The Chevrolet Colorado debuted in 2004 as a perfectly acceptable pickup truck. It could haul a load and get down a trail, but it was perhaps lacking something compared to more rugged, off-road capable vehicles. Only, there’s a way to upgrade it on the cheap if you know where to find the right parts.
Enter the Hummer H3—the smaller, lighter, less famous entry into the road-going Hummer lineup. Unlike earlier models, it was designed by GM instead of AM General, and just so happened to be built on a similar platform as the Chevy Colorado and its sibling, the GMC Canyon (here you can see the frame differences). While the H3 wasn’t as much of a mean military vehicle as the H1 models that came before, and it wasn’t as flashy as the H2, GM still saw to it that the baby Hummer could hack it in the rough stuff. Engineers granted it suspension and drivetrain components that gave it greater capability in tough off-road conditions compared to the more pedestrian Canyon and Colorado whose bones it shared.
And the similarities between the H3 and the mainline GM trucks did not go unnoticed. Eager owners soon discovered that the rugged Hummer parts could provide a bolt-on upgrade to their trucks, offering better off-road performance on the cheap.
Front End
The Hummer H3 first hit the market in 2005. It was designed to trade on the popularity of the Hummer look and name, while nevertheless being smaller and more affordable than the hefty H2 and the crude H1. It debuted with a 3.5-liter inline-five engine good for 220 horsepower, which was paired with a 5-speed manual or four-speed automatic transmission. It was built on a modified version of the GM355 platform that was the heart of the GMC Canyon and Chevy Colorado, which enabled it to slot in neatly to the production lines at GM’s Shreveport truck factory in Louisiana.
While it was a smaller, lighter-duty vehicle than the Hummers that came before, GM was eager to highlight its off-road prowess. The domestic automaker bragged that it was capable of fording 27 inches of water, while it could climb a 16-inch vertical wall and tackle steep grades up to 60%. Eager buyers could kit it out further with chunky 33-inch tires, differential lockers, and other upgrades to further improve its performance in tough conditions.
In contrast, the first-generation Chevrolet Colorado was not such a thoroughbred when it came to the rough stuff. Nor was its sibling, the somewhat upmarket GMC Canyon. GM did offer both two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive versions of its new mid-sized truck, as well as an off-road suspension option, but performance off the beaten track wasn’t really the key focus for the model. GM focused on marketing its truck’s blend of utility, on-road comfort, and decent 4×4 capability — with all sharing roughly equal weight. This wasn’t an off-road beast, but moderate off-roading was on its resume.
Naturally, Chevy Colorado owner interested in added capability looked towards the H3.
Forum posts speculated that perhaps the H3’s more rugged front suspension components (independent torsion bar-type, just like the Colorado’s) could potentially fit the more humble truck. Eventually, curiosity turned to experimentation, and the H3 swap was born.
The magic all comes down to the design of the front suspension. Compared to the Canyon, the Hummer H3 boasted a far wider stance with greater travel, thanks to longer upper and lower control arms. Canyon owners realized that by swapping these longer arms on to their trucks, they could get improved suspension articulation, making their vehicles far more capable off-road. The swap would provide other benefits, too, like the bigger brakes that came on the H3. The stock Colorado and Canyon were also infamous for having captive brakes, which meant yanking off the hub to change rotors. Swapping to H3 suspension would provide non-captive brakes and make maintenance far easier.
The H3 swap is primarily for 4×4 models of the Colorado and Canyon, since it’s all about improving off-road performance. To pull it off, you’ll want to grab the upper and lower control arms, along with the knuckles, hubs, brake rotors, calipers, brake hoses, and brackets — ideally off a junkyard truck or a parts vehicle.
Most swappers also tend to go with aftermarket shocks to suit the new setup; this can sometimes require making a little clearance by smacking the Canyon’s bump stop bracket with a hammer. You’ll also need the H3 halfshafts, tie rod ends, and sway bar. There’s also a smattering of bolts and supporting brackets you’ll want to grab to make the swap go smoothly, so it’s important to do your research. Pulling a complete front end off a single vehicle makes it easy to make sure you get all the bits you need.
It looks like the actual installation is relatively straightforward. The first step is to pull off the original Colorado suspension arms, hubs, and brakes, which can be done relatively quickly. From there, it’s just a matter of bolting on the replacement parts piece by piece.
Depending on your exact setup, you may need to make some additional minor tweaks. For example, as noted by YouTube channel Wrench & Chill, you’ll usually need to tap holes in the frame for one of the bolts for the H3 sway bar mounts, since they’re wider than the stock Colorado units. Alternatively, you can buy adapter plates off the shelf. You’ll also need to modify the wiring harness to allow the H3 ABS sensors to hook up to the Colorado harness. Both trucks used compatible sensors, but different connectors.
With everything bolted up, you just need a wheel alignment, and you’re done. The reward for your hard work? A wider stance up front, along with longer wheel travel and more articulation. It’s a win.
There are other bonuses, too. You’ll also have nicer 12.5-inch brakes up front as opposed to the 11-inch rotors that came stock on the Colorado, and chunkier 33-spline driveshafts as well. With the wheels sitting out farther from the wheel wells, you’ll likely find it easier to fit larger tires (which of course would fit out back, too, since those wheels don’t steer), which will net you some extra ride height. Add in a tweak to the torsion bars, and you might get a little more still!
[Ed Note: I’d be curious about the dynamics-implications of a significantly wider front track than rear. That said, based on what Lewin shows below, it looks like swapping in the H3’s wider rear axle is hardly a huge deal. -DT].
Something Different
The front suspension isn’t all the H3 had to give. As noted by off-road shop Badland Industries, you can do a lot more if you’ve got the time and money.
Perhaps most compelling was the fact that the Hummer H3 shipped with particularly interesting differential ratios. Inline-five models came with 4.56 gears, perfect for torquey, low-speed driving off-road. This is a big step up from the 3.73 gears commonly fitted to first-generation Colorado and Canyon models, and some even came with rudimentary locking differentials to boot!
Badland Industries provides a guide on how to swap a H3 rear axle into a first-generation Colorado.
Swapping out the rear axle in the Colorado for an H3 unit doesn’t just provide a better drive ratio for off-road use, it also comes with disc brakes, which are a nice upgrade over the standard rear drums. It’s also particularly desirable if you’ve done the front suspension swap, because it will make sure the rear matches the wider track width up front.
The swap does take some work beyond just bolting in the replacement axle. It can be necessary to tweak the exhaust routing to clear the H3 sway bar links, and you might find yourself having to weld up some sway bar mounts. It’s also typical to need a longer differential breather line to mount to the Colorado’s clips since the H3’s breather is located on the opposite side. You’ll also need to swap specific H3 e-brake cables to ensure the e-brake works correctly.
Swapping out the front diff takes some extra work but can be executed while swapping the front suspension.
Of course, if you’re changing your rear axle ratio, you’ll want to change the front to match. Thankfully, that’s readily possible as well, with the cast iron housing making the H3 front differential particularly attractive to modders.
The H3 front differential is unfortunately not a straight bolt-in swap. Forum posters note that it requires using a Colorado intermediate shaft extension tube with the H3 differential assembly to ensure everything assembles properly. It’s also sometimes necessary to clearance some parts to let the H3 diff fit under the Colorado front end, but it’s fairly minor according to forum posts on the matter.
Satisfying
The H3 swap is one of those glorious low-buck junkyard upgrades. If you’re savvy with the forums or have a great local junkyard, you can get most or all of what you need at cut prices. The rest you can purchase as off-the-shelf replacement parts since the majority of what you need is all OEM standard stuff. Shop around and you can pull this swap off for somewhere in the low four-figure range, alignment included.
There’s something compelling about swaps like these. Aftermarket parts are all well and good, but they seldom come cheap. OEM swaps like these can feel like you’re getting great performance for a steal, because you’re smart enough to figure out what bolts up with what. In any case, if you’ve got an old GMC Canyon or Chevy Colorado that needs to be just a little bit cooler and more capable, the H3 swap might be exactly what you’re looking for.
Image credits: Badland Industries via YouTube screenshot, Wrench & Chill via YouTube screenshot, GM
Single best result from an OEM parts swap? Mazda MPV wiper switch in to a Protege. It added adjustable intermittent instead of one speed intermittent and proved to be a huge quality of life improvement using $15 junk yard part.
But this, oem parts swapped in to other compatible models, is just the root of hot rodding. this is a modern version of true hot rodding. and its my favorite way to build a car.
I do love OEM parts swaps!!!
Have I been misunderstanding ‘splines?’
I always thought you can’t increase the spline count of the axles without also changing out what they connect to. I know you’re already swapping the hubs with this project so one side would be ok, but unless the front differential was made for the 33 spline axles then that would also need to be changed.
Also, almost every other part sourced for this project from a junked 20 year old gm would need to be rebuilt before I would ever rely on it. All bushings, ball joints, rebuild the calipers, new axles, new hubs, new rotors, DEFINITELY new brake hoses (Geezus, do not install junkyard brake hoses on anything). All need rebuild / replacement before install.
You’d be better off just ordering the parts you can from rockauto, which is probably everything but the spindle. From the looks of the parts pictured, that’s what these guys did.
If you weren’t aware, you can swap the entire first gen Nissan Titan suspension onto the second generation Nissan Frontier. Upper and lower control arms, axles, tire rod ends, and sway bar take you from a factory 4.5 inch travel to 8-9 inches of travel depending on coil over. Not only do you get more lift (4-6 inches depending on coil overs) wider stance (3 inches) and better travel, but you can swap the differential too. The rear axle is also swappable but the Pro 4x rear axle for the frontier is a Dana 44 with an electric locker. I love cheap long travel hacks fory truck ????
Same with the Xterra (since it is largely similar to the Frontier). It was a super common mod I saw on the forums when I had my Xterra.
I came across that in my research for this piece! Something I hope to cover in the near future.
Have you done this swap yourself?
I have a long history of stuff like this.
My Seville STS ended up with Buick Lucerne Super front brakes (nearly an inch larger in front, with dual pistons instead of single) with much more initial bite and feel and a Bonneville GXP strut tower bar.
My VW Cabriolet (which already had a 2.0 GTI engine swap before my dad bought it) ended up with Scirocco rear disc brakes that were a lot easier to modulate and for damn sure less prone to fade.
My C4 Corvette ended up with C5 Z06 rear wheels at all four corners, Cadillac ATS/C7 Brembos calipers on C6 Z51 rotors up front and C6 Sport seats (though I didn’t actually like these and changed them to the early 90s C4 Sport seats instead, I suspect it would have been trivial to get the C7 seats to fit as well) which basically transformed the braking from something that was adequate to being stopped by a drag chute. I also fit the early 90s fighter jet C4 dashboard and door panels to my interior to replace the much cheaper ones GM fitted starting in 1994.
My ATS was lousy with Camaro SS and ATS-V parts that I wasn’t sure if they would fit but they were cheap enough to try; making the car much flatter cornering and playful in the rear.
I just put an F-Type steering rack in my XKR last month (much faster ratio and heavier weighting) that has sharpened the handling significantly with no loss in feedback; and from what I’ve read the front and rear aluminum subframes of the F-Type also bolt right in (albeit not easily) and provide substantial increases in rigidity and weight loss at the extreme ends of the car.
I put the standard 997 gear linkage in my 996 for substantially tighter shift action with much more positive feel.
Especially if you have an older domestic car, a local pick and pull is a fantastic resource for this sort of thing with no risk. Take a day and try test fitting things between parts that are upgrades from later and/or more premium models and your car (or direct equivalent) that you can find in the yard.
My 2003 Jetta TDI has *gasp*, the 2004 models center console which includes cup holders.
I think that GM is pretty good about swapping parts. My lowly automatic V6 5th gen Camaro now has Cadillac ATS brembo brakes (around $100 new, from ZZP) up front, $50 used Brembo rear brakes from a forum member and a second hand LSD differential from a Camaro SS. All of those swaps were pretty easy and except for the differential I did it all myself in the driveway.
Those ATS front Brembos are basically ground zero for “putting Brembos on things cheap.” WRXs, BRZs, Fox Body/SN-95 Mustangs, C4/C5/C6 Corvettes.
GM’s parts bin design methods creates endless possibilities for anyone adventurous.
I’ll soon be swapping the 2 piston front brakes on my 2016 Silverado for the 4 piston brakes and larger rotors from the 2020+ trucks. It’s a cheap mod and only requires a couple washers to make it a straight swap.
Next people find out you can do a 2JZ swap in a BMW 3 series…
Not even remotely the same
As an added bonus, this probably still comes in a fair bit lighter than a stock H3 – where the Canyon/Colorado were more or less adequate with the stock I5, the H3 was a bit too… sturdy for that motor.
The “genius” and “Hummer” Venn diagram has very little overlap.
You can do the same thing with the 2nd gen Xterra (and the Frontier / Pathfinder built on the same frame), and swap the Titan suspension up front. It all bolts right up, as the frame is roughly the same between all of them. Even the M205 front diff out of the Titan is a bolt-in replacement for the M180.
I just wrote the same. Love how when you take the stock suspension off the titan it becomes long travel on the Frontier
If this is considered “genius,” the word has lost all meaning. It is about as genius as realizing that you can replace grape jelly with strawberry jam in a PB&J. It works and might be preferable for some folks, but would only be considered genius to people who think putting on a pair of Crocs is intellectually stimulating.
I would like to borrow that last line, I’m rolling lol
I once combined rice with sausage (both cold, mind you) and sprinkled some paprika over it thinking it was a genius move.
Then again, I was 9 years old.
What’s wrong with sausage and rice? That’s practically a paella.
All I remember was my dad saying something along “Oh, you and your ideas” so…he didn’t get it.
About the the phrase itself: can’t recall who exactly but someone from the staff defended the use saying “it just works as a tagline” .
The thing is, it gets repetitive over time. Irritating, even.
Maybe it’s just me…
“What am I gonna do with all this Paella!”
Would you have such a strong objection to this if it were describing a sports car swap, like the ATS Brembos others have described?
Just because this isn’t your niche of the auto world doesn’t diminish the efforts and challenges of finding shared platform parts that are easily swapped and increase performance.
This has nothing to do with the niche, and the swaps make complete sense. My objection is to the nonsensical use of the word “genius.”Anyone with a passing interest in these models universally recognizes that the H3 and Canyon/Colorado share platforms and many parts. Sure, there is some work involved in the slight modifications in some cases, but using the word “genius” is, ironically, idiotic.
I appreciate these sorts of upgrades, but end of day it’s still a Colorado, the most mediocre truck of its day.
The one bright spot was the 5.3L version, but I don’t know if that was available with 4wd.
it was.
Sadly, though, the 5.3 was not available in a 2wd regular-cab, 3-pedal Colorado/Canyon.
That would have been an amazing truck. Not everybody needs 4wd or a back seat.
bonus, the the 09 LH8 is all aluminum, makes 300HP and is VVT free. 2010 introduced the VVT, but not AFM thankfully in the LH9 but it makes them a bit less desirable. Also I imagine if you are looking for a solid donor Hummer, look for the Squiggly line button above the radio. if it has this locker button, 2008 and up, then it also has the rest of the adventure package which means a 4 to 1 Transfer case. It is still a Mercedes type full time FWD set up and I am not sure it can be adapted to the on demand stuff in the colorado, but itis certainly a strong ratio for offroading.
I miss these types of upgrades.
My ’96 V8 T-bird shipped from factory with rear drum brakes. A few years after I bought it used I swapped in a complete rear disc brake spindle assy from a wrecked Cougar and a new proportioning valve. Night and day difference.
I did the ’96 front brake upgrade to my ’94 5 Speed SHO. Larger ’96 and up rotors and new (junkyard) caliber brackets for more fade resistance.
My ’89 XJ was a ship of Thessus when I sold it.
As a fan of Subarus, I love the DIY element of swapping parts from other models. You want your WRX/Impreza to have a jacked up rally stance? Put Forester struts on it. They bolt up, and are easy and cheap to find.
Conversely, putting WRX struts on a Forester make for some low street cruising.
The rear sway bar from an STI can tighten up the other models nicely.
Steering racks are also swappable, as long as you have the right combo of hardlines.
There’s even an upgrade for the brakes that uses a Cadillac CTS-V assembly for “big” brakes.
Subaru’s are just large legos.
Fox and Panther bodies are as well. I’m finding parts swaps for Toyota currently.
Ooooh, may favorite Toyota swaps were back when I had a 1st gen Celica in the early 00’s. Since Toyota used pretty much the same stuff suspension-wise from the 70’s until about 1985, there were so many cool Supra goodies, and the wheels swapped, of course.
I love some of the lesser known Fox body cars that can be made into unique (and quick) drivers by swapping the ubiquitous Mustang go-fast parts in. My favorite may be the Lincoln Mark VII.
The Ford Fairmont wagon-Mustang
That is AWESOME. And this one has its own soundtrack LOL.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtnptxGeEI4
It’s something we never grow out of. 😉
If only Subaru had the build quality of Lego… in reality they are more like Mega Bloks.
Are you assuming the build quality of Subaru is less than… any American brand? Or any brand, really?
From my experience with Subarus (and every other type of car), it’s more about the way the owners treat them than the quality of the parts. Your mileage may vary (obviously).
Anyway, thanks for your input, it was really helpful!
I’m a maintenance engineer in my professional life. I personally would not rank Subaru’s super well based on my experience with them. Unless you consider regular wheel bearing failures “acceptable”
Wheel bearing failures? Regularly? Which years are you working on, out of curiosity?
Again, it sounds like a driver-related issue to me – I have a Subaru buddy who replaces wheel bearings due to failure more often than anyone should have to… but he rides super low on coilovers, and uses wheel spacers, which I would say is a recipe for premature bearing failure. Conversely, my 205K 2011 model has had no issues with wheel bearings at all (it has a slight drop, on Swift springs, with no spacers).
Of course, between the two of us, we are sample size of two (well, 4 or 5 if you consider all of our Subarus that we own).
He also prefers the pre-2006 models which apparently are more known for this issue, based on a very cursory Google search.
This issue, however, doesn’t really point to fantastically horrendous build quality issues across the entire line. As always, your mileage may vary.
Anyway, the chat topic was about swapping parts with other models… which is something that Subarus do quite well.
Both a 2018 Outback (mine) and 2019 Forester (wife). Stock suspension (minus replacement of worn out components). And again, I’m a freaking maintenance engineer; I’m well aware of user induced mechanical failures. These are not that.
The Outback has had all four wheel bearings replaced, both front axles, both lower ball joints, both sides of inner and outer tie-rod ends (though, one was only replaced because they were seized together and thus could no longer be adjusted), not to mention typical consumables like pads and rotors and a rear set of calipers (gotta replace them in pairs!). The infotainment screen has de-laminated so roughly half the touch screen doesn’t work, and Android Auto has never worked quite right regardless of the phone; Apple Car Play has always worked oddly enough. There was also a failed evap canister early on that was replaced under warranty.
The Forester has had two wheel bearings, a new thermo-control valve, and a ball joint. It also had a speaker fail just past warranty.
My sister-in-law also has a Crosstrek (2019?) and I think that thing has eaten two ball joints as well.
None of these cars are modified, offroaded or anything like that. They are just boring commuters.
And none of this even touches on the shitty engineering decisions like making a tailgate of such a tall vehicle (Outback) that doesn’t open far enough to allow a 5’10” person to walk under the latch portion without hitting their head, or a gas cap door that freezes shut multiple times a winter and then requires having to walk back to the gas-cap-release which is on the floor by the drivers seat, or a OEM trailer hitch that seemingly rusts up so bad you have to chisel it out to use it if you haven’t used it in more than a month…
What part of the country/world are you in, if you don’t mind my asking?
I have two third-gen Foresters (a 2010 and a 2011), and haven’t had even a fraction of the suspension issues you have had on your decade-newer vehicles… same goes for my brother’s family with their 2014 Outback, and their 2020 Acsent. It might be because I’m in non-coastal Texas. One one I have completely original suspension with the exception of sway bars. On the other one, I replaced tie rods, but only because I was installing an aftermarket roll center adjustment kit.
I’ve never had to replace calipers on any vehicle ever here… and we have a Kia with 270K miles on it which I almost would have expected that one.
I also wouldn’t have to deal with any parts of my car freezing shut on a regular basis, even in the middle of “winter (or what we get for winter here)”.
As for the low opening hatch, that’s a flaw that I could see would be frustrating (and also, not one I have experienced in the year ranges of Subarus I’ve been in contact with).
Rust is usually tied to your geographical region, and affects most cars in rust-prone areas in some way or another… not an issue here, but maybe it is where you are. It seems like that may be affecting your suspension bits.
At this point, it seems like most of your (exterior) issues could be attributed to environmental factors , rather than heavy or modified use, as you said they’re just commuters.
As for the infotainment system, I’ve never had a new enough Subaru to deal with the factory screen. I have replaced the head unit with a relatively inexpensive Android unit that does just fine for me (and I have somehow collected 5? 6? working factory head units from this generation in a box, LOL – I really need to clear some junk out).
Do you work for Subaru or something?
I live in the Northeast. Have my whole life. Loads of salt here. The Subaru’s have been worse than other vehicles I’ve owned, hence my complaints against them and not the weather.
Do I work for Subaru? Nope. In fact, the only time I go to a dealership is when I need a part that I can’t get somewhere else.
But rust is a thing in the NE. It affects literally EVERY type of car. That’s why I would never buy a car from that area.
It’s not a specific flaw with Subarus. I realize you want to crap on them, and that’s your right, I guess. But saying that they’re poorly made because parts rusted on yours that live on HEAVILY SALTED roads is not reality. Any car would have rust issues in your area.
A “maintenance engineer” would know that, right?
Anyway, the conversation was not originally about your issues with Subarus. It was about the DIY spirit of swapping parts between cars… which by your prevous replies to me, is not even something you’re interested in. So feel free to take your opinion to a more appropriate thread (you know, one for consumer reviews of car brands and their ability to hold up on salted Northeastern roads)… I’d be interested enough to read it there!
Have a better day.
A fellow CMRP?
XJ’s being legos is half the reason I have one, the other half is nostalgia.
Mine’s got WJ front discs, ZJ rear discs, WJ front seats with TJ 2 door tilt hinges, ZJ transfer case and gas tank skids, a minivan overhead console body, 2nd gen Durango diff cover for the 8.25 rear axle, Ford fuel injectors, and there’s plenty of other parts swaps I haven’t done.
That’s not including the 4wd swap I did with native XJ parts.
It wasn’t until I got to your reply that the XJ in Tbird’s post was not a Jaguar. 🙂
I love this – I had an ’06 F-150 STX that I discovered could be easily upgraded with parts from more expensive trims, as the wiring harness was already installed, sometimes just needed to add a fuse to the panel. I put on the side mirrors with the LED turn signals, and bam, they worked.
Now I’ve got a ’15 Nissan Frontier, and found you can add the front brakes from the ’10-’12 V8 Pathfinder and get a cheap OEM big brake kit.
Things like this just tickle my fancy.
Wait til you learn the Titan front suspension is a bolt on swap.
Oooooh I’ve got many a YouTube University video already saved in my ‘future dreams’ folder!
I love drop in upgrades for cars. It’s like when I found out I could have automatic headlights in my car by swapping out the switch. I have automatic climate control, so the sensor is there, and in less than a minute, I had a convenient upgrade. This is obviously more work but still really neat.
Holy Grail: find a rare 5.3 Colorado and do this swap
or just buy a v8 h3t.
that is even more of a holy grail.
Have you ever driven one? I had one as a rental car many years back. It was literally the only car I ever drove where I had to lean forward and tilt my head to see the overhead traffic lights.
How many H3s do we think are left sitting in junk yards with usable parts? Between the relatively low quantity of them that were made, age, and mid-late 00’s GM quality, there can’t be too many.
Not a lot, as the H3 wasn’t a huge seller. I’m no longer an active participant in the GMT355/360 community, but a decade ago people were offering finders fees if people could find a complete H3 in a junkyard because they were so tough to come by. I can’t imagine time has improved that, especially since H3s have become sought after and therefore less likely to end up being scrapped.
I may have missed something but the piece says most of this stuff is off the shelf which I took as you can buy them at a parts store.
I suspect most of this can be bought new and shipped to your garage.
I bet that isn’t very cheap, and you’ll probably find some critical part is no longer made as the H3 was low volume.
It is usually more of an issue with the Alpha V8 models since they had an iron front diff versus aluminum, and many of the engine parts are somewhat bespoke to fit int he engine bay.
I will say however, you can sometimes find most of this stuff for dirt cheap on Rockcrawler classified ad space. Straight axle swaps and Atlas T-Case upgrades on the few Alphas still out there is a real thing, just a pain to only partially do because of the Yaw controls and steering sensors interconnected with the ABS system.
Depends on where you are man. I live outside the DFW metroplex in the country and there are freaking Hummer’s everywhere out here. Mostly H2s.
I think this is actually a really good idea.
I’d swap in the T-case from an H3, since it’s basically a later iteration of the (underrated) NP242 case, but goes by a different name.
I’d also swap in the iron front diff, but going with wider track for the front, I think i’d skip that.
Too bad these trucks suffer from the dumb front axle spline issue, along with Trailblazers, Envoys, etc..
I very much dislike that wide-track look on pickups. Especially when someone doesn’t have fender extensions/mudflaps.
Every time I see one in traffic I tell whoever else is in the car that it looks like a roller skate.
“Mah truk haz girth”
I’ve seen a huge swell of poked, small wheels and Carolina squat on the same truck. I wonder if people do the mods one at a time and think “Yeah, it’s obviously worse just like I expected, but I think I could make it several times worse if we just do all the work at once.”
Every time I see one of these modified trucks/jeeps, have flashbacks to my high school days in a smaller southern town. The police back then had nothing else to do except harass high school kids and their vehicles. They would have had you for multiple equipment violations such as no fender extensions/mudflaps, bumpers too high, too dark window tint, loud exhaust, etc, etc.
Now the population has quadrupled, so they now have drugs/gangs to keep them busy.
I recall the local yocals pulling us over for partially obscured front license plates if you had a bra on your car. these days they just let the cars with 3 year old temp tags drive right on past.
Side note, the bolt pattern is the exact same as Nissan 6 lug smaller trucks. So you can at least get up tot he more standard 17 inch wheel sized used offroad these days.