18" wheels now what?
 

Well cr@p I sent the wife in today to have new duratracs installed and I have 18" wheels not 16" like I thought. I sure feel dumb for not looking myself, thought the wheels looked bigger with those 265's but didn't put 2 and 2 together.
Now I'm not a big fan of the large wheel 18's, the tire shop said he would install 275-70-18 for the same price, just not sure what they will look like few inches narrower than what i was expecting. I'm at a loss now I did all my research based on the 16" I liked the looks and performance. Can't believe i made such a dumb mistake. So is anyone wheeling the 18's? How about airing them down? Thanks

if you're set on 16" wheels you could always pick up a set of stock aluminum wheels for a few hundred bucks and paint them black if you do not like the grey, or you can pick up a decent set of aftermarket 16" wheels for 100-200 bucks a piece, then sell your 18s on eBay and recoup most if not all of the extra money spent.

Did you have them installed? If you didn't I would just buy some 16 inch wheels and get the tire you want. You will have better performance offroad and in my opinion on road also with smaller diameter wheels on an H3. Just my opinion though, but if you haven't had them installed and you want 16's then there are plenty of wheels to choose from and get the tire you want

Thanks Staggs It's not that I'm set on the 16's if I can make the 18's work for me. Not going to spend a lot of time in the rocks and sand but just wanting to get some input on the wheeling the 18's and with a good tire size. I would like to stay with the 33" diameter because I will tow with it on occasion. 275-70-18 looks like the tire size i will need to go with it I want the Duratrac. Guess I just answered my own question:). Anyone else driving on this size tire?

Not yet still in the decision making process, Personally like the Hummer wheels may buy some 16's and sell the 18's.

The rubber sidewall is where you get your cushion=more wheel less cushion. 18's has to feel like rolling on cement blocks. Not a good choice unless you are driving on nice smooth roads.

I run 18s on and offroad, but I run 295/70s for tires. I usually air down to 20psi, and because the tires are 10 ply most of the time you can't even tell that they are aired down. I would suggest my size or taller for offroading on 18s. I run 30-32psi on the road so that I get a decent ride. Mine still rides better than any other truck with similar sized tires.

Plain and simple - 275-70-18's are too narrow - and will look terrible on an H3

That was the answer to the $50,000 question. Thanks Bunger I am now looking up various aftermarket wheel and tire combos.

this is what mine looks like. I run XD SPY in a 18x8.5 wrapped with 295/70 Nitto Trail Grapplers

Can anyone help me
 

My 2007 H3 Hummer is having issues with the steering. I purchased the H3 from a dealership back in October of 2011. 22" crome rims were already installed on it. Until mid-January(13) everything was perfect. One of the tires went flat due to a crack in the wall of the tire. I had no other choice but to put one of the original tires and rims back on it. My very unintellegent self decided to keep driving it with the different sized rim and tire for about a month. The day that I was actually going to take the H3 to get the tire fixed, I encountered a problem when backing out of a parking stall. I turned my steering wheel to the right to back up and it felt as if the tire may have been rubbing against something. I had some of my co-workers check it out and they all said that the tires where not rubbing on anything. I immediatley drove it to the closest maintenence shop to figure out what is going on. They fixed the tire and then told me that they do not do maintenence on 4x4's. They suggested that there may be a technical issue in the vehicles computer system or it could be a drive shaft issue. Here are some exra details that may help you in figuring out what the problem may be. When driving straight, there seems to be no friction occuring. When I go to turn, it seems to tighten and almost makes the front end of the vehicle hop or skip. One of my co-workers checked the power steering fluid and it was a little low. He said that I could have a leak in the power steering lines and they could possibly contain some air. I obivsouly have no idea what it could be. Please feel free to ask me any questions about the situation to help you find an awnser. Thank you for your time.

Looks nice, I decided to buy 5-16" H3 wheels off of eBay should have them this week, reason is I wanted the duratrac tire and they didn't come in 295/70 so I'll sell the 5- 18"ers and recoup my money and be on my way.
Just a small hiccup:D Thanks for all the help, everyone

295/70/18 Nittos
 

I have 295/70/18 Nitto Terra Grapplers on factory 18's.

I wanted the stance as close as I could get it to the 2006 H3x concept, which means a 35" tire that isn't obviously oversized and too wide. I love the way they look but the ride is pretty rough.

I found out after I'd bought them that they have a load rating of 4080 lbs!! That's WAY too much for an H3, even if it is an alpha. Even if you run them at 30 psi instead of their suggested 50psi (which I do) you still feel every bump in the road; their ride quality is honestly on par with the run-flat's I run on my 350z.

I would recommend the 325/65/18s if you want 35s and a smoother ride because they (oddly) have a load rating of 3200 lbs, which is what I had on my '07 H3 and it rode like an Escalade. A 275/65/18 would probably look good too if you wanted a 33".

Here are some pics. The first picture has the 295 in the front and 265 in the back (I was testing out plastidip on the spare).

Sorry OP, I just saw that you sold your 18s... thats too bad. I was going to say that the Nitto Trail Grapplers look alot like the duratracs and come in a 295/70/18... I really wanted to see what those would look like... oh well. Good luck!

No worries I like the stance of your truck, there is a lot of information on this site and I have tried to take it all in. At last I just decided to get the 16's. Thanks for the reply

I run the Trails in that size, and mine rides just like it did when stock. I carry a lot of extra weight, and I run 32psi and they barely squat with 250+lbs of extraction gear.

I put the 275/70/18 Duratrac's on my rig and they are awesome. Not too narrow at all, fill up the wheel well and stick out nicely. Here's a link to some pics from another forum.

Operation Blackout complete

http://http://www.hummer4x4offroad.c...ation+blackout