re-gearing for 35"s

[Rred]

Has anyone swapped out the 4:56's for anything? I'm strongly considering putting in 4:88's in order to make up for the larger and heavier 35"s. I'm thinking that the 4:88's will bring my rig back into the stock powerband and drivability. What do you all think? I don't think gears will be cheap, but I think it will be a good investment for a daily driver with 35" M/Ts.

[wpage]

You dont need to do it...
If you decide to go back to 33" or 32" tires or keep them in your rotation. Tires are easy to change. Gears are not.

[Rred]

I don't think I would want to go back to 33"s. I shouldn't need to, especially if with gears I can regain the stock powerband and drivability.

Are you saying I don't need to just for the reason of, if I went back to stock size tires or ?

[tomp]

Dont even think about re-gearing to 4.88s with aluminum front diff. Must have CI diff as 4.88s will make explosions easier to come by

[Crash ?]

Good luck finding 4.88s for the 7.5 front end..

[Rred]

I don't think I'm going to. I've decided that I'm going to run two sets of wheel/tires. The factory for traveling and some 35" M/T's for daily around town and wheel'n. I'm about to put 10,000 miles on my truck between June and December. So, I don't want to wear out my M/Ts.

[terry_ohio]

can we see a picture of your ride with the 35's. bigger than your avatar.

[Rred]

Sorry man. I'm in Iraq right now. I bought the truck last month while I was on leave(15 days). I haven't even had the chance to buy tires yet. I'm pretty set on getting the Dick Cepek Mud Country tires in a 315/75-R16 matched with the American Racing Mojave wheels in black. You can bet you bottom dollor, that as soon as I get those wheels and tires I'll post plenty of good pics. Till then, I'm just stock piling everything that I've bought at my rents house. My mother is taking great care of my truck.

[terry_ohio]

Understand i'm looking into get the Toyo's M/T for my H3T. I 've seen them with the Rockstars in black on a couple of trucks and they look sweet. Supposedly ride well too...not as noisey as you would think. Right now, i'm just up in the air on whether i want to lift. You don't have too for 35's but i'd like to get it up in the air a little...show them F-150's whose boss.

Stay safe man, come home soon!!! tell all the guys/girls over their we haven't forgot about them and that I wish them well!!!!

[terry_ohio]

Picture this but my H3T on top...

here's a picture of the wheels too...

[Rred]

Thanks man. I appreciate it. I like the KMC rockstars. But from what I've seen, everyone has them. I just found these Rebel Racing wheels in black.

http://www.buywheelstoday.com/produc...atte+Black.bwt

is the thread to them. I'm going with the everything blacked out except the white paint and the white lettering on the DC tires. Should finish up pretty sweet. Plus these wheels are cheap as dirt. I can't justify buying 20s, just to scrap them up. And you can't as effectively air down 20s as you can the factory 16s.

[terry_ohio]

nice...i was actually thinking of keeping my stock black hummer wheels and just getting a lift and tires. Save a little money you know.

[Rred]

I know the lifts they make aren't very cheap. But your get the whole kit for about $1,500. I think rough country makes a nice 4" lift that should clear 37s. I really thought about doing a lift myself. I probably would if I had the V8.

[terry_ohio]

yeh, after talkin to the dealership they think since i have the I5 that i should go with a leveling kit and nothing bigger than 35's. Looks as if i can get the 35's toyo's for around 1100 bucks for 4 on tirepackage.com. dealership said that it would cost around $1000 dollars for the lift, the mounting of the new tires on my old rims, and installation of everything on my ride. This is where i wish i knew of someone i could trust to do the work. I'll probably pay the money and let the dealership do it since they are experience with working with this leveling kit and H3's.

[H3slate]

Don't do the leveling kit. Just get the bilstein shocks and 1/2" bumpstops from Trail Duty. Crank your t-bars 2-3 turns and you are done. Have a tire shop install your tires, both of these should save you some money vs. doing everything through the dealership. The price on the tires seems like a good deal, just have to add installation cost.

[terry_ohio]

****TTTTTT!!!!(hahahaha) Why are there so many different ways. This is screwing me over!

Ok...tell me exactly what i need. What all do i need to buy. And what exactly do i tell the dealership when they do the install. I know nothing about mechanics! I want the dealership to do it, just because it's an H3T and i want their service warranty.

Why are there lift kits, bump stops, leveling kits, lift torrision keys, leveling front shocks...etc? What do i need to buy from trailduty to have the dealer get my rig up high enough where i can put my Toyo 35's on. Sorry for sounding like a jerk but everytime i think i got what i need to get, i get another way to do. I do want to save money, but i also want the best option(well except for the $2000 lift kit) that i can get.

Thoughts? and thank you for the info, i starting to learn how much i should of paid attention when my uncle was working on cars!

[H3slate]

The consistent answer you will find on the forums is to crank your torsion bars. This will give you up to 2 inches of lift to clear 35" tires in front. You already have enough room to clear 35's in the rear.

When you crank your torsion bars you will notice a firmer ride and more nose dive when braking and cornering. To fix that, get the 1/2" extended bumpstops. The front suspension was designed to rest on the bumpstops. When you raise the frontend you are no longer resting on the stock bumpstops. The extended stops fix this issue.

With the front end higher, your front shocks are not in their optimal travel range. The Bilstein shocks fix that by having a longer travel range. A lot of people ran their stock shocks with the t-bar crank with few issues. I did it myself for over a year. Loved the look of the truck leveled, and barely noticed the change in the suspension. That said, there was a noticeable improvement in ride with the extended bumpstops and new shocks.

There have been owners who have thrown 35's on without leveling the front-end and had no issues. The tire rub that you will read about only happens when the front wheels are fully cranked and they rub on the sway bar. This happens with the 33's too and is not an issue.

You will be very happy with the 35's and the torsion bar crank with the extended bumpstops and bilstein shocks are the best way and least expensive way to do it. That is just my opinion but I have seen the same opinion over and over again. Hope this helps.

[terry_ohio]

THIS IS AWESOME!!! thank you so much. I am printing this out, and taking it with me to the dealer. I'm gonna order the Trail Duty Bilstein Hummer H3 Front Leveling Kit from trailduty.com. Comes with the shocks and bump stops.

Now, what do expect the dealership would charge for doing this? they actually quoted me, around $1000 bucks for doing their own type of leveling(not sure what exactly they do) and mounting new tires on my stock rims(and all the needed alignment with that, and putting the tires on the truck. Is the shocks with the bump stops alot easier and when i go their should i be looking for a big price reduction. What i'm thinking of doing, is letting them do the leveling with this new way(provided by you). And then taking my truck to tirediscounters and letting them mount the new tires on my rims and do the alignment...has to be cheaper that way right?

Thanks again, i really appreciate you putting this in dummy terms for me.

[H3slate]

Not sure what the dealer will charge, my dealer would not do anything to change the suspension. Keep in mind that after you crank the torsion bars you will want to get a front-end alignment. The torsion bar crank and install of new shocks and bumpstops should take less than 2 hours.

[terry_ohio]

I just got off the phone with the dealer. Explaining this way of leveling with the Trailduty bilstein leveling kit. He quoted me approx $400 to do everything...including mounting the tires, doing the alignment. So not terrible. So $200 for the kit, $1100 for tires, and $400 for installation.


It's weird how certain dealership will only do certain things. this guy was like we've leveled/lifted a bunch of H3's. Then a couple weeks ago i was like i want to get an IPOD integration installed...they wouldn't do it. No aftermarket electronics. This after a guy on here said his dealer did one for him. Well i'm going to order the kit and the tires today.

Hopefully it all turns out good, i'll post some pics when it's finished...thanks again dude!