broke under me!











Which caused me to fall off the rock. We winched me up and I bent a main leaf because I was so bound, before I would have broke a t case or something, now its a leaf since the rest of the drivetrain is stout.

That was only 1/3 of the trail and I would love to get back to finish it! That trail truly kicked my ass probably worse then I have gotten my ass kicked in a long time. With that said, I feel my long time group of wheel buddies always tried trails probably tougher then what our rigs were meant for but we were in it together. I am in an odd situation with my rig. I get bored with the trails full bodied rigs wanna do but I hold up the buggy/juggy type rigs. It got me thinking. Maybe 43s would have helped. For my rig being so much bigger we were all on similar sized tires. rear links would have helped in the flexy spots and lastly weight. I will never cut up the hummer to make a buggy. This thing does its job well, driving 1000 miles, wheeling and driving home. I would buy a totaled H3 to make into a "huggy" LOL but I think I can cut a lot of weight for local trips that are less then an hour from home! No one had a spare tire, that would save 130 lbs off the furthest part on my rig. I could take out the rear seats, that is worth another 100 or so lbs. I need to finish my rear half doors, that would save me another 50 lbs. I have so much unnecessary stuff for local trips. I don't think I need my spare driveshafts for a run 30 miles from home. That would save 20 lbs? none of the rigs I went with had an extensive tool kit with them. I have so many tools that I carry I could shed 75 lbs or so. All in I think I could shed 375-400 lbs and part of that being behind the rear axle.

I have many different "trims" on my rig. Base camp trim, wheeling the trail loaded trim and maybe I need to think of a lighter trim for wheeling close to home. Overall it was fun but has me wanting more performance!

Sorry for such a delayed update. Last one was February 2020. 7 months behind! This is post #580, go to post #572 for the beginning of a 7 month update.

Very nice and looks you are still having LOTS OF FUN!

Hey guys!

Here for an update. I forgot my password and got behind on updates again

​I have been slowly working on the half doors.

Laying out the cut lines

​

​

I got these doors for free from an H3 that was in a fire, I do plan to paint them nicer but needed to spray it black quickly to get a visual and the charred part threw me off. I had my B pillar bar off and was uneasy on not being symmetrical with the front and back door. A few notes on why I am not symmetrical...

-I kept the front portion of the back door higher then the front portion of the front door so that the end of the front door and start of the rear door were the same height.
-The angle of the back door cut isnt the same as the back portion of the front door because the rear door is so much shorter the arm rest would be useless unless you had the worlds shortest forearm.
-The back portion of the door is lower then the back portion of the front door because I was trying to get the lowest possible height for the best visibility I could get. That's my reasoning, I was unsure of it at first but its growing on me.

​

The latch mechanism was charred and destroyed, I ordered up some new ones off of ebay and got those installed. I started skinning the top of the door, still need to finish the 1 door and do the other side. From there paint and a cushion armrest like I did on the front.

I was also asked to participate in Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge. I never intended to race or compete in this H3, it's just a trail rig but they said its more fun then competing. It is a rock course, a short course (dont wanna jump it lol) sand drag race and sled pull. I plan to drive it there like an idiot (1 hour away.) Its on the 26th of Sept. We shall see how that goes.​

​This was about 1.5 months ago...

Got back from Idaho Tuff Truck Challenge around 10pm last night. It was local and only about 50-55 miles from my house one way.

It was a long day and I am tired! I left around 5:30 AM, once there I unpacked my rig to lighten it up as much as possible and we started with the sled pull.

There are 4 events, sled pull, short course, drag race, rock course. 40 rigs total, a 37in tire and under class, 38-43in tire class, 44+. The overall winner is usually 44+ but technically someone could win the overall 44+ class and a smaller class.

So sled pull was first.

I wasn't sure what gear to pick but ended up on doubler box in low, 205 in high, 1st gear. I had it in 1st gear but it ended up shifting into 2nd unfortunately and that really hurt me and it bogged. I had the gear selector in 1st the whole time too. It did end up downshifting back to first and let me pull the sled to the finish. Less then half of the 40 rigs completed a full pull. With the 6.2 and a heavy rig it felt at home. The sled is homebuilt and cool. It starts rolling on 4 tires and after 4 feet it drops and then your dragging it. From what I am told its somewhere around 6-7k lbs, and once it drops you can feel the dead weight.

​

​

[video=youtube;jqogOwJQVpg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqogOwJQVpg[/video]

If I can do it again next year I think I would run double low and let it shift through 1-2-3 and hold 3rd.

I finished 15th out of 40 on this overall.

Off to the 2nd event, which was definitely my most nerve-racking event was the short course. I used to jump my H3 when it was near stock. I haven't gotten it air born since the SAS back in 2014. I definitely didn't get it airborne per say but I did get 2 tires off the ground like 1 inch, so baby steps, maybe next time I will get all 4 off the ground. I was truly amazed at how some of these guys sent 8k lb rigs in the air and some rigs on leafs weren't soaring!!!

My boring pics.

​

​

​

​

​

Now for the crazy guys

Full size jeep on 44in PBR's. 1 tons and leafs

​

an old UA rig, leafs up front, linked out back.

​

S10 running a naturally aspirated 600 HP 6.0 with an additional 300 shot of nitrous.

​

As you can see I was boring. I finished 28th of 40.

​

It is amazing you can send this much weight into the air and not break anything.

From there we went on to the dirt drags.

I made a mistake, it was such a short drag that I should have been in 2.72 but I was in 1.96:1 I still finished decent but a learning experience. The buggy obviously beat me. I dont know if he was running nitrous but I know a lot of these guys were.

​

​ ​

​ ​​

From there it was the final event of the day, the rock course. It is a random order and as the course changes it is left alone. What may be easy now can be difficult later. You go down a rock section, turn then go over a "roller" section which is a bunch of 46in military tire runflats with a telephone poll in between the hole. They are stacked, you gotta hit it hard or you wont make it. Even a rig of 54s got stuck on it if you dont carry momentum. then up the big rock course, then over some AG tires.

the 6 rigs before me were all 44+ in tires and dug big holes! I was in a tough spot.

The big rock section before the big rocks were moved by big rigs lol

​

I went down the small rock section with ease.

​

Here I am going over the runflats. I had to hit it with some good momentum but made it.

​

Here I am at the big rock section

​

Ultimately, I timed out, I got so stuck that I couldn't winch forward. Other smaller tire rigs were in a similar boat.

It was a great day and if you aren't a normal competitor but want to have fun I recommend it!

In the end I finished 22nd out of 40 and 7th out of 11 in my class.

Best of all, here I am rolling over 173k driving home in the rig I beat on all day.

​​

​An update: I was chasing axle problems for years, from IFS to 1/2 tons to upgraded 1/2 tons but when I went to 1 tons my problems went away so a normal person would be happy and move on with life. I am an idiot, so lets take that reliable drivetrain and put it through more hell so I jumped from 40's to 43's. I may grab another set of beadlocks or put my 40in Cooper STT Pros on the H2 wheels I have laying around but I went with 43/15/17 Mickey Thompson Baja Pro XS (non sticky version since I still drive it to the trail) Cooper owns Mickey so I am still in the family....

​

THEY ARE BIG!

​

​

Weight is going up....

​

134.7 to 173.8...39.1lb gain per corner

​

Fender off to show the space in the front of the wheelwell. I dont think that will be an issue. The issues will probably be chopping that rear tube and possibly near the frame. We will see...

​

Ride height clears the front and I think that is where it ends lol

​

So now I have lots of trimming to do but it hasn't been started yet.

Took off to go see some dirt roads and some scenic views with another H3. I spent friday night busting my ass to get the 43s on for dirt roads where I dont need even 35's but that's ok, I couldnt wheel in the rocks with 43s before the trimming and I wanted to just get out a little and don't mind any time on the dirt.

​

Topping off...

​

​

​

​

It has been years since I have just gone out to put around on dirt roads and it was fun. Scenic views and had some optional climbs.

​

On the way home we stopped at Napa to get brake fluid, this has been pissing me the **** off. I have had this rear axle in for about 4.5 years now and its been problem free. About 3 months ago I sheered the brake caliper bolts on the passenger rear caliper on the rubicon. I ziptied it to the leaf spring and drove 500 miles home. I replace the pins and go wheeling locally in the rocks. I sheer the pins again, destroy the caliper as in completely sheer the bolt holes off and this time I bent the caliper mount. I cut it off, weld on a new one and replace the caliper again, now I am on a dirt road and sheer the ****ing bracket!!!! What the **** is going on????? The hub doesnt have any play but under load maybe the hub bearings allow enough play to cock the hub and misalign it with the brakes? I am not sure...has anyone had this issue before?

So I drove it back home and now have a lot of trimming to do along with brake caliper investigation and repair AGAIN.​

​ The trimming continues, the rear isnt that bad. It will work and stuff 43s without issue, I will have to trim one tiny tiny section of tube but its basically good to go.

The front is a different story. First I pulled the springs off the coilovers and let the truck sit on the air bumps fully stuffed, after moving the axle forward about an inch, cutting the sliders as far back as possible (right back to the A pillar portion of the cage) and doing some bumper and fender trimming they fit in just under full lock with both sides fully stuffed. I think I would only ever be at this point doing go fast stuff and bottoming out the suspension head on at the same rate.

​

​

Trimming the front of the body a little bit.

​

So when I say I can almost go to full lock what is preventing me is the slider/a pillar, I can go further forward but I need to remove a good portion of the bumper which is where I have my questions.

The bumper is attached in 4 spots, all 4 are OEM, there are 2 bolts behind the bumper tow hook that go directly to the framerail. the other 2 are off the body mount offset outside of the framerails and behind the bumper...

​

You can see I have had to patch up the mount before, I think there is a "prying effect" on the bumper I think having it there is important but if it isnt, I can cut up the bumper, push the axle forward a bit more and solve the full lock issue.

​

After I got full bump resolved I found access to a forklift.

​

​

The issues are amplified greatly when the tire comes in at an angle. At full bump like this the tire is full blown into the plastic fender, I can trim those, it also gets into the metal inner fender, it seems that they can just spin off of them because they are smooth but turning creates an issue at full bump flexed out like this....so back to the drawing board. End goal is keep the same up travel and ride height.

Would 1in spacers help get the space for inner metal fenders and turning radius or hurt? It will make the fender cutting greater but thats fine, its just plastic.

Here is a shot of the inner fenders

​

​​

So, that's where I am at! Trimming continues, I may end up having to go back to a smaller size, 43s fits great in the rear but I will continue to think and find what I need to do to make it work out up front.

I have the trimming for the hummer, some wheeling to shake out any bugs, get my brothers jeep back up here for coilovers, get the F550 finished (disaster story) and get ready for KOH. I plan to be out there for 10 days.

Nice to see squeaky putting in work and keeping up with some really stiff competition. Such a great rig and seems to be getting better all the time. We built a new house a couple of years ago, so I have been building a home automation system from scratch (no cloud stuff for me) and have been tweaking things to my liking. We haven't done much wheeling this year and my H2 is ready for its second life. Just not sure which direction to go yet. My sons are really into over-landing and camping more than just wheeling these days, so that's probably the route we will go with mods. Haven't used my mig welder in a while so I broke it out last weekend and welded some heavy duty wheels on a large metal work table and then now reading this thread and seeing squeaky again has got me inspired to start tinkering with the H2 again. Keep it up, love reading your adventures.

Big2dabank said:

Nice to see squeaky putting in work and keeping up with some really stiff competition. Such a great rig and seems to be getting better all the time. We built a new house a couple of years ago, so I have been building a home automation system from scratch (no cloud stuff for me) and have been tweaking things to my liking. We haven't done much wheeling this year and my H2 is ready for its second life. Just not sure which direction to go yet. My sons are really into over-landing and camping more than just wheeling these days, so that's probably the route we will go with mods. Haven't used my mig welder in a while so I broke it out last weekend and welded some heavy duty wheels on a large metal work table and then now reading this thread and seeing squeaky again has got me inspired to start tinkering with the H2 again. Keep it up, love reading your adventures.

Click to expand...

Thank you! I appreciate it. I know the Hummer is not a competitive rig but I am trying to hold to the values and end goal of the Hummer. A rig that can drive 800 miles in a day on highway and then tackle some gnarly terrain and get me back home. Overlanding has become a very big scene and I think the H2 is a great platform, plenty of room, power and ability to tow a small off road trailer for long trips.

Hope all is going well on your end!

06 H3 said:

Thank you! I appreciate it. I know the Hummer is not a competitive rig but I am trying to hold to the values and end goal of the Hummer. A rig that can drive 800 miles in a day on highway and then tackle some gnarly terrain and get me back home. Overlanding has become a very big scene and I think the H2 is a great platform, plenty of room, power and ability to tow a small off road trailer for long trips.

Hope all is going well on your end!

Click to expand...

I agree that the H2 makes a good overlanding vehicle but you don’t have to pull a trailer. Tent and awning on the roof and plenty of room in the back for the fridge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

06 H3 said:

My VSS is in a similar position to factory, it’s in the tail housing of the transfer case. Most guys that have done LS swaps in their jeeps have this issue too so to remedy it they put the VSS in the tailhousing of the trans so it always reads 1:1. I don’t want to do that, gotta pull the trans apart, drill and tap the tailhousing, etc. It isn’t a big deal if your doing it during the swap but to pull it all back out is a pain. The issue occurs that the VSS is seeing reduction in the tailhousing because the tcase is in low but the computer thinks it’s in 4 high. It freaks the **** out and cuts power, shifts weird, almost like a limp mode.

My original plan was to just bolt the encoder motor off the frame rail, push the 4low button so the computer knows it’s in 4low and we move on. Well I got too excited and drove it around and broke my encoder motor because I didn’t mount it. I kind of forgot that I left it on a skid plate and it bounced around. Instead of buying a new encoder motor to play dumb I want to actually fix it with a real solution.

So I hit the interwebs and found there is a 4low signal (I’ll post the wiring diagram) how it works is the encoder motor has wiring that goes to the TCCM (transfer case control module) behind the glove box. It then has an output that goes to the pcm that says “hey pcm! I’m in 4 low” then an output/input class 2 data wire that goes to the DIC, from what I understand it illuminates the lights and shows your 4 low button lighting up, your traction control off and stabilitrac off on the DIC and the traction light on the dash.

So to trigger the pcm 4 low signal it needs to be grounded out, so I bought a 2 prong switch, tapped into the wire between the TCCM and PCM and ground it out.
So I flip the switch and nothing on the dash lights up. I figured that may be the case. Since I tapped into the 4low switch in front of the tccm so it can’t trigger the DIC so my question is, does the pcm see a 4 low signal and cut out stabilitrac and traction control too but doesn’t illuminate it because the ground is after the TCCM? Or does it tell the pcm “use your 4 low shift tables” but leave traction control and stabilitrac engaged? I hope it disables it but doesn’t illuminate because I don’t want that crap on when in low range and the factory shuts it off in low range anyways.

With all that said, I would like to get the lights to illuminate when it’s all said and done so it looks factory but for next week I just need it to work whether the lights show up or not. I will be doing 3 days of backdoor KOH recovery. Rolling rigs over, and extracting broken ones out after the race. Then multiple days of wheeling.

Click to expand...

Did you ever figure this out? I am looking into the 4wd low signal for my engine swap and tune. I am wondering why our factory calibrations allow us to swap the 2.6:1 tcase to a 4:1 and back without any issues? Seems like it should cause the same issues you mention above.. I am trying to run a factory trailblazer ss 6.0 tune and not sure how it will react when i switch to 4wd low. I know the tb was offered with a 4wd low case, just not in the ss form....hoping the 2.6 ratio 4wdlow tables are turned on in the background.


Btw thanks for the thread and documentation on your build, it is the inspiration for my build.

jimmy p said:

Did you ever figure this out? I am looking into the 4wd low signal for my engine swap and tune. I am wondering why our factory calibrations allow us to swap the 2.6:1 tcase to a 4:1 and back without any issues? Seems like it should cause the same issues you mention above.. I am trying to run a factory trailblazer ss 6.0 tune and not sure how it will react when i switch to 4wd low. I know the tb was offered with a 4wd low case, just not in the ss form....hoping the 2.6 ratio 4wdlow tables are turned on in the background.


Btw thanks for the thread and documentation on your build, it is the inspiration for my build.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I’m glad it is. I wired in a 4 low switch as well as the encoder motor using factory functions. I have used both. Normally I just flip the switch, it’s quicker but both the switch and factory buttons work. The computer doesn’t seem to care and shift ok whether I’m in 1.96:1, 2.72:1 or 5.33:1

Hope that helps

So Chris, when are you going to start building a true rock buggy?

3Hummers said:

So Chris, when are you going to start building a true rock buggy?

Click to expand...

I’ve gone back and forth. I’m not sure. I need to finish the F550 first since that would be a trailer queen.

I’ve also thought of a tube chassis and slapping an H3 body on it.

Ok, story time! KOH was a blast as usual and it had some unforeseen issues as always lol

It was my first trip with the new to me truck and we rented a trailer to sleep in....It was nice to have shelter on the lake bed for the first time ever! I will never go back lol. I love camping but KOH camping is usually miserable. To be honest, if there was one year to camp, this was the year to do it. It is the nicest weather I have ever remembered.

Here was out setup.







We hope to purchase a trailer in the future for trips like this.

We arrived Friday night and on Saturday we just wheeled Chocolate, so not much wheeling, we were helping everyone get camp setup and people were arriving throughout the day.

I have gotten so bad at taking pictures, he is a picture of me on Chocolate.



Sunday, we ran turkeyclaw and Blueberry, we spent a good chunk of the day getting my buddy's car ready for tech for the EMC race, he was in the 4500 class.

Sunday evening we went back to Chocolate and I helped recover a toyota with a broken output shaft from his trans. I pulled the dead weight up the top of chocolate and to the sand hill. As we hit the sand hill I pop a front 1350 u joint. I wasn't too mad, that u joint was 6 years old and I even thought about replacing it before this trip....I had a spare driveshaft and a single spare u joint. I just swapped the u joint when we got back to camp.

To get out I backed all the way up to the rocks in 2wd double low and banged through every gear into overdrive carrying speed to the sandhill. It is bad enough that I have seen guys in 4wd not make it up, but with the 43in Mickey "paddles" and a 6.2L she cruised on up, I was told I hit on rock on the sand hill and caused me to lift my front tire and carry it in the air for 6 feet or so. I really need to get better about pics and videos and that was a moment I wish I caught.

Monday, I left the lakebed. My buddy's 4500 car bent and tweaked the front housing, cracked the truss, rosette welds and completely ruined the diff. I took my truck and UA trailer back to his house. They tracked down a G2 housing and got to work. I didn't get back to the lakebed until Tuesday early evening.

We had our share of issues getting the new axle to work. My buddy was running a JK44 under there and 30 spline shafts, the G2 44 housing was built around 35 spline shafts. We were SOL on getting that axle to seal up but with some time and research I found that a 1972 Ford Bronco SMALL bearing rear 9 in axle seal MIGHT work. That ID of the small bearing housing and the ID of the G2 housing were the same, the shafts were 31 spline vs 30 so we ran 2 seals per side and had speedi sleeves on hand to bring up the OD of the shaft. We didnt use the speedi sleeve but could have solved any potential seal issues.

I was impressed with the G2 housing, I thought it would be garbage but it isnt, it has side adjusters, big bearing caps, bigger tubes, its a nice housing. My job was to do gears and seal issues along with axle removal and teardown.





Trying my best with the time crunch....

Wednesday was prerunning. We pre ran the desert section from Cougar Buttes back to hammertown. The course was much rougher in the desert then 2019 when I preran. It was much more choppy. My front 2.5 coilovers did great but my rear cheapo bilsteins got wrecked, I have never seen them get so destroyed before. They were billowing white smoke and lost all the oil. I will get back to that later. After prerunning we went back to camp and watched the shenanigans at backdoor and chocolate. I ran up chocolate again but with 5 of us in the car, and 5 in my buddy's 80 series cruiser. We were having fun and laughing as we had a big group watching all these people crammed in there. The hummer used to get so much crap from hecklers but no one gives me **** anymore. A toyota behind me rolled on the line I made and I turned around to roll him back on his side.



Thursday

We helped fix a UTV that bent a crossmember into his driveshaft, after all other methods were attempted with no success we rolled it over and winched it back. Worked out perfect.



After that was fixed we ran over to watch our buddy do some minor shock tuning, unfortunately the legit shock tuning with tearing down shocks wasn't going to happen with time lost from the axle housing ordeal so they did external bypass tuning.

After that we had to go "sweep" the course for the UTV race to make sure the racers were all accounted for. We ran down spooners and then up outer limits. We got 1/4 way through when we got the call everyone was accounted for. It sucked! I wanted to finish outer limits so bad, I have run the first portion countless times but always turned around due to someone breaking. My buddy I was with wanted to turn around because we had a long day tomorrow with our other buddy racing. So we went back to camp.

Friday

Race day, our buddy had some fuel and electrical issues early in the day but other then that he ended up finishing the course!!! He didnt get an actual finish because he timed out but he did in fact finish! Now he just needs to get faster! lol

Setup at the main pit....





Saturday we just sat back and watched the race, then packed up and drove to Santa Clarita CA to drop off the rented trailer, stay at the in-laws house and sunday AM we took off back to Idaho!

All in all it was fun as always, as for changes on the hummer I was very happy with it. I need to really figure out a shock setup for the rear. I am still running stock leafs sprung over and just regular ole shocks. I cant take advantage of the badass 2.5 fox coilovers up front until I do something in the rear. My options are 3 link it and do a coilover or keep the leafs and do a quality 2.5 shock (basically what I have up front, minus the coilover) or a bypass out back but I don't think I have enough up travel (4in) for bypasses.

I also need to go through my driveshafts, I had one u joint failure, which isnt a big deal but I have cut, lengenthed, changed yokes, etc. numerous times on both front and rear shafts for all the changes in the 6+ years, at this point most of the splines are hammered, some u joints are old....I just need to get a fresh set and keep these as spares.

Great story!!!

Time for an update: I went on a rock run before going to Moab. This was a local run and it was a blast, I drove the Hummer about 70 miles one way, wheeled it, and brought it home in one piece.


Last year on the first obstacle I walked it, this year, it went a little bit worse. You want your rear tire to pivot around the rock and this year my tire just kept climbing up the rock.

Anyway I went, forward, back, passenger, driver, it would just tip me over even more so I had a winch hold me from going over and drove out of it.

I wasn't the only casualty of the day though!


Some other random pics of the day, we ran a trail that kicked my ass last year and this year I kicked it's ass! Unfortunately the trail I had no issues on last year had me almost roll over (first pics)

The new trail chassis from busted knuckle

I should have brought my half doors....last virgin full door isnt pretty anymore

I also saw a unique rear suspension, it probably isnt unique but I am still amazed how it works with no track bar.

Before Moab I upgraded to a 1410 yoke up front, I started an engine/trans skid, I have been without one since the SAS and at some point it will screw me (already almost has a few times) I didn't get it done in time but I started it.

I made one of the front legs for it, just have one more to do up front.


and off to Moab we go.

Going to Moab and seeing people I haven't seen in a while and meeting the new people was a blast, I wont recap it all since there is a thread on it but we ran Metal Masher, Kane Creek, behind the rocks, Hells, Fin's and things, and potato salad.


Day 1 was a wake up call, seeing a 4 wheel steer red dot buggy attempt an obstacle on metal masher and backing out of it and then my dumbass trying to attempt it was pure stupidity, I had a tire in a hole that made my 43 look small, 3 tires were spinning, that right rear was bound and not spinning and eventually popped.

It was a damn clean break. Its an HO72 shaft from the 1950's. It was a well deserved break and I dont think a upgraded shaft would have saved it but who knows...


The heat treating is deep and from what I am told, deeper then the shafts of today. I have broke 1 on 43s, and twisted 2 on 40s. I can run 14 bolt shafts, upgrade to 300M, chromo, or Hytuff or leave the stock replacements I put in. I am unsure what route to go. Some say the older shafts are more forgiving with twisting. I am not expecting an upgrade to fix this particular situation but since I have twisted 2 on 40s in the past I am curious how other shafts would react.


I will end this with saying full float life is awesome as its a quick and easy fix that doesn't even require the tire to come off.

Squeaky's first time with other SAS H3's!!!! We need more of them and I think with the performance shown compared to stock we will see more in the future.


the whole group.

On behind the rocks.