I am buying a Predator tire carrier for my H2. The problem is that I just don't have the time to install it myself. I wanted to get my dealership to install it for me since I have to go in for my first oil change anyway. The dealership wants to charge $400 for the installation only. Is this a reasonable price? It seems a bit excessive.

I am buying a Predator tire carrier for my H2. The problem is that I just don't have the time to install it myself. I wanted to get my dealership to install it for me since I have to go in for my first oil change anyway. The dealership wants to charge $400 for the installation only. Is this a reasonable price? It seems a bit excessive.

Rip off

$400 to install, that's nuts IMHO. I am by no means skilled in this sort of things, but I did mine under an hour, and in my case, I had to drill an additional mounting hole as well as hole for the wiring.

If time is an issue, may be you should check with a local 4 wheel drive shop.

Do it yourself. I did mine. Just make sure you have a grease gun (manual type is fine) to grease the bearings. Thy have a light coat of oil from the manufacturing process & definitely need grease immediately. Also, they say to tighten the bolts to 70 ft lbs (if memory serves). That’s based on what Hummer recommends for your recovery loops. You will need to tighten with more torque than that to keep the thing from shifting. Good luck!

Ditto on the bolts. I did mine myself and it took about two hours. Mr56 may have done it in under an hourbut he probably missed a step or two. Even for someone with only basic mechanical experience it is a straight forward job. Aligning it is probably the most difficult part to get it correct but doing it yourself will save you the $400 and give you some satisfaction.

Best carrier on the market, even better than the SUT factory in my opinion, no pulling pins and a drop down feature if you need to change a tire on the trail.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Aligning it is probably the most difficult part... </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


I quite agree with RIH. I needed to cheat both parts toward each other to the end of their travel.

Lean Machine,
At that price, does that at least come with handy wipes to clean yourself up after the dealer *fcuk’s you?

*Misspelled on purpose.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Mr56 may have done it in under an hourbut he probably missed a step or two. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not sure what those steps may be I mounted the SUT's carrier on the SUV and there was no instruction. Couldn't have missed what was not there in the first place Other than the drilling of 1 more mounting hole for the passenger-side bracket and one hole on the bumper for the wiring, everything elese was pretty much R&R. That 1 hour didn't include running the wiring nor the time spent in chasing down the correct bolt/nut, and the final removal of the interior mount, etc. May be I got lucky, the assembly aligned fairly easily on the 2nd try.

To be fair, I spent a lot more time before hand in figuring out what I needed and how to do the install properly.

sclui56,

If you don't mind saying, what did the SUT carrier set you back?

tower,

It was a take-off I got off ebay, it turned out to be from Dan's SUT. I think it went for around a bit over $600 including shipping.

Great price. My dealer wanted twice that.

I got one last year, The only hole to drill was for the license plate light. Only took about 1 hour. Another pair of hands will be helpful for the alignment.

It's easy. Do a search as I detailed the process with pictures somewhere on this forum last year. Also, it's a good idea to install it yourself as you may need to do some adjustments down the road.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Lean Machine:
I am buying a Predator tire carrier for my H2. The problem is that I just don't have the time to install it myself. I wanted to get my dealership to install it for me since I have to go in for my first oil change anyway. The dealership wants to charge $400 for the installation only. Is this a reasonable price? It seems a bit excessive. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hell, I live in Dallas. I will come over and do it for $300.

Or if you want to come over to my casa in north Plano I will give a fellow H2 owner a hand for freebie.