H2 2008 2009

This summer I will be finding a 08 or 09 H2 to purchase. I have a few questions.
1. Do I want the air ride suspension?
2. What should I be looking closely at when I find one. Meaning where are the weak points on the truck? Ball joints wheel bearings etc...

Thank you in advance gents


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Air suspension is the cats meow if you'll be towing, if not, really not needed. A lot of people are scared of the reliability but it is very good in the newer H2's so no worries other than occasionally replacing the bags which is pretty easy and about $200 for the bags.

Hard to say what to look for in them, 08-09 were the last one's made and really refined by then. Depending on miles they might need new front end parts (tie rods, pitman, idler) due to play induced by the 35"s even under normal driving. Not a big deal but can be costly especially if you don't repair this stuff on your own. Parts to rebuild my front end were about $400ish (not including shocks), so add labor to that.

The interiors are nicely refined compared to 07 and older so no problems with interior panels squeeking, quality is much better. Be advised that by going 08 and newer you won't get dash boobies which are what makes an H2, well, an H2.

As always, go for as much as you can comfortably afford, try to get the lowest miles and preferably a garage queen that hasn't been wheeled--you'll know this as soon as you look at the chassis and skid plates underneath. Dealers can clean up a lot, but not rock gouges and heavy scratches in the frame.

The really awesome thing with these newer H2's was the option for 2nd row bucket seat in a few of them and heated steering wheels. They really became plush toward the end. There are some factory "black chrome" trucks that seemed to be built for some of the HUMMER brass back then. Good luck finding them but they are cool!

I'd vote no on the air suspension, because when it does break, you'll be hunting parts and burning time/money tracing down the problem. For now, most everything is still available, but that won't last forever. The coil suspension on the other hand will likely last the life of the truck. As the tag line went, "Hummer: It's like nothing else", and that goes double for parts. Once you get into secondary systems and body, there's not a lot of crossover from the GM parts bins, and things start getting expensive.

If I had it to do over again, I'd buy a coil-spring truck without the sunroof, instead of the H2 Luxury I bought. I'd also give serious consideration on whether or not I wanted the Bose stereo option. It sounds great, but if you decide to replace the head unit, you are looking at a ~$80 cost for the adapter cable to connect a standard head unit to the Bose amplifier. When you're stepping down to a regular single-DIN unit to free up a slot on the center stack, that $80 comes darn close to the cost of the head unit.

As to weak points, the front ball joints, the tie rod ends. the sunroof, the transmission, and on the 08-09 the oil pump in the engine. Also, for all intents and purposes, you're looking at the 08 only. Less than 1000 (closer to 600, IIRC) were built in 09, so they're going to be rarer than hen's teeth.

Autotrader has 115 in a +999 mile radius. Some have been on it over a year. I was leaning toward the sut but now I have 2 grand babies so I think I want the 3rd row seats. I love my 3 but its to small for big road trips with kids and grandkids riding along. I think I'll try to stay away from the air ride even though I plan on towing as well but if the right truck comes along at the right price I won't let it make my decision for me. Even though I see the pump system is 2k all by its self......... thanks guys


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My 03 had the air suspension and no sun roof. My 05 had a sun roof and no air suspension. While I liked the 05 better I wish it had the air suspension and no sunroof. I had no issues with the air suspension in the 4 years I owned that truck.

If you've ever spent any time cranking the jack on a trailer, you'd love the H2 air suspension--button on the dash to raise or lower (but for God's sake make sure all the doors are closed or you'll be cursing why it isn't working). That alone makes the air suspension priceless when you let the truck take the weight of the trailer and simply crank up the jack with no weight on it. I've spent way too many hot sweaty days trying to get a freaking hand crank trailer loaded and it's amazing just being able to stand there and let the 2 do it's magic.
It also turns out air suspension was used on a lot of other GM vehicles I'd never imagined and the after market has never let me down, not scared for the parts supply drying up.
You can't' beat the people carrying capacity of a 2 with 3rd row seat, which in '08 had two seats back there instead of the one seat in older trucks.
My sunroof has never given me fits, and living in Florida that would have been critical with how much it rained there, almost daily. Now living in the desert water infiltration is the least of my worries, even with how rainy this winter has been, there's way more days for the truck to dry out (if needed) so no worries about leaks, not even from those stupid leaky roof lights

How is the H2 in bad weather? How about compared to a smaller AWD or 4WD rig?


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Oltorf The Destroyer said:

How is the H2 in bad weather? How about compared to a smaller AWD or 4WD rig?


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Untouchable....but with mucho luxury---you'd be riding out the apocalypse in total luxury, actually wouldn't even be able to hear people screaming for help when the aliens snatch them up, yeah, that nice!

ha ha, nice. man you're not doing a good job of convincing me to save my money.

twinmill28 said:

Untouchable....but with mucho luxury---you'd be riding out the apocalypse in total luxury, actually wouldn't even be able to hear people screaming for help when the aliens snatch them up, yeah, that nice!

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Thinking of selling my 2008 H2


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USMC_TOP said:

This summer I will be finding a 08 or 09 H2 to purchase. I have a few questions.
1. Do I want the air ride suspension?
2. What should I be looking closely at when I find one. Meaning where are the weak points on the truck? Ball joints wheel bearings etc...

Thank you in advance gents


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

My 2008 H2 has been awesome. I have replaced the rear door lock and a driver side passenger lock. Otherwise a flawless truck.

Getting closer, looking hard at one in WV, 8+ hour drive for me though


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I personally like the air ride. You get the onboard compressor connection for inflating tires, etc in addition to the better ride (as well as the button to raise the rear 2" on demand). Yes air bags can and will wear out, so will shocks, brakes, etc. Its the compressor and/or electronics that can be expensive if those have an issue. I'd say those are not things that have any real frequent issues though. Of course the ones that do have one fail are the loudest to complain. At the same time there are orders of magnitude far more people who are enjoying theirs that work perfectly fine and always have. The bags themselves are fairly easy to replace and cost a couple hundred bucks and should last 10 years. One catch with the setup is that its somewhat slow since it does not use a storage tank for air. I plan on modding the air on my 2003 to add an air tank which will make things much faster and allow for other things like a standard air tool port or air horns.

Aside from the air ride - just do a very thorough inspection. What is key is trying to determine if the one you get has been well loved and cared for versus one that has just been cleaned up to sell. Thats a bit tougher to determine if you cannot speak with the original owner. Lots of little projects are needed on any H2 like eventually dealing with the roof lights that will eventually leak, regular maintenance -a lot of people just get the oil changed on their car and never ever bother with the other recommended longer term maintenance stuff like greasing things, changing the trans fluid and filter, diff fluid, transfer case fluid, cooling system flush, plugs and wires, etc, etc.

My neighbor has a 2 and the air ride was leaking and he found parts pretty easily . I'm going to guess that the 2 is not a one off for air bag parts.

Its not..... actually a several other GM vehicles use some of the same bits. Some of the Trailblazers, Envoys, and I think some of the full size SUV's optionally had the near identical air setup.

Bilsteins. They never lose air.

Unless you just have your heart set on the 6.2L I just got my first H2 (2007) in December. One owner mall crawler with 71k miles for 21k. We just had (don't laugh) a bad freeze here in Texas (Snow sleet iced up roads, they have NO Equipment for this in Houston) I had no problems getting anywhere I needed too.