Suspension / Ride Quality Problems

[MattRoberts123]

Ok... most of you probably saw my post last week about my curiousity of the possibility of my shocks going out with about 22,000 miles on my SUT.

I am SUUUUPER fed up and don't know what to do.

I took the truck to the dealership last week... they told me that they thought my door panels were defective because of all the rattling, and were going to order me new ones. Now we all know that prior to the 2008s ALL the H2 door panels are defective... (bad design)

I went ahead and took the truck to a local stereo shop. Paid them $400.00 and had them dynamat the every single inch of all 4 doors and door panels that they could..... all I can say is WOW.... the car is SILENT now. The doors are SOLID when they open and close.... NO rattles, etc, etc, etc... I HIGHLY recommend this to ANYONE that wants to enhance their time spent in the truck!! It also made the acoustics of the car SOOO much better... the speakers are so much clearer and all that...

But now back to my issue. I called the service manager today and told him I was bringing the truck back... the ride just ISN'T what it should be. On the way there, I passed a low rider chevy truck with air ride or hydraulics or whatever... that truck was bouncing all over the road... looked like a bobble head truck....

Instantly, I knew of how to describe the ride in my SUT..... it rides the way a lowrider looks when they drive down the road. It is like there is NO give in the suspension and it DOESN'T take care of any of the bumps in the road.... you just get shaken to death when you hit a bump, and if you hit one after another, or a road with a lot of seams or what not, then you just keep bouncing and have that feeling that you can sometimes experience when going over a bridge.

I had the service manager and the tech ride with me. They both stated that they thought it was a little "tight" but nothing too much. They also said that they thought the SUTs typically rode a little rougher than the standard wagon H2. I have to disagree. I see nothing in the 2 vehicles that should make the ride quality any different.

They said they would order me new shocks and call the tech hotline to see if they had any suggestions.

As I mentioned before... this H2 has NEVER been off road. I DID have big off road mud tires on the truck for about 15,000 miles... but I recently took them off and put back on the factory wheels and tires in an effort to fix this problem. I learned that the tires and wheels were NOT the problem, as it almost seems worse with the stocks back on. The only other repair that was done is that I had them install the extra spacers on the body mounts to help with the "creaking" noise at the body mount points that some of us have noticed.... I believe there is a tech bulletin out for this fix.

The steering wheel doesn't wobble... the alignment is good, and the wheels are well balanced.... there just seems to be no play in the suspension and I don't know what could be going on.

I would REALLY appreciate any advice that could be given so I could give the techs at the dealership some additional info or things to look into.


Thanks!

[Yetti]

well I'm reading you spec under your sig and I wonder how much air you run in the 37"s you have. I think it may be part of the issue if they are set to high, you get tons of bounce and your shocks can't cancel it out. I would play with it a bit but start out around 35 psi and see how much it improves. if you have the tires up higher then 40psi then I say they are lending to the problem at this point. secondly is the spare tire still mounted on the back or did you remove it? if you took it off it too can throw the ride off by taking the balence out from front to back in how the vehicle absores bumps. you may not think much of it but the tire is figured into the whole ride picture and it can effect it a bunch when all the weight is removed.

[Yetti]

s'cuse me I didn't catch that you put the stock tires back on in my first read. still the fact remains. I run my stock BFGs at 38 psi in summer and 40 in winter. the ride is great.

[MattRoberts123]

Yes the spare tire carrier has been removed.... that makes for a good point... what could I do to counter the fact that the weight is now missing.

The stocks are running like 42psi at the moment...

[Yetti]

Howdy again, I guess just as a test to see how much you can do for weight I would see if you can add weight to the bed with something heavy such as old sheet rock or bags of cement to offset the weight difference. I have never weighed a tire so I expect they are heavy, I'm guessing around 100lbs + the tire carrier. also since your climate isn't as cold as Michigan I would drop down the tire pressure to around 35-38 psi. make them all the same. if you see a huge increase in ride quality remove weight a little at a time to see if you can come to a reasonable amout to keep in the truck to get the bounce out. if it comes down to it you might just buy a nice piece of thick diamond plate cut to fit the bed to replace the weight and still look nice.

by the way does yours have air suspension? I am only guessing it does not.

[mdoyle]

Don't forget that spare is hanging off the rear so it's distance from the center is providing more leverage than the same amount of weight in the bed. To get the same moment of inertia you'll need more weight in the bed.

It's the same thing with sandbags in the bed of a pick-up, the guys that failed high school physics try to keep them near the axle, the guys that know better place them by the tailgate :)