Hi, All. First time here, but I see that you are all a WEALTH of good information. Perhaps someone can help me with this:

I bought my new (used) '07 H2 a couple of months ago. It had a nice, smooth ride for a while and then over a week or so it seemed to get gradually worse in the whole rear end. I noticed that the compressor was running every 10 or 20 or 30 minutes for about 20 seconds. I talked to a few people and it seemed that the airbags leaking and needing to be pumped up periodically was the most likely answer, so I started looking into fixes, most likely swapping them out for springs. Before I made the purchase, however, I wanted to be sure, so I pumped them up to the "crawling over rocks" mode and drove for a while (under 40 mph) - the ride was quite a bit smoother - and let them sit overnight. NO LEAKS. I also noticed that when pumping up the bags to high mode, the compressor make a pretty constant pressurizing sound, but the sound that I heard before was more like a t-kshh... t-kshh... t-kshh sound for that 20 seconds. Here's the kicker. I finally was able to observe the behavior of the suspension when the "t-kshh" intermittent sound was happening, and it was actually LOWERING the truck a little bit. Very little, but still consequential, I'm guessing. So it seems like I'm riding on LESS suspension than I should be, thus causing the bad ride.

I'm not a car guy, but it seems logically correct. Thought? Possible answers?

 

That is completely NORMAL operation for the air ride for the 2007 H2

The air ride tries to level itself.
If you park, stop, or drive for long distances on a downslope, you will hear the deflation sound. Psssssst.
If you park uphill, you will hear the tish-tish sound of air being added to the system very slowly, in measured quantity.

There is a delay in this process of a few minutes, so that it does not occur as you momentarily change slope while driving, and doors have to be closed and engine ON. You will notice the various sounds most when you are stuck in heavy traffic and just crawling along.

If your vehicle sags overnight, or more quickly, then you have a leak. You can check for leaks by raising the vehicle to highest height, and spraying soapy water on the air bags to look for leaks. Leaks will be in a microscopic bubbles, that look like foam on the air shock.

STRONGLY suggest you reroute the air ride air pickup from behind the RL tire. It picks up mud and will kill your air ride. And that is a $2K fix. Reroute the line by adding SMC tubing to just behind the gas filler neck. I have mine tied onto it. Access thru removal of filler neck plastic bucket.

 

What a super-informative answer. Thank you VERY much. So... rougher ride than I had a few months ago... just try new shocks?

 

If you have rear air ride, no shocks there. (Oops, of course there are shocks there. I was thinking coil springs. My bad. So I edited this )
If your front is bouncing up and down more than once, as you jump on the front bumper, then your front shocks should be replaced.
Ditto for your rear shocks, if those are bad. Or it is possible your front springs are sagged out (but I have never seen that on an H2, so that seems to be very rare, but hard to diagnose).

Otherwise, "rougher ride" usually caused by wrong type of tires on the vehicle, or wrong inflation pressure.
The more air, the rougher the ride. I keep mine at about 45psi with stock tires.
It is firmer ride than at the lower recommended tire pressure, but rolling resistance is less (better mileage), and tires last much longer (especially the front tires, which wear faster on the edges on the H2).

This differs from "sloppy steering", which is caused by wear on your steering linkage and upper/lower ball joints. Or "shakes or shudders" caused by bad tire balance or alignment. Sometimes people refer to that as rough ride.

 

Also before you gut the rear air ride, remember that H2's are (when in great condition) climbing in value and originality, factory options, etc makes collectible vehicles more desirable than ones that have been hacked up. The air ride is also superior if you are ever towing anything.

 

Suncore is selling a replacement kit cheap?

 

Hummers,

You are of course correct. There are rear shocks in the H2. I was thinking coil springs. Oops.

Thanks for catching that silly mistake. I have corrected my post.

That Suncore kit seems too cheap. I paid almost that much for one OEM airbag. Or one OEM shock. I would not trust that, or any other airbags off Amazon or eBay. It is a real hassle when one of those fails and the H2 is riding on the axles. (looks like one of those hydraulic lowriders, so I just slumped in my seat and hung an arm out the window, and cranked the beatz when it happened).

 

Bags or coils, still need shocks to control'em.
Yes, the Suncore kit is ridiculously cheap.

 

These sets: https://www.strutmasters.com/collections/hummer-h2-2007 seem... um... knowing that I'm in too deep... pretty reasonable. Thoughts?