My newly lifted H3 - Page 2

Thanks guys for the compliments!

But It's down for the count again! -  I broke my passenger side CV joint while testing the flex. The funny thing was, the flex worked liked a champ, however I went too forward and my tires was jacked to the left and while reversing the CV joint cracked popping out my axle shaft!!

We ended up removing the shaft and I was able to drive it home in 4high only - in 'drive' it kept slipping.

Here's some pics:

Me nose down a steep hill with blind sides to my left and right:





The flex:




Then CRACK!!!




Here's us yanking out the shaft...





Safely made it home, axle shaft assembly will be in Friday, installing it Friday night and it's back on the trails on Saturday

I'm sure it's really a trip to be wheelin like that, but obviously a price to pay sometimes.  My H3 is mainly as a daily driver, with moderate off road planned, so I'm too scared to be that adventurous.  I've got an '92 Ford 4x4 beater that I play around in, but nothing like this.  Great pics, and good times.  Darn those cv shafts, raplaced a few in my day too.

yo bruddah, yoooooz nutz!!! Call me next time when you go off roadin'.... so I can watch from the side

The new look is meeeean, though! Great Job!!! Who installed the kit?

quote:

ORIGINAL: littlehummerboy

I'm sure it's really a trip to be wheelin like that, but obviously a price to pay sometimes.  My H3 is mainly as a daily driver, with moderate off road planned, so I'm too scared to be that adventurous.  I've got an '92 Ford 4x4 beater that I play around in, but nothing like this.  Great pics, and good times.  Darn those cv shafts, raplaced a few in my day too.

 
Yep after this I'm now in the market for a used vehicle to bust up on the trails. My axle assembly should be in on Friday, should be good to go by Sat.

quote:

ORIGINAL: naluboy

yo bruddah, yoooooz nutz!!! Call me next time when you go off roadin'.... so I can watch from the side

The new look is meeeean, though! Great Job!!! Who installed the kit?

 
Eric over there at 4 Wheel Parts Hawaii did the install.
 
I'm planning on adding 37's, but still debating, because that would be totally only for looks. 37's won't clear as much as those 35's I have on it now, the flex is nutz but may just be on paved road after this

awesome!

I had to get spacers because the control arm was so close to my wheel you couldn't even fit your pinky finger between the wheel and the control arm!! It was about 1/16 away from the wheel. This is due to the backspacing of my wheels - should've got less backspacing...

Not only did the wheel spacer help distance the tire from the control arm but it gave my H3 a wider beefier look. Here's the before and after pics:

Before - no lift, 16 x 8 with 35's, tbars cranked like crazy!




After - lift, 17 x 10 with 35's, 1 1/4 spacer:





Had my friend over at Goodyear install my spacers and torque it for me. No more worrying about the COG (Center of Gravity) due to the lift, the wider wheel base hugs the roads now

Looks good inked

Inked,  Luv your truck!
 
Want to do mine soon, but I am still wondering about warranty issues.  Do you or anyone else know if I can run your same tire and wheel setup for the Ranco Lift with only twisting up the TBars.  That way I can ease into it, like getting into a hot tub lol.

Really aggressive look!  I'll bet you get some big time mud splatter on the sides now though!

quote:

ORIGINAL: KeyzH3

Inked,  Luv your truck!

Want to do mine soon, but I am still wondering about warranty issues.  Do you or anyone else know if I can run your same tire and wheel setup for the Ranco Lift with only twisting up the TBars.  That way I can ease into it, like getting into a hot tub lol.

 
The 10's may stick out a bit but I had my 8's on there with 35's tbars cranked like crazy and the only problem I had was the tire rubbing on the sway arm on hard turns. I ran it that way for about 8 months, wheeled with it as well and nothing happened. I would try it, everyone here does it but I believe they stay with stock rims and just added 35's - 315 / 75R16

quote:

ORIGINAL: littlehummerboy

Really aggressive look!  I'll bet you get some big time mud splatter on the sides now though!

 
Yep splatter all over the place - I love it!

Im more of an h2 lover, than an H3... but that is a damn mighty fine rig.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Choco

Im more of an h2 lover, than an H3... but that is a damn mighty fine rig.

 
Wow thanks for the compliment! I'm about done with it for now, I'm still thinking about adding 37's

Inked,  does Rancho have a suggested size and backset for their lift?

quote:

ORIGINAL: KeyzH3

Inked,  does Rancho have a suggested size and backset for their lift?

 
Yes but it's wrong - Rancho recommends 4.5" BS on 16", 17", and 18" wheels. 5" BS on 20" & larger wheels. I have 17 and the 4.5 BS came too close this is why I had to add the spacers.
 
I think for 18 - 20 4.5 BS should be fine, but 16 and 17 will come so damn close you wouldn't even be able to put your pinky finger between the control arm and your tire.
 
 

Because of the tierod breaking and because FUC#ING GM is backed ordered until May on all their tie rods I decided to make this ride a "street" queen (for now). ...Oh yeah forgot to mention I broke my tierod on the trails a few weeks ago, here's some pics:





Me stuck on the mountain for a few hours..


I had one of my buddies run down the mountain and took it to another buddy who welded the tierod...after a few hours they came back and we slapped it back in and went back down the hill in reverse!! The trail is not a cruuiser either, we didn't name it "The Initiator" for nothing ;)


...


Once my tie rod comes in, we will fab out a more heavy duty rod by cutting the ends and welding it onto a thicker rod - not sure if this would really help being that the rod snapped on the thread going into the outer tie rod - we may also weld a pipe over both the outer and inner tierod.

I am driving it though, since my right is welded I aligned my left to the right to spare the life of my tires, my steering wheel is off but at least my tires are straight.

Also, because of the soft springs that comes with the RANCHO lift the rear began to sag, it got about an 1 1/2 lower than the front and looked ridiculous. We replaced the stock shacle with a YJ shackle and brought the back up about 1 3/4 higher.

Here's some pics of the shackles:


Here's a pic from the rear, you can see how the rear is now even with the front:


Since this is just a street ride now I went bigger on my tires adding Super Swampers IROK's 36 x 13.50's for a more aggressive look!






I wouldn't recommend having this setup on extreme trails though, this is all for "looks"! I am in the market for a 'beater' that I can take on the trails but I still love my H3 - it's funny when I pull up next to an H2 and the driver actually has to look up rather than looking down at me, this ride definitely turns heads on the streets.

How much of your carnage would you say is from the lift/ bigger tires, and how much is from off road usage? I only have my torsion bars turned 2.5 turns compared to your lift, and I have stock sized tires on the stock rims, but a more aggrssive tread. I'm pretty sure my busted half shaft was from off road usage, but then it was the one that had a torn boot earlier, and it was that joint that failed. I foresaw the halfshafts as being a weak link when I bought it, the Hummvees have the same problem, and judging by the diameter of the tierod, that looks like a weak link as well. I bought my H3 with the intent to wheel it, so the breakage is expected, but it would be nice to know what the limitations are before I am broken somewhere without the tools or parts to fix it. Since you have broken both of these now, I am curious how your modifications have influanced these failures.

quote:

ORIGINAL: HummBob

WOW...Looks SWEET!!! I think you Scared my Princess!!!
LOL.....you make me laugh HummBob
 

I do like those tires ....nice job!!!

quote:

ORIGINAL: Linus Gump

How much of your carnage would you say is from the lift/ bigger tires, and how much is from off road usage? I only have my torsion bars turned 2.5 turns compared to your lift, and I have stock sized tires on the stock rims, but a more aggrssive tread. I'm pretty sure my busted half shaft was from off road usage, but then it was the one that had a torn boot earlier, and it was that joint that failed. I foresaw the halfshafts as being a weak link when I bought it, the Hummvees have the same problem, and judging by the diameter of the tierod, that looks like a weak link as well. I bought my H3 with the intent to wheel it, so the breakage is expected, but it would be nice to know what the limitations are before I am broken somewhere without the tools or parts to fix it. Since you have broken both of these now, I am curious how your modifications have influanced these failures.

The broken alternator and battery was due to mud damage, and the broken shock bushings was due to some rough riding - this was all stock.

The CV Shaft broke after I got the lift but heard of stories where H3's busted their shaft just turning on ice with no lift, or tbars cranked. Same goes with the tierod, heard of stories on other Hummer sites where the tierod snapped on both stock H3's and H2's.

So technically I can't blame the lift, although by just looking at it the large tires does max out the CV Shaft, and the tie rods do suck.
 
So who's to blame? I would say GM, should've built the suspension with the idea that there are some of us who bought it to wheel it HARD, brakage is a part of wheeling but those thin-ass tierods is nothing but bad engineering.