03 towing issue….

[Fastbird]

Have an 03 that I’ve owned since day one. Truck has an issue it has had since around 100k miles. Truck has 242k on it now. Truck pulled my TT very very well with no sway whatsoever. Ball joints were changed at 100ish and the truck has never been the same pulling wise. I’m currently on the 4th set of ball joints. Fresh ball joints, Thuren track bar, later style steering linkage, 6 bolt steering box, King stabilizer. All of this has 4K miles.
Anyway…since the ball joints were originally changed, the truck just doesn’t control trailer sway near as well. I’m not really sure how to describe it. But trailer def controls the truck. Trailer will make a move and steering input is needed to control the sway. Trucks feels sort of floaty at times. It isn’t a trailer issue as it does it with two different trailers. Last week I put one of my trailers on a Chevy and no issues. Hitch height was not right on the Chevy as I Didn’t want to reset hitch. Still pulled fine with very very little side to side movement of trailer.
I’ve been told that solid axle trucks are hard to get back to new pulling wise. Also read that front axle position is paramount in a solid axle truck.

I’m close to selling her and getting another rig. But still feel this issue should be fixable.

The control arms/bushings are still original. I have to think that if axle placement is a big deal that possibly they need replaced?

What I don’t understand is what could have been changed so much, geometry wise, from the original ball joint replacement? Alignment was done wrong and has been wrong 3 more times since?

Shackle bushings do need replaced, but not sure if that is the cause of the current issues. They weren’t bad at 100k miles.

Thank you for any help!!

 

[Topzide]

1) Are you running the Thuren alignment specs for your truck?
2) What brand ball joints used?
3) TT weight and tongue weight on hitch?
4) How old and type of tires?
We would need this to help "steer" you in the right direction. TDR members have help solved many issues and helped us feel better with our trucks! Keep us updated with info as required and needed to help. More info gives us something to help resolve your issue.

 

[Fastbird]

1) Are you running the Thuren alignment specs for your truck?
2) What brand ball joints used?
3) TT weight and tongue weight on hitch?
4) How old and type of tires?
We would need this to help "steer" you in the right direction. TDR members have help solved many issues and helped us feel better with our trucks! Keep us updated with info as required and needed to help. More info gives us something to help resolve your issue.

I was not aware of the Thuren alignment specs. I just did some reading and I feel fairly confident the alignment might be the issue. The truck acts exactly as they describe if aligned to factory specs.

Currently the truck has EMF ball joints. Over the years it has had XRF and Napa Supreme. The problem started when the XRFs were installed. The truck wandered horribly with the XRFs. The XRFs were replaced in under 20k for the Napas. Wander went away, but the trailer towing issue remained.

Both trailers (28 foot enclosed and 32 foot TT) weigh approximately 10k. I do not know tongue weight.

Hankook dynapro extreme ties. 285/70/17 E rated. Less than 4K miles. I do not believe it is a tire issue. I have had Michelin LTX, Nitto Terra Grappler, Hercules Terra Tracs and the Hankooks. All act the same since the factory ball joints were replaced.

 

[AH64ID]

With that many ball joint replacements how worn are the openings for the ball joints?

 

[lionrampant]

With the "floaty" feel to the truck you may not have enough weight on the front end. Do you have a weight distributing hitch (WDH)? If not you should seriously consider one, if so you might want to check the adjustments to make sure enough weight is being transfered forward.

 

[Ozymandias]

Binding ball joints. The evil itself.

 

[sag2]

You would be wise to weigh the trailers and then either weigh the tongue weight or calculate it via the truck scale. Once you know the weights you can make sure you have at a minimum 10% and better yet 12%-15% tongue weight. Then adjust your WDH to get as much weight as possible back on the front end.
I would also disconnect tie rod ends and see if ball joints are binding as Ozy suggested. Binding joints will cause you to constantly chase the truck down the road.

 

[Fastbird]

I have a was

With the "floaty" feel to the truck you may not have enough weight on the front end. Do you have a weight distributing hitch (WDH)? If not you should seriously consider one, if so you might want to check the adjustments to make sure enough weight is being transfered forward.

I have two wyd hitches. I have the front end back to within a 1/16 of an inch from unloaded static height. As I said in my original post…I put my enclosed on a Chevy last week. Hitch height was at a minimum 1.5 inches too low. Front end of the Chevy was super high and obviously didn’t have enough weight on it. Chevy pulled/controlled the trailer as it should. This is not a hitch/ball height/incorrect weight bar issue. As I said in my original post..this issue started 13 years ago when the only thing that was changed was balljoints. Nothing else changed. Same trailer, same load, same hitch height, same bars, etc as before the ball joint change. I cannot get the truck back to its original state…First set of replacement ball joints were tight. Finally (after arguing with XRF for almost two years) I got a refund. The Napa joints that replaced them were considerably better, but still not back to where I started. And now…another set of ball joints…and a fresh front end…the truck is basically where it was with the Napa joints. Which is not where it needs to be.

 

[Fastbird]

You would be wise to weigh the trailers and then either weigh the tongue weight or calculate it via the truck scale. Once you know the weights you can make sure you have at a minimum 10% and better yet 12%-15% tongue weight. Then adjust your WDH to get as much weight as possible back on the front end.
I would also disconnect tie rod ends and see if ball joints are binding as Ozy suggested. Binding joints will cause you to constantly chase the truck down the road.

I can do that. But I feel 99 percent confident that is not the issue. A lifelong friend of mine who has a very reputable shop, and knows the whole plight of this truck installed the joints. He triple checked everything after they were installed.

 

[Fastbird]

I am fairly sure that whatever issue I have is a “next level” type of deal….or something very basic. Such as (somehow) the alignment has been wrong for 13 years.

 

[Topzide]

Ball joints and alignment cause all types of "fun" when just driving and white knuckle when towing! I hope that it is just an alignment. I had my '01 1500 set to the Thuren spec and that made a big difference in the steering. Sounds good that you've got a good shop that you can trust doing the work, but, have them check for binding as mentioned by Ozzy. We're getting somewhere close to solving it.

 

[AH64ID]

I am fairly sure that whatever issue I have is a “next level” type of deal….or something very basic. Such as (somehow) the alignment has been wrong for 13 years.

When did you upgrade the steering? Did you use the stock alignment specs for the Y steering on the T steering?

 

[Ozymandias]

Big problems out there because all shops will align to factory specs no matter what steering is present.
Customer must insist to get it done the right way.