Project Trial Hugger Part 2 - Wheels, Tires, and Shocks

In the previous installment, we dechromed our H3 and wrapped it in flat goodness. That was a big job, but thanks to the crew at Burnsville Off Road and Auto Body, it went off without a hitch and we no longer have to look at icky chrome and yucky shiny paint. In this installment, the mods are much simpler in the form of upgraded shocks, beefier tires, and a set of unique wheels.

But wait a minute. The standard school of thought is that the first mod underneath an off-highway vehicle should be a lifted suspension. So you may be asking yourself: Why are they putting shocks, wheels, and tires under their rig before the lift? Well, the answer to that question is simple. There isn't going to be a lift. Heck yeah, we love lifts like we love manifold burritos, and we have lifts on all of our other project rigs, but we're doing something different on this rig. With this project we're going to leave our H3's suspension height stock while enhancing it with a variety of readily available aftermarket components. When we're finished bolting and welding things on, we will have a suspension that is more durable, while still retaining outstanding ride and handling characteristics. So here we go.

Upgraded shocks are a simple and popular mod that can produce big results, so naturally we started here. We chose to install a set of Rod Hall Racing piggyback-reservoir shocks. These Fox Racing-manufactured shocks are available through Boulder Accessories as well as Hummer dealers, and have a 2-inch-diameter body and are nitrogen-charged. They are valved to retain the H3's outstanding ride and comfort, but thanks to the increased oil volume, they run cooler than the stock units and compensate for oil expansion due to heat buildup. They come with a 12-month/12,000-mile warranty.

Selecting tires was pretty easy once we decided how the vehicle would be built and used. Like most SUVs, ours will be shackled to paved roads most of the time. It'll have to do everything from extended highway driving to trailer towing to grocery hauling, and it'll have to do these things well. With that said, those characteristics will have to coexist in harmony with above-average off-highway skills. For this reason we chose a set of BFGoodrich All-Terrain T/A KO radial tires in the same LT285/75R16 size as the stock Bridgestone Duelers. The BFGs are fantastic all-around tires that shine on-road, with two full-width steel belts that help create a stiff tread area for precise steering response and outstanding cornering control. They also have high-strength single-strand bead construction that improves the ride and increases bead strength. Off-highway, they benefit from a three-ply polyester carcass that gives them exceptional bruise resistance under the tread and in the sidewall. Further, ShoulderLock technology, mixed with a built-in rim protector, means they'll be happy and capable when aired down.

We wanted a rugged set of wheels that looked all business. GT Inc. offers a variety of wheels, but when we saw their Simulock wheel, we instantly knew we had found what we were looking for. These unique wheels are stock 16x7.5 factory H3 wheels that have been modified to accept a very realistic-looking bead-lock ring. Because their foundation is the stock wheel, they obviously retain the factory offset and backspacing, which means we're not increasing the leverage on the spindles and bearings by pushing the tire-and-wheel combination outward on the axles. We also like the fact that these wheels retain the familiar Hummer look.

As you can imagine, installation of all of these products was quick and easy. Following are the highlights of the upgrades as performed by the team at Attitude Performance.

How It All Works

We expected a stiffer ride after installing the Rod Hall Racing shocks and the load range "D" BFG A-Ts (the factory Bridgestone Dueler A/T RH-S's were load range "C"), but the ride ended up being only slightly stiffer. Our H3 is still very smooth and comfortable, but we now have the beef needed for extended off-highway jaunts. We think the Rod Hall Racing shocks, at $225 each, are a worthwhile investment. Ditto for the BFG All-Terrain KOs. We've put about 4,000 miles on these tires so far, and have had no issues. They're quiet and they've performed extremely well in ice, snow, and dirt. We're also digging our black GT Inc. Simulock wheels. They are a premium-priced wheel at $475 each (plus exchange and shipping), but they're ultra unique and they give us the rugged bead-lock look we want without the bead-lock hassle or a change in offset and backspacing.

We had no beef against the stock gas-charged monotube "specially tuned" shocks that came with our H3's Adventure Package. They seemed to work fine for street driving and mild off-highway excursions. Nevertheless we knew from experience that most self-contained monotube shocks are susceptible to overheating when asked to absorb rough terrain for extended periods of time, and that the Rod Hall reservoir shocks, with their increased oil volume, were the perfect solution for extended rough terrain driving. Removal was as simple as removing the upper mounting nut and the lower mounting bolt.	Here you can see one of the new Rod Hall Racing shocks before it was installed. This is a quality piece that has 6061-T6 billet-aluminum body caps and eyelet and clear cadmium plating with clearcoat finish.	The new shocks reuse the stock rubber bushings, but require the installation of a formed metal part that is intended to keep the shock from rotating and causing the reservoir to be damaged by the A-arms. Here you can see the self-tapping screw that is included with the kit being installed through the formed metal part into the suspension bucket.
Here you can see how the shocks look when installed. The front shocks offer 4.18 inches of travel.	The rear shocks have the same plating, clearcoat, and billet-aluminum components as the front shocks and they too installed easily. The rear shocks offer 8.5 inches of travel.	Notice the visual difference between the stock H3 wheel and tire (right) and the GT Inc. Simulock wheel mounted in the BFG A-T KO tire. GT Inc. offers its Simulock wheel in silver or black with either a polished or black ring. Naturally we went with the all-black combination, which is in line with our H3's no-bling, all-business theme.
To fit a simulated bead-lock ring on the H3 factory wheel, GT Inc. chemically strips all paint and powdercoat and then CNC's the wheel slightly to level the rim flange and spoke area to create a flat mounting surface for the ring. As you can see there is very little material machined from the spoke area. Here you can also see one of the holes drilled in the spoke area for insert clearance.	The inner ring (shown) is welded to the wheel, and then the wheel is bead-blasted, baked for two hours in a 400-degree oven to cook off any residual chemicals, and then powdercoated and assembled. Stainless steel fasteners are used on the ring, and six of those actually attach the beefy forged aluminum, CNC-machined, simulated bead-lock ring to the wheel. This heavy-duty ring is one of the reasons this wheel looks very similar to a bead-lock wheel. The final step is to sand the factory center caps and paint them to match the black semi-gloss powdercoat on the wheel and ring. This paint is easily obtainable from Lowe's, so when we trash a center cap on the trail we can simply procure another and paint it to match.	Attitude Performance has all the equipment to mount and balance wheels and tires and they had the job done in no time. The combination took an average amount of weight and it had to be placed on the inside of the wheel due to the addition of the simulated bead-lock ring. Here Matt Dinelli resets our tire-pressure sensors. Since we used the same size tire as stock, we had no issues with the TPS monitoring system due to the fact that the recommended tire pressures were the same.