Hummer H3 with Old Man Emu Lift?

07H3

New member
Does anybody here have a H3 with OME lift? I had the OME lift in a JK and was quite happy with it.
 

Token

Explorer
There were only two production lifts made for the H3.. Rancho (3") and Tuff Country (4").. There was a company called Full Throttle that listed a 12 inch lift for the H3, but I'm pretty sure there was only one ever made. That truck is sitting in Oxford, MS right now.. Rough Country made one prototype lift for the H3 as well.. It was actually the first lift made that I know of. They had some issues that never made it out of R&D and when the guy in charge of the project quit and took his H3 with him, the project was closed down. I've seen that H3 a few times here in Memphis and I'm pretty sure the current owner likely lives within 3 or 4 miles of me.. That was a 6" lift that would allow you to fit 37" tires on the OEM wheels and no rubbing. All the other lifts require different wheels with more offset or using at least an inch and a half of wheel spacers..

OME never made a lift for the the H3 and with the demise of the brand it's not likely they ever will.. I've heard ARB has stopped production of all H3 stuff as well.. Bumpers, Racks, Snorkles, etc.. Once current stock is gone, it's gone.

The folks that I've talked to that have ran the Rancho and the Tuff Country all say that the Tuff Country lift isn't nearly as beefy as the Rancho and was never designed for a truck that's taken offroad a lot.. The Rancho is beefy enough to take some offroad abuse, but in the process of doing the lift you actually end up loosing a lot of flex in the rear end..

Daystar makes a body lift kit.. 1" I think..

Those torsion key lifts are a waste of money.. You can get an extra 2 inches of lift out of the front end just by turning the torson bars up..(about the same as installing indexed torsion keys).. You can turn it up further than that but the angles on the drivetrain at that point are way to much and will shorten the lift of the CV Joints in the axles as well as put a lot more stress on the steering rack.. For reference you can turn the t-bars up until there is 24.25" between the center of the axle and the fender lip straight above the axle. You'll need an alignment after turning the torsion bars up.

You can lift the rear 1.5" with extended shackles. 1.5 over shackles for the rear of a Jeep YJ fit dang near perfectly and can be found for about $30.. You'll need to drill the holes out just slightly to fit the OEM bolts back in place. DO NOT USE THE BOLTS THAT COME WITH THE SHACKLES. They are just slightly smaller than the H3 bolts and will allow slop and extra wear on the spring bushings.

Without a doubt the BEST thing oyu can do under the rear of the H3 to gain clearance is to do a Spring Over Axle mod.. You'll pick up nearly 6" of clearance under the axles.. The trick to the lift is that a straight SOA swap wil net you about 8" of lift.. WAY TO MUCH unless you do something to the front end. Cost will hit you about $1000 to have a shop do it.. If you're thinking about going this way let me know and I'll tell you what I can about doing the axle flip without getting to much lift..
 
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