06 H3's Squeakin H3 Build

[06 H3]

I forgot a couple pics. I used this cooler

and a cool pic I forgot in the last post.

Also I forgot to post this pic and some of my other steering issues, with ram assist, the only time I had issues turning was in 2019 when my pump was basically dead. This was about 1.5 years after I probably torched my pump on UA2017 when it was 120* out.

Then 5 years later my pump was roached again. It wasn’t happy on the rubicon this past summer in 2023, it was making noises, I probably should have said, hmmm…let’s change it but I didn’t.

The only other change I can think of is throughout time I had swapped back and forth between steering arm holes. One closer, one farther from the kingpin centerline. Last year I went back to the closer hole which puts more stress on the box and ram but reacts quicker. I can’t imagine that being too drastic.

On my last trip I also had my ram leaking so I’m sure I lost power there, put more pressure on the box, with an already weak pump and did this to the factory Xterra pitman arm.

I also went back and studied they video where I lost steering, it appeared I would back up passenger then go forward driver, but it wouldn’t actually go driver, so I’d back up passenger again (more passenger since it didn’t go driver at all forward) then try forward driver and nothing and did it again

If I had just stopped I probably could have winched forward at an angle to help my steering and moved on. Instead I put myself in a spot where I was literally going to rip my knuckle off so hi lifting and winching simultaneously had to happen

Anyways, I have a fresh pump, fresh ram, fresh pitman arm and now a cooler to keep the pump happy. Hopefully I have many more happy years to come. I just need to maintain the system, once one component goes, it snow balls.

 

[06 H3]

End of May/Early June we went to the rubicon, this was a fun trip! It was different in the fact that we have 7 people in 2 rigs. This took a shit load of planning and a lot of cramming 10lbs of crap in a 5 lb bag.

The heavy Hauler hauling out both rigs, no the axles weren't overloaded. The rear Dana S130 is rated for 14,706 lbs and I was around 14,500 lbs.

We had myself, my wife and my sister in the H3 and then my brother, his fiancé, my other sister and her boyfriend in his 1 ton JK on 40s.

We had tools, spare parts, fluids, one giant drink cooler, a tiny soft cooler, grill, a fridge freeze, all camp cooking supplies, clothes for us 3 and tents/sleeping pads in/on the H3.

JK had its spare parts, 2 small coolers, dry food, sleeping bags, camp chairs and clothes for their 4 people.

My brothers JK

Then my buddy had his 1 ton ZJ with his brother and dog. his uncle took a can am and had his mom as a passenger and another buddy going solo in his 1 ton first gen pickup.

We had 6 non off-road type people and 4 of those never been on the rubicon.

Well, being filled to the gills we were short on beer. So I texted my mom on my sat phone asking to join the rubicon trail Facebook page and post up we need beer.

The post went viral! The comments were hilarious and posts were made about my mom’s post. My favorite comments were I haven’t had this much fun on a thread since Doug’s axles and I’ve been following this like it’s the election

Anyways, the group of non off-roaders in our group were saying there is NO CHANCE someone will bring beer. I told them just watch, they don’t know about the off-road community.

Sure enough the next day, an 18 pack shows up.

Our newbies lost their minds, the first 5-6 groups we saw all said happy birthday, come to my camp for a beer or had beer. They couldn’t believe it.

In the end we even got a happy birthday from the sheriffs on the trail who saw my mom’s post.

The rubicon is the rubicon. It’s the same every time, amazing. This just added a level of fun. We had the perfect balance of camping, swimming, wheeling and hanging out.

Even got some bourbon. Some we paid for, some we didn’t, and some we paid for indirectly.

The first guy who gave us beer ended up breaking his rear axle. So the hummer towed him from the slabs to Ellis creek where George from unleashed 4x4 met up with him. Timing was perfect because the rear end started locking up and they had to pull the ring gear.

A buddy ripped a shock mount off and destroyed a shock that he needed as a limit strap to not overextend the driveline so the welder came out like almost every trip.

Then after we welded it back on we made a limit strap. Worked perfect.

The hummer worked well but once again I feel the link mounts hit shit too much. I’ll figure out a solution. I was just so used to leafs being tucked up so high.

The only thing that got spooky was going up the slabs. The hummer felt stable going down the slabs and everywhere else on day 1 and 2. I had tents and crap on the roof but it felt fine. Once I put a heavy extremely full garbage bag on top things felt tippy going up the slabs and that spot right before Ellis creek heading out. I probably should have moved the sway bar in 1 hole for more rate.

Me towing the JL out. I hope I paid for the beer by handing out brake fluid to someone in need and towing him out. Trail karma for the win.

I got home Sunday early evening, quickly unpacked, then drove 7 hours to Montana for work the next day so I’ll do a once over on the hummer when I get home but nothing immediate comes to my mind in terms of repair.

 

[06 H3]

Now we are current day.

Went wheeling locally again last weekend, had a good time. We were on the trail by 7 and off by 11ish before it became 100* outside.

This is tech and probably boring to most but I hope it solves someone else’s issues in the future.

Some exciting news is I finally have an accurate speedo in 4 low! I get anal about this stuff. I know it’s stupid but I really do get ocd about it.

So the reason it took so long is that my tuner needed me to send him my tcm which is inside the trans and I didn’t want to do that. I do miss the tcm being external like it was on the 4l60. Anyways, he has a loaner software tool but the cable was not working. He was having issues finding a replacement cable for his tuning software. I guess it’s discontinued and parts are hard to come by but he’s sticking with that software because it’s much less restrictive than HPTuners. He can do some really cool custom shit with his that HPTuners just doesn’t do. Anyways, it’s just a speedo issue in low range and wasn’t affecting the performance so I said find a cable and send it my way when you can, no rush. He’s had no luck with his cable and I finally dug further into it with my HPTuners setup.

Sure enough I could swap the TCM tunes from another vin IF the operating systems are the same operating systems. There are variances in an OS like 2wd vs 4wd.

There are definitely concerns, some say they will brick a TCM, some say they won’t. The 6l80 is a picky SOB and I know it has bricked some TCMs according to the internet. So I was taking a gamble all for a stupid speedo issue in 4low.

But I found a file from a 08 Silverado 4x4 with a 6l90 that has the same OS as my 07 TCM from a Denali with AWD. Since it had AWD it didn’t have a low range provision. I made the tune identical, hoped it wouldn’t brick and it didn’t!

Everything is identical except for 2 things.

1) the speedo reading. Going back to my 4l60 days the speedo got its info off the VSS at the back of the t case. This was great. Whether in 4low, 2hi, double low, etc. it always read the same speed because the output shaft was spinning based on road speed, not gear ratio. The problem I had was if it didn’t know I was in 4lo it would go into limp mode so I had a switch that would ground out and grounding out that pin would tell the pcm I’m in 4 low (Your 4 low button does this for you with a factory t case.) So if I didn’t use that switch I would go into limp mode. Dumb but it worked. I could use that switch or the factory buttons still. I usually just used the switch.

Fast forward to the 6l80, it doesn’t care if the computer knows it’s in low or high, it won’t go into limp mode which is awesome but it doesn’t use a t case VSS it uses a speed sensor off the tail of the trans, which does care what range it’s in from a speedo standpoint. So before if I’m in 1.96:1 it would read the speedo 1.96 times faster then I was going. Since I used 1.96 to bomb around on dirt roads at 50 mph, it would say I’m doing 100 mph. In 2.72:1 it was saying I was going 2.72 times faster than I was. So at 30 mph it said 81 mph. What really drove me nuts was 5.33:1 in double low at just 12 mph it said I was doing 60 plus. Even doing 5 mph it was 25+ mph. It drove me bonkers. There was no point in flipping my 4 low switch because it didn’t do anything.

So now that this vin has 4wd attached to it. It’s a silverado so 2.72:1. I flipped switch and the speedo is dead nuts accurate. What does suck is since it’s still reading at the front of the t case at 20 mph in 1.96:1 the speedo says 15 mph. It’s a little off but not horrible.

5.33 is still about 50% off so at 12 mph it will say I’m doing 23 mph but wayyy closer then before. I do spend a lot of time in 2.72 so I’m happy there.

2nd change is before my PRND321 I had PRND then 3 was tap shift, 2 and 1 were not used.

Now it’s PRND 3 is not used 2 is tap shift and 1 actually holds first which is cool.

I also found out that I can transfer a bin file to HPT file on HPtuners. I think it’s 50 bucks to do so but I’ll gladly pay that vs pulling my damn tcm or paying money to ship crap. So I will talk to my tuner and see if he can write a file on his end and I’ll convert it.

Since he can do custom stuff I can’t on HPTuners I’d like PRND321 to all be utilized. I’d like 3 to be tap shift, 2 to be 2nd, 1 to be 1st. 2 and 1 are more "fail safes" if I have a tap shift failure.

I’d also like to see if he can just have me rewire in my old VSS on the back of my 205 I’ll pin that to the pcm and use that. I will look to see if there are early 6l80 applications that had a t case VSS with the same OS because I’d like that, then I can ditch the 4 low switch all together and it will always read right. I think the H2 actually read off the t case with the 6l80.

Anyways, this is the fun stuff I geek out over.

So you can see I am slowly knocking things off the list. I always tell people who want to do big mods like this is that you can get to 90% but then you spend some time tweaking the last 10%.

If you dont believe me, talk to other SAS guys, Connor is finishing up his 1 ton swap and knows you just have to mess around with crap.

Next trip is the Hummer rubicon trip in about 6 weeks.

 

[06 H3]

It has been a minute since an update. Since we last left off in this thread I went to the rubicon with the hummer guys. First unoffical Hummicon I guess.

All that can be found here.

Hummers on the Rubicon

Well, we came out unscathed. It was so cool leading Connor and Jacob through such an iconic trail. Both rigs were prepped well and had no mechanical issues on the trip. The entrance Let's hit the trail The beginning of the gatekeeper A ledge at the granite bowl

hummer4x4offroad.com

Since then, I cut off the B pillar mount and made a new one. I got hung up on it at the soup bowl and have been for years. Nothing a little skinny pedal can't fix but I got tired of it.

I cut out the stick out, then did a 21* bend to sweep it in on the slider.

 

[rascole]

The fresh paint looks out of place.

 

[06 H3]

If you are reading this, go up one post as I have 2 new posts.

Anyways, squeaky is looking a little rough these days. There is no doubt about it. It has been put in places no H3 belongs and I have the scars because of that. So I think it is time for a little refresh. I have spare fenders I got from a junkyard a year ago. While I decide on if I should get them professionally painted, or paint them myself, or do something else with them I decided to work on my old fenders to see what I should do.

My current fenders are cracked, scraped, and basically hammered. The only way I could see them coming back to life is something that can cover imperfections. Even with sanding, I have scrapes that are so deep to get a flat surface I’d probably sand through half the damn plastic.

I bought a plastic welder on Amazon, then I bought a kit of raptorliner. I am thoroughly impressed with raptorliner. I’ve used the spray can ones and haven’t been impressed. This kit comes with a “Shultz” gun that you hook up to air and spray. I am not sure if I can use thinner through the Shultz gun or if I need an HVLP gun to add thinner so I didn’t add any but I did bump the pressure up to about 80 psi to get less of a rough texture.

Daylight shots

So, be honest, I have very little invested. What do you prefer? Traditional black fenders or do the raptorliner fenders look better/ok? Either way, I don't think the raptorliner fenders could look worse than the cracked and heavily scarred fenders I have before, but I am not sure if clean OEM painted black fenders are better or not.

Another project was getting rid of the ugly mess of turn signal holes. I needed a very specific turn signal that I didn’t think existed but I found them on a Japan website of all places. I think I will VHT night shade them to get rid of the bling factor. I have one mounted, still need to do the other side. The YouTube video tells the story.

Lastly, I finally got my 42s! I will be keeping my 43in Mickey Baja Pro XS but I will have a “streetable” 42 and then my giant wide AG tires.

Please do not think the 42s are THAT much bigger. I think they will be but this is 18 psi on a heavy rig vs 20 psi with no weight on it and the 42 is closer in the picture which also throws things off but they are 42x13.5R20

I still have a host of cosmetic things I want to do, like repaint my half doors, clean up on my old beadlocks and put new beadlock rings on them, paint the cage, but it’s all on hold as I need to troubleshoot an odd issue. I never had this happen before but on steep climbs the gas pedal doesnt work or the trans isnt working. It wont rev up. I could put my foot to the floor and nothing happens. I have never had that. Any thoughts? Anyways, the new wheels, the raptorliner fenders, the turn signal lights up front and fresh OEM taillights hopefully helps bring new life to squeaky.

 

[06 H3]

The fresh paint looks out of place.

You posted before my next post. It is time to make squeaky look fresh again. I am not done but it is time.

 

[06 H3]

You can see in the tire picture I already scraped the fenders. I just fixed them tonight, put on the full doors for winter and then raptor line'd the door part of the rear fenders (since I have a set for the half doors and the full doors) I also adjusted all the mounts so the fenders actually fit the properly again so they arent hanging off and all jacked up.

 

[rascole]

You're drive by wire right so possible a tilt sensor is putting you a limp mode?
Squeaky is so unique, why cover the battle wounds. Raptor Liner is great, but, tougher to do small cover-ups if needed vs rattle can. I thinned up to 20% and used HB Freight's $10 purple gun. Way smoother than the Schutz gun

 

[06 H3]

You're drive by wire right so possible a tilt sensor is putting you a limp mode?
Squeaky is so unique, why cover the battle wounds. Raptor Liner is great, but, tougher to do small cover-ups if needed vs rattle can. I thinned up to 20% and used HB Freight's $10 purple gun. Way smoother than the Schutz gun

Maybe? That could be it, I just know I have been on steeper climbs before and it never put me in limp mode. I did change up some trans tuning and with that I changed my base trans file from a a yukon Denali to a silverado. Maybe that could do it? I will throw my old tune back in and replicate the scenario.

I did a practice run at the normal recommended PSI and it was very coarse. I bumped up the PSI to 80 and it thinned it out but not really as thin as yours. Yours looks great. Like you said, maybe leave the scars. I can throw some OEM fenders I have on at some point and start the scarring process again

 

[alrock]

I would not professionally paint the new fender when you eventually put them on; rattle can is fine, with some clearcoat. I think the Raptor liner looks great and it will soon blend in.

 

[H3Hummer]

Daaaamn, those MT are big foot rubbers ... and I like the Raptor paint job on the fenders

 

[06 H3]

I wanted to share this video that I got from earlier this year when I was rock crawling. I think this sums up why I did everything I did to my H3.

Hybrid Roll cage, it protects the body just as much as it protects me from a roll over. You can see I use it like you use rock sliders.

Big tires make big rocks smaller.

Lots of suspension travel to fall into the cracks without flopping over.

You can see halfway through the video I am lifting my front driver tire in the air. It’s because the driver rear is climbing a rock and the passenger front is climbing a rock. It’s pushing that front driver tire and will continue to do so until I flip. You can see I can’t go back in reverse much to reposition as I will hit the wall. I disengage the rear output in the transfer case so it only powers the front tires. It lets the front tires spin and the passenger front come off the ledge and into the crack. I immediately reengage the rear so I have 4 spinning again. Due to the new position I achieved from the “front dig” I can continue forward and out.

A stock H3 crawl ratio with an automatic is impressive to most 4x4s at 55.8:1, I am 110:1 for ultimate control.

The ending you can see the bumper impact. Even at my current ride height, these bumpers are much closer to the body for better departure angle and sit about 6in higher then the stock bumpers. I also removed the plastic corners in favor of metal tubing that replicates the corners. adding 6+ in of clearance without adding 6+in of extra ride height is substantial to suspension performance and clearance when you need it.

All these tools add up to make a difference.

 

[cbetts]

I didn't think rock sliders are really meant for the roof but apparently I was mistaken!

Well done!

 

[cbetts]

I didn't think rock sliders are really meant for the roof but apparently I was mistaken!

Well done!

 

[06 H3]

Alright, this is a rabbit hole I have gone down too far. Sway bars.

I have almost 50k miles on the SAS. That’s wild to think about but I have plenty of data now. Most of that time is with no front sway bar/no rear sway bar or no front sway bar/ just a rear bar.

Linked up front and leaf spring rear seemed very manageable with no sway bars on road. The leafs provide so much self centering, progressive spring rate and natural bind it really helped keep things in check. I never really ran sway bars off-road on either end.

I had quite a bit of time with a rear sway bar only with that setup on road and it didn’t seem to change much. It helped a little but not drastic. I think the leaf springs just picked up so much slack in the sway control department.

I did have a very short time with a sway bar up front on road, I had the rate so soft (like 20-30 lbs) it didn’t do much. It made a difference on road but probably not worth the time/cost. While I said earlier I didn’t wheel with sway bars off-road, I did wheel with it on one time and even with the soft rate I hated it.

Then I linked the rear. Being 3 linked front and rear, there is literally no bind. I needed a sway bar bad. It was almost unmanageable. It felt fine once moving and sweeping corners were manageable but slow sharp corners left it feeling like a floppy noodle.

For years I thought a sway bar was a band aid to shitty suspension. After listening to many shock tuners I started to realize it isn’t, a sway bar is PART of your suspension, not a bandaid. Sure, I do not have the perfect geometry and changing the geometry could help sway control, but given the parameters I have given myself (like not going in the cab with my coilovers) I am in the camp of it is what it is. I forgot what U4 racer said in an interview that they did upper rear trailing arms for X amount of benefits but it’s downside was more sway due to geometry constraints so they upped the sway bar rate. Top notch guys are doing things like that through constraints so I figured it was acceptable.

So, I called TK1 racing and told them what I had, with weight slips, setup, etc. he wanted me in a pretty stiff bar. Admittedly, I think that bar would have been perfect to control most sway on road. In the end I went my own route because I felt it was too stiff.

I tried 2 different rear bars and many hole variations between the bars to get a lot of data. I have a bar that is probably just manageable on road, but doesn’t overpower you off-road. I want this bar to be on 100% of the time so I went as little as possible but as much as barely necessary.

I’ve put a little over 1000 miles on the setup with just a rear bar linked front and rear and it’s great rock crawling, ok in the desert and manageable on road, ideally I want more though. I don’t want to add more to the rear because I worry it will be too stiff and not work well. I have had a front sway bar for a few years now. It seems to come and go. I hate disconnecting off-road and reconnecting on road. It’s just a pain in the ass so I usually just leave it off. However, when I did my 100+ mile drive to the rubicon I connected. Even with lots of winding roads it handled beautifully on road. I felt it had just enough control. My sway bar rates were 50ish front, 150ish rear. Even with the soft rate of 50 up front I don’t like it off-road, I feel on steep climbs there isn’t enough weight to get it to overcome the twist. I feel the rear always has enough to overcome it.

So I have my rear bar to be on 100% of the time, my problem is I want a front sway bar on road, I see benefit to having it in the desert and I don’t want it rock crawling….and if I have to touch one more wrench to take it on and off I’ll throw the wrench through a window.

Here’s where I went down the rabbit hole.

SDI racing E link. Badass technology. Automatically engages and disengages based on settings you pick from the cab. I spoke to them at sema, no universal kit yet. I’d need a universal kit. They only go up to 10in of travel I believe (can’t remember exactly) so the last 4in of travel when flexed out will have engagement of the sway bar. For $1000, still engaging at the end of travel (may or may not be an issue but a tough gamble when it’s $1000) and no universal kit says table it for now.

Then I looked at these. It solves the annoyance of disconnecting and reconnecting by getting out and basically flipping a switch, overpriced for what they are in my opinion at $450, and limited to 10.5in of stroke will I break these weak looking things when yanking on them through the last 3.5in of travel?

autoLYNX - JEEP SWAY BAR DISCONNECT​

The patented AutoLYNX was designed to make disconnecting the sway bar much faster and easier: No need to fight a stuck link. No need to find perfectly flat ground to connect or reconnect. To disconnect the sway bar, just hop out and turn the knob a quarter turn and then do the other side. Takes...

I thought of these, also apex but much cheaper at $280 but still only 2in of travel per side so 10in of travel of interference.

airLYNX - Jeep JL/JT/JK​

X02-09-008 - $280.00 Now you have an alternative to a trail rate sway bar! The airLYNX for Jeep JL/JT/JK are adjustable rate sway bar end links that give you the ability to adjust the rate of your factory sway bar by simply airing up or airing down the links. Once you find your preferred...

I looked at a couple dual rate sway bars…ORO, teraflex, and G2 all have them but spending the money to hope it fits is too big of a gamble, especially when I don’t even know what rates the low rate is, I’d want it almost non existent.

From there the last thing I looked at was a JK rubicon sway bar, I thought I’d buy a “broken one” for cheap, they are usually never broken but have some easily fixable issue. Slap a manual dial or air actuated version from off-road evo on there and cut it down. I’d then have a machine shop bore a hole in it to accept my existing Currie bar. Cut the Currie bar and have it press in then weld in on each side, then have a bar that’s on and off. I’d lose a ton of clearance with that big housing and idk how welding cast to a sway bar would go.

Soooooo…..after the rabbit hole I found my solution (or attempt, as it’s still TBD.) Toyota locking hub.

I tore apart the hub (fuck those hub gear snap rings) welded the hub gear to the Currie bar, yay, I wasted $240 if this doesn’t work!!

 

[06 H3]

got my new arm built on the pass side.

Then drove it over to my parents house. Got the 42s mounted!!!

So….sway bar! It works (for now, we will see if it breaks like mentioned) It definitely settles things down for on road driving. If you really hammer on it, like snow drifting, it will still lean which is expected. Disconnected if you drive it very gingerly in corners it doesn’t lean as much. I’m assuming there is just enough resistance in the arms? If you get on it, it’s definitely unlocked. Time will tell

 

[06 H3]

I did a nice and quick 70-80 mile loop of highway and snow wheeling on New years day. We finally got snow in the valley which is late this season so we knew snow would be had in the mtns. If I wasn't up so late and had a plan before New Years day I would have gotten up early and gone for the deeper powder. Instead we stayed closer to town and dealt with plenty of traffic from the typical open diff trucks that wants to play in the snow. Once we got to higher elevation the traffic was much less and ran into the occasional built rig.

I love the dual valve stems on the new KMC's I have. I have Jantz J flaters on one stem and I use a gauge on the other. It makes it so easy. It was equally easy to get out, lock the hubs and unlock the sway bar hub and go have some fun.

Here we are at low elevation trying to pass a group that had a stuck diesel dually. It took a few tries but I got out of the ditch.

Here is a random cool picture.

Uneventful day but the 42s definitely quiet down the road noise, require much less HP to turn and I can feel better steering response with less sidewall.