Anderson Hummer Hummer Happening Review….

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I had a friend asked me what goes on at the Hummer Happening’s… and I was writing him an e-mail about it when I thought about the forum here. I decided to do a post instead since I am sure there are probably a lot of folks that are curious about what goes on at these events… so here it is:

Yesterday I went to Anderson Hummer’s Hummer Happening in Whitehall, Maryland. The event was only open to Hummer Owners who bought their H1/H2/H3 at Anderson. They really went all out to make it a day to remember. They succeeded. It was an absolute blast to take the truck off road and start to explore some of the capabilities of my H2.

The event was held at a farm in the northern part of Maryland, close to the state line. The dealership did an absolutely great job of organizing and holding the event. It was pretty obvious that they had invested a lot of time and effort into holding the event. I want to give them a very big and very public “THANK YOU” !!

Anderson Hummer has been a great dealership to work with. I was very careful to select my dealership based on the service other owners in the area have experienced as well as price (of course). So far they have backed up my purchase with immediate, cheerful, surprisingly inexpensive, and competent service on my H2.

For the $40 it cost me to attend the Anderson Hummer Happening… Here’s what I got:

Side steps removed, stored, and re-installed. –While I sit in the shiny, bright new owners lounge with wireless internet access.

Attendance for myself and two others

Catered lunch at the farm

A free carnival mid-way

Service to-the-table, and staff everywhere for everything. I never had to go get my own drink…

And of course the off-road part… Here’s my story:

We arrived at the farm in White Hall, Maryland. It’s a green area with lot’s of really big hills. It was one of the first really hot summer days we’ve had this year. Two days ago we had a ton of rain. Just looking at the hills as we approached the event, I knew this was going to be fun. And very muddy ?

[shipbldr]

I had a friend asked me what goes on at the Hummer Happening’s… and I was writing him an e-mail about it when I thought about the forum here. I decided to do a post instead since I am sure there are probably a lot of folks that are curious about what goes on at these events… so here it is:

Yesterday I went to Anderson Hummer’s Hummer Happening in Whitehall, Maryland. The event was only open to Hummer Owners who bought their H1/H2/H3 at Anderson. They really went all out to make it a day to remember. They succeeded. It was an absolute blast to take the truck off road and start to explore some of the capabilities of my H2.

The event was held at a farm in the northern part of Maryland, close to the state line. The dealership did an absolutely great job of organizing and holding the event. It was pretty obvious that they had invested a lot of time and effort into holding the event. I want to give them a very big and very public “THANK YOU” !!

Anderson Hummer has been a great dealership to work with. I was very careful to select my dealership based on the service other owners in the area have experienced as well as price (of course). So far they have backed up my purchase with immediate, cheerful, surprisingly inexpensive, and competent service on my H2.

For the $40 it cost me to attend the Anderson Hummer Happening… Here’s what I got:

Side steps removed, stored, and re-installed. –While I sit in the shiny, bright new owners lounge with wireless internet access.

Attendance for myself and two others

Catered lunch at the farm

A free carnival mid-way

Service to-the-table, and staff everywhere for everything. I never had to go get my own drink…

And of course the off-road part… Here’s my story:

We arrived at the farm in White Hall, Maryland. It’s a green area with lot’s of really big hills. It was one of the first really hot summer days we’ve had this year. Two days ago we had a ton of rain. Just looking at the hills as we approached the event, I knew this was going to be fun. And very muddy ?

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With me I had two people. The first was friend of mine named Johna from the dance studio. The second is my friend Hong. Hong is from a mountainous part of inland China and yesterday was her 16th day here in the US. Hong is fluent in English, but this is her first exposure to all things American. I was counting on the Hummer Happening to be one hell of an intro to life in the states… also a good chance to see the countryside.

We were greeted at the gate and assigned to Charlie Group. They handed us a mad of the off road courses and a page or two of orientation instructions. We also signed a release. There were four off-road groups, each with a different lead vehicle from the dealership. In total there were about 50 Hummers (H1 and H2 only) at the event. We parked with our string of trucks and went over to the hospitality tent.

The hospitality tent was setup next to a carnival midway. There was a country band playing and lots of people hanging out and relaxing out of the sun. There were guys running all over the place serving water and sodas. The grill was going with burgers, hot dogs, and some other goodies.

I was sort of expecting that there might be some sort of a formal gathering or talk… but nope. No formalities. At 1:30 they called the Alpha group to go first. So while they saddled up and headed out for parts unknown, we sat and enjoyed some lunch. Hong had a hamburger and hot dog. I talked with a couple other owners and listened to the band waiting to be called.

About 30 minutes later they called the Charlie and I was quite happy to go to the truck. We got over to the truck where they handed us a radio and gave us a short talk on what to do and not do. Pretty much it came down to listen to the radio and shift to low range when told to do so.

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Then I got a bit of a surprise. After starting my truck the shift interlock would not unlock and shift out of park. Of all the times and places to get a glitch… Anderson had a technician at the event and they jumped right on it. They disconnected the solenoid for the shift interlock and I jumped in on the back end of the delta group.

Delta group was made up of three yellow hummers and one stealth gray one. Looking ahead of me all I could see was yellow hummers. Being in a white hummer I sort of felt out of place… We headed down a road on the farm about ½ mile. Running down the road the trees and brush got progressively more and more dense and the hills steeper. It was very apparent that they spend several weeks cutting trails from the brush for us to run on.

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After getting into the woods and through a handful of squeezes… I was happy to find that they left a lot of rough edges on the trail. It rapidly became obvious to me that if I wasn’t careful I was going to do some serious damage to the truck. There were stumps, logs, and rocks in trail to deal with. There were also a lot of trees leaning over to reach out redecorate the sheet metal on the sides of the truck. We shifted to low range and went forward.

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It took some careful driving to get through the first stretch of the course without scraping up the paint on the truck. There were places were you would go forward and be sliding sideways at the same time. Then there were places where there were less then a few inches of clearance on both sides of the truck. We took and few dips and bumps where only the seatbelts held you into your seat. Then we got to the stream.

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Getting into the stream was interesting. It required we make a three point turn and then go down a 24 inch embankment. There was more sliding and a lot of wheel spinning required to get the truck to slide and scrape its was down into the water. Once in the water we saw places where the water was 6 inches deep and others where it was a couple feet deep. You would creep forward, jump your way over rocks, and then discover how deep it was on the other side of the rock. Once in a while it was too deep on the other side of the rock and you needed to back up before it got too deep and then go more right or more left. Watching the truck in front of us (S&S Towing’s yellow H2) was very helpful.

We worked out way down the stream. At one point we went over a rock and when we came down it was VERY deep on the passenger side. My H2 rolled hard right and came down very hard on the right side rock bar. To be more precise… There was a horrible and hideous noise as the truck careened to the right. We were rolled so far over we put a two foot scrape into the OUTSIDE of the rock bar in the 2 o’clock position. We also saved the heavy plastic trim (above!) the rock bar. Props to hummer for the trim design. The plastic trim was heavy enough that it took the abuse and saved the sheet metal. The rock bar was scraped down to the bare metal.

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We crept forward and righted the truck. Then we continued to the exit point from the stream. It was a muddy four foot knoll that offered a lot of tire spinning fun. We dug our way out of the stream and then ran about a half mile of trails on our way out. There were a handful of hills (10’ bumps?) that were really cool to go charging up. It was neat to feel the traction control kick in and take over the throttle when we started to slip. The truck did great and we really enjoyed the ride.

We bounced our way back to the start point and took a break for about a half hour. During the break we got to hang out and talk. It was helpful to listen to some of the more experienced guys who had advice on controlling the truck. I learned a lot about what to do and what needed to happen to cross the second trail of the day.

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About this time we started to notice that the trucks ahead of our group were coming back very, very muddy. This was starting to look even more interesting. More than one came back coated… but several had rather interesting splatter patterns.

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Lot's of mud....

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Jim, our trail guide from Anderson, got on the radio and told us that we were going to the “muddy place” next. We gleefully went back to our truck and belted in.

On the second trail run we went through some even tighter places after we shifted into low range. On a lot of the muddy down-hills we did a lot of side sliding and it was a challenge not to scrape up the bodywork on the truck. Then we got to the “other” stream entrance.

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The second stream entrance was much more interesting. We had to make a 90 degree left turn while going downhill and climbing over a 3 foot mud bump on the drivers side. We did this with about 6 inches of clearance on the driver side. With a little airborne action and a heavy throttle foot we jumped the bump and came down hard but gracefully on a giant mud puddle. This was to be the first major mud spray of the day into the passenger cabin. You see that as we cut the turn left, the passenger side wheel came out of the wheel well. Spinning wheel exits wheel well, hits mud puddle, and seeks open window.

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After making the turn I stop to breath. I look to my right and I can see where Hong was sitting while we made the turn. There is an outline of her body on the passenger seat defined by where the mud is NOT. Fortunately she is still smiling at me and the camera is OK. There is also mud on the inside of the windshield… I look up and an very thankful the sunroof was closed as there are now several tennis ball sized globs of mud on it.

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Most people would be smart enough to close the windows at this point and use the AC. We however, are not.

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We work out way down the stream to what I am now concerned to hear Jim describe over the radio as the “muddy place”. It seems that yes indeed it will get worse.. heh.

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After nearly swamping the H2 in a surprisingly deep part of the stream (BACK UP!!) we sit and watch the hummers in front of us work through the “muddy place”. The muddy place is a place where you do a three point turn in the stream, back up a hill that takes you out of the stream, put it in drive, and take a running start across the stream at a hill. The hill is muddy, steep, deeply rutted, and has a 70 degree turn left at the top.

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We watch the H1 make it up the hill with a struggle. We have heard that the H2’s were making it earlier but now the mud on the hill is soupy and the ruts are a foot deep.

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Jim comes over and tells me to take a running start at the hill, place me foot all the way down, and rely on the traction control system. We decide to trust Jim.

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We execute a three point turn. During just the turn we nearly need a help just to get turned.

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During the turn I learn the being subtle in the mud does not work. So I hammer the throttle and we spin our way backwards up the embankment. When they give the signal I jam the throttle to the floor. We are in 4 low, with the e-locker and TC2 on. We have 60 feet of space to accelerate.