Sooo I called the guys down at Predator about converting my H2

[HumminNBoatin']

Its not cheap lol. And its a TON of work. It's not just a motor swap. Its a full on drivetrain swap. And body lift.

When you do it there is a TON of electronics work and also the duramax has the allison trans. then you have the part time 4wd transfer case bolted ot that. Then you need custom drive shafts, custom crossmembers. Cooling system.. blah blah blah .... Its a big deal. FYI IIRC they used to chare $40K to do this.

[Intercooled]

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

[kalantar]

Originally Posted by Intercooled

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

Good points, 30k can buy me roughly another 100,000 miles on my H2. Yes the improved tow capabilities would be nice but only to a certain extent. Now that I think about it ,for 30k I can buy a pretty sick used lifted dually.

[kalantar]

Originally Posted by Intercooled

Orangecrush had his done just recently. I believe he is happy with his. I believe he was just getting 20 mpg. Following his thread and conversion it was a ton of work. 30k buys alot of gas. Not sure if its really worth it. I always think of a situtaion where if you got into an accident and the h2 was totaled what would you get for it. I'm sure you would be out your 30K pretty fast. Maybe you could have it appraised and be able to cover some of your loses. Its a big expense for what the truck is worth. If you really want it and youve got the dough, then go for it. I'm just thinking financials here. I'm sure you'll be happy with the final product. I always get concerned with delaing with a company that is far away if someting wasnt working right or adjusted properly, etc. Whats the warrenty with thier install? How about any issues that arrise during warrenty? What do you do? How does it get serviced? By who? Just thinking out loud.

Good points, 30k can buy me roughly another 100,000 miles on my H2. Yes the improved tow capabilities would be nice but only to a certain extent. Now that I think about it ,for 30k I can buy a pretty sick used lifted dually.

[Indy]

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now

[Faustus100]

That sounds like a lot of work! But whats the turn around time.I believe Orange Crush had to wait for months!

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by Faustus100

That sounds like a lot of work! But whats the turn around time.I believe Orange Crush had to wait for months!

8 to be exact.

Mark

[Faustus100]

Originally Posted by OrangeCrush

8 to be exact.

Mark

But worth EVERY minute

[Waters]

Originally Posted by Indy

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now

Yeah, I'm running and intercooled MagnaCharger on my '03 and it runs great, enven with 40" tires.

[OrangeCrush]

Originally Posted by Indy

You can probably get a supercharger for a small fraction of that cost, and have $25k left over for gas. Don't forget, even a diesel engine requires fuel, so the difference might only be 8 or so mpg between the two. But a diesel would be nice. If they had offered one, that's what I would be driving now

The problem with the supercharger is it doesn?t supply enough power. Even with a supercharger, 38?s and 4.56 gears, I couldn?t leave my truck on cruise control and expect it to climb the least incline without dropping down a gear... not to mention getting 7-8 mpg on the highway.

God forbid I had to pull a 2-3K lb trailer, it was excruciating to maintain a 70mph run and I would easily get 5-6 mpg.

NOW, I can literally run 90 mph with a 4K lb trailer and pass uphill at will without dropping a gear.... all the while maintaining 17mpg.

I never did the conversion for gas mileage, I did it for the ability to drive down the highway at 85 without getting passed by every Pinto going up hill.

A supercharger works great on a stock tire sized H2 but the moment you put bigger tires on it (even with gears, it sucks) I?ve had two H2?s with liftkits, big tires and superchargers and they both were identical performance wise.

As of now, I?ve got about 7-8K miles on my conversion. Once I got the initial oddities fixed, I haven?t touched it. With my tuner on it, I?m pushing over 500 HP and over 900 ft. lbs of TQ.

The last trip I made to FL was over 1500 miles and at speeds on average of 84-88 mph (for the most part) I maintained 20.0 mpg round trip.

As far as getting it serviced, it?s as simple as taking it to a chevy dealer. Once you can get all the techs to stop checking it out, it acts and runs like an HD2500.

It was definitely a PIA to do. The actual installation wasn?t that hard, the wiring was HELL. Fortunately I didn?t have to do any of it.

My .02 worth....


Mark