2017 2500 Steering Box

[andymac]

I am interested in seeing what (if any) problems you folks have had with the steering boxes on these trucks. I will start by disclosing that in my business (ranching) my trucks have a tough life. Most of them never leave a dirt road and some stay in 4 wheel drive for months at a time. With that being said I am going through intermediate steering shafts and steering boxes left and right. I just had one replaced at 28,000 miles and when it was rebuilt, the comments on the ticket were it shows wear and tear consistent with about 250,000 miles on the odometer. Yes it has 28,000 miles. Why didnt I go to the dealer for this? I typically do but have had to fix so many poorly installed steering shafts and boxes after warranty work has been done that I have found its best for my time and money to fix it correctly within my own mechanics for this particular issue. This is some of the worst quality I have seen in a steering system in such a short time period and maybe its due to the way they are worked, I don't know. I have trucks that go 200K easily on some of the worst roads in the country and the only issue to address is the steering system and front end play. I am averaging (on my one tons) about 40K miles per intermediate shaft and and least a new box every 50K for OEM or 100K for a quality aftermarket. Is this the nature of the roads I travel or do the pavement dwellers have issues as well?

 

[JR]

Would a 2 wheel drive low kit be beneficial to you? I use mine frequently, the only time I find I really NEED 4 wheel drive is when we've had some good rains and the ground is soft. I've found even towing moderate loads this truck will climb a pretty good grade off-road in 2 low with some tongue weight.

 

[NIsaacs]

Have you ever used these? https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pfn-sg856/overview/year/2012/make/ram/model/3500

 

[andymac]

I appreciate these two options. At this point this seems to be the main weak link in trucks that have generally have been darn near flawless under some tough conditions. Unfortunately 4x4 is probably a must about 75% of the time. I will look into that summit racing box. It really was an eye opener to see ram using a box that barely does the job, at least for us. Then again we could talk about the new F350 that didn’t make it out of the dealer parking lot. I guess they all have an issue or two. Appreciate the advise.

 

[cerberusiam]

It is the roads you drive on and your usage that is the problem. That box with the larger pitman arm shaft is way better than the older units. If you are killing them then there is likely nothing other than a customized system that will help. Then, you simply have a size problem. There is simply not enough room to mount and hold a nuit large enough to take the stress. If you did find a heavier box then the next problem would likely be the frame cracking.

 

[andymac]

It is the roads you drive on and your usage that is the problem. That box with the larger pitman arm shaft is way better than the older units. If you are killing them then there is likely nothing other than a customized system that will help. Then, you simply have a size problem. There is simply not enough room to mount and hold a nuit large enough to take the stress. If you did find a heavier box then the next problem would likely be the frame cracking.

You might be right. However that would not speak well of current quality control as we never had this issue on older rams. Our 2003 era trucks rarely had an issue and some with 200K+ on them in the same conditions. Our parts truck (2016 2500) had a full front end rebuild at 40K miles with a new box and that trucks job was to go to the city on the freeway. Never had the stress of the work trucks. Just not impressed with the engineering on the steering side of things. I am going to start installing steering braces and hopefully that might help a bit.

 

[cerberusiam]

The steering box and the cross over steering is a huge improvement over the early systems, especially in rough conditions. Granted, the Dodge cross over is not as beefy as the Ford parts so we use them in a custom build, but, if the earlier style was lasting longer then QC must have really gone down the tubes. The newer box has a huge Pittman arm shaft which was the source of most of the problems on the early boxes but the rest of the box could be suspect. Depends on what your failures actually are and what is failing. The hydroboost systems are picky about fluid and flushing is a must or they seem a lot more susceptible to failures. Are you flushing th esteering\brake system frequently? Is it the hydraulics filaing or the externla parts just wearing out? Newer trucks have gotten progressively heavier and that doesn't help on nominal parts either. At the end of the day, nothing is engineered to go much beyond the warranty period anymore. They simply do not want you running the same vehicle for thna 3 or 4 years, gotta roll that inventory. Everything is planned obsolescence on LD vehicles. Gone are the days of something you could fix with baling wire and plumbers tape to get you home and parts were easy to find. Of course, these trucks are not 140 HP 6 cylinders with 3 or 4 speed transmisisons either.

 

[CMB]

Have you considered a sector shaft stabilizer like this:

www.genosgarage.com/product/ram-steering-box-stabilizer-bd-1032003/s

I feel as thought it really tightened things up in the front end. There was a post somewhere of a go pro mounted under the truck viewing the steering box. It was amazing how much the box moved. Not sure if it was the mount flexing or what.

Good Luck,

 

[jhenderson]

You might try giving RedHead steering boxes a call. They reman worn boxes using custom components for a much tighter tolerance than factory. I’ve had good results using their products for years.

 

[cerberusiam]

If the box is moving on a 3rd or 4th gen the frame is broke, they just don't have those problems anymore. The red head boxes aren't any better than OE new and sometimes not that good. Neither another box nor a steering stabilizer will stop breaking and wearing parts if that is what is failing. The type of failure and the source has to be identified first or it is just parts swapping hoping for a better result.

The Dodges as a rule last a lot longer in the oil fields and haul roads which is comparable to the OP's usage. A lot more 4500 and 5500 units are showing up for heavy loads and hard usage as they are beefier trucks. If those don't last then nothing short of a 6x6 or tracked vehicle is going to last and they break also.