j.allen1985

Ok then what about all the slammed and bagged and tricked out hhr's. y would u want something that can only be drivin on decent roads and waist all the money for it to look cool and still yet ur not ahead by doing any of it. What everyone is implying to me is that the hhr is just to be drivin until its dead then get something else. Y put rims on it, y increase the horse power if ur never gonna race it. If u do race, more than likely its gonna be on some city street, not saying that some people don't actually take it to a drag strip. Lowering a vehicle only creates more problems for the driver. I had a lowered accord and got a lot of attention, but I won't ever have another lowered car because of the pain and cautiousness I endured trying to drive it, especially on Oklahoma roads.

Mrs. DLVRNIT

Maybe all of the negative feedback comes from HHR owners that have owned them for more than 4 months! You asked for imput and for what you want to do there's no easy way! As some have suggested take your body and install it on a full frame chassis, preferably with a V6 or V8! The HHR'S front wheel drive setup will not allow you to tow anything more than the factory specs of 1,000 lbs. Also as others have stated the wheel well clearance is pretty much set at 26" max without some cutting of fenders and liners!

Really don't know why your getting all b!tchey! If you think it can be done then your the one-in-a-million! There seems to be no help here or your local fab shops (which should tell you something) so your last resort is go-for-it yourself!

Best-O-Luck ,

07azhhr

Having rims and lowering our cars still allows them to be driven down the same normal roads that we already do but yes once you really lower a car you have to be a little more cautious when driving. BUT and this is a huge BUT we are still driving them on the same roads that they were designed to be driven on.

You are wanting to drive it OFF THE CURB and plow down a rutted back yard field that is rough and not well shaped for any normal car. Yes you could lift the HHR and put larger tires on it to help with this BUT, and again this is a big BUT, you will have to seriously modify the vehicle to do so. Like I spelled it out for you, the HHR has a MAXIMUM tire height of 26.1" before the tire will rub the strut mount. The stock 16" tires are already 25.3" from the factory and if I am not mistaken the 17" factory tire size comes in slightly taller then that. This gives you almost no room to put larger tires on. Again in order to put taller tires on the HHR you would have to increase the distance between the bottom of the strut mount and the center of the hub (i.e. the center of the rim itself). In order to do this you would have to at minimum build an adapter the wrapped around the upper knuckle/spindle where the strut attaches to it and then extended up and over the top of the knuckle/spindle where it would now need to be solid enough to slip inside the strut and keep the strut plates from squeezing in when you tighten down the 2 bolts. The other option would be to have a new taller knuckle/spindle built. But it does not end there. Once you do this you will make the front axles have to articulate to their farthest point just to get them to slide into the tranny and the hub and this will not give you any more room for suspension travel without pilling the axle out of the tranny or seperating the yokes/joints. This means that you need to have the engine and tranny drop down some from the factory position. There is even more to do but I have already written this novel for you twice so I will stop here in hopes that you see the light.

None of this even addresses the towing or lack of towing ability of our cars.

Mrs. DLVRNIT

.....

IgottaWoody

Well..in reality, anything can be done, depends on how much time and money you have. Something like this will wind up being trial and error until all the little details,(Damn, didnt think about that!!!), until that time you are out of a vehicle,,and the money you spend you could havve bought another complete vehicle to do exactly what you need...its not going to be cheap, and its not going to be easy...besides, all of us 'lowered' guys drive these things daily and dont give it much thought except for the obviously extreme surfaces...we all know what the physical limits are and what can be gotten away with.If it could be done simply, it would have been done already.

07azhhr

Hopefully once he gets under the front end and looks around he will recognize what we are all trying to tell him.

This sums it up well.

11BlueJ

You should just convert it to a Transformer HHR.
Search and it's all figured out already.

Mrs. DLVRNIT

Dailey Driver ..... How would you like to walk around on stilts the rest of your life .....

Best-O-Luck ,

j.allen1985

Yeah it's a very far fetched idea. I was really just trying to give you guys every idea I had to maybe spark something. I'm not being "b*****". Just very curious and wanted to express all the details I could think of. Y'all are most likely right. This isn't the best car to do this with but hey it was worth racking everyone's imagination with.

With that being said, what kind of vehicle do y'all think would be a good one to customize to an extent but yet still be "one of a kind" that would be capable of doing what I've stated and still be somewhat economical?

HipHotRod

For fks sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!