Here is a few pics from Deer Valley in Norcal. Stay tuned for more pictures of the day on http://www.norcalhummergroup.org .

It was a fabulous day. I cannot say enough for the helpfulness (they immediately pulled off the chrome side steps when I arrived), the responsibility, (the trail bosses were immediately responsive when we asked to be spotted)and always took us on a line with concerns for the saftey and condition of our vehicles.

This is THE group to offroad with. IMO







My advice to other H3's??

GET OUT THERE!!!

The two trail bosses were completely surprised by the perfomance of the H3. They both drove H1's.
I think if this truck were in the hands of a seasoned driver, it would be an amazing ride.

As for my husband and I....we can't wait to do it again. This was our very first experience ever off road.

WHAT A GAS!

Here is a few pics from Deer Valley in Norcal. Stay tuned for more pictures of the day on http://www.norcalhummergroup.org .

It was a fabulous day. I cannot say enough for the helpfulness (they immediately pulled off the chrome side steps when I arrived), the responsibility, (the trail bosses were immediately responsive when we asked to be spotted)and always took us on a line with concerns for the saftey and condition of our vehicles.

This is THE group to offroad with. IMO







My advice to other H3's??

GET OUT THERE!!!

The two trail bosses were completely surprised by the perfomance of the H3. They both drove H1's.
I think if this truck were in the hands of a seasoned driver, it would be an amazing ride.

As for my husband and I....we can't wait to do it again. This was our very first experience ever off road.

WHAT A GAS!

I only see <span class="ev_code_RED">RED Xs</span>.

Now I can see...nice pics.

Congrats. That sure does look like a lot of fun. I wonder how many trails there are in Ontario Canada where I could experience off-roading WHEN I purchase my H3. Hope you had a blast !!

C.

canuck, I was wondering the same thing! I'm looking for a trail to take the H3 on around the GTA (up to 2 hours or so outside of it is fine)
The QEW is not a very fun trail, although all those VW bugs do make for good obstacles.

HummBeebe: Great pictures, looks like a fun time

Glad you had fun.
Looks like it was pretty tame wheelin?
Did they eventually go do the rockier part as originally planned?

-C

Nice call on crushing the VW's on the QEW. When I finally purchase my H3, I will research trails more. I own a jeep that has been barely off road, and now want a new toy that WILL go off road.

As for the "more rocky" commment....looks pretty impressive to me. But then again the cottage road is rough in my world.

C.

We had three water crossings, no problems at all.
As for being tame, I was told this part of the trail was pretty tame, about a "5", there was a "7" section of the trail, we did not get to on this trip.
The trail was very crowded and we did alot of sitting and waiting. An all jeep poker rally was in front of us, one jeep even ran out of gas. We sat behind it for a while.
There are some other pics to be posted, one of them was HummBeebe on three wheels!!!
I'll post them in the photo section when I get them.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by FormerJeeper:
Glad you had fun.
Looks like it was pretty tame wheelin?
Did they eventually go do the rockier part as originally planned?

-C </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Former Jeeper

It sounds like you have had some good experience. You would be another great trail boss! The H2's are so different, it was difficult to follow them and "do what they did". There tracks are sooo much wider. We had to pick a totally different line. And, with our inexperience, we needed help.
They did not mind though, it was a little challenge because we all had to really think about it.
We came after 6 hours on the trail without a sctatch!!

COME AND PLAY!!

Oh I'll be coming and playing - don't worry
I want some more local H3 drivers so we can do simillar trails together.

I want to get a front locker, gears, 35s or 37s and a winch before I hit the serious stuff, but I will be hitting some milder trails as soon as I get the rock rails on (tomorrow).

BTW, there's nothing wrong with getting help.
A spotter is mandatory for people with little or no experience.

I'm thinking of hitting Swamp Lake soon if you are interested?

http://4x4trailhunters.com/trail.php?id=32

-C

Here's a picture of my XJ Cherokee on Swamp Lake in 1998...

http://www.off-road.com/jeep/cherokee/99/12_dec/gedxjar...es/xjarmor/colin.jpg

I had to perform a winch rescue on this trip when a guy in a FJ40 rolled it and we found him upside down.

-C

Here is my last Jeep, a TJ, just after I sold her and unmodified...

http://www.rubiconusa.com/showcase/getimage.asp?cvID=24&imgtype=image

-C

Looks like a blast.

Swamp Lake gets pretty hairy after Red Lake. I'm not sure if an H# can make it between the two boulders entering Red Lake.

If you can, blank out your plates.

Spotters aren't only necessary, they speed things along substantaily. I don't think I would have picked those lines in pic 3 and 4, without a spotter.

We are up for Swamp Lake!!!

Shall we exchange emails?

H.B., here are some pics, yeah I know it's the Jeep website. These are really good pics of the Swamp Lake trail.
http://jeepsunlimited.com/forums/showthread.php?t=664233&highlight=swamp

I've seen an old full size Cherokee go through Swamp Lake.
Admittedly the guy left lots of sheet metal behind and you could hear him cursing as he went down the trail in the dark, but he DID make it

An H3 should be fine...

-C

A full size? Ouch.

I am up for it if we can avoid damage. Like you said, deer valley is pretty tame. Do you all want to do something a little less to get used to the ability of the 3?

If you are confident I will happily follow.

I have to keep in mind, this rig did the Rubicon before it hit the market, so I'm not unsure about the truck, just the chick who is driving it

You have the right attitude. IF we can avoid damage. You are also not overconfident. That makes for a good wheeler.

Well, I don't want to put dings in my brand new rig anymore than you do

Seriously, as Tacocat mentions, this is a dangerous sport and over confidence or stupidity (like drinking on the trail) just leads to accidents.

My first trip on Swamp was with my XJ Cherokee which had 6" of lift and ARB lockers front and rear and a winch.
I needed all of this equipment, mainly due to my inexperience.

The second trip is when I had to winch over the guy in the FJ40 who had rolled and was sitting upside down on the trail. His wife had walked for miles to find our camp and her husband was still concussed when we found him.
The idiot had just bought a fully tricked out FJ40 and had no clue how to drive it.

He had driven Swamp Lake alone, with no CB, no extra water, no first aid kit and found himself upside down with cuts and bruises.
Lucky for him I decided to take every bit of recovery gear with me, including two snatch blocks for the winch. I needed both because of the tight nature of the trail I had to go up to the side of the hill, around a big boulder and down to his rig.

I need to get some stuff done to the rig before I'll go anywhere near a trail like Swamp.
Things like getting a CB fitted and some way to mount a Co2 bottle for airing back up my tires.
I'd like to have a winch too, but nobody is making a winch bumper for the H3 yet, although there were rumours of two in the pipe.

I'll get back to you...

-C

I have to say I love the pure geometry.....I also love puzzles, real life ones, this is really going to lead me in a whole new direction personally.

I grew up in the Supermodified/Sprint car dirt track racing world, I understand making assumptions will get your hurt or worse. So thanks for the observation Tacocat, you can wheel with me anytime.

I am going to look for a compressor as well, we did not use the snatch hooks or the straps, this time anyway. I took a look at the Swamp lake pics that tacocat posted.....skinny! Not sure if that is it, especially if there are no places to go around, eesh.

Great pics Humm, thanks for the report. Wish I could have made it. I'll definitely have to make the next trip. If you and FJ get a trip together I'd love to tag along.

Now let's see some more pics!

The rest of the pics will be posted on the http://www.norcalhummergroup.org We had at least 4 cameras so we are getting everyones photos together.

Keep checking the website!

And you are welcome to come along!

humbebe, i wish i had one of you crossing the first river. i thought this one was pretty good though

Here is one!




It's time to buck up little soldier

Sure looks like a great time. Keep the pics coming

Awesome!!!!! Can't wait to get my rocker panel, underbody and transfer case prot installed to join the fun.

Oh look!!! Another Nor Cal H3 owner!! Welcome.

Keep your eyes on the http://www.norcalhummergroup.org site and we will post the whole groups there!



It's time to buck up little soldier

Got my rockrails installed today.
Los Gatos Hummer hooked me up great!
They took the chrome side steps off and gave me a set of rock rails in return.
You can't get better service than that

-C

Hello Everyone! I'm new here so I’ll make a quick intro. I was actually in the process of buying a minivan when a co-worker pulled up Hummer.com and says, "You know, these H3's are the same price as that van your looking at". Well, long story short, I’m looking to purchase my H3 in about 60 days.

I'm actually in the Navy and once had an opportunity to drive a HMMWV 500 miles on the German Autobahn. It wasn't exactly a speed demon, we estimated the top speed was 75mph downhill, the speedometer stopped at 60 or 65 if I remember correctly. We were also loaded with equipment. I also remember climbing steep mountains and passing all the 18-wheelers like they were standing still.

Sorry for rambling on, I do have a question for HummBeebe: How well do you feel your stock tires performed, especially at the water crossings? I've read a few posts were people were saying the Bridgestone tires were not really off-road capable. If those were the stock tires in your pictures, they look plenty capable to me, I was would just like to hear your thoughts on them.

not to speak for humbebe, but i will anyway. for what we went through, those stock tires worked fine. i think the only issue with them would be if we hit some sticky mud, but even then they would probably be ok. (i've been buried with my old BFG M/T, so you never know)the river crossings were mostly gravel, so we werent' getting sucked down into it. I'm sure we'll get her talked into some 35" M/T down the road . . . . .

Jason_Navy
First and foremost, I want to thank you for your service to our Country.

As far as the stock 33's go they were fine for what we were doing. We also have to keep in mind that Bridgestone designed these tires especially for the H3 and that they made it thru the Rubicon on them.( I have the advebture package)

If shorterbus has his way, I will have some serious mud and snow tires before the year is over.
There are some pics posted on other threads where some H3's have put 35's on the stock rigs without lifting them and they seem to work ok.

I would pose the question: will the breakover angles be the same based on the fact that there is so much more tire filling up the wheel well?
Maybe one of the technical people on this site could answer that.

I'm jealous that you spent 500 miles in a HMMWV.

See you on the trail!


It's time to buck up little soldier

I may have missed it but I believe the largest tire put on an H3 at this point was a 34" which was really 33.8" if I recall correctly. There has been a lot of discussion about if 35s would even fit but I don't think anyone has tried. You could be the first

Here is a set of 35"tires on an H3:

http://elcova.com/groupee/forums/a/albumcomments/f/4871...871055631#8871055631

Tell me what you think, I think they look great!

It's time to buck up little soldier

I stand corrected HummBeebe

I had totally missed that thread. I think they look great. Do you want a more aggressive looking tire our just something taller?

Jason_Navy
I want to say thank you for your service to our Country also.

As far as 35s go, after talking to one of the H3 designers, they should be no problem at all if you turn up the front torsion bars so the truck sits level. The H3 was designed with 35s on it , but was backed off to 33s for tire chain clearance.

i wanted to sell humbebe my old 35's, but the rims won't fit. i think they'd look sweet on there, except the rims are chrome and i hate chrome. careful cranking on the torsion bars, the same thing can be done on H2s but when i cranked mine up the pass. side was about an inch lower than the drivers side. if you're going to crank them the whole way, you may want to think about lifting the back about an inch at the same time to maintain the rake angle from the factory. it's worth experimenting with and easy to do, but if it doesn't feel right driving it, it's not right.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by HummBeebe:
...I'm jealous that you spent 500 miles in a HMMWV.


</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

well, it was actually the second most uncomfortable ride I've ever experienced, It was incredible loud, and after a few hours of sitting on 2 inches of foam padding you start to hurt.

The first worst ride was in the back of a HMMWV personnel carrier going to the range. Nothing like sitting on a cold steel box, wearing a kevlar helmet and flak vest, with your only view to the outside world being a slit in the back flaps of the canvas cover.

I loved both experiences.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by HummerNewbie:
I stand corrected HummBeebe

I had totally missed that thread. I think they look great. Do you want a more aggressive looking tire our just something taller? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think something with just some serious grip. I do not think I would run them all the time. I'd probably just put them on before a weekend of rock killing .

I can just get a second set of wheels to put them on, keep them in the Garage.

It's time to buck up little soldier