Humvee shock absorber and spring options?

[Staggerracing]

If you look at the previous message, you will see that I added the Cepek shocks, the ride is really nice and amazing in the trails.

I am also from Michigan and the Detroit area. I mainly use my truck around Roscommon and Silver Lake. Currently have the Soft Ride Springs from American Humvee to improve the ride. What setting did you set your shocks too?

 

[LouWon]

I'm located in Taylor, we also spend time in St-Helens at the family cottage.
I have the setting at the lowest, seems fine for city driving, I do have the controller, so I can adjust on the fly.
I do have to play with the adjustments, last time we where in St-Helens, I hit the trail pretty hard and had it at the lowest setting, will all of the bumps on the trails, I did manage to do some dammage to the fenders from the tires .
This is on me, I also removed the sway bar in order to get more flex, this also made a big difference, flex wise.

 

[Staggerracing]

I'm located in Taylor, we also spend time in St-Helens at the family cottage.
I have the setting at the lowest, seems fine for city driving, I do have the controller, so I can adjust on the fly.
I do have to play with the adjustments, last time we where in St-Helens, I hit the trail pretty hard and had it at the lowest setting, will all of the bumps on the trails, I did manage to do some dammage to the fenders from the tires .
This is on me, I also removed the sway bar in order to get more flex, this also made a big difference, flex wise.

I have cycled the suspension a few times and there is no room to run larger tires lol. I go to St. Helen as well our family cottage on Higgins Lake. St. Helen has some pretty big woops and this started my quest for a better suspension system for these trucks. I was really looking at the Cepek shocks because they are quality shock but they where designed around the H1 weight plat form which is about 2,000lbs more than a basic M998. Since the a basic M998 is so much lighter I wasn't sure how good you could tune the dampening on these shocks to meet your needs or if you had to run them at min or max to be somewhat happy. Here is my soical media plat forms if you want to talk more about suspension.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshua.freeman.3154
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTf7J6-3dKOwY44ybUiR54g/featured

 

[LouWon]

That's the reason I went with Cepek, tested and proven, the owner aslo took the time to talk to me , as I say, unlike the so called fabricators that are around me.
Let me know if you ever want to check them out, seems that we are not too far apart.

 

[Staggerracing]

I have found the same problem as well with the local companies another reason why I started doing my own thing. I did talk to Tom as well he is a good guy and knows his product very well.

 

[LouWon]

Yes, Tom was easy to deal with, that's why I bought them from him.
I would other sellers where like him.

 

[Staggerracing]

Yes, Tom was easy to deal with, that's why I bought them from him.
I would other sellers where like him.

Are you selling your old front coils?

 

[LouWon]

Probably, I don't have any more use for them since I have the new set on

 

[Staggerracing]

Probably, I don't have any more use for them since I have the new set on

Give you $50 for the front set.

 

[thoner7]

American humvee has 2" leveling springs and a 4" lift springs. I assume that's 4" in the front and 2 in the rear?(I'm not certain)

Browse Products & Services | American Humvee

Find custom Humvee parts for your custom build, repair or project

www.militarytruckworks.com

But wouldn't raising the front 4 inches (and maybe 2") cause some problems with the stock half shaft U joints? Seems like a pretty steep angle to me.

 

[WhoMe08721]

Has anyone tried (Predator HMMWV Performance Shock System) . They are a second Fox Racing Shock you add to the stock shocks.

Predator HMMWV Performance Shock System

Predator is proud to release our new HMMWV Performance Shock System. This system adds to your existing shocks making it a dual shock system. The high

predatorinc.com

 

[mturner2003]

Don't mean to revive an old thread but I wanted to give my take on the American Humvee Springs just in case anyone else looked up something similar.

I am quite certain I was one of the first sales outside of close friends and his own testing. I bought them back 2018. I was mainly interested in them because I wanted the lift to help clear 42's. Ride improvement just happened to be byproduct.

Ride quality: I test drove my Humvee for around 10 minutes. Bought it. Brought it home and immediately put it on the lift. That was the only experience I had on the factory springs. Which by the way, I had the HD rear springs. Once the AH springs were installed, I thought it rode OK. As expected, honestly. I spoke with the guy on the phone for quite some time and he explained that the reduced spring rate (struggling to remember here... 720 or 740 lb/in I think it was) will ride much better than the stock Humvee springs. But, the AH spring rating it is the equivalent to a 1 ton truck. So it will still be stiff. And I 100% agree with that. It rides just like a 1 ton truck. But do not expect a cushy Cadillac ride.

Lift: They definitely cleared the 42's perfectly. Left just enough fender gap they didn't seem stuffed. However, when I installed the springs, the lift was so much that with the shocks fully extended, the eyelet was 2" below the bracket bolt hole. I had to literally jack up the opposite corner of the vehicle in order to compress the spring in order for them to line up for me to install the bolt. I drove it like this for a week and took it all back apart because I couldn't stand driving the truck around with the shocks in full extension, only working in compression and then slamming back into full extension. Anyway, I pulled them out and welded on extensions to the mounting bracket. This helped put the shock back in stock riding position and help with ride quality obviously. I had called the guy to let him know that I had to build the extensions, as he was awaiting feedback from me on how I liked the springs. He was surprised because up until this point he had never had this issue. We chalked it up to the fact I had a barebones 998 and that it was much lighter than anything he had previously tested on.

I paid $1000 back in 18'. I see the prices have gone up. Would I do it again? No. They were an absolute pain to install. I had to ratchet strap both A arms out of the way in order to get enough clearance to even shimmy the spring into place... and that's with the spring having been compressed in my 120 ton shop press then steel banded in 3 places. All this being done on a lift too, so optimum work around efficiency. Not my first rodeo wrenching either. Former master tech, automotive engineer now. I know body lifts aren't the greatest because the gaps do look dumb. But, if I were to build another and wanted to run 42s again, I would just do small body lift and add coil spacers and live with the poor ride quality. It is a Humvee after all.

 

[Action]

Don't mean to revive an old thread but I wanted to give my take on the American Humvee Springs just in case anyone else looked up something similar.

I am quite certain I was one of the first sales outside of close friends and his own testing. I bought them back 2018. I was mainly interested in them because I wanted the lift to help clear 42's. Ride improvement just happened to be byproduct.

Ride quality: I test drove my Humvee for around 10 minutes. Bought it. Brought it home and immediately put it on the lift. That was the only experience I had on the factory springs. Which by the way, I had the HD rear springs. Once the AH springs were installed, I thought it rode OK. As expected, honestly. I spoke with the guy on the phone for quite some time and he explained that the reduced spring rate (struggling to remember here... 720 or 740 lb/in I think it was) will ride much better than the stock Humvee springs. But, the AH spring rating it is the equivalent to a 1 ton truck. So it will still be stiff. And I 100% agree with that. It rides just like a 1 ton truck. But do not expect a cushy Cadillac ride.

Lift: They definitely cleared the 42's perfectly. Left just enough fender gap they didn't seem stuffed. However, when I installed the springs, the lift was so much that with the shocks fully extended, the eyelet was 2" below the bracket bolt hole. I had to literally jack up the opposite corner of the vehicle in order to compress the spring in order for them to line up for me to install the bolt. I drove it like this for a week and took it all back apart because I couldn't stand driving the truck around with the shocks in full extension, only working in compression and then slamming back into full extension. Anyway, I pulled them out and welded on extensions to the mounting bracket. This helped put the shock back in stock riding position and help with ride quality obviously. I had called the guy to let him know that I had to build the extensions, as he was awaiting feedback from me on how I liked the springs. He was surprised because up until this point he had never had this issue. We chalked it up to the fact I had a barebones 998 and that it was much lighter than anything he had previously tested on.

I paid $1000 back in 18'. I see the prices have gone up. Would I do it again? No. They were an absolute pain to install. I had to ratchet strap both A arms out of the way in order to get enough clearance to even shimmy the spring into place... and that's with the spring having been compressed in my 120 ton shop press then steel banded in 3 places. All this being done on a lift too, so optimum work around efficiency. Not my first rodeo wrenching either. Former master tech, automotive engineer now. I know body lifts aren't the greatest because the gaps do look dumb. But, if I were to build another and wanted to run 42s again, I would just do small body lift and add coil spacers and live with the poor ride quality. It is a Humvee after all.

So those spring put the halfshaft joints at their angle limits? or more.
The normal thing to do for big tires is to do a body lift. not push the hubs as far away from the truck as you can.

 

[mturner2003]

So those spring put the halfshaft joints at their angle limits? or more.
The normal thing to do for big tires is to do a body lift. not push the hubs as far away from the truck as you can.

I would have to say, yes. More so in the rear. I had to replace the rear CVs at one point bc the angle chewed up the upper joint.

 

[Glider]

Don't mean to revive an old thread but I wanted to give my take on the American Humvee Springs just in case anyone else looked up something similar.

I am quite certain I was one of the first sales outside of close friends and his own testing. I bought them back 2018. I was mainly interested in them because I wanted the lift to help clear 42's. Ride improvement just happened to be byproduct.

Ride quality: I test drove my Humvee for around 10 minutes. Bought it. Brought it home and immediately put it on the lift. That was the only experience I had on the factory springs. Which by the way, I had the HD rear springs. Once the AH springs were installed, I thought it rode OK. As expected, honestly. I spoke with the guy on the phone for quite some time and he explained that the reduced spring rate (struggling to remember here... 720 or 740 lb/in I think it was) will ride much better than the stock Humvee springs. But, the AH spring rating it is the equivalent to a 1 ton truck. So it will still be stiff. And I 100% agree with that. It rides just like a 1 ton truck. But do not expect a cushy Cadillac ride.

Lift: They definitely cleared the 42's perfectly. Left just enough fender gap they didn't seem stuffed. However, when I installed the springs, the lift was so much that with the shocks fully extended, the eyelet was 2" below the bracket bolt hole. I had to literally jack up the opposite corner of the vehicle in order to compress the spring in order for them to line up for me to install the bolt. I drove it like this for a week and took it all back apart because I couldn't stand driving the truck around with the shocks in full extension, only working in compression and then slamming back into full extension. Anyway, I pulled them out and welded on extensions to the mounting bracket. This helped put the shock back in stock riding position and help with ride quality obviously. I had called the guy to let him know that I had to build the extensions, as he was awaiting feedback from me on how I liked the springs. He was surprised because up until this point he had never had this issue. We chalked it up to the fact I had a barebones 998 and that it was much lighter than anything he had previously tested on.

I paid $1000 back in 18'. I see the prices have gone up. Would I do it again? No. They were an absolute pain to install. I had to ratchet strap both A arms out of the way in order to get enough clearance to even shimmy the spring into place... and that's with the spring having been compressed in my 120 ton shop press then steel banded in 3 places. All this being done on a lift too, so optimum work around efficiency. Not my first rodeo wrenching either. Former master tech, automotive engineer now. I know body lifts aren't the greatest because the gaps do look dumb. But, if I were to build another and wanted to run 42s again, I would just do small body lift and add coil spacers and live with the poor ride quality. It is a Humvee after all.

I ran into the same problem with armada springs. They were too long. I could have compressed but figured I would have ran into the same outcome as you. When you added the extensions you effectively eliminated the suspension travel limiter causing the axles and ball joints to do that work. No one is asking my opinion but I think the highest lift you can go is about 2" and have decent up and down suspension travel.

 

[cjd]

Interesting thread. Thanks for all the feedback!

 

[rolling18]

thanks for reviving this thread!!
as long as people keep buying these things old threads will always be "relevant!"

with the people who removed or un bolted the stock shocks...for testing...
what would be "wrong" with removing the stock shocks while keeping the stock springs? (not towing or hauling anything .. except my own 160 lb ass)
I have the "heavier" varient 2 door P/U soft top config..

and have removes the sway bar as well..
thanks!

 

[osteo16]

thanks for reviving this thread!!
as long as people keep buying these things old threads will always be "relevant!"

with the people who removed or un bolted the stock shocks...for testing...
what would be "wrong" with removing the stock shocks while keeping the stock springs? (not towing or hauling anything .. except my own 160 lb ass)
I have the "heavier" varient 2 door P/U soft top config..

and have removes the sway bar as well..
thanks!

Sway bar…. If you like to sway too far over, I guess you could go for it…. I mean what’s a roll over in a HMMWV gonna do anyway

 

[rolling18]

Sway bar…. If you like to sway too far over, I guess you could go for it…. I mean what’s a roll over in a HMMWV gonna do anyway

I dont go fast enough or, turn at steep enough angles for roll over... I mainly wanted "some" articulation for off road crawling activities..

 

[Coug]

aren't the shocks also there to limit suspension travel?
If so removing them then going off roading would probably be a bad idea