trying to make one of the most capable 4x4 on the planet handle more like a car is like Dating a Transvestite...she may look good when your out for dinner, but when you get home you still got dik.

 

I think the H3 handles great!
But I'm comparing it to a TJ with a soft Anti-Rock Sway bar
The H3 feels very stable all the time and when pushed on mtn roads the full time 4x4 seems to pull the front end through the turn.Who cares if the tires squeal a bit.

 

On a tight turn the H3 drags it's door handles.[:'(] Not everyone buys an H3 to climb rocks.

 

Exactly. Just because a car is 4wd doesn't mean it has to drive poorly. Some 4wd vehicles drive very well on the street (which is where 99.5+ percent of all Hummer H3 miles are logged I'd bet). Disconectable swaybar end links and stiff aftermarket swaybarsare common in offroading. A friend of mine was the manager at a 4x4 shop and that was one of the first things he would do to his Jeeps. It allowed the vehicle to drive much better when on the road,..and by pulling out acouple of pins, also allow it to work much better off road. There's no rock piles or muddy roads that I have to drive down to get to work from my house (I live in a city), so I haven't bought any disconectable endlinks.

I don't understand howmaking a vehicle work well is anything like dating a transvestite. I should think making your vehicle work its' best for the type of driving you do would be more like dating a model,..and insisting it drive badly would be like settling for a fat chick.

 

umm...disconnecting the sway bar on a jeep is huge for good articulation offroad...won't do much in an h3 though...the IFS kills any chance of that. Some 4 wheel drive vehicles drive great on road...gimme a break!!! Sure, like a 4 wheel drive escalade, denali,and other POSER 4 wheel drives...again...you have a friggen hummer....trying to make it drive like a car on road is NOT WHAT IT WAS MADE FOR....from the head of GM/hummers mouth......the hummer line has been and always will be designed to lead the way in off road capability...... Why even buy one if all your going to do is change the trucks entire make-up to make it more like other pos fake 4x4's....JMO.

 

You're confusing the H3 with the H2. H3 are just psuedo H2's. We just have a stationwagon.

 

Because I needed a station wagon and wanted something that didn't look like a minivan. The H3 works fine for that purpose. It has a few flaws,...some of which were corrected by the '07 and '08 model year.

About every car you have ever seen was designed to have a larger rear bar than it ends up with in production. It's a result of how letigious our society is. Too many shady lawyers.

When some ding-bat gets in an accident,...the lawyers try to blame anyone they can,..especiallysomeone with deep pockets. So GM like every manufacturer, must take steps to protect themselves.

With a bigger rear bar,..the car will handle more neutrally, and have more overall grip. Evasive manuvres will be more successfull. However,...if someone that doesn't know how to drive makes too agressive a move with it,...it can tail slide and even spin out.

In a lawsuit,....ifthe ding-bat runs into another car because they couldn't avoid hitting them,...it would be impossible to proove that the avoiding manuvre would have been successfull if the car had a bigger bar.But it would be very easy to blame the manufacturer if the vehice spun out. So the manufacturers'legal team makes themuse really small rear bars and let their cars understeer massivly.

So the way I see it,...I'm just trying to make the car drive the way it should. No reason a 4wd car has to have massive understeer. Regardless of what it weighs or how knobby it's tires are. It's no less capable than it was before. It just drives better, is safer and more comfortable.

I don't have any areas that need compensating for,..so I don't need to jack my station wagon 6" up in the air and install swamper tires to feel good about myself. I also don't have any deep mud pits between my house and my business. If I'm going to have to drive it 8,000 miles a year,..I want it to drive as well as is reasonably possible. If I can do a couple small things and have it drive very nicely,...I'm going to do that. It's my choice. And if one of the other 99% of H3 owners that uses theirH3 asdaily transportation asks for advice on doing the same,....well, I'm happy to share.

It's fine with me that you think of your H3 as an offroadvehicle primarilly. Ienjoy looking at pictures of ones where people have tried to make them look as big and menacing as they can with brush guards, lift kits, roof racks, oversize tires, black spray-painted rims,etc. None of thatwill help mepick upsupplies from Sams Club of course,or make it ride better, so I don't do it,..but it fine for them.

No reason toget on my casefor modifying mine the way I like (I don't criticize the way you modify yours). If GM only sold H3's to people that offroaded them,...they'd only sell 1-5% as many. Then they'd have to sell them for $80,000 a copy. Then you wouldn't have one. So really,..it's the vast majority of street-only H3 drivers like myself that make it so cheap for you to have one. You're welcome.

 

I think you speak for many of us H3 owners Duck.[sm=smiley20.gif]

 

Well, let's see if your tires squeal around corners you might want to check yourTire Pressures, or go with a lower profile tire will get you better handling too. Swaybar is for Body roll the stock one is 25mm, anything larger is an improvement and will stiffen your ride, you could add a leaf to increase your stiffness more,SAMCO makes torsen bar upgrade. You could go with custom valved shocks as well. I noticethe old argument with why would you want to improve on perfection (Persay). Usually when you purchase your vehicle you take more than looks into consideration, but I might be wrong. Yes, its not aPorsch, but I don't take exit ramps at 70mph. I wonder if eibach makes springs for the H3? MLITI.

 

I do check my tires regularly with a dampned LongAcre tire guage. I keep a high pressurenitrogen tank around for tires. I've tried a few different pressures. The factory recomended 35 seems to work as well as any.

I found the front tires were feathering a bit on the outer edges (from moderate cornering) on the stock alignment. I dialed in a bit of negative camber in front. Thisnot only increased grip,..but tire life as well. Working out great.

Everything's a compromise. Those that off-road a lot want bigger diameter tires with more agressive tread, taller ride height, front lockers, stronger diffs etc,..and those that drive only on the street want more grip, ballanceand comfort. Hummer did a good job of finding a happy middle. Each of us can tweak that middle a bit to their own tastes.


I'd be all into better shocks and perhaps fiberglass rear leaf springs. They'd weigh a lot less, so they'd give a much better ride without compromising street or off-road handling. Better shocks are always good.

I'd love to do lower profile tires too. Like some 18" wheels with the Bridgestone h/L tires instead of the A/T's. Perhaps31" diameter.

But it all comes down to money. Mine is a lease,..so there's not a lot of money that I'm willing to dump into it. But for those that would like their H3 to drive much more competantly on the street,..the $150 rear sway bar, a $50 alignment with-1 degree ofneg camber,..and a 1" dropout back for about $25. wouldgo a long ways,..and doesn't cost much. Mine drives very nice now. I can't imagine it is any less capable offroad than it was stock,..and my freeway cloverleaf speed is up from 55 mph to 65. That represents analmost exponential increase in handling.

If more wheels were available 2 years ago,....I might have done that and then ebay'd them off when the lease is up. Discount Tire now has a good selection of nice rimspretty cheap,..but alas,..my lease is up in 8 months or so. Too late now.

If I lease another one I'd definately be up for it. A 2008 or 2009 I5 base,...bright orange. Order up that $149 swaybar,....install the rear drop kit I have installed on mine now (down 1.5" in the rear,..front at stock height probably). Then the 18" rims and some higher grip tires. It's be my urban assault vehicle. Kind of what the H3x was designed to be,....but better.