Tire Bug Biting already...

My new to me H3 has a set of 285/75-16 rubber on it that is perfectly serviceable, but like any self respecting SUV owner, stock size AT's just will not do... the tire bug is biting. I want bigger/better/more-cooler looking.

I used to run skinny tires (235) on my rodeo. This solved the winter traction issues as long as the rubber was replaced every 3-4 years regardless of tread wear. (sun baked rubber doesn't grip ice as well). I don't want skinny on the H3 as I don't think it would look good and there's nothing skinny available that "fills" the fender like a set of 315/75-16's will. I've decided to get a set of dedicated snow tires instead of skinny to solve that issue.

Unfortunately, not a lot of options for dedicated snow tires in this size, so I'm looking at either the Yoka I/T studdless winter tires, vs studding and siping a set of commercial traction tires (Cooper S/T Maxx, Mastercraft CXT, or Goodyear DuraTrac, expect they'd all do well for this with the studs on the outer lugs and center lugs run through the siping machine).

Has anyone run either of these arrangements for winter? Have experience to share? I know a lot of guys just run their big wide muds through the winter, which does work most of the time but in glaze ice situations I have seen that become a disaster for other drivers and don't want to subject myself to that sort of stress. I like having ample winter traction and am willing to pay for it.


I do intend to get the H3 into the bush running trails and getting my wife and I to difficult to access trailheads for backpacking a few+ times a summer. Most of the trails in Colorado are really just rocky. I've only come across a few situations where I wish I had mud tires, otherwise, AT/Hybrid tires seem fine. Problem is... I feel like the H3 would just look so much better with a set of M/T's on it... The Cooper STT Pro is really speaking to me for its great looks, and it just inspires more confidence for off road in terms of durability (great sidewall), but I question whether any traction advantages are just a facade on rocks and packed dirt. Does a mud tire actually have any advantages outside of mud and outside of looking awesome? I feel like something with more biting edges would actually be better on most of these surfaces. (like nitto terra grappler)

Can someone talk me out of the mud tires? I really don't want to ruin the road manners of this vehicle and have concerns about "mud" tires making it noisy and vibrationy. I know a lot of you guys run muds on these rigs. How well does the H3 do damping the roar of mud tires? Anyone feel like they ruined their ride with mud terrain tires? Anyone have a favorite mud tire that isn't too noisy? I've heard the Toyo's are good for low road noise and balance well, but the "look" doesn't speak to me like the STT Pro.

-Eric

I would think that a good quality a/t tire would work the best but it sounds like you got your mind made up as far as wanting to use a mud tire.
Cross over, tweener tire might be the best choice. I'm running a Nokian rotiiva a/t on my 07 H3 & the Miss' is running them on her 06 H3. Plus we've got them on an 01 Jeep xj.

Eric, I run Goodyear Duratrac's on mine. LT265-75/16E. No problems at all. On the back side of the Sand Dunes National Park there is a trail that goes out of the park and over the mountain, Mendano Pass. It's great fun with some deep sand. I had no problems and didn't need to air down. It's not challenging, just fun. I don't really run the HUMMER on snowy days; for my winter driving I have Blizzak's on my Tahoe. In the summer, I switch over the Tahoe to the Duratrac's also. Not that I don't think the HUMMER is better for the snow, it's the dopes that we have driving in the winter that slip-slide away and I don't want the HUMMER to be a casualty of stupidity (unless it's my stupidity!)

I just bought the Duratrac's for the Tahoe a couple of weeks ago, so like you I was looking at all of the various options in tires. I don't want the mud tires because it's not really needed for my purposes. (Yes the Tahoe is off-road capable also - just sometimes the H3 is better suited for the narrow trails and tighter turning radius we have out here.)

We have mud, but I just really stay away from mud. I'm born & raised Colorado boy so I have never seen the appeal of mud. I think of the hours of cleanup to get that stuff off!

There you go; my 2 cents worth.

Hi Happy Hummer,

I need to track someone down with muds and go for a ride with them. My mind isn't set on mud tires. I just don't have a good frame of reference for how much they effect the noise in the cab on the road. If it's really minor I could live with it, but if it's obnoxious then I want to avoid it.

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Hi DJinCO,

I've never understood the appeal of "mudding" either. (also born/raised here) Totally agree about the cleanup problem there. I'm thinking more along the lines of have and not need rather than need not have... I recall one time driving out onto a beach that turned out to not be a typical sandy material. It looked reasonably firm but the tires were suddenly dipping in deep into this thick soupy muck. It gave me a scare, could have easily got stuck if I didn't back out the way I came. Muds would have given more confidence in that particular situation.

I haven't been on that trail, but I have hiked up to lower sand creek lake over Music Pass not far from there and stayed a few days with my Wife camping/fishing. Beautiful country up there.

I have run 285/75r16 Duratracs on my 3.7 and now on my Alpha. While the 35's sure do look a lot better, unless you're either running with a V8 or are only driving on flat roads, stick with a 33. The 3.7 really, really struggles with mountains even on 33's.

Case in point, when I went to CO a couple years ago to visit family in the Springs, going up Vail pass was horrible. Top speed it could do was 45, maybe 50, and the transmission temp was way, way too high because of needing to drop down to 3rd just to keep that speed. This was with two adults and three very small children in the car and no gear other than my Thor bumper, winch, and UCP/sliders. And with the 285 Duratracs.

That's the main reason I went for getting my Alpha, is not only do most trips have me going up and down steep mountain passes, but I'm going to be pulling a M101 trailer as well with our camping gear in it. There is no way I would want to do that with my 3.7.

I am driving my 3.7 now with the BFG KO2 35's that came with the Alpha (since I switched the 285's over to the Alpha), and while it drives fine around town, I really hope I can get everything sorted on the Alpha before I need to go up any of the canyons around here (Salt Lake area).


Ultimately it's going to be about what you're going to use the H3 for the most. Rock crawling and mudding a ton? Mud terrain probably. Running mostly dirt trails with some mild to medium rock crawling? I'd go with all terrains. Especially if you're going to spend the majority of your time driving to work and around town. AT's will be better in the snow on the road than mudders. As for size it's going to depend, but being in CO I'd stick with no larger than 285's unless you have an Alpha, then 315's would be fine.

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The trucks definitely work harder with 315s than 285s,but I've been comfortable with the 315s on all kinds of hills, including Colorado, the climb to Flagstaff from Phoenix, and the Grapevine in CA. Yes, the truck will spend a lot of time in 3 and will even go to 2, but I do maintain speed.

If it were just a DD, I might do 285s. But I appreciate the extra clearance that comes with the larger tires

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I run the 315 Cooper SST Pro and the road manners are great. The line between MT's and AT's have really been blurred with new hybrid tires. Pick what you think looks best and go with it.

HI Jpaul and alrock,

I appreciate the thoughts about power dealing with the 315s.. Sounds like you guys have a bit different impressions of the 3.7>4L60E setup. I never even test drove that driveline in an H3. It's unfortunate that the H3 was only ever configured with transmission technology from the 1980's. The 5-8 speed autos that came out in domestic cars the years following the demise of the hummer name are dramatic improvements for driveline efficiency and making better use of engine power band.

I opted for the 1980's Aisin manual over the 1980's GM automatic to eliminate the torque converter power losses and provide a bit better gear spacing for mountain driving. I was also looking for an Alpha as an alternative to the manual to help overcome those issues but wound up finding the manual instead, which is fine by me as I enjoy that driving experience better and can probably plan on fewer transmission rebuilds and heat problems over the years.

I knew getting into the H3 that it was not going to be a sports car. I'm familiar with SUV's in this sort of power to weight ratio, and comfortable with that. The H3 actually has about 15% better power to weight ratio than my previous SUV (94 rodeo). The Rodeo had 3" lift, 32-33" rubber (oversize from stock 29.5") 4.30 diffs, and almost the exact same transmission gear ratios on a 5 speed manual. By the time the H3 is "done" the power to weight ratio will probably be similar or worse than my rodeo ever was (rock sliders, skids, winch, brush guard, etc). Rationalizing the power issue on mountain passes is academic at this point though. The decision to find and purchase either an alpha or manual transmission 09/10 adventure package H3 and put 315's on it was made a long time ago and I haven't experienced any reasons to deviate from this plan. The only question remaining for me, is what sort of tread that rubber will have on it.

When we want to fly over mountain passes we can take my Wife's turbo Volvo... It has a "modern" automatic that locks the converter in 3rd, 4th, and 5th. The turbo engine takes less loss at elevation and has a dramatically better power band than N/A engines. It can exceed the speed limit by healthy margins on any mountain pass in Colorado without breaking a sweat (well.. I mean... I assssuuume it can). Ironically, it's also a 5 cylinder mated to a 5 speed Aisin. Apparently that's the magic combo to get a seat in our garage.

Speaking of my Wife, I was talking toher about this last night. Of course... her answer to this problem solves everything. She said I should get a 3rd set of rims so that we have dedicated snow tires, dedicated off road tires, and dedicated daily-driver/highway tires for it. Certainly can't complain about my wife... Though I don't really care to afford or find a place to store all that rubber. I also don't drive enough to rationalize all that rubber as it will all go bad from age long before I ever put enough miles on it to get my money's worth out of it. (only drive ~7500 miles/yr).

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rascole,

I'm glad to hear someone is running those STT Pro's on the H3. I'm hearing mixed opinions about how noisy they are...

Well....

In my research of this, I started stumbling on reports of rubbing on 315s. I was originally under the impression that 315s on the stock rims were sort of a surefire thing. Sounds like almost everyone rubs on at least the anti-sway bar, and some rub on the back of the fenders, likely depending on whether caster is corrected for after adjusting ride height on the front.

This has me second guessing 315's for the first time... I had some rubbing issues on my rodeo with 285's on it, and I was able to "get over it" but that was an old beat up SUV. I'll have to ponder this more on the H3.

dangit....

Go with the 315's. Very minor rubbing at full compression at full turn lock. You will never notice it.

285's will rub on the sway bar, and depending on the tread pattern/height can rub if fully stuffed and turned full lock I think. 315's will rub more, but it's only going to be when wheeling and stuffing the tire. I don't think anyone has torn the wheel well apart yet doing that. They're perfectly fine on the street.

Thanks for the details on the 315 rubbing issues. Sounds like less of a deal than I thought. 315 back on the table... whew...

If I still drove this over 20,000 miles/year, I might consider two sets of tires - street and off road. Bigunit did this with his 3.7. I'm agreeing there is a power loss but it was one I can live with.

Went into my favorite Discount Tire around the corner from where I live today (been doing business with them for over 10 years). They talked me into making the transaction happen today so I could take advantage of some memorial day specials, (MIR's), and I went ahead and went for the 1 year no interest on their CC to get a couple of $50 gift cards. He made me a great deal on the tires and studs.... Similar to the best prices I've seen online for the same tires over the last few months so no complaints. Discount tire has always been good to me!

The H3 is getting 9 X new 315/75-16's. 5 X STT Pro and 4 X Studded DuraTracs for winter. I'm excited!

STT Pros will be a few days to come in but no big deal. I'll try to get some pictures posted when they are mounted.

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Spent some time today tinkering with the torsion bar adjustment to level the thing out a bit (both side to side and front to back). I think the body of my H3 is not particularly well lined up with the frame. I know a lot of guys like to do the "fender to center wheel" measurement, but after mounting the brush guard, I'm realizing that the brush guard isn't lining up with the body real well, which means the body is probably canted on the frame a bit. The center wheel to fender measurements are showing more discrepancy side to side than frame to ground clearance. There's about a half inch of slant in the body relative to the frame. Wonder what could be causing that... I wonder.... does the gas tank mount to the body or the frame? I'm wondering if years of lopsided weight on the body has just compressed the body mounts on the driver side more.

On the up side (pun?)... leveling up the front a bit has solved my headlight aiming issue. They were aimed pretty low, makes me wonder if the previous owner had the t-bars cranked before. The first 6 "turns" or so on the torsion bar adjustment bolts were also quite smooth running, then it got very rough/hard to turn.. Not sure if it was running out of adjustment or if these have been adjusted "up" before, perhaps I was running into the rust parts of the threads that hadn't been just recently cranked back down before I bought it. HMMMM....? (I didn't go past 6 turns on final adjustment, but was just experimenting with the range of adjustment to see how it looked/measured out with different options. Looks like with the 315's I should manage just about 1 foot of ground clearance in the breakover zone. Not bad for a "stock" SUV.

Fuel tank mounts to the frame. Check your body mount bushings if you think the body is leaning in relation to the frame, might have some that are shot.



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Thanks Jpaul,

I've been "eyeing" other H3's, and actually, GM "trucks" in general. A LOT of them lean left. I suspect the factories where all these trucks are made are lopsided. I don't see any obvious evidence of a body mount problem.

There was a TSB for the H3 lean in that the rear leaf springs were not properly tightened at the factory - probably tightened with the H3 in the air vs on the ground.

Your brush guard probably has adjustability in its mount. May be more practical to measure body to frame.

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Hi alrock,

I read that TSB and already tried loosening all the leaf suspension bolts, jouncing, and retightening the day I was making adjustments up front to see if it might help. I didn't measure any change afterwards. [shrug]

Looks great! I am contemplating pulling the trigger on these tires this week. though I am still undecided on 315's or 285's. Do you have any early review on them?

I've been running them for a couple years on mine. I have tried a lot of tires and these have been my favorite so far. Wet/dry traction is good, go like heck off road, do surprisingly well in snow, and while they have a nice hum they are not overly loud like many M/T tires. They are are sort of a hybrid tire with a heavy lean towards mt. Plus they just look good.

svxr8dr said:

Looks great! I am contemplating pulling the trigger on these tires this week. though I am still undecided on 315's or 285's. Do you have any early review on them?

Click to expand...

I've taken the STT Pro's far enough down the road and trail to have some initial impressions:

Road noise is reasonable for the type of tire. Just noticeable with windows up, Easily drowned out by low volume on the stereo. At highway speeds it almost seems like they get quieter. They remind me of pretty much all aggressive AT's I've run in the past for road handling manners, as in, they don't "track" straight like a proper highway tire. Be prepared to take on more steering responsibility for the direction of the vehicle with tires like this. I am surprised that they do not exhibit low frequency "thumpy" ride at low speeds. Even my previous experience with less aggressive duratracs developed a thumpy ride at low speeds as they wore on. So far these are smoother than I would have expected with ever so slight vibration at medium and low speeds. Based on my experience with duratracs, I don't expect these to stay this smooth and quiet as they age but here's hoping they prove me wrong.

They don't seem to have any trouble balancing or running highway speeds smoothly (I've had em up to 80+).

Chalk test on these tires will have you down at <24PSI before making contact across the full tread width in a straight line test. It rides very sloppy at this pressure and with very high rolling/steering resistance on the tarmac.

I've resorted to setting them right at 30PSI cold, which keeps the TPMS system happy, provides a good balance of ride quality, rolling resistance, noise, etc.

With the 3.7L mated to the 5 spd manual I have no complaints about power on 315's that I didn't have already about the vehicle on 285's. The tire size makes very little difference here other than spending a bit more time in lower gears, which is inconsequential in a manual in terms of driveline efficiency. I still have use of 5th gear on the flats and mild uphills, dropping to 4th and 3rd for most mountain passess, with the ability to sustain somewhere around the speed limit reasonably well. Fuel economy has dropped on average maybe half a mile per gallon, but its hard to quantify as I haven't ran a full tank since putting these tires on that wasn't interrupted with some sort of unusual usage scenario that would throw off the measurement (pulling a trailer, off roading, etc).

On the trail I've been airing down to ~16-19 PSI hot, (so they probably lose a few more as they cool off at low speed), Traction offroad is excellent, but after running 3 trails they have suffered a fair bit of chunking on the outer lugs and the biting edges on the outer lugs are all pretty much rounded/chunked out/over. The center lugs have held up better. Very minimal tire spin in all 3 trips, but in the tires defense, 2 of those trips were on some of the roughest, rockiest trails any "normalish" SUV with skid plates, rock sliders, and lockers could ever go on. Chinaman Gulch and Holy Cross.

The 315 size is very hard on the front end of these vehicles for trail use. After running the first trail, the front diff crossmember bushing went out, and a steering tie rod inner joint developed play. The second trail wiped out a steering rack bushing and took it out of alignment again, the 3rd trail broke a half shaft, which I replaced on the trail, and also threw the front end out of alignment and has play somewhere (haven't found yet). I drive as slowly and carefully as possible over obstacles, often slipping the clutch at idle to ease it over stuff. Only using the gas pedal on spots too steep to pull through without it.

Bottom line... 315's look great and DO give this vehicle some serious off road capability for what it is. That being said, I'm not sure the 1/4 ton front end on these H3's is up to the task of tires this big. So far it is reminding me of my isuzu, requiring front end repairs and realignments after every trail.

dup

I had problems with chunks of tread getting ripped off my BFG KO’s on trails in Alabama. Just put on Nitto Trail Grapplers and went on Poison Spider at Moab. They still look like new after dealing with all those rocks.


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