AnswerID: 391805 Submitted: Thursday, Nov 19, 2009 at 17:51
uzz32soarer
replied:
It certainly was an excellent opportunity to give this lumbering behemoth a good test. Naturally we all have different needs and try to either purchase, or modify our vehicles to suit the intended use.
Having owned a number of 4x4's over the years, including FJ45, Bronco, Pathfinder, and now on my fifth Range Rover, I was certainly keen to give the big fella a run.
My current vehicle is a P38 Range Rover 4.6 with front and rear ARB lockers, winchmount bulbar, dual batteries,
shower, and a myriad of other ‘trinkets’ which all add to the enjoyment of the vehicle. I’ve always found the ABS difficult to deal with on this model and it certainly isn’t as good a vehicle for extreme off road use as previous Rangies that I’ve owned. But with 285 000kms on her, she doesn’t owe me too much. These days I call on the Rangie more as a tow vehicle for hauling a very heavy race car trailer, but still like the utilitarian aspect of the car. The car suits our three large dogs, it’s super comfortable to drive, fits all our gear, but is a bit thirsty to run, and could do with a few more cubes when the big trailer is hitched up.
Question is, when the time comes, what is out there in the market to replace the old girl. Yes it’s fuel injected and has a few computers on board, but for the most part you can bypass these and limp home if needs be. No ‘hill decent control’, ‘traction control’ or any of the other new fangled toys, just two solid diffs with air bags and shockers.
I recently took a 100 series out for a try. Supercharged 4.5 litre with aftermarket
suspension and other goodies. I was seriously disappointed! What a horrid lethargic, unresponsive, wallowing truck. Next I went on to try a later model independent front end in diesel / auto format. Better, driveable, but certainly not in the same class of comfort as our P38. Then it was down to Lexus and drove the V8 versions, in both 100 and 200 series.
The LX570 was great, but just way too pretty to ever take into the mountains, let alone down Robin’s ‘goat tracks’ at Bluegums. The new Rangie hasn’t been considered, I prefer my tow vehicles to have a proper ladder frame chassis under them, and the new Rangie isn’t known for its durability or ease of repair.
What else is out in the market place? Here’s the criteria:
- Proper 4wd with solid chassis.
- Serious engine with decent HP.
- Box shaped cargo area. Most modern 4x4’s slant the rear window for aerodynamics or cosmetics. As a result, the dogs have no headroom and the vehicles are getting harder and harder to load up with
camping gear.
- Station wagon design with seating for four or five adults.
- Capable of some serious off road work without adding another $25k or 500 kgs of additional equipment.
So when a mate purchased a 2006 H2 Hummer and offered it to me for a four day weekend. What’s a bloke to do besides ring Robin and see if Bluegums is open for business.
As Robin states, the vehicle was surprisingly capable. Even though it’s somewhat larger than the Patrol, it actually turned 400 – 500mm inside on a 360 degree circle test. It was surprisingly easy to drive through the bush, with great visibility, aided for the most part by the large mirrors, and the fact that; being a box; it was easy to judge the corners of the vehicle.
H2 Hummers are known to ‘relax’ the front torsion bars and long term owners either re-tension the front bars or add a secondary tensioning ‘key’ to their cars. This generally lifts the front up about 50mm and allows better front wheel articulation. My mates H2 has also been fitted with extra heavy duty rear springs for towing the Titanic. These will soon be replaced with the standard factory rear springs going back in. In combination with resetting the front torsion bars, I expect this will have a marked improvement on the current articulation.
On the test day, we did let the
tyres down to 30 PSI from the 45 PSI road pressures. Robin was running around at 18 20 PSI in the Patrol, following a harrowing ordeal the day prior. Maybe at a future time we may get the opportunity to re-sample the big H2 with the revised
suspension, correct tyre pressures, and a driver that has been in the car for more that 5 minutes of off roading in that car. Let’s wait and see how the Patrol stacks up then!
Would I buy one? Yes, but……………..
I would add additional shockers to the front to assist the standard dampening. I believe that springing would be simply sorted by adjusting the factory torsion bars. The standard steering box is changed for RHD conversion and the fitted box has 4.2 turns lock to lock. The compliance / conversion on this car left a lot to be desired, and I think short cuts were made, the correct ratio box being one of them. I would like to see sub 3.0 turns lock to lock and it would transform this car and improve it’s on road manners out of sight.
See you in the bush……..in a Hummer? Maybe!
Reply 7 of 7
