I got my H3 because I always wanted a Hummer. I really had no plans to wheel it that much, because this was going to be our only car for the whole family. I have a heavily modified TJ, so I was very aware of how limited the H3 with it's IFS was going to be. I was so happy to get it and drive it every day. Then I joined the forums. Seeing other people pics of outing made me want to go offroading. The forums also taught me how weak the whole front end of the H3 was.
During my time in Cali, I did a lot of volunteer work down at US Marine Corps Base Camp Pendelton. I have an adopted brother that's stationed down there. I am the adopted one, because I lost my parents when I was a kid. She's been the best Mom ever. We would collect donations of toiletries and other goodies outside of Albertson's supermarkets. The items would then go to the barracks for the single Marines returning from combat. At least they would not return to a completely empty barrack. We wanted them to feel more welcome and to know that people cared about them. At Christmas we would collect toys for the kids with deployed parents. The "extra" toys we would keep for birthdays. We would also do car washes where people would donate whatever they felt like giving. That would go towards getting "goodies" for the troops out in the field, and to cover the shipping costs. We got companies like Garmin to donate GPS units. Coleman also donated field showers.
During those years, I would go to both the SHOT Show and SEMA for work. There I would see the Wounded Warrior stand and would always donate. One year they had a JK that was decked out and with a beautiful paint job. It attracted hordes of people to donate.
That gave me an idea to do something similar with my H3. I would use it to attract attention at all the fund raising events, and at the same time help out the WWP. I decided that I had to do a least a mild lift to make it more attractive. Originally I was just going to do a Rancho lift on 33s or 34s. I felt 35 and above was pushing it with the weakness of the front end. So I start looking around for a decent installer in the SoCal area. 4Wheel Parts was out of the question. They had let me down once on simple wheel/tire sale. Finally I was recommended that I get in touch with Off-Road Evolution in Fullerton.
Before I go any further I need to touch on some of my background so that you can get an idea of the contacts I have made over the years. I started driving when I was 10. My mother was a self taught rally racer from Italy. She married my Dad that was from Texas. They met in Naples, Italy where she was from. She taught me how to drive in one of here rally race cars. It was an Autobianchi Abarth. It was a tiny little car like the new Fiat 500, but on steroids. As the years went by, my biological brother got into racing, and eventually I did too. I didn't like it one bit. I enjoyed the driving, but hated the backstabbing environment. I got out. Shortly after, some of the companies that sponsored me asked me if I could do some test driving for them. I joined the automotive R&D world. During that time I got into the Mountain bike import/export business. I would sell very high end downhill MTB products to European countries, and bring European products to the US. I also got into racing. There I became friends with the European service and R&D team for Fox Shocks. We had a pickup truck that was for when we went to the World Cup races around Europe. I met a group of wheelers, and eventually started wheeling this pickup. It was miserable. It had a 2.5 liter 4 cylinder diesel engine with IFS. We had fun, but it was very frustrating. In that crowd there were people that had participated in or had gone to the selections of the
Camel Trophy. That year's selection was coming up, and one of the ex-participants started pushing me to go. At first I didn't want to. I had too much on my plate with the Automotive R&D, as well as the MTB World Cup. It turns out that the first weekend of the selections, I was free, so I went. I didn't expect to do well because the people that go to these selections are mega marathon runners/adventure racers. I made the first cut. There I realized that it wasn't important to be the best at anything, but to be decent all around. Made the second cut. Made the third, and eventually made it to the international selections. There, 80 people go, and 40 get selected to go to the final Camel Trophy. Out of the 80 people, I got third, and a seat in one of the Camel Trophy vehicles.
That year I went to the selections, 2 million 2 hundred thousand people present themselves in their respective countries. Making it made me realize my potential and that I could pretty much overcome any challenge I present myself to. The Camel Trophy I participated in was in 1998. The last year that 4x4 were used. It was a great adventure, but pretty pathetic as far as 4x4 was concerned. We had to participate in Land Rover Freelanders. :Frown: After the event, I yearned for more. More of what the old Camel Trophy was about. Getting lost in the jungle or some deserted spot and surviving. I hear that the Selections for the Rainforest Challenge in Malaysia was coming up. All we had was that miserable diesel pickup, but we went ahead and participated. We didn't do well in the selection against some super-prepared Toyotas, Land Rovers, and G-wagons, but we won the Team Spirit award for never giving up despite our sad truck. That gave us permission to participate, but we had find our own means to pay our way there. My partner suggested we approach the manufacturer of the pick-up, which already sponsored us for the MTB races, and ask them to help us out. I said why not. We have nothing to lose. They said yes. :d We got our plane tickets paid by a press company that would then do articles in various magazines. We barely made it out of the jungle alive, and the pickup was pretty much useless after the abuse we gave it.
That's my partner burned out after winching non-stop all day.
When I got back home, I decided I needed to get a real 4x4 and build it up right. The simplest and logical choice was a Jeep Wrangler. Plenty of parts and upgrades available. By then we had made a name for ourselves in the magazines. We kept running into the same Sponsors at these events, and making good connections. Namely with Warn and Master Pull. We also helped open doors for others like Dynatrac by helping them find overseas reps and getting into exporting. Things were pilling up. I eventually stopped competing. I was tight on money and my jobs were suffering. I went back into concentrating on work, and building up my financial stability. Whilst working for a automotive parts company, and I was asked to deliver some parts to an address in LaHabra, SoCal. Turns out it was the shop of Boyd Coddington of American Hot Rods. I delivered the parts and showed them how to install them. I then asked if I could stick around to watch one of the builds. They said sure. I started chatting with Duane. The bald guy that on the show that seemed to have a nasty attitude. Turns out he's a great guy. I asked them if they had ever done a build with an El Camino. Boyd gave me a funny look, so I left just in case I had over stepped my welcome. A week later one of my work partners tells me that Boyd Coddington had called and wanted to talk to me. I figured I had done something wrong, since he had given me that crazy look that day. It turns out he loved the El Camino idea I had told them about, and was asking if he could do it. I figured if they ever did do it, they would just go ahead, and not ask for my permission. On top of that they asked me if I wanted to be part of it!!!
Hell yeah. So we built it, and I even got to keep it after the show aired. :rocker:
After all of that, this is where it all comes together. When I approach ORE for them to install the Rancho kit, he says yeah, but that we should talk in a couple of weeks because he was off to the Ultimate Adventure. When he gets back, it seems that he was really thinking about it. He asks me if we wanted to do an SAS!. Knowing how much better and more reliable it was going to be than the OEM setup, I wanted to say yes. But, I also knew how expensive it was going to be. He then adds that since he wanted to make this a kit, and I was going to volunteer my vehicle, he would only charge me for parts, and at his cost. That sounded great, but still too expensive, and I was very worried about the electronics. Turns out Dynatrac was looking to make the first 100% electronically compatible axles. I would also get them at cost!!! Wow!!!! Was I dreaming?????? So I said yes. I would have been pretty stupid to say no. So that is where the ball started rolling.
