Grrr! I'm a manly truck. Grrr! Who knew Hummer built a smallish truck.

This one also isn't going to be a build or a project. This is more of an ownership record. 

I sold my XJ to my middle son a couple of months ago. It was a pretty good rig and I enjoyed building it. It had some shortcomings that were annoying me and I'm getting sick and tired of always working on my fun cars. It was time to move it on down the road. 

Unfortunately, that left me without a vehicle that could be flat towed behind the motorhome. For the last couple of months I've been looking at what is available. The requirements were; capable of being flat towed, true 4wd, SUV or truck, under 6k pounds, something I wouldn't hate, and something I could daily. 

So the wife and I discussed it. She didn't want a 4X4. Since she really likes the Touareg we decided that it would go to her and I would daily whatever we bought as a Toad. 

I looked at Wranglers but was scared of their reliability ratings. I looked at Grand Cherokees as well. They were tempting but I really like driving something different. I looked at Tahoes, Colorados, Silverados, and their GMC cousins. I considered an F150 like the work truck I had just bought but didn't want to daily something that big. I looked at the Ranger but they are currently having engine issues. 

One search pulled up the Hummer H3. Those looked pretty neat and different so I did some more digging. That brought me to the H3 Alpha and the H3 Adventure. Mmm, the V8 goodness was very tempting. The Adventure comes with all the off-road goodies. Locking diffs, 4:1 transfer case gears, 4:11 diff gears, 33" tires, and the skid plates to protect all of that. I had about settled on one of those when I came across the H3T. Man, that would be perfect. A trucklet about the size of the Ridgeline but a little more truck-like in every way. 

So I started looking. Finding a 15-year-old 4WD truck that isn't beaten to death is a little tough and they were only built for 2 years. There were only 2448 Alphas built. Figure fewer than half of those have the Adventure group and they are thin on the ground and bring big money. Trucks with 150k-250k were asking $30k. Too much for my cheap self. There were only 5680 H3T built in total and I'm pretty sure 75% of them were sold out west. 

After a good bit of searching, I found this one in Staunton VA. It's a 2009 H3T base with the Adventure group. It's in very good condition with only 90k on the clock. It's not the Alpha so it has the 3.7 Atlas I5 similar to my Colorados. It's not a drag truck, but the engine has enough power to get it down the road. Over all, I kind of like it. 

IIRC they're basically a Chevy Colorado with a puffed up body, no? 

Congrats! I've always thought those were super cool.

What the future will bring. 

I have already ordered a tow bar, base plate and wiring setup to tow it behind the RV. That will happen first. 

From there, I do have a few project that will happen. It's going to get a leveling kit to bring the front up to the same height as the back. The step rails will be going away in favor of a set of rock sliders. It will also get a hidden winch mount and probably a hard tonneau cover. That's about it though. I will update this as things change. 

More to come...

In reply to Mndsm :

I have read that there are some differences in the suspension and frame but I'm honestly not sure what those may be. It may be as simple as shock valveing and torsion bars. 

Toyman! said:

In reply to Mndsm :

I have read that there are some differences in the suspension and frame but I'm honestly not sure what those may be. 

 

Yeah there's a few frame/suspension differences in favor of the H3.  But otherwise very close.

I really like the truck! I'd love to snag one.  Been looking at some Atlas or v8 4x4 Colorados of that era lately for a DD (even though I already have a v8 swapped Colorado).  Speaking of which, if you do decide to LS swap this thing, which I think you should - head over to Current Performance and check out their catalog.  You can very easily drop in a gen IV LS with engine mounts and a tailor made wiring harness that lets you keep your gauges.  It really is an easy swap. 

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

That is a consideration for the future and was considered when I decided to buy one. 

Cliffs on 'Adventure group' ?

I've always liked these. But I think I just like all of GM's weird things.

It's not bad looking

The H3T always struck me as classic GM in the vein of , "now that we have it right...let's cancel it."

But, I also seem to remember that these retailed for significantly more than similar Colorado 

Mndsm said:

IIRC they're basically a Chevy Colorado with a puffed up body, no? 

correct, lots of carryover platform stuff there but other stuff is unique to hummer

Not sure I've ever seen the phrase "smallish" to describe an H3. But compared to modern trucks...

Definitely seems like they've depreciated hard enough to be a great light truck for the money. 

I completely forgot about the H3T... For a moment I was expecting an H2T type of micro-bed on the H3 SUV body, rather than a complete H3-look truck restyling.

John Welsh said:

The H3T always struck me as classic GM in the vein of , "now that we have it right...let's cancel it."

 

But, I also seem to remember that these retailed for significantly more than similar Colorado 

They came out in 2008 as 2009s and didn't survive GM's bailout when Hummer got the axe. 

MSRP was between $30k and $40k depending on options. The average sale price used is between $20k and $25k. I paid right at $20k including shipping. I thought that was fair enough considering the low miles and included options. The only Alpha I could find with the Adventure pack was $30k and more than I wanted to spend. 

At 100 miles in, I'm pretty impressed. It rides, drives, and handles much better than the F150 I bought a couple of weeks ago. Where the F150 could be pretty jittery on some road surfaces,  this feels very planted. I had initially planned to buy a set of Fox shocks for it but at this point what's on it works very well. I'll hold off on that for a while. 

Unfortunately, it doesn't have anywhere close to the power of the F150 or the Touareg. While the 3.7 is adequate, it's only that, adequate. 240 lb-ft of torque and 239 hp doesn't make for a quick truck. Especially when all of that power is above 4600 RPM. I did find a turbo kit for $1100 that's supposed to add 100 hp at 8psi of boost. I seriously doubt I'll go that route but you never can tell. 

 It has a Kenwood double din head unit in it with wireless Android Auto. It's a pretty good unit. Being able to get Maps and such on the screen is pretty handy. I may actually listen to music if connecting is that easy. I also may need to change a couple of speakers at some point. They sound borderline blown. 

Life was so much simpler before I learned of these things.

I'm about 5k into this little beast now. It may be one of the best vehicles I've ever owned. 

The handling is outstanding for a truck. It's comfortable and rides well. The engine is a little buzzy but willing. It is extremely capable off-road.

It also has the stiffest chassis I've ever experienced in a truck. Most trucks are floppy and it shows in their ride and handling. GM gave this truck a fully boxed frame and a couple of extra cross members than the Colorado received. Add to that the chassis-mounted steel skid plates under the engine, transmission, and transfer case and it makes for a very stiff chassis. That means the suspension works like it should and it shows. 

My only complaint is the fuel economy kind of sucks. Probably because of the weight and my lead foot. I've been averaging around 14 or so in traffic and only 16-17 on the highway. The brick shape, 4.56 axle ratios, and large tires don't help at all. 

I did add a hard fold tonneau cover and tailgate lock to it and have ordered a bed slide and hidden winch mount for the front. 

I'm also going to install a roof rack just because I like the versatility and look of them. My Gazelle tent also won't fit in the bed. I hope to get that installed this weekend.

My sons, grandkids, and I took a 400-mile off-road camping trip in it and the XJ. The truck performed flawlessly. 

More to come...

The roof rack was installed this past weekend. It was almost perfect. It covered the roof. It gives me a place to strap down stuff that doesn't need to be in the bed. It looked pretty decent. It was almost perfect except...

...for one minor detail. It sounded like there was a 747 taking off of the roof at any speed over 50. After 300 miles on Monday, it was either coming back off or I was going to figure out how to shut it the hell up. I thought about building a deflector and jumped online to see some examples. Well, it turns out you can buy them so that's what I did.

I ordered a generic deflector with the correct width, threw the directions away because it was designed cross-bars, not roof racks. With the help of a grinder, a drill, and some zip-screws, I installed it anyway. It works perfectly. With this on there, the rack is silent. It doesn't look too bad either. I love it when form and function collide. 

I've always thought these were cool and will probably own one some day. 

They only made 5600 of the H3Ts and the prices are staying fairly high. I keep looking at them and found the one I really wanted a couple of weeks ago.

2010, H3T, Alpha with the Adventure pack and under 100k. They only made about 2448 H3T Alphas. The asking price was $59k. The LS in the Alpha would be nice, but not at that price. 

Marketplace - 2009 Hummer H3T · Alpha Sport Utility Pickup 4D 5 ft | Facebook

In reply to OLDYLR :

Not an Adventure and it's a rust bucket. 

In reply to Toyman! :

In case your deflector ever breaks or you have another noisy roof rack, that's caused by the harmonics of the wind over the bars, like a harmonica. Wrap something like para cord around the front bar in a 1-2 inch spaced loop and enjoy the super cheap silence!

The H3's were cool. The H3T's even cooler! They are really hard to come by, too. 

Buddy of mine had a regular H3 with a manual trans! Talk about an oddity. I got to drive it once and I liked it way more than I should. Not sure if that happened on the H3T's. 

Good luck with it! 

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H3 Manual