In reply to akylekoz :
That's a pretty decent price.
If it's coming out of the land of salt and snow, check the frame carefully. They are bad about rusting in half.
In reply to akylekoz :
That's a pretty decent price.
If it's coming out of the land of salt and snow, check the frame carefully. They are bad about rusting in half.
The color is hideous but it ticks most of the boxes.
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. It may be as simple as shock valveing and torsion bars.
A much delayed response to this, but I think they shared the frame with the zr2 of the era.
Holy E36 M3 light installed. It throws a lot of light down the road. I really like the one I installed on the XJ so I figured this needed one as well. Useful off-road, on those dark two lane roads through the middle of nowhere, and to remind the oblivious their brights are still on when a regular flash doesn't work.
In reply to mechanicalmeanderings :
This is what I have found about the frames.
Cool deep dive H3T info!
I really like these things.....pretty far ahead of their time, and yea, sucks that they got the axe so quick.
In reply to Toyman! :
I learned something today. Cool!
In regards to noise, does that lightbar negate the wind deflector?
I put a leveling kit on my dads first year H3. It was just the torsion bar keys. These things were really quite good offroad.
At the same time, I had a 2000 XJ with the 4.0 liter that felt snappy, and the five pot in the H3 felt sluggish. But the thing could drive through anything.
Here are some old photos of my dads H3:
iansane said:In regards to noise, does that lightbar negate the wind deflector?
It does some but I think the light bar is making noise instead of the roof rack. So far it hasn't been loud enough to bother me enough to figure out how to quiet it down.
In reply to RossD :
I have leveling keys for the truck but haven't made the time to install them. I also have a hidden winch mount and winch to install as well as the tow bar for dragging it behind my motorhome. All of that is on the list.
I did finally receive the bed drawer I ordered in January. I had one of the guys help me install it yesterday afternoon.
I bought the Truck Slide brand instead of the Bed Slide brand. This one is built for the Jeep Gladiator but it works well in the H3T as well. This is going to make the bed much more convenient.
Dneikirk said: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!
NO leave off all that and put a sheet of wax paper over the top and hear the wonderful noise it makes. Like putting wax paper over a comb and blowing on it
Awesome rig! I, too, lusted after an Alpha H3 (though i wanted the full SUV version) but they were too pricey.
Update time.
I had my first issue. For some reason, the security system wouldn't recognize the key. Naturally, this happened in the middle of the national forest. No cell coverage, 10 miles from the nearest pavement. It's apparently a common issue with the H3, H3T, and Colorado/Canyon from this era. After spending two hours with a meter, I figured out how to hot wire the starter and once I got it to spin over it started. Apparently, the security system just bypasses the start circuit, not the run circuit.
With that in mind, I decided to do away with the security and while I was at it I wanted to have it tuned. So some research was needed.
I ended up going with PCM of North Carolina. They claim a 10-15 hp bump, but most importantly they claim better shift times and firmness and throttle response. The two things GM really sucks at. So I called them up and ordered this.
They sent me a pretuned ECU and TCU. All I needed to do was swap them out and recalibrate the crank angle sensor.
30 minutes after opening the box, I have what drives like an entirely new truck. It no longer shifts like a recalcitrant teen. Upshifts are prompt and quick. Downshifts happen quickly and hold instead of a downshift followed by an immediate upshift. Throttle response is at least 50% better. While the HP isn't really that noticeable, the tune was worth every penny just from a drivability standpoint. The tune cost $209 and for an additional $240, I'm going to keep my old ECU and TCU.
Nice!
I have a tune on our WJ that added a little bit of power but mostly recalibrated the transmission. The improvement in driveability is fantastic, especially under a medium load climbing passes. It used to hold a high gear as long as possible and then drop a couple and aim for redline. Now it'll downshift early, keeping the engine right in the meat of the powerband. It's amazing what a difference it makes.
I hated the shifting on my 1st Gen Colorado from day one. Grabbing two gears when I wanted only one, upshifting in turns. Throttle hang. Also the key wore out enough by 125k miles that it didn't work in the doors but still started the truck.
I saw an H3T about an hour ago and it still looked modern especially from the rear. Actually got Maverick vibes (while in a Maverick).
In reply to Keith Tanner :
That is what the Hummer would do. It would drop 4-2 and immediately be at the redline so it would upshift. Worse, it would take it 2-3 seconds to figure that out. To add insult to injury, GM runs the line pressures and shift speeds so low and slow that it kind of slides into gear...eventually. I guess they are afraid that actually feeling a shift might scare someone.
At least now it feels like the engine is connected to the axles with something other than a wet noodle.
In reply to Toyman! :
$450 seems like a steal for the driveability improvements. I always wonder why OEMs used to leave leave so much on the table for things like this.
In reply to thatsnowinnebago :
Emissions and fuel economy targets come to mind. Also, drivetrain durability. None of these are priorities for the aftermarket tuners :)
The MSM Miata had all sorts of weird stuff going on in the tuning, and I think 95% of it was trying to meet emissions targets with an aging engine design that had just been turbocharged.
Throttle hang is programmed in to avoid pollution from suddenly going lean when you chop the throttle. I think a lot of the problems with the transmission tuning on these 4L60E (or whatever they were called at this point) equipped vehicles was trying to meet late 2000s/early 2010s fuel economy and emissions targets with only four speeds.
This weekend's plan was to do a Memorial Day ride with the Charleston Offroad FB Group. With that in mind I wanted to get the winch installed. The winch in question is an X Bull 13k pound 2-speed winch. I had very good luck with the XBull on the XJ so I figured I'd double down.
On the XJ, I built a winch bumper and installed the winch. This time I decided to install a hidden winch. What a pain in the ass that turned out to be.
Step one. Remove almost everything in front of the radiator support to install the mountain plate and winch. I managed to get it all apart without breaking any of the plastics. They were still surprisingly flexible after 15 years.
Step two. The bumper support and winch interfered so I had to cut the support for winch clearance. The Front of the truck went back together without too much trouble. Lots of fasteners and spring clips later and she was ready to roll. I do like the way it turned out.
I even had a chance to test it out yesterday dragging a Tacoma up a bank it slid down sideways. I'm pretty impressed with the winch. After pulling the Taco back up onto the road, I realized I had pulled it with the winch in the high-speed gear. Sorry, no pictures of that. I was running the recovery and setting up the winch and forgot to take any. The guy I pulled out has a YouTube channel so I'm sure he'll have a video up eventually.
It's definitely time to do something with the front suspension. The added 150 pounds to the front is noticeable and the front landed on the bumpstops fairly regularly yesterday. I have a set of keys to turn up the torsion bars. I'll get them installed at some point and see if that takes care of it. I'm probably also going to install a set of Fox shocks.
More to come.
I like the hidden aspect of that. Way less obtrusive than most.
iansane said:I like the hidden aspect of that. Way less obtrusive than most.
The truck is pretty shouty by itself. It didn't need any help to make it look angrier.
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