I have been a fan of the H1 for years.. currently I own a 2005 Hummer SUT.

It is a daily driver that rarely sees the dirt... usually just to and from work and normal every day errands. Occasionally however we have towed my daughters Trophy Kart in a small enclosed trailer.. doesn't really weight much and can easily be towed my my Tundra as well.

Here is the problem.

I am finishing up a class 6 style mini trophy truck... which I am thinking will weigh in at about 5,300lbs. The trailer I use weights in at about 2,000 - 2,100lbs. Which is obviously more than the towing capacity states.

I have thought of looking into a super duty... but I've never been a fan. I also prefer my smaller truck for every day driving. That being said I considered possibly selling the H2 SUT and getting an H1.

I started reading up on all of the people looking to tow and alot of negative feedback... so have kind of gotten turned off with the idea. Question is... (finally huh).. How bad is it really?

I wouldn't be towing very often... maybe 1 time every month or two. I would also mostly stay in Cali... so the slower speeds (if in fact 65) don't bother me, because of our trailering 55mph limits.

I obviously want to be realistic and not get into more headaches... any thoughts on this?

Also how is the gas mileage on an H1 compared to an H2? City & highway? I see many of you own both, so figured this would be the best place to ask

Thanks!

Rich

 

I have towed my fully loaded M101 trailer weighing maybe 3000# with a 6.5TD truck with no issues. I have towed an H1 on a 2000# trailer ( maybe 10,500# ) with an Alpha up and down the hills between here and Moab with no issues. A 6.5TD truck would have done it but you would have been going 30 mph up some of the inclines. I have strapped 8000# H1s off of trails with my 6.5TD. That is about all of the towing experience I have with them. I use my F350 diesel dually for the heavy duty towing.

Gas mileage towing was about 10.8mpg.

 

The Alpha is a little out of the range I'd be looking at spending... already got some off road toys that need finishing.

I was thinking of a 97 or so...

Still wondering how it would pull 7400lbs for small trips. Small trips meaning... about 3 hours driving, no major grades... pretty much all desert.

What about mpg... (non towing) how does you're H1 (non alpha) compare to you're H2 SUT... big difference?

Thanks for the reply!

 

Funny thing is I've towed 7000lbs easy with my H2 sut and other than the normal drag you'd expect.... wasn't horrible at all.

So it's been a little bit of a surprise to see what people have to say about the H1.

 

On flat terrain it would do ok, not great. H1s run a little hot so if you were towing in the desert with the AC on that might be an issue. Haven't towed enough with an H2 to really be able to compare them.

 

Thanks for the info.... what about normal gas mileage? Meaning, city or highway.

Big difference between you're H1 & H2?

 

We currently tow about a 6400 pound or so travel trailer with our 07 H2. When loaded with water and gear, it was a challenge to pull thru the mountains in Utah. I had one mountain that gave it hell and I'd be down to about 25mph to scale it. No big deal, just enjoy the scenery. I could have driven it harder, but that ran the trans and engine temps up and got scary, so I just learned to take it easy. I think a tranny cooler would be a must and life would probably be alot better.
We drove the truck and trailer overloaded (according to tow ratings) from Utah thru Vegas into Phoenix and finally to the panhandle of Florida this summer, and I don't want to do that again. The heat going across Nevada into Vegas was terrible and I had to spend a large part of the day going very slow to keep the temps down. Regardless, I ended up breaking a couple of the exhaust manifold bolts because the engine ran hot for so long. From what I can tell, H2 engines are hard on those bolts if they run hot. A really funny thing we learned that defies common sense is that we ran with the a/c off most of the day, then finally couldn't take it any more and turned it on--and the engine/trans temps didn't change ANY at all! That was weird.
As for gas mileage running that long trip, I could get about 150 to 180 miles on a tank before needing to fill up, with 180 stretching it as far as I could go.
Thinking about a programmer? Save your $400 and go buy something fun. I tried a programmer after we got the trailer and learned that you might get a little more power, but pay for it at the cost of, guess what? Hot engine/trans. I learned this driving to Moab, not only did it run hot, it gave the tranny some terrible shift characteristics. I put the stock tune on for the drive home, but ran Premium gas and guess what--that was the answer! I'd recommend towing using the good gas for better performance, our 2 loved it.
3HUMMER's is spot on with the H1's running hot. My understanding is that's it's a crappy engine block design, and no matter what you do to make it better, it's just going to run hot. Alot of the 1 guys have problems with heat, and I could imagine towing would just exaggerate that.
While having a 1 would be super cool, I'd stick with using your deuce to tow, unless you go D-Max.
Keep us posted......

 

Normal mileage in an H1 is 12-14 mpg.