Our old, loaded GMC Envoy came with factory Bilsteins and Michelin All-Season tires, it went down the road like a Caddy. This combination would likely do wonders for the H3 too but you would have to get past the look of highway tread tires on your truck.

 

The Michelins are a great riding tire. I've had them & the ride quality is the real deal. The H3 has destination LE2 tires it now & they ride pretty well, just not something that fits the look of the H3.

Like I've said before, having 6 of 8 bilsteins blow (2 on the front of end a truck, all 4 on a car, wtf); I'm not keen on the brand. All 6 had under 15k miles on any one shock, probably closer to 10k. Can't blame me for not wanting to go back to a brand that's failed twice on two different vehicles. The two on the truck were 5160s (I guess the current model is the 5165), front mounted.

I'm really leaning towards the ranchos at this point, due to some of the thing CarlosC said (lines up with my thinking right now). I can at least play with the them & see what the perfect ride is. After they go, if a firmer ride works, I can look into something like a fox shock or other racing shock since I've had good luck with those.

 

Our '09 H3 came with GM 18" accessory wheels mounted with Bridgestone tires. The ride is very good but performance in snow and mud is terrible. I'd much rather have the big Duratracs and poor ride from my old '06 because the performance was so good.

 

I ordered the Ranchos. I will see how these do & figure out what amount of firmness is correct. That's what sold me.

If these work out, but wear out, I might get fox to build a set of nitrogen shocks w/ a dial on the auxillery reservoir. Depends on pricing, obviously.


Thanks to everyone who commented. I appreciate the help.

 

I ordered the ranchos, finally & got them installed.

I'll have to play around with the settings. On setting 5 (right in the middle), they ride better than stock. I'll report back once I get the right settings down.

So far, so good.

 

Has anyone tried a rear heavy duty sway bar to go along with new shocks?
If anyone has, I am interested in the results for on road usage with stock ride height.

 

I need to see how they are on the firm setting still. 5 is better. I hope that 9 will make it much better.

This is going to be on my list, along with all the other hardware to connect it. I think my bushings are bad, along with the rubber in general. My H3 rides rough (much rougher than I expected as I feel everything in the road) & I get too much sway.

I'll be going with a hellwing (I don't think there's anything else that's aftermarket, right?), bushings and some new sway bar links.