Hi,

I am still waiting for my surplus miltary hummer to be delivered, but my research in the meantime and my background in engineering has led to a ridiculous amount of armchair planning about what I want to change in the vehicle...

a) Has anyone raised the vehicle body enough to be able to hollow out the center so that you are not messing with the drive train? I saw that predator has a strategy where they have raised this by 14 inches... i think thats a bit much, but allows for a lot of different options in terms of space within the vehicle.
- you would raise the body by about 6 inches, then cut + lower the center raised area by about 6 inches, setup a separate support strut and weld structure to be able to establish a level bench seat all the way for the back. The idea is to not lose so much space in the HMMWV.
- secondary question - has anyone done similar things in the front, but also moved the floor shifter to a column shifter and thereby allowed for a bench seat in the front too?
- Tertiary question - has anyone used a paddleshifter on the steering wheel in tandem with a column shifter?
c) For the dash, OBDLink MX+ and an application like Torque seem to allow for an IOS/Android digital gauge. Has anyone removed the existing dash and implemented a digital gauge which is a lot easier to manage?

 

I don’t think this is the right vehicle for you. 3” body lift creates lots of problems like gas tank and steering column, hoses and electrical connections. You won’t get any replies here because what you want to do is stupid and anyone that has a Hmmwv knows it. With your extensive engineering background you should be able to see that a bench seat would be great for midgets or dwarfs. What predator did was a mess if you look closely at it. It wasn’t all bad and I can see pushing the rear seats back for more leg room but to cut, Chanel and raise the body 6” or more is a real ****show! When you get yours home take a look underneath and see the support at the b-pillar that runs thru the body and is a structural member of the body. The H1 do not have this support and I don’t know what they did to solve the removal of it. The Hmmwv is a unique vehicle that is mostly mechanical and anything you add takes away from the purpose built vehicle it is. Good luck butchering your amazing vehicle

 

Kinda figured I was on the wrong track since I didnt see any responses. I have ordered the manuals so hopefully I will get a better sense of the structure and the load bearing. I will take your suggestion and pause the armchair theorizing. Looks like I have to rethink what I was thinking was within the art of the possible. I am still atleast 3 - 4 months away from taking possession of the vehicle so dont know how else to pass the time (ordered via Govplanet).

The goal is to tinker, not butcher. I get the sarcasm that you guys might have towards a newbie, but the reality is that your post atleast clarified why no one was responding... so I appreciate it.

 

You can download all the TM’s for free on Steel Soldier’s forum and they are just geared for military vehicles. They are completely different than the H-1 and very few people here will be able to help you compared to there. I would have said the same thing to a 10 year member in hopes of saving a very nice vehicle. You don’t paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa. I’m all for adding different seats and paint any color of choice but personally I draw the line at saw to the body and hacking into the wiring harness. I bought Chrysler Pacifica seat and after getting my vehicle and checking how they fit I wish I wouldn’t of gotten them because they can be bolted in but they don’t fit… I will probably get the high back seats recovered in front and buy 2 new ones for the rear. The seats I bought before I had my truck need probably 3” cut off the base so it would be closer to 18” like the stock seats that fit. Go check out steel soldiers and see what you think. They have stuff about getting insurance, because it’s a challenge.

 

They also have a EUC section so you can see real wait times for others. Mine was filled on may 19th and approved on August 5th.

 

very helpful. I didn’t know about steel soldiers. Thank you.