Hi all,

New here and I'm really close in picking up a new H3. I'm pretty set on getting the luxury package BUT I'm not 100% sure if the suspension upgrade is something I will need or not. I do want the bigger tires but I'm not certain I'll need the different gearing.

This is where the tire question comes in; if I went without the suspension upgrade and decided later to move up the tires to a 285/75-16, will there be a difference in performance compared to one with the suspension upgrade? I'm a n00b with this, but what I understand is if you have a higher gear ratio, the harder it will be to turn the bigger tires, right? Is that the case with a H3 without the suspension upgrade?

Thanks,

JT

You shouldn't notice any performance hit moving to a 33" tire. The gearing upgrade in the Adv. is just for low range.

Best thing to do is just to test drive both and see which works better for you.

I have pro comp extreme alloys 16x8 with pro comp 305/R16 12.5" wide mud terrain tires. Handles great, tough as nails. Jumps curbs as well as boulders. Road margins are now my extra right lane in traffic. Sidewalks are optional, but available.
Go for it!

Rear axle gearing is the same between the off-road and the non-off-road suspension packages (4.56:1).
The only thing the off-road package give you is:
Electronic rear locker
Lower geared transfer case (2.64:1 versus 4:1)
Larger, and better tires
Different shocks
Extra button on the dash for locker engagement/disengagement

I orginally wanted the offroad package. I test drove both and found the street ride much better without the offroad package. I know that there are a lot of hard-core off roaders here... But I use mine as a daily driver and a lot of times I'm hauling people around. The ride (for me) with the offroad package was too bouncy. I know that's part of having the larger tires.

I would eventually like to swap out my rims and tires for something a little more aggressive... But I don't want to lose the ride quality.

I would have liked to have had the offroad pkg in addition to what I have now but when I bought mine black on black was so rare I had to take what I could get I do plan to add different shocks and 34" tires soon. I have taken mine offroad a few times and it did awesome in the lux set up.