2011 sloppy steering

[jkern]

When i first got my truck with just less than 30k miles on it, i was impressed with how "tight" the steering felt with no slop or wander require correction going down the road. Now as it has aged and has 75k miles on it, it feels sloppy and loose, like a second generation truck; have to pay attention and provide small but constant inputs. The front end components are good and tight with no movement anywhere, tires are wearing well and a recent alignment was good. I noticed the other day sitting with the truck off (waiting on a woman) that there is probably 30 degrees of slop or "dead space" in the steering wheel before it seems to hit the "hard area" and tries to move the wheels. Where is this slop at? the steering box? can i adjust it? I am about to embark on a cross country trip and would like it as tight as can be.

-jeremy

 

[Bowe]

I have a 2011 3500 with same problem
Ken

 

[AEdelheit]

A steering box brace would be a good item to get as it puts a bearing below the pitman arm and takes a lot of stress out of the box and does tighten it up. I would also look very closely at the track bar, its probably got a little play in it.

 

[jkern]

I had one of those steering box braces on my '99 (second gen); while the principle seems probable, i never really thought it "fixed" the steering on that truck. It probably helped some.