The Hummer H3T Was An Epic Off-Road Truck That Would Have Crushed It In 2023: Holy Grails

If you ask an enthusiast about the kind of pickup truck they want, you’ll often find a couple of camps. Some people want their truck to be small and efficient while others want a mid-sizer that can do it all. Off-road trucks are very much in vogue right now and mid-sizers are an alluring proposition. These are trucks that can fit down more trails and still perform a day’s work hauling toys and supporting your bottom line. Sure, you can buy something like a Jeep Gladiator or a GMC Canyon, but the ultimate mid-size truck may have been built between the 2009 and 2010 model years. The Hummer H3T was a muscular pickup available with chunky 33-inch tires, locking differentials, and either a straight five and a manual transmission or a powerful V8.

Last time on Holy Grails, reader David R reminded us that for just a blip of time, you could buy a svelte sporty wagon from Jaguar. Sold from just 2018 to 2020, the Jaguar XF S Sportbrake paired an aluminum 3.0-liter V6 making 380 HP and 332 lb-ft torque with an all-wheel-drive system and some truly incredible visuals. This was one of those wagons that enthusiasts dream about, yet fewer than 250 of those wagons ever found a home before being discontinued. As time marches forward, it seems these wagons are fading into the background.

Today’s grail is another vehicle that has faded into the pages of automotive history. It came from the tail end of a time when American excess meant colossal SUVs that were lucky to score double-digit fuel economy. We’re talking about the era of old General Motors when such marques like Pontiac and Saturn were still alive. Hummer was still around, too, and was selling variants of the H2 and H3 off-roaders. Today, we’ll be focusing on just one variant and it came and went so fast that you might have missed it.

Downsizing

This story takes us back to the year 2005. At this point in Hummer’s history, the company was a brand of General Motors. Back in 1998, General Motors purchased the brand from AM General, which had been producing a civilian version of the HMMWV military vehicle. The latter company would continue to produce the original Hummer at its Mishawaka, Indiana plant while General Motors would use the name and marketing rights to expand the line.

The first new vehicle to come out under GM control was the Hummer H2. This large, 6,400-pound SUV was based on a unique version of the GMT820 platform (a derivative of the GMT800 platform) wearing the front end of a three-quarter-ton K2500 Suburban and the rear end from a Tahoe. According to Motor Trend, some 40 percent of the H2 borrowed bits from the GM parts bin. The H2 was built in a partnership between GM and AM General and the SUV was assembled by AM General at Mishawaka.

Of course, the H2 also came at a time when Americans were becoming more conscious about the environment. The H2, which averaged about 12 mpg, found itself on the receiving end of scorn. Yet, the SUV sold well. In its first three years of sales, Hummer sold 82,288 H2s. As a response, General Motors wanted to broaden the appeal of the Hummer brand with a smaller, more affordable Hummer.

Launched in 2005 for the 2006 model year, the $29,500 Hummer H3 took the military chic looks of the $52,430 H2 and scaled them down into a more affordable SUV. The H3 was not developed or produced by AM General. Instead, it rode on the GMT345 platform, using its own version of the GMT355 platform that underpinned trucks like the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon.

The H3 wasn’t just a new body on a current truck; in 2005 it was reported that the H3 shared just 10 percent of its parts with the Colorado and Canyon. The vast majority of those shared parts were the engine and transmission. Another departure was production, as the H3 was assembled at GM’s Shreveport, Louisiana plant alongside the aforementioned trucks.

The H3 itself was a pretty noteworthy vehicle. You could have gotten your 4,700-pound H3 with a 3.5 liter straight-five making 220 HP and 225 lb-ft torque. Later, the engine would be bumped to 3.7-liters, 242 HP, and 242 lb-ft torque. That engine was paired with either an Aisin AR5 five-speed manual or a 4L60-E four-speed automatic. Equipping your H3 with its optional off-road package netted you 33-inch off-road tires, a rear-locking differential, and a high-ratio transfer case. Later H3s were available with front lockers, too! Check out that straight-five:

In 2008 the Hummer H3 Alpha was released. This locked you into an automatic transmission, but you got a 5.3 liter V8 making 300 HP and 320 lb-ft torque. Also better was the Hummer H3’s fuel economy. In 2008, the straight-five H3s got 18 mpg on the highway and 15 mpg combined. The V8 got 16 mpg and 14 mpg respectively, which was still better than the H2. This is all awesome, but it’s not the grail.

The Grail

Today’s grail was technically suggested by two people, David Tracy and reader Tyler P. Both suggested different versions of the same Hummer H3 variant and honestly, I think both of them are winners.

In 2008, Car and Driver reported that sales of Hummer’s heavy-drinking H2 was falling and even the cheaper H3 wasn’t drawing in a ton of buyers. Yet, Hummer was reporting all-time high global sales. The publication reported that Hummer’s staying power during high gas prices was thanks to sales in Africa, Australia, Japan, the Middle East, and the UK. In those regions, fuel was either cheap or the Hummer was still a novelty.

That year, the Hummer H3 Alpha was joined by two siblings, the Hummer H3T and H3T Alpha. These are two trucks in the same vein as the Jeep Gladiator today, but perhaps too early to be a hit. As Car and Driver notes, the H3T was essentially a H3 with a 22.3-inch wheelbase stretch. That longer wheelbase accommodates a composite bed and a larger second row, featuring a 60/40 folding bench seat and greater legroom.

The result is a truck that can seemingly do it all. That bed was five-feet-long and it had some real off-road chops. David Tracy once wrote about how great this truck was and I’ll just let him explain:

For one, it came with a 300 horsepower, 320 lb-ft 5.3-liter V8 engine, which is more cylinders than can be found in any mid-size truck today. It also had available front and rear lockers, bigger tires than anything in the segment sans the new Gladiator (which also has 33s), a 4:1 low-range in the transfer case, 4.10:1 axle ratios, and phenomenal approach and departure angles at 38.7 and 30.6, respectively (at a low 20.2, the breakover angle is about the same as the new Gladiator’s). Not to mention, the H3T with the optional 33s had over 10 inches of ground clearance, which bests everything but the new Jeep Gladiator.

The great thing was that the off-road hardware could be had on a number of different variants, including ones with the 242 horsepower, 242 lb-ft 3.7-liter five-cylinder motor. While you may wonder “Why would I opt for anything but the V8,” there is a simple answer: the five-cylinder came with a five-speed manual.

For reader Tyler P, the grail here is the V8:

I’d like to suggest a vehicle for the next holy grail, a Hummer H3T Alpha. H3Ts were only made for two years. They made around 2,738 and only a small number were Alphas. The Alphas had the 5.3 V8 vs the 3.7 I5 in the non-alpha. Good offroad hardware, not huge-huge, rare, etc.

Tyler P appears to be off on production numbers, but it’s not like this was a common vehicle. It’s been reported that just 5,680 H3Ts were built. It’s unclear how many of those were the Alpha, but one estimate claims 2,448 Alphas were produced. Really, it means that the H3T is rare anywhere.

The Hummer H3T launched for the 2009 model year soldiering on to 2010, just to get killed off with the rest of Hummer in May 2010. That’s just a short sliver of time and barely even long enough to show up on an enthusiast’s radar. They weren’t outrageously expensive new, either. As Consumer Guide notes, in 2009, the Hummer H3T was $30,750, which was actually cheaper than the $33,390 ask for the regular H3. The H3T Alpha commanded $36,015.

This idea had actually been rattling around Hummer for some time. Back in 2004, Hummer rolled into the Los Angeles International Auto Show with the Hummer H3T concept.

The concept truck was a compact two-door affair with a 113-inch wheelbase. Under the hood was a turbocharged version of the Colorado’s straight five and the bed featured a neat side door. The concept was developed with a collaboration with Nike where the latter designed seats with heating and cooling abilities like the brand’s shoes. Backpacks made up the seatbacks.

Of course, the neat tricks of the concept truck never made production, but the real deal is pretty faithful to the concept’s design. In the Hummer H3T Alpha, you could even tow 5,900 pounds and toss over 1,000 pounds in its bed. None of those numbers are too impressive, but I like to think about the whole package here. Reviews seem to suggest that the H3T was also pretty good when the going got tough, take this period review from Car and Driver:

Given the two extra feet between the axles and the subsequent reduction in minimum break-over angle from 22 to 19 degrees, we expected to hear a lot more scraping over the sharp rocks. But during each pass, we heard them only about as often as when the shorter, lighter H3 SUVs that Hummer brought traversed the same spots. At times, we appreciated the 320 pound-feet of torque of the H3T Alpha’s V-8 but found the 241 pound-feet of the base five-cylinder to be enough, at least at those speeds. Besides, the five-pot is the only one to be offered with a five-speed manual transmission (a four-speed automatic is optional; it’s standard on the Alpha), and we know many a die-hard off-roader who considers a manual transmission the only worthwhile solution. Thus equipped, the H3Tis actually pretty fun, since the unbelievable crawl ratio provided by the manual makes it remarkably tough to stall, even when traveling less than half-a-mile per hour. Furthermore, hill-start assist, which holds the brakes for two seconds after pedal release, comes standard on every H3T, and even off-road novices can appreciate how handy that feature is over this kind of terrain.

Really, the Hummer H3T sounds like a truck that would sell like crazy today. Unfortunately, GM’s timing couldn’t have been worse, making the H3T a rare gem. That said, not everything is going to be cheery. Remember, this is a late 2000s GM product, so you can expect the interior to be plastic-fantastic. Fuel economy also wasn’t great. To GM’s credit, turning the H3 into a pickup truck didn’t ruin the aforementioned fuel economy, but you’re still talking about a combined rating of 16 mpg combined for the straight-five and 14 mpg combined for the V8.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for one of these for sale, you will be disappointed. It’s easy to find them, but you can expect to pay around $30,000 and up. For that price, you’ll probably be better off with a different truck. Still, if you happen to own or buy one of these, you’re getting a rare beast and one that perhaps General Motors could have launched today with some success.

Do you know of or own a car worthy of being called a ‘holy grail’? Send me an email at mercedes@theautopian.com or drop it down in the comments!

(Photos: GM, unless otherwise noted.)

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