That V8 tho...

[Duck Vader]

Almost sounds like a top gear episode. Lol.

[ChargerX3]

Guess you might be needing some new parts. It’s all part of off-roading.

[Jeff V.]

Interesting. Never paid for an event

This was a large private park, with catered food and gift bags and vendors and the whole nine yards.

Almost sounds like a top gear episode. Lol.

I wish. We need a couple friends who also have old, high mileage, non-Jeeps to play with. And shenanigans. There were no shenanigans.

[vr4]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]This was a large private park, with catered food and gift bags and vendors and the whole nine yards.



I wish. We need a couple friends who also have old, high mileage, non-Jeeps to play with. And shenanigans. There were no shenanigans. [/quote]

I have an old, high mileage, non jeep that I'll happily wheel.

But it's a bit of a commute

[vegasidol]

[quote=""Jeff V.""]We're gonna need it. It's been a complete and utter fiasco We were in the wrong experience group. We blew the roof airbags when we fell into a deep rut, 90 minutes into the day yesterday. Spent the rest of the day trying to get the seatbelts working again. Thought we might go back today and downgrade to the beginner group, but between my lack of courage and Vira's back, were heading home early.[/quote]

We have such mixed feelings on leaving early. I really wished we stayed and done more, but it was really the safer thing to do to leave early. My back was better by noon, but we had checked out of our hotel, and our truck was full.

We got the driver's belt fixed, but not the passenger belt. We could have wheeled like that, but it would have been awkward. We felt like we got our 'freebie' and were testing fate.


[quote=""ChargerX3""]Kudos for taking on the harder course. Those will teach you a lot more and quicker.[/quote]

It wasn't intentional. We signed up for 'Moderate' which was one above 'Mild'.

Check this map.

6 levels. If you sign up for 'Moderate' you would expect Mild through (maybe) Difficult. (1-4). When the VERY first trail you go on is a FIVE (we're told an 'easy' five), you think...hmm...maybe we are in the wrong group.

The trucks in our group were comparable, but our skill level was not. We definitely needed more spotting/guidance to do this properly. I'll share more pics in the next post.

[quote=""mjannusch""]Risky little hobby.[/quote]

We know that, we accept that. This little stint will cost us about $500. But at least we got home. I guess that's why so many people trailer their vehicle.

[quote=""Jeff V.""]And just like the very first event where we lost the leaf spring because I didn't check it, we blew the airbags because I didn't know to pull the damn fuse. What else don't I know?[/quote]

You don't know what you don't know...and now we do. You can't read every story out there before you take on something.

[quote=""tabasco122""]interesting. the lexus has a button to disable the rear side curtain airbags, i assume for this reason. sorry you had a bad time[/quote]

Oh, a button would have been nice...

[quote=""Duck Vader""]Almost sounds like a top gear episode. Lol.[/quote]

It feels a little that way...in so much that we were living an adventure rather than just watching it. It would be better with good friends and shenanigans.

[quote=""ChargerX3""]Guess you might be needing some new parts. It’s all part of off-roading.[/quote]



[quote=""Jeff V.""]T
I wish. We need a couple friends who also have old, high mileage, non-Jeeps to play with. And shenanigans. There were no shenanigans. [/quote]

Yeah, more friends would be make this more fun. We have one trail 'friend', which is (was?) a good start...

[vegasidol]

So...pics and more detail.





Boom! Well, that was a surprise... Jeff was at the wheel, crawling out of a rut. We had 5-6 other Jeeps ahead of us. It is reassuring watching others do the obstacle ahead of you. You see it can be done.

He started out of the rut, and then the truck stopped pulling. WTF? He changed gears, thinking we had lost the trans. Foot on gas, no go. Then he notices the tach didn't move. The engine died? More WTF?

He restarts and starts to move up the rut again...realizes he's rushing, and says to himself to be patient. We want to straddle the rut to stay on top. But he turns a little too much to the left. I realize that we won't have enough to stay up on the right, I know we are going to fall...and we do. From my POV, I believe I hear 'metal on rock' as we banged down. And within a fraction of a second...another large bang as the airbags went off. Loud, gunpowder. What just happened? Did we just roll on our side? I look out the window...the mirror is still there. W T H?

Jeff pauses for a moment. We hear the radio chirp and the guy behind us announce that the airbags in the Hummer just went off. Jeff realizes we are okay, the truck us still upright and running. He puts his foot on the gas and starts to crawl out of the ravine. it's only another 20-30 feet to make it up to flat ground.

We get out...look at the truck. No damage. Just SO confused. I look underneath, thinking I'd see where we hit underneath. Nothing.

The rest of the group gathers. Much chatter takes place as we 'are on show'. We assure everyone we are fine. (my shoulder actually hurt, but I didn't say anything). I think everyone was just as surprised as we are since this is not something Jeeps worry about.

Jeff assesses we have a problem with front belts being locked, and starts to cut away at the airbags and ties them up with zip ties.

We do a test drive around the area, truck is fine. We leave the group, park under a shade tree and start to dissemble the belts.

Long story short, learned a bit about how the belts work, and what NOT to take apart (retraction spring). Try to do the pass belt the same way, but a broken plastic bit falls out. The retraction mechanism is broken. No pass belt. I road home in the back.

I ended up cutting the rest of the airbags out as Jeff was finishing up the pass belt. At least it didn't look janky anymore...

(more in next post)

[vegasidol]

So, this is the level THREE (difficult) road we were traversing.
(Side Saddle, upper right corner of the map off the main ranch road)

We had just done this rut just fine.



This is the one that got us.



Note, photo is looking the opposite way we drove. So the driver's wheel was up on the large upper rut you see on the right, and the pass wheel fell down in the ditch.

We had done a 5, a couple 4s and a few 3s. I was already thinking this was 'more than I expected' and wanted to go down a level...but was also thinking our trail friend Caleb was up ahead in his Jeep Gladiator, with his wife and two kids...and I was being a chicken shit. But I was also thinking there is a fine line between a great adrenaline rush and fear. I wasn't enjoying the 'scary' parts (speaking purely for me).

I was really thinking about going down a level at the end of that trail...and then the airbags. Damnit.

Well, lots of reading on the way home show that Hummers had a problem with the side airbags. They would go off on flat roads with no impact. So hindsight shows that isn't too surprising. That angle was too much too quick. But Jeff and I actually have a good meme thought through for what the computer was thinking. I'll have to mock that up. lol

We now know, pull the fuse if we do this again.

IF we do this again. So conflicted.

[aaronatstate]

While that totally sucks, learn from your mistakes, pick your self up, and keep going.

Similar stuff to wrecking a car at the track.

If you need help with anything let me know. Only 3.5 hours away and you’ve done plenty for me over the years.

[Duck Vader]

Pretty much every time I went out I broke or bent something. Even broke parts on the Subaru already. Just like everything else you have to pay to play.

If you enjoy it, keep doing it. If not, save your money and spend it on other hobbies you enjoy.

[Jeff V.]

That's the problem. I'm not enjoying it. In the moment it's cool, but overall I'm not having fun. Not this rock crawling shit anyway. If I'm going to be putting myself and my truck at risk, I want a reward at the end. Some great view or experience. Not crawling around in circles in a midwest park.

Anyway, we had some beautiful weather today, and it's a lot easier to work on this thing outside, so I got the headliner and related stuff out and removed the remains of the blown bags.



Gonna get some used belts and airbags off ebay, and maybe see about one of those services that can reset the software on the control module. I'd rather buy a replacement module, but it was specific to the 09 H3. There aren't many out there, and the few that are, are pretty expensive. Great job making use of that deep parts bin, GM

The headliner actually isn't damaged all that badly, so I think I'm going to try to reuse it.

[aaronatstate]

Well that makes a difference for sure. I agree crawling around a Midwest park doesn’t sound all that fun, compared to say off roading in Colorado.

I think you can have the belts rebuilt too, but maybe used ones on eBay are cheaper.

[Duck Vader]

If not having fun, move on. Life is too short. I stopped having fun off roading so got rid of all the heeps. I use the Subaru to get to places I wouldn't take a 2wd vehicle to in order to get out and enjoy nature. I don't off road it for fun. It's a tool to get me to where I have fun.

That said I'll see how much I enjoy using a side by side.

[Jeff V.]

I doubt I could get the belts rebuilt for much less than the used ones I have picked out.

Funny thing about them. The retractors were held together entirely with torx screws rather than spot welds or rivets. That's the only reason I was able to get the driver's side freed up in the parking lot. I unscrewed the assembly and removed the big ball bearings that lock it in place.





I tried to do the same to the passenger side, but something was screwed up in regular inertial locking mechanism. The one that locks the seatbelt under a sudden jolt. I couldn't get it locking reliably, so that's why Vira rode home in the back seat.

[vegasidol]

It has been nice to see what we CAN do, and that's what the park is for. Just to learn what your vehicle's ability is, and how to recover if you need to. We learned the H3 can do much more than we expected. It would be nice to go to some National Parks and see the less traveled areas. But I do find myself more tense than ecstatic when we are testing our limits.


And then this happened yesterday at our 'local' rock park south of KC...

https://www.wibw.com/2022/09/11/kc-man- ... nd-inside/

Our KC trail friend, Caleb, knew this guy and wheeled with him a half dozen times.

His name was Caleb too.

It's very sad/scary. It's poorly worded, but he died on trail 39 named "Drop Off". I went back to our map that recorded our last trip there. We went right by it, and could have easily tried this and made the same error. Kind of an awakening.

[DCIV]

I think you found out spot. I also think that if you get into something you know way more than you did before this. I think someone once told me, if you look at it as a learning then it has value. (That was jeff btw). Nothing says you have to keep going harder. You can take the smaller trails and enjoy the outside the way some of us can’t.

I’m just glad you all didn’t get any powder burns or anything.


Coop

[tabasco122]

sounds like you should be doing some overlanding instead of rock crawling lol, thats what i want to build the lexus for.

[Jeff V.]

Our friend was showing us a picture of an LX470 that went over on it's side at Kansas Rocks. We got distracted and I didn't get the full story of how it happened. I do know the guy drove it out once they got it upright. But it wasn't pretty any more.

[alienviking]

Yeah I think overlanding would be more my cup of tea.. but stuff like this scares me away from doing it to be honest. I don't have the mechanical skills or time hah.

[tabasco122]

LX is a big boy lol. the gx is big but doesnt feel big. has the same turning radius as the sti

[Jeff V.]

Airbags and seatbelts are on order. Still looking for a solution for the control module. I had the wrong part number initially. I was looking at the one for the H3T. The correct part fits 08 and 09 H3. That doesn't open up my options that much, but every little bit helps. It really makes me wonder why they changed everything in 2010 just to build a handful and then discontinue the brand entirely.

Priced out a set of KO2s, just to see what it would take to get into a more civilized tire. $1700 for a set of five. 315-75/R16. After rebate at Tire Rack. Ouch.

Remember how we said it stalled right before the airbag incident? The ECM had history codes for all four injector control circuits on the right bank of the engine. Very interesting.

I'm still trying to get my bootleg GM software working again so I can check the codes in the airbag and body modules.