Fordyce Creek, California (Renamed: Hell's Halfacre)

[dochummer]

Great pics Rox! Love the new treads!

[RuggedH2]

Damn, bet you didn't plan on that whole adventure.

Very cool though. Everything I've seen posted about Fordyce always mentions the intense challenge of that trail (your pics back that up). Very gutsy of you three to go after it in basically stock Hummers. Good on ya!

Keep your heads up something good should be coming for the H3 front diff soon.

[HummBebe]

Unless they are giving me a new CI without having to pay a dime.....I'm not excited

[ROX]

Originally Posted by 03H3

Keep your heads up something good should be coming for the H3 front diff soon.

Usually I don't say too much about these issues, but as far as Hummer goes, they either want these vehicles to be capable at offroading, or they don't. If they want to pander to Hollywood street queens, fine. Just don't market any offroading capability. If they want it to go anywhere besides the dang grocery store, they need to pony up and fix these trucks so people aren't breaking things out in the middle of nowhere. They already sell Escalades and Yukons for people that don't do this type of wheeling. Shouldn't the Hummer stand up to the name and the image? Wasn't the H3 the answer to peoples concerns about an affordable, narrower, off road vehicle? I'm beginning to wonder...

[RuggedH2]

I agree with you all on this point. I'm not going to defend that front diff at all, too small, too weak. I believe it was a mistake to make that housing of aluminum, period.

GM is selling a lot of H3's. Many (most) are mall queens. What percentage of H3's do you think actually wheel? Of all those that do wheel, what percentage do you think wheel like Sewie and Bebe? (Moab, Rubicon, Fordyce, etc) I bet it's a damn small percentage of all H3's.

Not defending that diff at all. Just saying those trails are among the ones that break serious off road rigs. Hard-core trail by almost every-one's standards.

If the H3 got a bigger cast iron axle, that was lockable.....might even be able to put a lift on that wouldn't wreck the CV's. Now that would be getting somewhere.

If I was just getting back from that trip, I'm positive I would be hating on that front diff myself! Still, those pics are outstanding, and there are not many H2's and 3's out there that can say they have run Fordyce.

[HummBebe]

I run with built rigs all the time, the issue with built rigs is just that. They are built by folks in thier garages. I know guys in well bilt rigs who have run those trails without any breakage.

Really, with built rigs you break stuff cause you are either driving like an idiot, taking all the hard lines, or because you screwed up in the fabrication.

Fordyce wasn't that tough. The obstacles were tough, but the trail iself was fairly moderate.

Hell I led all the way to the second water crossing. It can't be tough.

[HummBebe]

IMHO, If I can run Fordyce in a mostly stock truck, like Rocks and Sewie, there really isn't much to improve on except that Damm Front Diff.

[Alan06SUT]

WOW! What a beautiful trail. Getting away, camping, offroading, and having that kind of scenery, all in the same trip, is what its all about.

Sorry to hear about the breakage.