Ultimate Adventure 2017

[06 H3]

https://imgur.com/a/tVMxP

 

[06 H3]

Thanks Alex, I appreciate it! I agree. This failure was due to outside impact causing issues internally. I will open it up this weekend. I'm trying to find a new hosting site. Photobucket can screw off. 400 bucks a year for an ad-infested site...I just loaded a pic from imgur to try it out. I wish will show the picture, not the link. It seems you have had luck with smugmug. Once I can load pictures I can do my updates

 

[JPaul]

To embed a picture from imgur just go to your images and click on the picture's thumbnail. It will pull up the pic and to the right will be a bunch of url's you can copy, one of them is the bbcode for forum posts which you just copy and paste right into your post as you're typing it. Then save your post and it will show up.

Your previous link was to the page on imgur as if you were browsing your album through their site.

Sent from my SM-N910T using Tapatalk

 

[06 H3]

Thanks JPaul! So now when will Imgur do the same thing that photobucket did [emoji85]

 

[Panzer07]

I use tapatalk app so far no problem with pics and stuff, haven't really access the forum via computer in years.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[JPaul]

Thanks JPaul! So now when will Imgur do the same thing that photobucket did [emoji85]

Who knows. I honestly don't even know how Imgur has stayed in business this whole time, the amount of ads has increased lately, but it's still a far cry from most other sites. But I have a feeling if Imgur does anything similar they will make tiered accounts that charge based on bandwidth usage. It'd be the easiest way to cover costs without inciting a riot. What Photobucket did was just plain stupid. It's like they wanted to get rid of a bunch of clients instead of actually recouping costs. Bandwidth isn't THAT expensive.

 

[cbetts]

I moved my images from my self-hosted server to Google. But as JPaul will attest, I seem to have permission issues when I forget to share the image before linking.

 

[JPaul]

Don't worry, you're not the only one I've seen do it. You're just he most frequent... :giggle:

 

[06 H3]

Sorry for the delay guys!

So day 1! We hit the table Mesa area. I'm not exactly sure what trails we ran but they were a good warm up. The first day was nerve racking, exciting and hot!!
We were in the middle of the pack and just tried to maintain pace and not get stuck lol. I do remember an optional line I took that I didn't see the person before me take and I heard BANG! As it was right up against a wall and went oh ****, I just landed into my roof. Then remembered I had a cage now! I used it as a slider to get across.
One spot I remember sliding into a hole and getting all flexy

We also got to play on some other obstacles one being this one

Only a few of us got it, one being the Dana spicer JK. That JK had an LS, Ultimate Dana 60s, and 39in krawlers. He was definitely doing destructive testing for Dana he opened up the throttle and just bumped the hell out of it. I was getting ready to see u joints flying but it held together great! Out of 20 rigs only a few made it. My co driver was giving me crap that if I bumped it more I would have made it but hey, it was the first day..."wheel for the week not the day!" As Rick Pewe always said.

I just texted my co driver for pics of Day 1. I didn't get much that day. If he has some I'll add it.

 

[06 H3]

Day 2!
So usually after wheeling it's a road Day...this time it was more dirt miles. Less slow speed trails. I didn't mind it, being in the back eating dust was MUCH better then the alternative. At the end of day 1 I remember hitting pavement to get back to the hotel it was the worst heat I've ever felt. 117-120 and the sun beating on the pavement all day. Since I had half doors with a black on black truck I felt every bit of heat. It was brutal...so I didn't mind staying off pavement and doing 50+ dirt miles.

We ended up towards crown king. We did hit a few obstacles that required 4low and we had a good amount of dirt hills. One section toward the top it was steep enough and long enough to cook a trans in the 100+ degree heat but not steep enough to go slow in 4low. We played it safe and kept 4 low 3rd gear. No overheating and we made it to the top.

One of the climbs...not sure why it's blurry.

This day we got in a bit earlier. It was awesome to hangout with the cronies, sponsors and readers. That was one of the best parts of the trip...we found out more about the off-road industry then I would have even known about without this experience.

 

[06 H3]

DAY 3!
Day 3 continues with endless dirt miles...over 100 I think? Not really sure where we were we kept heading north. These dirt days really tested your rigs. When rockcrawling and running trails there's more stopping, more spotting and more time to go over things on your vehicle. Days like 2 and 3 the dirt roads don't require much stopping and slowly just rattle your rig loose but we made it. The radiator upgrade and trans cooler setup really shined on these days. Without it I felt we would have had issues. Without much to get pics of we continued on through and made it to payson, Az

I did get this one pic...at our lunch stop we found a natural AC system...nothing like 60 degree air flowing out of a mine when its 100+ out...

Day 4
A rockcrawling day!!! with some scenary too! We saw the Tonto Natural bridge and we made it to payette draw.

At Tonto Natural Bridge

Payette Draw was a fun trail. We were hitting every optional line we could take and really we're enjoying it. Day 4 was a day filled with carnage for many. I don't remember who but a few rigs broke some stuff, me being one of them. Towards the end of the trail the last obstacle 2 lines. 1 was a buggy line, the other was still extremely tough.

Here's the final obstacle

There is no way to crawl it. I back up and bump it hard. First try nothing, 2nd try, pop! Not sure what happened I figured it was a hub. So it's time for the winch. As we winch up I lose a bead when the tire was punched up against a rock.

Now I'm bummed. I don't want to be the hold up...luckily no one was behind me waiting if I remember correctly as the rest of the group was fixing other rigs back a ways. So we get up and over and look for the damage. Sure enough a hub...I knew I should of bought Yukons!!! I bought some POS G2 locking hubs and knew I would regret it. Sure enough I did...to make matters worse when I was asked if I had a spare hub or slug I didn't. I'm the king of spare parts and being prepared...with my D44 and other parts I have on the H3 I have everything I need...I just didn't have time to get together spares as I was busy doing a million other things. Luckily Damon in the scout had a slug I could borrow.
Seeing Sam in his green buggy hit the buggy line was awesome!

All in all it was a great day! And took off to the next camping spot

 

[06 H3]

Day 5!
So day 5 was a road day with some fun in between. We left the Mollogan rim camping spot and took off to the flagstaff area. During these drives they usually have co drivers hop out and get in the rig behind them which was cool to get to talk to other people. The views from our camping spot to flagstaff were phenomenal and the drop in temp made the drive even better! As we cruise through flagstaff we were told on the rugged radios we were off to play at the cinder hills OHV area.

This was pretty unique and something I have never done. They were dunes but they were like dunes. The OHV area was black lava/sand. It was thicker then sand but it reminded me of sand.

(borrowed these 2 photos from Dan's album since I couldnt find any...thank you sir!)
This area was an open area free roam type OHV like the dunes. We only had a follow the leader type run for a few miles as we headed up this big hill. Most everyone had to back up and get a running start and power their way up.

As I go to head up I notice im 3 wheel drive. Sure enough I broke both hubs. The one hub I replaced was grenaded. This other hub had a little chip taken out of it and would lock and unlock. This damage was from the day before at Payette draw...Rick Pewe stayed behind while we threw in the other slug. Luckily 10 min later they came back so we didnt miss much. Now it was time for UA interviews so we got to hangout drive around and watch Stephen hover over whoops in his badass ORD truck. During this time ORD helped out big time! They got us a good price and overnight shipping on some Yukon Hardcore locking hubs to the next and final hotel. For the rest of the time the slugs were put to use.
all the teeth were broken on this one from the day before. the other one had one little chunk missing.

After the cinders we aired up hit the road and made it to our final camping spot just north of the Grand Canyon at Jacob's Lake.


Day 6!
Day 6 was a LONG day but a good day with some amazing views. We got up bright and early packed up our stuff and took off to the North rim of the grand canyon.

The drive in was beautiful

and so was the grand canyon...

After the grand canyon we were told we needed to be ready for a long day with extra gas! If I remember correctly we had 180 mainly dirt miles without a single gas stop...
A little friend joined me...

We ended up near Mt. Trumbell...50 or so miles from a paved road in any direction.

the schoolhouse

Off to the next stop. We passed bar ten ranch, 70 miles from a paved road in any direction and known as one of the most remote ranches around.
This took us back to the grand canyon and near the bottom of the colorado river.

After that we were off to Hurricane, UT...all dirt roads! I think from this area to our hotel we had less then 10 paved miles. We ended up getting in around 2 am to the hotel with the time change, otherwise it would have been 1 am.

What a long day and we needed to get up early for day 7, the final day and my favorite trail day of them all!

 

[woodwardsh3]

What a trip of a life time.

 

[06 H3]

Day 7 was a fun day with gnarly trails but Day 6 was just a dusy and that is what claimed the most rigs. The scout stripped the gear on the cam that goes to the distributor and the XJ 4.0 lost some rings and was burning like 4 quarts of oil every 30 miles or something crazy. They called it quits.

Since the last rockcrawling day we had some issues we knew if we wanted a chance at getting an invite back, or not even for the invite but to go out being remembered that a Hummer can do work we had to hit it hard!!!! Granted I know my H3 isn't as much H3 BUT some platforms are not good platforms. The H3 is a good platform and its time for the world to know that. While my drivetrain didn't come off the line like that my motor/trans/tcase and rear suspension is all factory (just spring over rear but still factory springs.) My codriver and I went into it knowing this was it, most everyone had a trailer waiting for them back at the hotel since UA was over and just because we didn't was no excuse!!!

So we hit it hard!

Day 7, here it is...

Day 7!
After getting in so late and having a drivers meeting at 7am I still had to install my yukon hubs. While listening to the drivers meeting and installing them we were hustling. The group ended up leaving and we met up with them in the sand hollow parking lot. Knowing that this is the last day and sand hollow was a place I always wanted to wheel at my co driver and I said we had to leave it all out there and hit it hard.

This was revenger for breaking a hub. We hit Joint Effort and crazy 7's as well as the sand dunes towards the end.


Right off the bat on joint effort there was a 3 part obstacle and a bypass. The bypass wasn't easy either but we wanted the hard line. Very few rigs made it and even with almost 11in of down travel I was still lifting tire. Out of 20 rigs only 4 I think made it.

[video=youtube;URPAy-ogc6I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URPAy-ogc6I[/video]

The music was because my co driver didnt want to listen to his voice...he was a bit close so you cant see the full obstacle but hopefully I made it on the video for that since the video crew was further back on that obstacle.

It was awesome, I had multiple people from the industry including Fred Williams and Christian Hazel tell me they were super impressed I made it. That meant a lot.

We continued on the trail and down to crazy 7's where there was another fun climb. It reminded me of hells gate and my wheelbase definitely helped on that. Some of the shorter wheelbase rigs it was sketchy watching as they lifted tire.

After that we played on the sand dunes.

After that we got back to the hotel, aired up packed up and got ready for the sponorship dinner.

 

[06 H3]

So after all that it was a crazy 5 weeks (4 weeks of prep and 1 week of UA) we had the sponorship dinner and awards.

This is where I can talk more about this kinda stuff since you all know me, and stuff I wouldn't put on other forums...but since you the awards were awesome.

Each award was kind of a joke, most likely to swap an LS award, that went to a guy with ford motor problems. Most improvement from smooching, that went to a guy who always is bumming waters and stuff off others.

At this point they talked about everyone...except us. They forgot us :sigh: well then they did the Tom Boyd award. the one award that stays the same every year and usually doesn't go to a reader...My co driver and I got that award which is truly encompassing the UA spirit. We broke down before we got there, pulled 2 all nighters, got there 2 hours before the first drivers meeting and first wheeling day, missing check in. We broke cheap hubs, got new ones and pushed it hard the last day without missing anything minus one hill climb at the cinder's. That's what its all about, issues happen but to never give up and fight through it all. That meant the world to me. I've dealt with douche bags hating on the Hummer and I wanted to show, hey theres more to off roading then the jeeps and Toyotas. It was 8 years of work to earn that award and we did it!

A thanks to everyone on here who pushed me to build, ask questions and think outside the box way back in the day before SAS's were done in a driveway on a late model vehicle. A special thanks to rick and bebe who leant the welder that I didn't need but my we did use on the rubicon and a HUGE thanks to my buddy Kyle, his dad and my family. My family was so supportive, my buddys dad told me I wouldn't be finished. That was a challenge and I had to prove him wrong, we got every single thing done on it and even had time to blow up a diff and replace it.:no: But without my buddy and his dad it wouldn't have happened. It was easy to call it quits and most would have but they were right there with me saying no, were going and were not giving up and were gonna help you.

UA was everything I imagined, hanging out with the guys who run the industry with parts, marketing, etc. was awesome listening to their stories. While many cronies joked about it being the UA1000 for so many dirt miles Trent led us on we did sand, rock, dirt miles, highway miles and the H3 proved to be well rounded. If I had known we had this many dirt miles full doors may have added a level of comfort but in the rock trails they were so much better then full doors.
So where does that leave us? Well we got home no trailers, no tow trucks after 1,890 miles...but the fun doesnt end there because in 10 days were off to the rubicon!

 

[06 H3]

So we get ready for the rubicon. The hummer needed one thing, we threw the diff back together with a bad pinion seal. Unfortunately, we knew it was bad but with lack of time for UA when throwing in the new R&P it had to go in. When I got home I changed that. Gassed it up and hit the road.

My co driver and I ran the rubicon 2 years ago and the dusy last year. This year we were taking 2 rigs and 5 people who never ran the rubicon before.
We went in wentworth springs side and hit devils post pile and ended up camping a mile before the split off. That morning we ran to loon lake to meet up with our buddy in the toyota.
It was raging below loon lake...definitely not like that last time!

Stopped at spider lake for a quick swim and kept on going towards soup bowl.

First time up! There was no way to crawl it...

[video=youtube;d9y3V-tk7Dw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9y3V-tk7Dw[/video]

Coming up to old sluice area...

We ended up camping on the slabs near old sluice, it was nice to have fires this year!

Ended up going down old sluice the next morning, I popped out right before it got real tight. My buddies advised I don't hit that till I finish the cage, dont wanna tweak it before its finished.

on Old sluice I did come off a ledge and lost a bead again...I never lost a bead on my narrow H3 rims. People claim narrow rims are like a poor mans beadlock. Since the wider H2 rims at about 10 lbs I have lost 3 beads so its time for beadlocks.

Right before you cross over the buck island spillway there is a ledge to the right, just a fun obstacle. We were playing around hitting it and after my 2 buddies hit it and made it with some backing up and bumping it I had to try. I hit my skid so hard it hit my t case and BANG.

This happened around noon. The case basically deflected and steel skid vs aluminum case the steel won. Everyone stopped for lunch and to cool off in buck island lake.
We took the piece that broke off the side of the case and JB welded it back on. It was kinda funny since I have been beating the absolute hell out of the factory 4:1 t case for 6+ years now and I also told my co driver it would break for years. He would fire back saying thats the only damn thing you havent broke have confidence in it!!
Well I gave him crap saying HA it broke! Well long story short that "broken t case" got me through the rest of the rubicon and 400 miles home, no trailer or tow truck!
We were all amazed.

Anyways we continued on, stopped at rubicon springs to cool off, got to the top at observation point and camped out.

So the next morning we finish the dirt roads, stop at a lake to cool off (not sure which one but its after observation)

We continue on get lunch in Tahoe. part our ways with our toyota friend whos gotta go back to the bay area and we head down the 395 to head back to so cal. My co driver for UA had some weird noises from his TJ on the drive back. We ended up driving from Minden to Carson City, stopped at his grandpa's friends house changed out 2 sheered motor mounts and a bad trans mount. We also pulled the front driveshaft since it was making noises.

We then drive through the night to June lake, camp there and drive home.

Somehow that t case I never trusted got me 400 miles home!!

2 1/2 weeks 2,995 miles, no tow trucks no trailers!!!

 

[06 H3]

So now what? Well first I need a break! Its was a long fun 2 1/2 weeks, my vacation is almost drained, I am drained and I need to see if my girlfriend even remembers me after all that.

So obviously a new t case. I have a factory 2.64:1 sitting in storage I could throw in but I dont wanna down grade. Everything is perfect except the drive gear for the front output 1 tooth sheared off.

What came first the chicken or the egg? Did the deflection of the case knock the tooth off or did the deflection knock the "snubber" off which hit the tooth and caused the tooth to break and shoot out the case.

The "snubber" (not sure why hummer people call them that) is a base pad that takes up chain slack...It seems to work well...until it broke off.

I still wanna finish the cage, I want to still add B pillar support internally that braces to the outside, make a hi lift mount, and add some expanded flooring in the center of the cage. It wouldnt be visible when standing near the hummer but would serve as a roof rack just so it has something to rest on.

So do I throw in the 2.64 for now? Find another 4:1 and put that in...but option C which wont happen for a while but I was looking at the t case and think I could do a H3/205 doubler like the BW 1356 cases do. The t case length would be about the same, the 4 pinion planetary has proven to be tough and it would give me a 1:1, 2:1, 4:1 and an 8:1. Also I would gain a 2wd option since the factory 4:1 case is full time 4wd.

Looking at it I have some ideas how to make it 2wd, it doesnt use a viscous coupler but an additional planetary that is like an open diff. This is the first time I opened one up since I never had issues with it but it does seem possible.

Lastly, I would like to keep some part of an H3 case in there. while not all my drivetrain is factory they were all factory options and keeping the 5.3/4l60/4:1 and my factory rear leaf springs is cool since its the factory stuff that came with an H3.

 

[lowtrac]

"They were dunes but they were like dunes." -06 H3

All that and a plastic shift fork too. Awesome writeup.

 

[06 H3]

"They were dunes but they were like dunes." -06 H3

All that and a plastic shift fork too. Awesome writeup.

Whoops, I must have had an overlooked typo.

Thank you and yep, I don't fix what's not broken

 

[scoreh3]

Congratulations on making it !! Looks like you had a great time . You now have the ultimate Hummer bragging rights Sir ! Good job !

 

[06 H3]

Hey guys, this months magazine was just released. It covers part 1, reader rides, sponsors and cronies.

I also made the cover!!!! I'm in the top right!

 

[06 H3]

https://youtu.be/GVu21UadhwM

Part 1 is up!!!

 

[scoreh3]

Very cool !!!!

 

[06 H3]

https://youtu.be/Ako-zDau8Xg

 

[06 H3]

https://youtu.be/EACu8ejOAU8