Hard Offroading In An H3

[daddyo]

Who here has done any hard offroading in their H3? By hard, I mean the kind of wheeling where you got stuck and needed a winch or had to stack rocks, or where you broke something.

I am on the fence about the H3 as a family wheeler, and I am curious about the H3's natural limits. Any pictures or stories would be helpful.

Andrew

[daddyo]

Who here has done any hard offroading in their H3? By hard, I mean the kind of wheeling where you got stuck and needed a winch or had to stack rocks, or where you broke something.

I am on the fence about the H3 as a family wheeler, and I am curious about the H3's natural limits. Any pictures or stories would be helpful.

Andrew

[H3Eric]

Daddyo, most of us on this forum have gone offroading. I personally went a few times. It is a lot of fun and the H3 is a very capable vehicle that will do everything and more you would expect. As far as I have read nobody has broken anything yet such as axels and the like.

[wannabeH3]

yeah man, me and h3hummer and nmikes did some cool wheelin earlier in december... it was definetly more serious offroading. here is a thread on it
http://elcova.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/2671031121/m/4681038941

but we were stackin rocks, and winchin and usin a snatchblock off our rear tow hooks to help each other up some really rough terrain. my rig needed several people to push on the front drivers side to keep the righ from going into a tree as i went up the part where most of the photos are at. good times!

here are more pics
http://www.driveyourhummer.com/rieterspitdec.05.htm
and here are more (might be duplicates)
http://home.comcast.net/~migmon/

we noticed the h3 didnt seem to be able to keep its weight in front on top of the front tires for traction, but it is still more capable than most other stock vehicles. i have a bunch of videos but still havent hosted them anywhere yet. :P

[NoMoGMPG]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by daddyo:
Who here has done any hard offroading in their H3? By hard, I mean the kind of wheeling where you got stuck and needed a winch or had to stack rocks, or where you broke something.

I am on the fence about the H3 as a family wheeler, and I am curious about the H3's natural limits. Any pictures or stories would be helpful.

Andrew </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Have you seen this vid?

http://www.hummercluborlando.com/images/gallery/video/H3_Hells_Gate_0001.wmv

[nmikes]

As a family wheeler stock, there isn't anything out there that comes close. If you have kids and going to be pushing it, I'd get the side curtain airbags. 3's are heavier, but its probably the safest thing to wheel with. I understand the front pillars are designed so in the case of a roll over the roof won't pancake on your head... and thats alot of weight coming down on those two points. The gearing, locking rear diff, and protection (rocker rails and UC protection are very functional... you take the wheels off, tuck the suspension in and drag the thing on its belly over boulders without causing any damage this stuff is that good) is probably some of its stronger points. If you have a really good idea of what you want in mind, time, and money. You can get a 5 door jeep and totally mod it out and have something custom'd to you. A solid front locking axle and a couple more inches of clearance I think would really help the 3 off road. But as far as I'm concerned... to throw kids in and head out... 'cept no substitutes. You would not believe what this vehicle can do, specially in the hands of someone that doesn't know what they are doing. Pictures just don't do it justice. Now put someone that does know what they are doing behind the wheel... look out.

[hmrlvr]

Well said. I agree with nmikes completely

[Hummer Guy]

I was the first one to doubt the H3's capabilities, and I was really surprised how well it did off-road.

[ETD]

I'm not sure what "hard off-roading" is and may never know http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif but so far I am confident that my base package can do well on a 5-6 rated terrain. I imagine that the Adventure package may take the H3 on higher rated terrain. On the other hand, I have not seen an under-13 year old who has not been more than excited about the H3 look.

[NEOCON1]

by far the best offroader out of the box for under $50k get the adventure http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[cherokeekid]

Hard Core is a relative term, most trails are psychologocal, you just need to get past the off camber/steep climbs and body damage.

I went on a run with a few H3's one crazy dude was ramming his into rocks and flooring it up off-camber sections!

a rear locker and sotck 33" are huge benefit for sure, a rubicon or rubicon unl is probably the best "out of the box" for reasonable cash outlay mostly b/c of the front locker and solid axle, but you lose the functionality of an SUV like the H3, throw a SA in the front and you'd be set.

I've run a number of different trails and a stock or close to stock h3 could traverse most of them.

[nmikes]

Yeah, you might have read my thread on steering problems. I'm also one of those crazy's that aren't too worried about damage. One of those folks that try to get stuck... just to see how what this machine will really do... and yes, it does get stuck, it will break. But you know, if I didn't see for myself what this thing can do...I would have gotten a jeep and modded the hell out of it. This really is an exceptionally tough truck. When the H3 Alpha comes out, I'll sell you whats left of mine http://www.elcova.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[daddyo]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. The pictures say a lot (looks like a heck of a fun run). The H3 may work for me.

NMIKE's carnage (bent frame) has me concerned, though. I am going to have to go crawl under one and see how stout things are.

Andrew

[nmikes]

I'll get some pictures posted. You get what you paid for, and I sorta paid for the damage to my vehicle... it wasn't the vehicle's fault in poor engineering or construction. It was complete driver judgement.

[nmikes]

here is an idea... was a bit of a learning curve posting this.

[daddyo]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by nmikes:
I'll get some pictures posted. You get what you paid for, and I sorta paid for the damage to my vehicle... it wasn't the vehicle's fault in poor engineering or construction. It was complete driver judgement. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

If a vehicle is designed with 33" tires and a locker, then it is expected that you may hump some rocks. I hope your bent frame was a freak thing.

Andrew

[nmikes]

Notice the plates... they are buckled straight up. Essentially what happened was I had a tire going into a hole so as the tire was going into the hole I goosed the throttle to capitalize on my momentum to get as much traction on the way out for that tire. I think what happened was I throttled it a little too much and essentially I ramped the damn thing... coming down on a rock. This would never have happened if I was going at a walk... Of course I would have also have ended up on the sharp end of a winch cable but oh well. Up to this point I had already needed winching off from a boulder I had high centered on in the middle of a creek about a foot deep... vowed I'd not need that again. Live and learn... next time I do believe I'll take the winch... I'll eat some shame before I try that stunt again. And honestly nobody got under there with a tape measure, that I know of. Just eyeballed it... I think its not as bad as it looks. For how far they had to adjust the wheels to make them straight... I'm not completely convinced the frame is bent out of wack. I think it might be more dented than anything.