About buying an H1

[H2Beast]

Greetings,

I need help. I'm just about closing a deal on a 4 door H2 04, done 8000 miles. I've got some concerns related to the H1 weak points:

- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.
- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.
- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.
- Steering idler arm likelly to break.
- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.
- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.
- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.
How true all is all this?

[H2Beast]

Greetings,

I need help. I'm just about closing a deal on a 4 door H2 04, done 8000 miles. I've got some concerns related to the H1 weak points:

- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.
- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.
- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.
- Steering idler arm likelly to break.
- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.
- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.
- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.
How true all is all this?

[H2Beast]

Greetings,

I need help. I'm just about closing a deal on a 4 door H2 04, done 8000 miles. I've got some concerns related to the H1 weak points:

- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.
- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.
- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.
- Steering idler arm likelly to break.
- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.
- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.
- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.
How true all is all this?

[JollyRoger]

Hmmm.. I have never heard of these problems, someone is giving you some BS.
If anything is undersized, it's H2 components, NOT H1 components.

Oh, and I do extreme wheeling often, and have only broken a halfshaft once, nothing else. Rock crawling, etc, I dunno, I think te guy telling you all that is talking out his ass.

[H2Beast]

The reason of his statement is that he wants to show people that his own UAE built concept car is outperforming the H1. Check the guy's website and see his statement here below:

(this is a copy if Jon's post on my forum)
Al Dhabi and its brothers (see www.advancedmodularvehicles.com) are UAE made, are not a copy of existing vehicles, do not get any engineering input from overseas and are build for the sole purpose to be the most reliable and performant desert vehicles in their classes and applications.

Al Dhabi specs are on the web site. It beats the H1 in 95% of the positions. If you are interested, I have a video of the H!-Al Dhabi comparison. You can see it but you cannot have a copy for obvious reasons.

H1 have the following weak points:
- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.
- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.
- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.
- Steering idler arm likely to break.
- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.
- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.
- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.

Please note that most of these weak points are related to the civilian version only. The military versions are not exactly build the same way....

How do I know ? I was the GM of the Hummer dealership in Lebanon for 6 years and I have driven 4 door pick up and a 4 door wagon for over 3 years.

In reference to your H2 with 40" tires, be careful, The front and the rear differential are far weaker as the Dana 60. They are just about taking the abuse of the 35" tires. In the sand, no problem. In the rocks, you are likely to break a shaft after a few tuff outgoings.

[Shawn from Angry Iron]

Check out my website www.angryiron.com go to the pictures page for some good wheeling pictures.I have never broken anything on the trail. Knock on wood.
Sounds like the guy is a BozO.
You can go to www.flashoffroad.com for excellent articles on buying a used H1. Good Luck buy it you will like it!

[ckhagman]

The ground clearance is definitaly not that of an H1. Sure it might look it but with a straight axle with the same tires it is still a little lower. I would like to see some real specs. The specs listed are great but fail to tell you the whole story of the truck.

As for the weak points of the H1.
H1 have the following weak points:
- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.
-Same as military
- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.
- not sure but might be the same as the military
- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.
- I have never had this problem
- Steering idler arm likely to break.
- Same as military
- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.
- SO WHAT. how many cars have have this option. If it leaks at least you have something that others don't. Mine has been leaking for months but who cares.
- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.
- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.
Same as the military.

[H2Beast]

Thanks guys.. Thanks for the link Shawn, great site.. and I will be posting some pics once I get my deal done. Guess what the AMV guy asked for a tuff Dahbi vs H1 hard core offroad drive. I will keep you posted

[Beastmaster]

Hmm..interesting viewpoints. My replies in bold below.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by H2Beast:
Greetings,

- Upper and lower ball joints on the suspension A arms are too weak.

I've never seen a blown out ball joint yet. Most ball joints can handle 75k miles or more without problems.

- Transfer case housing is too weak so is the chain inside.

It all depends on how you drive. If you have lockers on it, you'll likely never have chain issues in the NP242. If you BTM a lot, you'll eventually have chain stretch - in about 100k miles.

- Brake pads are sizing on the rotors, especially in the front.

Brake pads seize due to poor maintainence. Either the brake proportioning valve, the master cylinder, or brake booster is going out.

- Steering idler arm likelly to break.

I've never seen an idler arm "break". I have seen old style idler arms wear out and need replacement. I've yet to see the new Moog parts wear yet.

- If CTIS equipped, always leaking.

Again - poor maintainence. If your CTIS is maintained properly, you'll have zero issues.

- On gas engines, the fuel tank is subject to melting because the tank is not enough protected from the exhaust. The fuel creates vapor, the vapor dilates the "plastic" tank to such an extreme that the tank would actually touch the exhaust pipe.

No Gas engined Hummer owners have ever reported this issue. That's BS.

- The gear hub will take a lot of play very fast and is too weak to stand any abuse in the rocks or with bigger tires.

Nope. I run 38.5" Interco Tires with zero issues. People also run 40" MTR's and also have zero issues. The geared hub is very, very strong. More BS.

How true all is all this? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>