A few questions from a new owner.

[HVNTER]

Just bought my first H3, 2006, 127k miles (clean carfax, routine maintenance, only thing ever wrong with it was front tire pressure sensor). Just put some 33" Terra Graps and 18" TIS wheels on it, looks pretty good.

First real mod I'm lookin to do is crank the torsion bars (I know it's a tired topic around these parts). My first question is after cranking and aligning, is about the BILSTEIN shocks. Am i gonna be good to go with just replacing the front set? Or should I get the complete leveling system off of Trail duty?

Next, I understand that the ride quality will suffer a little. Anything I can do to improve that after the crank?

Forgive me if my questions have been asked a lot. I'm a Marine currently training in the desert and haven't had too too much time to search around. Thanks for the help and hospitality!

- HVNTER

 

[adventr]

I did a crank on mine a month or so back. Ended up liking 23" front center of hub up to the fender.

Whatever you do, make sure and get an alignment after doing it. It will throw your toe setting off, and you'll notice it when you turn anywhere near full-lock. A simple front end alignment will get it back in spec.

Ride quality doesn't really decrease with a small crank, but you'll eventually want to drop your front bumpstops down. That will get rid of the nose-dive effect whenever you step on the brakes.


On a side note, I will be selling a set of BARELY used front Bilstein 5100s very soon. I ended up finding some 5160s for mine.

 

[HVNTER]

Any way possible you can link me to a set of bump stops I should look at? Not sure what size or brand I need to be lookin for.

 

[jphh20]

The bilstein 5100s and extended bump stops improved my ride quality. I purchased mine at trailduty. I went right to 35s the same day i cranked the torsion bars 23.5" and added bump stops and new shocks to improve the ride.

http://m.trailduty.com/item/373634


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[HVNTER]

Thanks jphh20. I saved your link.

 

[jphh20]

Congrats on your new rig and post up some pics.


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[rsc]

To improve the ride, try to keep the gap between the jounce bumper/bump stop and control arm as small as possible. With mine set at about 23 3/8, the gap was about 3/16", your setup may differ. I did not get too much extra dive or body roll with this setup, 23 1/2" may work work for you too. Play around with it and see how it feels.

And post up a picture of the new ride! :thumbs:

 

[Bigunit]

Welcome.

 

[RamRod]

Welcome

If you are doing the t bar crank, look into doing the Hunner "nut" trick..... I swear its rated PG

 

[3Hummers]

Welcome to H40!

 

[Schwarttzy]

I think the ride quality is much better without the extended bump stops (Jounce Bumper). That and I'm not about to limit my suspensions up travel. Even with my aggressive tendencies off-road I haven't had any issues with the factory shocks. I don't recommend new shocks unless you're wanting to upgrade. Come August, I'm excited to upgrade to the Fox shock, because I've never been huge fan of Blistens.

 

[3Hummers]

I am at 23.25" with 35" KM2 tires. Slight rubbing at full lock. Ride quality is very good. I have stock shocks on mine.

 

[rsc]

Aside from a slightly too short overall travel, GM seems to have gotten it right with the stock shocks. The Adventure/Offroad shocks are great.

 

[USMC_315]

I think the ride quality is much better without the extended bump stops (Jounce Bumper). That and I'm not about to limit my suspensions up travel. Even with my aggressive tendencies off-road I haven't had any issues with the factory shocks. I don't recommend new shocks unless you're wanting to upgrade. Come August, I'm excited to upgrade to the Fox shock, because I've never been huge fan of Blistens.

Is there a reason why you'd prefer the Fox ones, I'm planning on doing a Rancho so I don't know which ones to get (Bilstein or Fox)

 

[Schwarttzy]

Is there a reason why you'd prefer the Fox ones, I'm planning on doing a Rancho so I don't know which ones to get (Bilstein or Fox)

The Fox Shocks sold me when I found out how easy they are to rebuild and get new parts to fix. That, and I'm originally a dirt bike person and fox shocks were the ****.