I am new to this forum and hope to be able to gain some knowledge and insight from all of you who have owned your H3's for a while. I recently purchased a 2006 H3, auto, 3.5L, luxury package, offroad package. I had waited 4 years to be able to purchase one that had the options I wanted at a reasonalble price. Now that I have my black beauty, I really only have one issue that I want to try and resolve "if at all possible". I purchased it my out of my home state and brought it to my local Hummer dealer to have them go through it and give it a good go through. It only had a little over 19K on it. It had been hit in the drivers rear tire and bent the leaf pack and cocked the rearend forward on the drivers side. My dealer took care of this by replacing the leaf pack and measuring everything to make sure everything else was true, which it was. I also had them do a front end alignment and balance the wheels. My problem is that when I drive the thing down the road, the front end is all over the place when I hit bumps and groves in the road. I brought it back to the dealer and they went through it again and said that everything looks good and that this is normal. I had driven a new one a couple of years ago and do not remember it being this squirrely. Mine does have the offroad package with the 33" tires and beefier suspension, but I would not think that it would cause this much bounce and wandering. This is also my first 4x4 that has independant front suspension. Any help or idea's anyone may have on this subject would be great. Thank you.

 

Im new here to, and we got about the some rig, I have an 06 h3, with towing, off road, lux, black. about to put 35s on this weekend. As for the stearing, to me its like driving a freaking moving truck, but then again im use to jeeps and R&P assist sports cars.

Good luck.

KINGZ

 

The H3 has a good highway ride for an off-roader, that's one of it's strengths. We've owned ours for 3 years now and the only thing I've noted is that there can be some hop when pushing it through cloverleaf pot holes. That's about the only situation where the H3 really let's you know it's a truck.

You mentioned that you just had your front end aligned. Were your front tires unevenly worn? Maybe now that you're properly aligned, the wear patterns on your old tires are reacting strangely with the new alignment. Try a rotation or new tires in this case.

It could also be a simple as just overinflated tires.

Congrats on your new ride!

 

Well they said that the tires were a little bit feathered and they did rotate them for me. I have the tire preasure at the max amount due to the fact that I drive a good distance to and from work and want to get the best MPG that I can. Highway driving is not bad at all unless I hit a bump or grove in the road, then the front end is all over the place. I had a 1992 Cherokee with a 6 inch lift, 33 inch super swamper, locked front and rear, and ran it with no sway bars attached and it was not all over the place like this is. I can try to take some air out of the tires, but that will just take away from my mpg and the long jevity of the life of the tires. I will let you know if it make any difference.

 

You have something wrong. The H3 is a great handling 5000# vehicle.

33" tires and the offroad suspension pkg are irrelevant. The "beefier suspension" is simple firmer valved thicker piston shocks. Running 44-45 psi is not helping.

Sounds to me like a prior owner/the dealer adjusted the T Bars to raise the front level with the front, but went too far. Measure the distance from the front fender lip to the center of the hub..... the absolute max should be no more than 24.5", and actually anything over 24" is pushing it. When you are at or over 24.5", it starts to get like you have described and worse, even dangerous.

Forgot my manners....welcome to the forums!!!

 

That explains it. Take your tire pressure back down to the recommended level printed on the label stuck to the edge of your door and see what happens. If doesn't improve, you may want new tires.

If you're then still going after some more mileage, take the tire pressure back up 5 psi at the time until you find your best compromise of handling and fuel efficiency. Remember that emergency braking performance is also highly dependant on tire pressure too! Also, there's a difference between tire models regarding how they react to higher pressures, super swampers likely react differently to the tires on your current ride.

If you're more interested in highway mileage than off-road use, you may also be pleased with switching over to a light truck tire with highway tread pattern. Michelin makes a great LTX light truck highway tire but there may be even better ones out there now.

+1 on the need to check your front ride height too!

 

I tend to agree with the others - its the tires. Could be tread and/or inflation.

 

yellowfin , how dare you just give me a slight glimpse of your new car? you just give me a sneek peak, you act like i was asking to drive it lol can i haha let's see that car up close and personal, say it's a thred about your hummer but just leave the car in the front, and grab your vid cam and take us for a ride.

 

Yo Scorp....

 

The tires that came stock on my H3 are the Bridgestone Duellers 33". On the tire it says max tire preasure is 50lbs. I only had the tires inflated to between 44 to 46lbs. I did deflate the tires to 40lbs and it road a lot better on the way into work this morning. When the dealer did the front end alignment they said that evrything was set to factory specs, I assume this included the torsion bars. Does anyone else run these stock Bridgestones, and if so, what do you run the preasure at for normal everyday use?