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06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
Ok, so I got the hummer on the ground. I need to do a spring swap to lower it. The springs are too stiff and I have like 4in of down travel and 8 up.

I got the all the prep work done and my buddy flew in and we worked our asses off for 12+ hours a day for 2 days.

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Garage is prepped and ready to go!

First project was make a bumper to keep everything square. I don’t run a spare anymore so I wanted something that tucked up tight. My old bumper protected the spare but lost departure angle. If I run a spare I’ll use a hitch extension as the tire protector.

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The picture shows some suspension work so ignore that. He’s a finished pic with bumper and tube tie in.
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Next was figure out 3 link or triangulated 4 link, which would require a new fuel tank. We figured out how to make a 3 link work

Tacking on the lowers and the upper link to start cycling

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The 3rd link bracket is cool, it’s a cut up Barnes truss and an off the shelf 4 link hole bracket you can see it above the lower links. We made sure to get a ton of separation to less then load on the 3 link.

Here is the mock up of the track bar. Not a ton of room so it goes behind the axle and snakes between the upper link and 3rd. It will be double sheer but for mock-up and cycling the suspension we wait.

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Getting the upper link way up there for proper anti squat numbers. More bracing to be has obviously


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06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
From there we started bracing things. Track bar ended up being 41in

That ain’t going anywhere

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Frame notched for coilovers
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Going backwards a bit but coilover mounts

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06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
We got good bracing and cross tubes for the coilover mounts.

Pic of the link mount to coilover mount transition.

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Resi mounts

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It’s sitting way too tall, gotta swap out springs so keep that in mind when looking at track bar angles at the finished product

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06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
So, whats left? I need to get the gas tank back in, the 3rd back together, hook up the evap cansister and all the wires out back, brakes, and bolt check it.

Total wins?
-Never have axle wrap again.
-stronger setup
-infinite adjustability and tunability
-more uptravel
-more downtravel
-I am almost 100% confident it will be better in the desert, high speed stuff compared to my leaf spring setup.

I hope it works out?
-I hope the hummer works better in places like Moab and Sand hollow, the SAS is 1000x more capable in the bottom of a rock canyon but in my opinion the increases arent as noticeable as places like Moab. Its still noticeable but not as noticeable. I hope this change makes the Hummer work better out there.
-I hope it doesnt lose capability in the rocks at the bottom of canyons. I lost ground clearance for the coilovers at the axle tubes vs. clean axle tubes with nothing hanging below, I lost ground clearance at the lower control arm mount compared to leafs. The hummer has done everything I have ever asked for and more in the rocks. I hope I dont go backwards in the rocks.

So with all that said, I need to get it driving and testing. It took me 9 years of messing with the front before I felt like I have it 100% dialed and even now its like 99.9% dialed, as theres always room for change.

I am probably 85% there and you know what they say, the last 10% takes more time then the first 90%. We will see if I want to make any major changes, my criteria was no going in the cab for the upper coilover mounts and no ditching the factory tank if possible. With time, this setup may make me reconsider those things but this will be a great starting point
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
Did you consider a cantilever rear set up? I have seen them for 4 Runners and such.
Not really. They seem like an absolute pain in the ass to tune. Maybe in a phase 2 approach or something but I’d have to understand them more
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
@Teahead Your question was how I change all the gears with only a 4 position shifter in the "year in review" thread.

There are technically the same amount of detents in the 6l80 as the 4l60. PRND321. so 7 total. The 6l80 is all electronic and you can assign each detent a job. In most shifters with factory 6l80es they only allow 5 positions due to the throw of the shifter. PRNDM the shifter stops at M, but if you disconnect the shifter there are 2 more detents to go.

I currently have PRNDM. M is 3. I am not using 1 or 2. I have thought about assigning 1 and 2 to 1st and 2nd but haven't yet. If I go to 2 or 1 since my shifter has the throw to do it the indicator light goes blank as the computer doesn't recognize it.

So, I put it in "3" which is M and then I have 2 buttons on the shifter that I wired in for tap up and tap down. So P is Park, R is reverse, N is neutral, D is normal drive, the computer does its own thing. "3" or "M" I have full manual control. I can start in 3rd gear if I want to, I am the computer and have full control. From the factory there are still parameters to limit you on the 6l80. I removed those and it lets me do what I want. I did this because I have dual transfer cases. I have 1:1 (high range) 1.96:1 (good for high speed dirt roads) 2.72:1 (good for sand and mud) and 5.33:1 (good for rock crawling) where a stock H3 has 1:1 or 4:1 for an adventure package or 1:1 and 2.64:1 for a non adventure package H3. Since I have so many gearing options, sometimes on an obstacle where I need wheel speed. 5.33:1 is too low in 1st gear so I can bump it when starting in 3rd. Factory 6l80 tuning wont allow you to do that.

I hope that answers your questions.
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
I haven't updated this thread. The hummer is driving! I installed the evap system in a new spot. Right near the rear bumper. Accutune did an even swap for new springs. I am at 275-325 and it sits much better at about 5.5in of uptravel. I used to have like 3.5-4 before so this will undoubtedly work better at higher speeds in the desert.

I found 2 teeth missing on my R&P when I pulled the 3rd out from the old housing to the new housing. Upon further discovery the carrier bearing on the thrust side had failed. The bearing was from the 1950's it had a good life. So I put together a new (used 3rd) and I am ready to rock. I truly believe if the carrier bearing didn't fail the R&P would have been fine after 7 years of abuse.

The interior is thoroughly cleaned. My sister spent 4-5 hours a day after work for 5 days. Literally over 20 hours of work in cleaning the interior. We removed the seats and basically had a bare cabin. It hasn't been this clean in over a decade. She had a bucket of water from shampooing the carpet and it was just 100% brown water from all the dust and dirt.

It needs a rear sway bar and it is on order. I re did my front sway bar to make it better with being linked front and rear. I brought the arm length down from 26.5 to 13.5

I will add pics in the next post. Currently the hummer is ready to go to pick up the baby from the hospital.
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
I am still waiting for your build it from scratch thread. :)
I am too. :) I keep going back and forth. I have a few friends that turned their rigs into buggy's, but I won't do that with this H3. It is too sentimental. I want to keep it versatile, drive on the street, take it offroad, be able to run the rubicon or go to places like Moab with the family one day. So this rig will never be turned buggy. I will continue to push the limits of this rig but not to the point where it isnt streetable.

I go back and forth on building a buggy from scratch or finding an wrecked H3 or a blown engine H3 and make a "huggy" like jeep guys make "juggys"

Hummer is in my blood, I can cut the roof, it has a starting point with frame rails so its easier, I can do rear steer, it will be way lighter then my current H3 but it also isnt as purpose built as a buggy if I want all out performance. I go back and forth, we will see.
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
So, my final task of the year for the hummer is complete. This was more of a sentimental thing for me. I’ve gone to prom in this H3 when it was my dads, it was at my wedding, been on 2 UAs, countless adventures across the western US and showcases the purpose of the build, versatility. I have to be honest though, it was only 3.5 miles away and I was worried my AG tires would shake the baby, is carbon monoxide going to get in the cab? Things I never thought about went on in my mind for a drive that felt long even though it wasn’t.

Thanks to my wife for not wanting to kill me. I can only imagine how fun getting in and out of that thing was after pushing a baby out.

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So now it’s time for some limited amounts of sleep.

On a hummer note, Schroeder sway bar showed up before going to the hospital. 1in OD, 30in, .825 active diameter, solid bar, 48 spline.

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I also bought Currie anti rock bushings since they are listed as 1in ID. They aren’t. So I need to return them.

So a friend suggested I try some old 1 1/4 heims I had laying around. I actually loved that idea. I also had some old control arms laying around I cut up.

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I like this idea, I can shift the sway bar forward or back to help maintain sway bar link angle if I play with sway bar arm length and they can be spares if I ever run across someone with a failed 1 1/4 joint (most rock crawlers run this size joint whether it’s a Johnny joint, heim or bushing)

Arms showed up and Barnes heims showed up while we were at the hospital.

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The arms are beefy as hell being 1in thick. Probably a waste on weight but cheap beef. I’ll drill out 3-4 holes and make it double sheer on the arms and the axle end.

Not sure when I’ll get to it yet but hopefully soon. I need to start wheeling this to get used to the new setup.
 

3Hummers

Super Moderator
Staff member
Messages
10,398
Location
Central Texas
You got her a step ladder for entry and exit to the H3, what more could a girl want...besides a spot in the garage to park her car? :)

Merry Christmas Chris.
 

06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
Back in January I started working on the sway bar setup. I have the mounts 100% complete. Not the most weight conscious setup but the Hummer is built around helping others on the trail, hell, I still carry D44 ball joints for traditional spindle d44s in the back. Anyways, I would really hate to do it, but if I had to cut off a 1 1/14 tube insert or rob a 1 1/4 heim to get someone off the trail I can. I initially bought bushings from Currie and they were not the ID they advertised. In the end, I doubt it’s not much more weight, it’s 2 short tubes with heims vs 1 long heavier piece of tube.

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Also, for Xmas I got 2 things that I think are useful.

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A trail mater 10 ft trail rope. I have been using kinetic ropes for 7 years now, and I will never go back to traditional straps for pulling dead rigs out. My 30ft rope has done well for years in the desert. On the rubicon pulling out Vdawgs rig, the strap was being pulled off of trees in tight sections even when used in half at 15 feet so I think I will enjoy the 10 ft rope.

Then the other item in the pic is a vevor 48qt. Fridge freeze. It’s a cheapo one but I wanted to make it fit in my lightweight “rock crawler version of an overland cargo setup.” I had a big canyon cooler in that spot. The canyon cooler has been phenomenal for 7 years now and kept things cool during UA 2017 in 120* heat in AZ. If I freeze water bottles and make it my “ice” my food doesn’t get soggy. Unfortunately, the last rubicon trip, I had my dinner get soggy. We all take a night for dinners and had to give my friends soggy food. It pist me off. So I’m trying this out.

I’d like to get a WFO concepts universal cargo rack to mount on the back hatch to still take the cooler on longer trips or trips with more passengers. This summer I should have 4 total people in the H3 on the rubicon so I may need the extra storage. Either way, it’s a cheap date to test out the fridge freeze life.

Here is the old setup. The vevor fridge freeze fits perfectly in there. I do lose about 27 quarts of storage compared to the canyon but I save on ice I guess


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06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
A few weeks later in Mid January I got the sway bar done, I took it out in the snow, it was so damn slippery out it’s tough to say how it feels because instead of hooking up and working the suspension it just spins but from what I can tell, it’s substantially improved.

I just had to pull the bottom springs and cycle it and make sure nothing collides, from my measurements and what I can tell, it won’t, but want to double check. I also need jamb nuts for my heim mounts on the sway bar setup. Other than that, it’s almost time to wheel it.

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06 H3

a.k.a. "The Jackal"
Messages
9,350
Location
Meridian, ID
This past weekend I went wheeling! 🥳

Hummer is 1000x better in the high speed stuff offroad, when I was coil spring front, leaf rear, the leafs were better in high speed. Then when I went coilover front and the front did substantially better, then I added rear air bumps to the leafs that were too stiff and the rear got way worse. Now I’d say the rear out performs the front again but I also checked the nitrogen in the front coilovers because they are 4.5 years old and the pressure was at 125/150 so I may have to go through them or atleast put nitrogen in them.

Slow speed crawling it doesn’t feel any less stable then it did with leafs.

After one of the trails I hit an off camber dirt road that was muddy and it got sketchy and felt super tippy but who's to say the leafs wouldn’t have done the same, idk?

I wish I could throw leafs in a link calculator to compare. roll axis, roll center, anti squat, etc.

I have a few hits on the lower shock mounts and lower link mounts but I can’t say it stopped me in my tracks. I can see in very particular circumstances where if I’m not getting traction on 3 other tires and I snag a link mount or shock mount it could halt progress but so far, if I had 1-2 other tires grabbing traction I could muscle through it and slide over it. I’m sure sometimes it may push me off my line which could hurt but time will tell on how that works. That was the one concern of mine, leaf’s tuck up so high and I had the best clearance around, I gave that up with the 3 link but 2 trails I wanted to specifically run that have a lot of rocks grabbing your undercarriage didn’t hurt me yesterday.

I need to play with preload a little more but I’m guessing long term I will need more sway bar. On the highway on sweeping turns, the body is slow to return to center. My current sway bar rate is 74, stock is 178. I figure I will need to land in the 150 range because 178 with leafs that want to return to center and stay flat was too much. TK1 wanted me in a U4 bar which is 1 1/8, I’ve heard his setups are on the stiffer side so a 1in OD bar may be the ticket, that would get me around a 160 rate or I get a .95 bar for 130ish.

Sway bars aren’t too expensive in the circle track world which is the one I have. About $130 plus shipping. I did research after the fact and saw an old thread on pirate claiming some guys were stripping out the 1in 48 spline bars which I have. That sucks, hopefully I don’t have the same issue. Either way, it’s a cheap date to mess around with sway bar rates.

Antisquat is in the 60s which is lower than my friends which I wanted to really test, I’m undetermined on how that works yet. I did one steep climb that I struggled to make back in the day if I had a spare tire on, I’d make it up, but it was a struggle. Without a spare I would make it but have to spin my way up. Yesterday I got SUPER light on the front end like lifting a tire to roll. I immediately equated it to the rear is squatting too much. My buddy who has watched me on the obstacle atleast 5-6 times said I got higher than ever before and was on the wrong line, so I’ll continue to watch it.

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I fell in this crack. This was a new line I’ve
never done, pass rear tire slipped in the crack and it got weird. B pillar tube saved the day again

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Lastly, I need to diagnose my fuel system. I have NEVER had this issue before, fuel would be pouring out of my evap canister and struggle to run, then it would clear up and run fine. This only happens on inclines or off camber situations. I moved my evap canister because of the new rear suspension so I need to look into it. Reloader, if you're out there, is there a check valve in the evap line from the tank to the canister? I had to make new lines when I moved it and maybe that's the issue?

I had a weird driveline vibe at 65-70 too that I have never had before, so I’ll have to look into that too.

But, good first test run, drove it about 70-75 miles round trip on pavement plus the wheeling.

Time will tell long term on how the links work. One thing I pride myself with is honesty.... before others spend their hard-earned money on parts, I want people to know what they are getting into. Too many people build rigs like my H3 and claim, "it will do 80 with one hand on the wheel going down the highway" I feel that term is thrown around loosely. Admittedly, before the rear 3 link my H3 would do that and I even had my wife daily drive it for a week when her car was in the body shop when someone hit her in a parking lot. It was a rig that a clueless non car person could drive, other than my horrendous on road performing 43in tires it behaved well on pavement. At this point my 3 link is not ready for any joe shmo to drive it. It needs more suspension tuning to get rid of some quirks and that is the difficult part about chasing the last few % of performance. Leafs want to sit flat, they like to sit level where coilovers dont care where they sit so there is more body roll. I can tune that out with more sway bar or a higher roll center so I will work through it but I can guarantee with time and dedication I will get it to where it needs to be. I may be giving up some in the rocks but I am stoked on the gain in high speed performance and I am hoping it works better in places like moab and sand hollow, links should hopefully do that. I wont give up on road performance and it rides better on road in terms of plushness and harshness, it just has more body roll. That is what I have to fix.
 
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