I've spent a few hours surfing humm's on the web since buying mine, and i've come across a plethora of sites, and threads on message boards, with no apparent purpose beyond denegrading the offroad capabilities of the hummer(s)

people are out there "proving" that a jeep wrangler is superior to an H1 at bascially everything, talking about how H2s (that's what i got) are worse than a pickup truck, blah blah bleepity blah. Now, width limiting an H1 from going down a trail or 2 somewhere in the country, i can't buy that.

and i guess its hard for me to take it seriously, because the hummers just generate that kind of jealous hating (and on a grand scale)... but, i am an off-road novice and it really isn't something i can judge.

What's the word, folks?

 

with respect to this hummer-v-jeep thing... this might not be relevant to modern jeeps, but growing up we had an army surplus jeep for the utility truck on the farm for a while.

and it was a POS. it was awful, it couldn't drive through snow to save its life, and one of the greatest days of our collective lives was when our father got rid of that mess for a 4wd chevy pickup.

 

i don't think you can compare the H2 to a jeep. there are things that one can do and the other can't. short wheel base vs. long wheel base, 7000 lbs vs 2500 lbs, 5ft wide vs 6.5 ft wide. i think the majority of the die hard jeep fans simply haven't seen an H2 offroad, therefore they rag on it. the majority of H2 owners don't want to bang up a $60k vehicle, or even get it dirty. i got compliments from jeepers for taking mine off the pavement within a week of buying it, and that was AFTER 2 toyotas pulled my stuck a$$ out of the mud (the weight causes you to sink really quickly, and it doesn't respond like a 4runner). i wouldn't trade mine for a jeep, but i've thought about adding an old beater to the fleet. if i could add my old 4runner, i'd be happier than a pig in sh, er, mud (i love mud).

you can say it's jealousy, or envy, or someone with a lot of experience realizing what can't be done and focusing on that. i say let 'em talk, after all, that's all it is. if you want to really compare jeeps to hummers, the best argument would be for an H3, it's closest in size and weight. otherwise, it's all apples and oranges; both are tasty and have a place at the table.

 

Well said Shorty!

 

hey, thanks for the feedback. I can see the point, and i suspect that the H2 doesn't have all that much of an advantage over most pickups for most realistic off-roading situations. I base that on, while the Jeep my family had as i was growing up was bad, any 4wd full size truck never had an issue with any of the tasks the farm/ranch called for. In a way i wonder if the advantage of the humm is just being less damage-prone with the different approach angles (correct term?) and shielding underneath. My '05 silverado 2500 doesn't have much less ground clearance, and drives as high. The larger tires of teh h2 aren't necessarily a plus in all situations (snow with hard road reachable somewhere underneath comes to mind).

with respect to challenging-terrain capacity, and the (rare?) actual need for the same... the best car i've ever had on ice was a nissan Z with blizzak on all 4 wheels. that thing could accelerate fairly hard in conditions that would require 4wd of the silverado to even move. before teh blizzak it was so bad it routinely got stuck on the streetside or in a parking lot - and not in snow, just on frozen surfaces, couldn't move. After the tires, i've never had a car remotely like it. I suspect the h2 won't match that with its stock tires, either. but ice is ice, and zero traction on 4 wheels is about the same as zero traction on 2 wheels.

But whatever the case, i do hope to learn a bit about driving the humm in its designed role. I'm thinking about hitting the hummer course in indiana this summer...

G


PS: you said "you can say it's jealousy, or envy, or someone with a lot of experience realizing what can't be done and focusing on that", and i guess i base my shock value/jealousy/symbolism/wahtever on logic i offered in another thread yesterday morning: the commonly given reasons for hummer-hate don't hold water. The mileage? it's not that bad in the grand scheme. The grocery-getter suburban-mom picking up the kids? I checked for web sites devoted to hating souped-up sports cars, like my old 423hp (at the back wheels) '94 300zx, and there's nothing. How many times did i send that thing to its performance limits? probably twice. and it got about 13-15 aroudn town (-vs- 11.5 on the first tank in the h2). t-tops open crusing car is all it was to me, save the two times i took it to a track to run a 1/4 and all. and that's what those things do better than anything (i mean that), anyway - the 91+ 300's are the ultimate sports car for balance of speed, handling, and enjoyability-via-not-beating-you-up (IMO of course). I guess my logic (however simplistic) is just that if the reasons make no sense, there isn't a rational reason, then the reason behind the hat

 

My experience is that most hummer haters are that way out of a sence of self preservation. We tend to fear and loath what we cant have or dont understand. Most folks in America are just trying to get by. Pay thier credit card bill and put some food on the table. Most folks in America driving hummers H1 & H2 that is, have much more expendable income, not worried about the cost of gas, and usually have achieved some level of success. Not all mind you but most. As an aside I dont mention the H3 because I believe, though yet still a hummer, it is the entry level vehicle GM was looking for to grow the brand with the masses. Afordable to almost all. Anyway back to what I was saying. Most folks just cant make the strech mentaly from the 18K subaru they are driving to a 70K H2. It seems, and unfortunately is for most so far out of reach. So in order to justify thier situation, Hummers are stupid, they are a waste of money, they are self indulgent, they burn too much fuel, the take up too much space, they are driven by jerks. All these things run through thier mind and sometimes out of thier mouths in order to protect thier ego's. I feel sorry for them really. They have to tell themselvs lies everyday so they dont have to face the fact that they have settled in life and thier dreams for the most part are dead. Pay the credit card bill, eat, sleep, go to work, etc. This is true of everything in life outside the box. People are like crabs in a bucket. As long as you are doing just as well as everyone around you your accepted. Thats because you not a threat. The second you try to climb out of the crab bucket they are there to try and pull you down. It seems the grill of a Hummer in your rear view mirror on the way to your dead end job must be a threat.

On the point you make of the H2 being as good as most pickups off road. Ohhhh contraire mon fraire.... the transmission and diff package in the H2 along with the air suspension and the engine make it a superior off road machine. Its a little heavy for some things but all around its in a class all by its self. As far as the jeepers...... they hate hummers for the same reasons Ive listed above. For most of them, thier jeeps are thier daily drivers, just like my H2 is mine. Theyre off road every weekend at most, but more likely a handfull of times a year. So the grill of my H2, wich they couldnt afford, in the rearview mirror of thier wrangler on the way to work, really ticks them off.

anyway, glad to see my suspisions have been proved correct..... Put a Hummer hater behind the weel of a Hummer, and they arent a hater any more. funny how that works.

[IMG]local://upfiles/436/A7484B2E591A46F98D7BA0993AB0A6A6.jpg[/IMG]

 

i've had that experience 3 times (though i've only had my hands on my h2 for a few days). actually, in a way, i'm a walking example of that. i loathed these things 2 years ago. Then i drove one, now i own one... and its not for nothing that i bought an H2, i test drove 20 dang cars/SUV's on my way to picking this monster.

thanks for the thoughts, flexline

 

thats good to know. i got the air suspension as an option with the LUX H2. while i am, as i said, an off-road novice, i am fascinated by the possibilities and intend to scratch my paint at least once next summer.

i hope to have some eral fun with the offroad capacity of the H2, because while i'm not all that old, i'm way too old for hitting redline in my souped-up 300 just to prove that i'm an idiot. sports cars are out, off-road is in!

 

totally know what you mean. Im 6'2" 240. Most sports cars are just way to small for my liking. My wife has a yota 4runner and I dont even drive that anymore since my daughter told me I look like the dad from the incredibles when I drive moms truck.
[sm=smiley22.gif]

 

that's funny. [8D] pick the yota up & give it a toss to complete the deal.




rleated to the original intent of this thread - to ask about the H2s capacities (which are often slandered by the aforementioned jeep/haters, enviro/haters, hater/haters, and haters^3)

its interesting to note the following:

http://www.motorsport.com/news/artic...06412&FS=SCORE

http://www.samcofabrication.com/news...derson_05_.pdf