Building the perfect H3 Hummer

[Schwarttzy]

Hi,

I'm Eric Schwarz, I currently live in Marengo, IL and this is the build thread for my 2006 H3 Hummer with both the Luxury and Adventure Package. I purchased it back in October of 2011 with only 39,000 miles on the odometer and have been in love with it ever since. A while back I got into an argument with a guy that was making parts for the H3 Hummer, long story short, I now make parts for the H3 Hummer at affordable prices similar to what the Jeep market enjoys.

My eventual goal is to take the H3 Hummer to it's maximum potential without getting too wild with the customizations. Basically, using a hacksaw and not being able to move back to the factory specs are frowned upon. I hope to reaching what I think is stage one with these parts, most of which that I proudly make myself, early spring 2013.

1. Rock Sliders / Rocker Panel Protection
2. CB Radio
3. High Clearance Leaf Spring Mounts
4. Extend Shackles
5. Crank the torsion bars
6. Heavy Duty Skid Plates
7. a custom winch mount with a wireless warn winch I'm developing right now
8. Hi-Lift, CB Antenna, and single Jerry can mount for the rear door
9. 35 inch General Grabber Tires

That is all the parts that I have in stage 1 of building the perfect H3 Hummer. I have two more stages of building out the H3 Hummer to maximizing the potential it has without getting too crazy with modifying the Hummer. I don't want to spill all the beans yet because I would like to build up suspense, but I have to tell you that the factory cross-members are eventually going to disappear.

Well, no rush in posting everything yet so next time I'll organize my rock slider build and cover how an argument over price pushed me to develop my own Hummer parts.

 

[Bigunit]

Great start! :thumbup:

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapataint

 

[Happy Hummer]

Hey Swartz
Idk you were in Il. we live just accross the border in s.e. Wi. Id luv to see the rock rails in person some time.
Chris

 

[Schwarttzy]

Id luv to see the rock rails in person some time.

Not a problem. Where about in Wisconsin?

 

[Hans3T]

:corn:

Sent with Tapacrack

 

[06 H3]

Im interested to see this build.

 

[spillKill]

:corn: interested!

 

[ArtHummer]

I'm surprised that you still don't have your build thread with all the goodeys and toys you make for H3
:corn:

 

[Schwarttzy]

I'm not quite sure why I didn't started a build thread sooner too. I think I have been so busy, it just never occurred to me that I didn't have one.

 

[H32NV]

CI Front Diff. +1
Hutchinson Beadlocks +1

 

[Schwarttzy]

LOL, maybe on those parts but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Schwarttzy]

Continuing on with the story...

Around December 2011 I got in an argument which came down to me being upset about the prices of H3 Hummer Parts. I think that $1000 for Rock Sliders / Rock Rails is too much, let alone that the parts didn't come powder coated. Before this point I had no intentions of ever building parts for the Hummer. I just wanted to be happy with rock sliders, 35s, and Level front end with extended shackles because my last vehicle had taken over my life with the sheer amount of money I put into it. After getting upset at all the stuff I had to read on another Hummer forum, proving myself and to everyone became my mission that parts don't need to cost that much. Immediately after reading the content on the forum I cruised on down to my garage and laid underneath my Hummer just staring at it and how I would make these sliders. An hour later I had the basic idea and the following images show the development.


Note that my rock sliders are different from the ones I sell in one minor way. The 1.75” DOM Tubing runs the full length of the production rock sliders, unlike the ones bolted to my Hummer

That's my buddy in the photos

And a video, with me being very excited that I'm finally getting to test the rock sliders and prove that I did it.
[video=youtube;sWhinseO4S8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWhinseO4S8[/video]

 

[Schwarttzy]

This is a bit out of order for a perfect build but figure why not since I can't seem to find the photo's of me installing my CB Antena.

My brand new 315/75r16 General Grabber mounted and balanced a few days go.

Over all I'm very happy with my purchase of the General Grabber Tires and especially with the size. It transformed the look of the Hummer from the average soccer mom SUV over to an aggressive off-road Hummer. My H3 is still on a completely factory suspension and everything fits just fine under there. The wheels barely rub when I turn the steering wheel to full lock and consider the problem nonexistent. I happened to measured my Hummer before I got the wheels I measured 46.5 inches to the top of my fenders in the front and 48.5 in the back. After I got the new tires mounted and balanced it was 48.5 in the front and 50.5 in the rear. This surprised me that Hummer came up 2" inches over all, I was only expecting 1" to 1.5" since the 285/75r16 should be just short of true 33" inch tires. The road noise is far superior to other tires I have owned in the past definitely a huge benefit. I'm worried that the tires might wear fast because they are incredibly sticky, but I have no evidence to back this up. The lug depth is much deeper than I thought when looking at photo's and such that I have seen. I have noticed a power difference from the factory tires to the General Grabber, but it was expected and is not an issue for me since I don't expect an over size SUV to behave like a sports car.

 

[4speedfunk]

You're gonna need those Saturday!

 

[Schwarttzy]

:cheers: Looking forward to it.

 

[Pappibri]

Looking good Swartzzy:thumbs:

 

[JDstagg]

Schwarttzy,
Was looking today and I cant see much of an option to do the recessed winch between the frame rails. So I was wondering, have you made any headway with this design. I am going to look a little later tonight after the boys go to sleep. Also you were talking about doing the wireless Warn and it hit me. On our trucks in Afghanistan the guys at General Dynamics had wired the Warn M12000 to work inside the cab, so I thought I would pass along to you that it should be an easy install with an SPOD mounted inside somewhere. Just a thought. Oh on your sliders did you weld them to the chassis or are they bolt on? i was thinking of doing something like the Shrockworks design for the JK Unlimited's. Your thoughts??

 

[Schwarttzy]

Schwarttzy,
Was looking today and I cant see much of an option to do the recessed winch between the frame rails. So I was wondering, have you made any headway with this design. I am going to look a little later tonight after the boys go to sleep. Also you were talking about doing the wireless Warn and it hit me. On our trucks in Afghanistan the guys at General Dynamics had wired the Warn M12000 to work inside the cab, so I thought I would pass along to you that it should be an easy install with an SPOD mounted inside somewhere. Just a thought. Oh on your sliders did you weld them to the chassis or are they bolt on? i was thinking of doing something like the Shrockworks design for the JK Unlimited's. Your thoughts??

I'm putting the winch in between the front grill and radiator, right above the frame rail. The design is coming along, but this time around the part has to incredibly strong, which is why I'm taking my time with it. I had in cab controls that I hack and tapped, and it was nice but what I really want is to stand out side my Hummer and control the winch from a distance.

My rock sliders are just bolt on. My design is very similar to shrockworks, only I use stronger material.

 

[JDstagg]

Very cool!! I like that design for the rock rails. I think a winch I saw on Amazon had a wireless control. Recon 12K I think it was.

 

[Schwarttzy]

http://www.warn.com/truck/accessories/wireless_control.shtml

This is what I'm getting

 

[Schwarttzy]

Had some fun at Badlands Off-Road Park in Attica, Indiana.

[video=vimeo;66508160]http://vimeo.com/66508160[/video]

 

[Schwarttzy]

Got some new parts this week for the Hummer. Smittybilt 8000 lb. winch and Solid Axle Differential cover for the rear axle.

 

[Schwarttzy]

Protected my rear AAM 860 axle today with the GM corporate 10 bolt cover which went smooth besides needing some longer bolts and the ingenuity involved get the oil into the axle because of the sway-bars location. I also had to shave the bracket that hold my brake lines a bit with my grinder, but it work out perfectly.

 

[Tdavis]

Schwarttzy, did a torsion lift and added Bilstein 5100's today. Love the look of your sliders. Any way to reduce weight without sacrificing protection? Already lost mpg's after adding 305's and trying to add the least amount of weight as possible. My 08 Alpha is also my DD but want the best when I'm on the Colorado trails.

 

[Schwarttzy]

Any way to reduce weight without sacrificing protection?

I've been thinking about it a lot lately, but I keep coming up short handed. Most of the weight comes from the 5x2 square tubing at quarter inch thick used to provide nearly all the protection. I could try to find out if they have 3/16 thick square tubing in that size. As for the other parts I don't think there is much to gain from. I am looking into redesigning the mounting brackets so that the sliders are easier for me to make and in the process will use thinner metal. However doing it this way I feel the need to add the fourth mounting bracket which could possible make it a wash.

So I really don't think there is much we can do besides trying out shaving 1/16 off the 5x2 square tubing, which would be 25% reduction in the weight. I worry it will be possible to put small dents into the tubing, but it should hold just fine. Honestly, I want to try it now that you bring it up, however this is dependent on getting 5x2 square tubing 3/16 thick.