Prospective Buyer

[MarineHawk]

I’m debating between waiting about 2 years before I can buy afford to buy a 2-yr-old H1 with the Duramax/Allison compbo and keeping my GMC Sierra until then or being impatient and buying an H3 in the next year. I have some questions for anyone who cares to offer advice. My main concern is off-road capability, but I must admit, when I lived in Colorado, I scoffed at vehicles that couldn’t keep at least 50 mph going up the 6% grades on the mountain highways while I barreled along at 70 mph with my 6.0L. I don’t mind being a little slower, but I don’t want to be pathetic. And I don’t want to get bogged down on hills off road.

I’ve read a lot of debates here about whether the 220 HP engine is deficient or not. Does anyone have enough expertise/experience to tell me whether the 25 additional HP of the alleged 3.7L would have made the difference in getting to the top here?: http://trucktrend.com/roadtests/suv/...ge/index6.html (p. 7 of 13).
Would the automatic trans have made it easier? Did the driver not know how to shift? Would better tires have helped? Surely more power would have helped one way or the other, right?

I noticed that no dealership in my area has H3s with manual trans. Does anyone have/like one in their H3? Any drawbacks? (heard about small pedal spaces). Does the unbelievable 69:1 crawls ratio of the manual trans work much better than the still-excellent 56:1 ratio for the auto trans?
Thanks in advance.