Any ideas on how to upgrade the steering rack on the H3?

[backcountryislife]

So... I'm about to be on steering rack #4 for this summer.

There's GOT to be a way to fix this issue, or at least improve the durability.

What does the 2500 run? Could that be fitted to the H3 perhaps?

I'm a bit on the high side, 24" up front... but not rediculous.


I do wheel at least 2-3 days a week, and usually on pretty tough stuff. Me going through 3 racks in a season is likely similar to most folks tearing up one a year... I've put on about 900 miles offroad this summer so far, so I don't think I'm really going through them "quicker" than others... I'm just going to increase the incidence by how much I wheel.


Yesterday I was on a hard local trail, buddy bent his sliders, I snapped my rack, and the other guy was in a buggy... so he doesn't count.






(as the photag, I never seem to get good pics of me)



Problem is.... this is my back yard, I'm not going to stop running the trails by my house, so I need to figure out a way to make this stronger.

(btw, I was on flat ground, no front articulation, bounced back into a rock that pulled the wheel from my hands & snapped the rack... kinda random, not even on a feature)

My forearms are FRIED right now, and I've got bruises on my legs from where I had to lever the wheel into them for the rest of the trail to keep the wheel from spinning each time I hit a rock off center.

Seems like my only option right now is to lower the front... but there's got to be another way to go about this.

I'd assumer that a lift (rancho) would drop the rack mount so that it's horizontal instead of having a down angle, but is there another way to do that without lifting so much? I do NOT want to go up 4" (or, if you figure you'd eliminate the T-bar crank, even the extra 2" it would give me fron here) I want to be relatively low, as I've already dented my back rear from a tippy trail we've got with trees on the downhill side.

I know this has been discussed before, but I've never found any real fix, just to replace the junk part with another junk part... that's not going to fly for me anymore, something has to change.

[Bebe]

Go through and read my thread where we took a 2500 Rack and re-did the tie rods, and made a clevis mount for the rack. Used heims instead of rod ends. Works great so far.

Maybe....

There are a lot more brains on this board besides mine.

[backcountryislife]

Only thing I found in your thread was the extra mount... where did you do that? haven't seen the 2500 change before!

Right nw debating between finding a way to make this better... or just trading it in. One of the two needs to happen I guess, can't have a truck without power steering

[Beat95YJ]

You have a 24" lift?

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by Beat95YJ

You have a 24" lift?

I think he meant 2-4. He has no lift.

[backcountryislife]

no, I meant 24"... common measurement for H3 guys, it's the distance from the center of hub to bottom of fender.

If I recall that means I'm up about 2" in front via torsion bar adjustment, which puts my tie rods at a pretty harsh angle.


24" lift though... no way man, I'm up about 48"

[Bebe]

With a stock rack all you can do is reinforce the break-a-way. Sometimes GM get it really wrong - but hard to say why that decision was made - probably safety.

To get out - keep a highlift handle handy with some pipe clamps, and a quart of fluid - that will get you out a little easier.

Do you have a pic of the broken rack?

[Bebe]

That measurement is from the research I did in early 2006 from adjusting my t-bars. The stock height is 22.25, the max turned, for both ride quality and suspension pre-load is 24.25.

The measurement is from center of hub to base of fender.

It only affects position on the tie rods, and doesn't affect strength of the rack.

Anyway, driving style is the only real adjustment you can make cheaply. Crawl, slowly over obstacles with your wheels straight, staying on top of the obstacles.

It was probably already fatigued at the break-away from earlier wheeling, and what ever you hit was the last straw.

[backcountryislife]

Originally Posted by Bebe

That measurement is from the research I did in early 2006 from adjusting my t-bars. The stock height is 22.25, the max turned, for both ride quality and suspension pre-load is 24.25.

The measurement is from center of hub to base of fender.

It only affects position on the tie rods, and doesn't affect strength of the rack.

Anyway, driving style is the only real adjustment you can make cheaply. Crawl, slowly over obstacles with your wheels straight, staying on top of the obstacles.

It was probably already fatigued at the break-away from earlier wheeling, and what ever you hit was the last straw.

I go slower & easier than anyone I've ever seen wheel around here... I'm sure there's things I could do, but with what I have, going any easier isn't going to happen... I'm SOL there. I think having a 4:1 will help that some, and that is getting fast-tracked currently for a few reasons.


With the tie rods at a increased angle though, woudln't that put more stress on the rack? At very least it's putting more up & down stress on it than it would be if they were straight... I'd think that would be a contributing factor.

Which thread did you put the 2500 in? I can't find it. I found you asking about it, but then that thread just ended.


btw, no pics yet... haven't torn into it. It's the common break though, right where the black sleeve meets the aluminum.
Tried adding a bunch of fluid last two times... didn't really help much, it just drains out SOOOOOO fast.

I think if I had a flex line put on like Hunner did, then I'd be in better shape, but it just gushes out when it snaps.

[Bebe]

Originally Posted by backcountryislife

I go slower & easier than anyone I've ever seen wheel around here... I'm sure there's things I could do, but with what I have, going any easier isn't going to happen... I'm SOL there. I think having a 4:1 will help that some, and that is getting fast-tracked currently for a few reasons.


With the tie rods at a increased angle though, woudln't that put more stress on the rack? At very least it's putting more up & down stress on it than it would be if they were straight... I'd think that would be a contributing factor.

Which thread did you put the 2500 in? I can't find it. I found you asking about it, but then that thread just ended.

Actually it was a 1500 HD rack. (I could have sworn it was a 2500 - but I can't find one. Although I know it was made only one year) It's in my build thread - go to the IFS thread - click on it and on the right in the menu bar select search this thread, and type in "Rack".

The 4:1 will make a huge difference. I've yet to break a rack or a tie rod. I had a leaky one once and it was replaced under warranty. I was running with torsion bars cranked and 35's.

[backcountryislife]

Ok found it... didn't think about how differently you would have had it mounted.

Do you think with a little work we could get it to work in the stock position?

I've got a few good local fab guys, bu the concern I'd have is the steering input matching up & the lines working with what we've got.

[Bebe]

I do.

[HummerNewbie]

I would think that your best option is Hunner's mod to help support it. You apparently do a lot of wheeling while you can but I have never heard of anybody going through more than a couple if several years and most never go through one. 4:1 would help but based on your description of what happened it sounds like you might be a bit more aggressive with the skinny pedal than it was designed to handle. Never broken a rack on either of mine but did bend the mount once though that was due to winching and the wheel getting pinned for a moment before anybody said anything.

[backcountryislife]

When it happened... I was in neutral, going backwards. It yanked the wheel out of my hands as I wasn't expecting it.

I just went backwards hard & faster than expecting. I made a mistake for sure, and I'm sure it was weakened from prior skinny pedal action as well though, but in general I'm MUCH more tame than anyone else I wheel with. They hammer stuff... I crawl it.

The current plan is to just put another junk rack in there, as I've got no idea what it would take to put anything else in there, don't have time to hold off & see what I might be able to do. I'm going to add 3 of the stock mounts & I think Hunner has a sleeve that he can send me so I can beef one of them up a bit more yet.


btw, I did some counting this morning, this rack has about 30-35 days on trail before it broke. About 2/3 of those days are on "hard" trails. Most folks going through one in a season or two is probably about the same amount of trail days as I've got or less, so I'm not feeling TOO bad about it, but I really do need to do some upgrading so this doesn't happen again as quickly this time.

[HummerNewbie]

Guess I missed or misunderstood that you were in neutral and going backward, my bad. I am not criticizing here but, you do wheel a lot and while you don't hammer on it like others you wheel with the number of failures to me just screams driving style. You mention most people going through one or maybe two in a season but the fact is that most people will never go through one. There is a small number that have had to replace theirs and a minuscule number that have gone through more than one but most will wheel for years and not go have one failure. As they say, shit happens and there will be failures but they are so far and few between that I would take a very serious look a what is causing your failures before putting a bunch of money into beefing it up. Not that it wouldn't help to beef it up but if you do where are you moving the stress to for future failures. Get to the root issue first then beef it up.

[backcountryislife]

I'm at 24"... that's part of the problem. I wheel hard stuff almost daily... that's another part. The harder obstacles are at around 11,000 feet or better, I've got a 2.64 T case, I'm driving a manual....
At my altitude I have almost 100hp less than you (approx 160 hp, and that's not even at the top of the trail.)

The first one I broke, was a seal, (65k on the truck) seems pretty common.

Got a replacement, and snapped that one the 2nd day out with the new rack.

Got a replacement again, and have 30+ days on that one...

This will be #4.

I'm getting a 4:1 T-case so I can go slower, locking the rear (auto locker)and bracing the heck out of the rack. These things done, it should be much easier to crawl slower & have more confidence.

I also had two spark plugs very loose when I went to change them yesterday... so I feel like that wasn't doing me any favors in having the torque to go slower.


Between all these things, to do the same feature here that you would do there... I've got to be much higher rpm to climb something, which means that I go faster... no two ways around it. People tend to not think about the environmental factors that altitude adds when dealing with motors... it changes a TON. I just don't have the compression & therefore the torque & HP that you do. I can be gentle... but only to an extent. To go much easier would be taking a tug on every obstacle.

I could start running the easy stuff... but I might as well just drive my Jetta if that's the case. I don't go out looking to cruise... I go out looking for a challenge, so I don't take the easy lines, I take the hard lines because it's what I'm there for.


Either way... I'm taking a few steps to increase durability, and I hope that continues to help. Just being able to go slower should be a BIG step.

[HummerNewbie]

Your right, didn't think about the altitude factor nor did I recall you had a manual. The new t case will make a difference. There are a lot of people around that wheel (H3s) at high altitude regularly but I am sure not as much as you since it's your back yard. The 65K on the first one was definitely a factor but by no means a common failure. Hopefully the bracing and change in gearing will help you get at least some more time out of a rack giving you more time to research possible mods.

[HummerNewbie]

Originally Posted by backcountryislife

I drove by that thing daily for a couple of months while it was at a small dealer near here, made me sick. They even advertised that it came with the ladder

[backcountryislife]

Originally Posted by HummerNewbie

Your right, didn't think about the altitude factor nor did I recall you had a manual. The new t case will make a difference. There are a lot of people around that wheel (H3s) at high altitude regularly but I am sure not as much as you since it's your back yard. The 65K on the first one was definitely a factor but by no means a common failure. Hopefully the bracing and change in gearing will help you get at least some more time out of a rack giving you more time to research possible mods.

That's what I'm hoping for!

If it makes it a full season honestly I'd be happy, that's a lot of days on the trail.

There's just all these things that SEEM little till you add them up (like having loose spark plugs... that always helps right?) but I'm trying to help them little by little, my wallet resists the mods though...

[HummerNewbie]

I hate adding all those little things up, it can get ugly quickly.

[silvrzuki77]

I am sure once you add the 4-1 and the Elocker to the rear. Your steering rack will live a little longer. Thats the biggest concern with with T is worrying about the steering rack when I am in the middle of no where. For me and when I have my little kids on board I always lock the front and rear diffs just cause. I ve been looking into doing another rack brace near the break away point.

[backcountryislife]

No E locker for me... mine is 99% trail rig now, I'm just putting in an auto locker.

Way cheaper, easier to remove later if needed, and don't have to remember to push the button