I have a friend who jsut got an H3 and I came over here to see what was on the internet about them.
I'm a Jeep guy, I own a 97 Cherokee, an 84 Scrambler and an 05 Rubicon Unlimited. I have no intention of starting a war, but I happened to see this and wanted to provide another point of view for you.
I agreee with the post above, comparing the H3 and the Rubicon overall is like comparing the Miata and the Corvette overall because they're both two-door cars. The H3 is a luxury SUV with offroad ability and the Rubicon is a rather utilitarian, offroad, removable-topped vehicle. (neither of those descriptions are meant to be disparaging)
Comparing the H3 to the GC overall is a better comparison... Jeep has yet to try to really deliver a solid offroad GC. I applaud any vehicle that has a locker from the factory, I think Jeep should do it in all of theirs as an option.
However, since the original question was regarding the offroad ability and not luxury, towing capacity, highway ride, etc. I thought that I had a great example of why Jeep people disparage the H2/3 in offroad situations...
H3 flex (stock I assume):
Rubicon Unlimited flex stock (and I didn't disconnect the swaybars, but that wouldn't really make that much more difference):
While simple flex is not the whole deal offroad, combine this with the facts that a Rubicon does have a 4:1 transfercase and two lockers... The 4:11 gears are indeed higher than an H3, but they're matched to the tire size (~31s) similarly to the 4.56 gears are to the 33s.
A BIG part of the issue is simplty attitude. People get in situations like the H3 pictured above and call themselves hardcore offroaders that can go anywhere a _____ can go (and no I'm not saying that is what that person claims, it's just an illustrative example).
If you didn't know, there's a very similar perception of Rubicon owners among other Jeep owners (CJ guys especially). Many buyers of Rubicons are doing it for the look/image and won't ever have their Jeep offroad and probably never in 4Lo... that's the thing that rubs people that really enjoy "hardcore" offroading the wrong way (no I'm not claiming my picture is hardcore). It's about knowing your vehicle, it's equipment for the task and your ability as a driver.
You can decide for yourself which one is more capable offroad in stock form in the hands of identically experienced drivers... I hope that another point of view helps some, I always like to look at both sides (which is why I came over here in the first place
).
Just to cover my bases, nothing in this post is meant to be confrontational or demeaning... I'm not a troll and I'm not trying to cause trouble.