Weight is a big factor in offroad juatlike everything else (except top speed).

I would have suspected the 3.7 to do as well orbetter offroad than an Alpha. The 2 places an Alpha will shine are freeway passing and towing.

Of course,..my favorite offroad vehicle is a Suzuki Samurai. They go over or through just about everything. They lack the power to do serious up-hill stuff though,..but they're a great candidate for an engine swap.

I used to run one in the desert in Arizona and in Rockey Point Mexico. The only vehicle that could keep up was my buddies Samurai with 33" Mickeys on it and an axle flip. The one I drove was stock, had bald street tires and over 250,000 miles on it. But it was so light it hardly mattered. It would just bounce over stuff.

If I were to have added diff lockers, 32" mudders and another 20 hp and it would have been unstopable.

I used to see them with V8 swaps competing in the ultimate offroad challanges. They usually did very well.

Ideally GM would have figured out a way to trim 600 lbs off the H3,..instead of installing a bigger and even heavier engine. Aluminum extrusion frame anyone? (Quick trip into fantasy land there) LOL But I suppose the bigger engine will sell for more and is cheaper and easier to do. It's also the only way to get big towing numbers. Big towing numbers require a heavy car, heavy frame, big engine and strong trans.

 

As everyone is saying, driving skill is a big factor out there. Trust me, I've definitely been the idiot in the offroading group![&:][&:]

Here's me with my way-patient guide helping me up. Anyone else need help on that obstacle? Nooooo.

And yes, I could not see him or his hands at this time.


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in your defence alrock....tires play a HUGE role also....you have stock steet tires and by the looks of the picture you are not aired down at all. With a good set of MT's or with an all terrain tire aired down you would have crawled up that without spinning a tire!!

 

you are right importkiller. I want to beat these up a bit before I drop a grand on some new tires. At that time I also wasn't being aggressive enough. [/align]

 

What about removing or trimming the front bump stops to get more travel in front?

In most modern suspensions,..the bump stops are used as part of the suspension. They make contact with the suspension very early,...and act as a second or third spring rate.

If you look under the frontat stock ride height,.the bump stop is only about 1/4" from the lower control arm. (This incidently is one ofat least3 reasons that raising the front of the H3 to level the vehicle instead of dropping the rear hurts it's handling,...a raised CG anddramatically raisedfront roll axis are two others).


BUT,..if you've already jacked up the front,...you have already taken the bump stops out of play on the street (which will cause it to lean more in the turns),...so you might as well trim themto getmore travel for offroading.

 

no need to trim, just buy the super low profile bumpstops if it's important to you. Again, most people understand that a TRUCK will lean and roll in turns....you don't need to remind us how you lowered your hummer....reading it at least 20 times now is disgrace enough.

 

Interesting conversation!

Lots of you made some very valid points. Off road driving is a lot of art as well as luck. Here's my take on it.
[ol][*]Driver skill is by far the most important thing.[*]The right tires for the right off road situation. Don't take your Interco Swampers in the soft sand and leave your A/T's home for mud boggin'.[*]Choose the right RPM for the right application. See #1[*]Heavy trucks will do worse in mud than light ones when both are comparably equipped.[*]Lockers on both ends are more than just nice to havewhen then going gets tough.[*]I got my Dozer stuck, my Jeep CJ5 stuck, my H3 stuck and you will too if you drive it off road enough.[/ol]
"That's allI have to say 'bout that."

 

unfortunately though, driver skill is not as important now with the modern day 4x4....with all this traction control and automatic traction braking crap on rigs today the point and shoot method will make an average driver look great, where 10 years ago an average driver would of ended up a passenger. I was reading an article on the new land cruiser (I think it was the LC) anyway, there's a three position switch on the dash next to the 4x4 buttons. The switch has 3 settings, each one limits the speed to whatever you want for the situation your in, one is a crawl, then a little faster and a little faster yet. Just put the switch where you want it and mash the gas and the truck gets full torque but will not go above the speed setting your locked into...pretty soon a monkey will be able to wheel with the best of em...sad.

 

Well at least we won't have to pull as many of the monkey's out of the muck as we used to.

 

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