Automotive Forums

Roughing It?



Life with Jay Sanchez and his family can be confusing. Take their family vehicle, for example. It is a Hummer H1. Not only is it used to traverse the mundane streets and freeways of Fresno, California, it is used as a true off road vehicle. It has oversized 38-inch Swappers tires that Jay can deflate or inflate on command from the driver’s seat for extreme rock crawling and it includes a snorkel so that it can be driven under 5-feet of water. Jay’s kids use the rear tailgate as a platform to dive into lakes and Jay boosts that it almost flipped. “The rear tires were 4-feet off the ground free-spinning into a 2,000 foot crevice,” he said.

The topless vehicle has no exterior handles on the rear doors but has been fitted with a pop door mechanism on the interior that can’t be used when the vehicle is in motion but will pop open the doors when the vehicle is parked.

Of course, there are Bosh off road lights so that Jay can see what’s in front of him in the dead of night and there is also a GPS navigation system that can guide him back to civilization.

The vehicle is well protected too. There is a Clifford RSX3.5 two way security and remote start system that rolls up the windows, locks the doors and cuts the diesel fuel pump and starter and there is also a GPS tracking system which allows Jay to track his vehicle on the internet if it is stolen. He can cut off fuel to the engine via cellular phone, land phone, or computer over the internet. Moreover, if the vehicle is towed or tampered with, the system will call Jay’s cell phone and send him an e-mail. The security system also includes a back-up battery to assure that it is always powered and a proximity or microwave sensor that covers the interior.

What makes things so confusing is that this off-road vehicle is also an entertainment system on wheels. It is equipped with eight Sony monitors, two Sony DVD players, a Sony TV tuner with two video inputs so that a video camcorder can play through the system and a Sony Playstation 2. The interior has been re-constructed to permit more space and to create four listening and viewing zones -- the driver, the front seat passenger, and the rear seat passengers.

All the modifications to the vehicle and the design and construction of the entertainment system was the work of Jay Sanchez and his staff at J’s Alarm and Car Audio, Fresno, California.



...With Audio and Video for All

The standard elements of the Hummer H1 were gutted from the vehicle and everything was lined with Xtreme Dynamat to reduce road and engine noise. The center console was removed to create more space and the dash and front console were re-constructed out of fiberglass to accommodate much of the audio-video system including  the Sony CDX-M9900 head unit, a Sony DVX-11A in-dash DVD player, a second Sony MV-101 DVD player, a Sony 10-disc CD changer and a Sony monitor. The air conditioner controls were re-located so that both the driver and front seat passenger has access. Moreover, a fiberglass bridge was constructed and mounted over the windshield which holds two Sony 7-inch monitors and four Sony 6-1/2-inch midrange speakers and four tweeters. The front and rear door panels were re-constructed to hold one Sony 6-1/2-inch midrange speaker and tweeter with hyper red LED lights inside the custom made speaker pod with metal grilles to showcase the location. Under each back seat is one Sony 12-inch subwoofer in a sealed enclosure. The drivers fire down toward the floor which helps create low frequency in a convertible. For more deep bass, three Sony 8-inch subwoofers have also been included in a fiberglass enclosure on the rear center console which is molded to also showcase one of the Sony amps. There are three more Sony amplifiers that power the audio system that are hidden at the rear center console with the rest of the video system and batteries. There is one Sony XM-4060GPX four channel amplifier which plays the mids and highs in the front; two Sony XM-DS1300P5 mono amplifiers that work the 8-inch subwoofers and 12-inch subwoofers; and one Sony XM-2100GTX two channel amplifier that powers the mids and highs in the rear of the vehicle.

The front of the vehicle was developed into two different sound stages -- one for the driver and one for the passenger. This was necessary, said Jay, because the vehicle is so wide. Of course, the driver has full control of the system. But the passenger also has control. On the passenger side there is a separate volume control linked to the head unit and there is a Sony marine remote control that is used to control the volume of the speakers. And, finally there is a master bass control on the console for the rear subwoofers.

A Sony monitor is mounted to the passenger side of the dash and can be swiveled to face the driver, the passenger, the side passenger window or the front windshield. There is also a hidden camera that is hooked up wirelessly to a portable monitor which Jay takes with him away from the vehicle. This permits him to actually see if anyone enters the car when it is left unattended.

A Sony 7-inch monitor in the back of each of the front seat headrests offers video to the back seat passengers. Each of the back seat passengers has an infrared headphone so that they can hear the audio. Each headphone has its own channel so there is no crosstalking between headphones.

There are a total of eight video sources which can be played on each monitor independently. A preview of each source appears in a quarter (or quad splitter) of a monitor mounted on the bridge over the windshield. Jay or any other family member can select what video each zone gets using a wireless Sony remote control. The user of the control selects the video source and then the zone in which that source plays.

As well as the camera that provides security for the interior of the vehicle, there is a back up camera mounted to the back of the Hummer, a front view camera on the front bumper, and cameras under the carriage to show big boulders which may be under the Hummer.

A 600 watts AC inverter on the passenger side of the vehicle allows for the inclusion of outlets for the plug-in of a laptop computer and a cellular phone.

And there is one more surprise. In a sound off contest the audio system produced a sound pressure level (SPL) score of more than 132 dB. Almost unheard of if you remember that this Hummer does not have a top.

So is this Hummer H1 an entertainment vehicle or an off-road vehicle? Actually it’s two...two...two vehicles in one.