I know both of my sons have had issues with their dodge trucks with the steering. My youngest son had a 1997, 2500 Reg Cab Sport truck with the V-10 engine, 4X4. Truck drove good and had no issues in the first 30k miles will he listened to his older brother and he installed over size tires and lifted the truck. Guess what he now had steering issues about 10 k miles later and the steering would wander on the road and had the death wobble.
Now my older son's 2006, Crew Cab 2500HD 4X4 Cummins engine was fine also as new; but once he lifted the truck and put oversize tires and rims on will he had steering issues. He beefed up the steering box support and uses a heavy duty steering damper; the steering is back to normal.
My opinion is that most of the problems on the straight axle 4X4 trucks is caused by the owners lifting the trucks and using oversize tires and rims on their trucks. This has been a common problem since I owned my first 4X4 truck as far back as 1973 with my AMC Jeep Cherokee (full size). If you installed oversize tires and rims this would be an issues and then when you lifted the vehicle it became worst.
The manufactures design their vehicles around stock specifications and not for aftermarket equipment. If you install aftermarket equipment you do run the risk of that component or system not performing as designed. This may not be all of the issues with the steering but I do think it will account for most of the problems.
Jim W.
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