Atleast you're in good company!

Hang in there Neo, we got home and it is now 26 degrees. Wish we were back in Moab

No...Thank you. You were all great, and I will always remember how everyone on this trip stuck it out, stuck together, and made it an incredible event.

Can't wait to go again.

Next on my list:

Escalator
Golden Stairs (I'm going to own those fukkers next time)
Potato Salad
Tip Over
Body Snatcher

Thanks everyone:
Alec, for getting me off the trail
Alan, for being a great trail leader
Adam, well, you're just a tie rod master
Ken and Co-P, for your support and kindness
Rocks...we're not done having fun yet.

I feel like I'm writing this for the Oscars

I'm sorry I couldn't help out on GS. After turning my ankle... well, you saw...

Only two runs on your list are of a concern to me, Stairs and PSH. The diffs MUST be strengthened or you'll have the same problem.

Just my opinion, but I think I'm pretty close to correct.

I bet you're home before I am.

I agree. I was shocked how quickly they imploded. The weak point on the obstacles like the Golden Stairs should be wheel spin. The diffs should have easily been able to handle not having enough momemtum early enough and have just spun out the wheels. But the drivetrains just seemed to bust right under a little excess torque.

wheel hop is wery wery bad , now we know how far we can push them , they are great crawlers but whatch out if you try to power thru and start getting wheel hop cant wait to come back in aug with the nor. cal. group at least now we know when to wench them up stuff the lil ones did pretty damn good IMO

Neo,
I don't think it has anything to do with wheel hop. I was standing 2 feet from Bebe's rig. Bebe did not hop. She simply gave it some gas a little late when here wheels were already press up against the top and bottom ledges. That shouldn't have been a problem. She didn't get close to hopping her wheels. The front enter just broke right off the bat under torque. Also, I didn't see you with any wheel hop either. Same thing - just some extra torque and the drivetrain seemed to crumble.

You are right about the H3s doing well tho. They walked everything with ease all week. But something needs to be done to strenghten the drivetrain.

So, in theory, you pull up to brick wall and slowly apply torque and the diffs will pop? Is that sort of how it happened?

It wasn't a violent breakage and no wheels turning over? Do we know what broke? Teeth? or shattered ring? or what?

Neo, do you remember what was going on when yours went down and how it felt/sounded initially?

Exactly.

I was 10 feet from Neo's rig when it blew too. He wasn't even up to the top of the Golden Stairs yet (where both wheels would have been press up against a ledge). I think something happened earlier to weaken his drivetrain because he wasn't doing that much when his front and rear exploded.

So much for the underpowered comments

Bebe was telling me that the H3 has some special crap to transfer the torque around between the front and back. I think it might have something to do with that. Her front broke under very little actual pressure. She didn't rev it that hard, nor for very long. It broke almost immediately.

In hindsight, is it possible that the 2.56:1 transfer case ratio would be better than than the 4:1? Less stress?

I'd go with 220 or 221, whatever it takes.

4-low, I'm sure. Who would that obstacle in anything else?

Yeah, I would think it was 4lo and that locks up the t-case. The system operates similar to the H2.

I am curious if it popped the ring gear totally or if it spun some teeth off. If it shattered the ring under those circumstances, that could be a problem. I could possibly see losing a tooth off a gear and it failing that way but it's so odd that it happened on 2 of the same vehicles at the same obstacle.

There may not be enough teeth on the ring and pinions.

the clicking noise we get sometimes when putting in park is all i heard , then my drive lines were spining and and nothing to wheels , i felt like it was bucking ? i can spin my tires all i want in mud and dirt back home against obstacles with no problems i think it was torque and traction that busted them , i still recommend smooth crawling on slick rock the performed great for 5 days before the golden steps

just talked with salt lake may have fixed in 2-3 days if parts are not hard to get. seem really great and they have a loaner for me too so far hummer is standing up and taking care of this lil issue

Did you guys lose gear oil at all? Or was it all contained?

There is some stabilitrack (or something like that) junk on the H3 that is suppose to reduce wheel spin or something I think. The light was still on while in 4lo...so I would imagine that meant it was still engaged. It might have over applied the brakes to regulate the wheel spin and caused excessive resistance. Dont know...talking out of my ass like usual.

I am too lazy to search...what is the size/spline setup of the diffs on an H3?

It's good to know that Hummer is taking care of you on this. I wonder if this could be something that would cause GM to do a recall to upgrade the gears?

Just got back home last night so here are a few more pictures from Hell's Revenge. There are some really good shots of the H3's. I got some really good color so I thought some of you may want to download these for yourselves.

Another

I like that pic!!

another pic

Neo going down the trail to get to Hell's Gate.

Coming up Hell's Gate

Bebe coming up Hell's Gate

No way, it will be way cheaper to warranty the few that get broken then do a recall. Most H3's, like H2's, will never go off-road, so will likely never have this problem. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

X's a whole bunch

only about 5 percent get used like this and of those five percent there arent too many as crazy as bebe and i . we know our limits now on slick rock . just part of the learning curve .

Neo right after Hell's Gate. I love this shot!

Shaggy - I could not beleive he drove that thing all over those rocks, witht he sticker still in the window!

Another cool shot.