death wobble is back already

[brods]

... . It is also more complicated than just a tire change. Do we know what causes DW? Yes, a mountain of small issues combined into the right order to have a undesireable effect. Death Wobble.



... . The diagnosis of the issues is the biggest burden of all. Once the proper part or parts are replaced, it will get better.

Well said, couldn't agree more.

 

[rbattelle]

Are there any A/T tires in load range E? I love the traction offered by M/T tires, but I don't off-road enough to justify the penalty in tire life.



The 285/75/17 Toyo A/T's are only D rated.



Nitto Terra Grapplers are offered in 295/70/17 with a load rating of 3195 lb. It's not obvious if it's a 10-ply tire, though. And it doesn't appear to be specifically E-rated.



-Ryan

 

[AlexWV]

Not only are those Toyo 285s D rated but they are rated at 2755 lbs which is what I look at. My D rated BFG285s are rated at 3195lbs@65psi.



I have not found a 17" A/T tire that is E rated. There are some A/T tires in load range E in 18" (Toyo) and 16" (Mickey Thompson, BFG).



If you look into how radial tires are built, you will not find any tire D or E with 8 or 10 or even 4 or 6 plys. The number of plys is an old rating system for bias ply tires. I wish they would stop using it.



Most radial light truck tires actually have one steel and two or three fabric body plies. BFG285 have a 3-Ply Polyester Carcass with 2 steel belts which probably makes the 450 lbs rated difference between them and the Toyo.



I have a great deal of heavy towing experience on BFG295/75R16 tires which are also load range D but rated at 3400 lbs and have a taller sidewall than a 285/70R17 or even a 315/70R17. I don't think twice about the D or E designation. For me it is all about the pounds rating.



I forgot: when I wear out the 285s, I'm gonna get me a set of those 295 Nitto. That size of tire looks perfect to me. With it's 3195lb rating I'll say it is a D rated tire .

 

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

Are there any A/T tires in load range E? I love the traction offered by M/T tires, but I don't off-road enough to justify the penalty in tire life.



The 285/75/17 Toyo A/T's are only D rated.



Nitto Terra Grapplers are offered in 295/70/17 with a load rating of 3195 lb. It's not obvious if it's a 10-ply tire, though. And it doesn't appear to be specifically E-rated.



-Ryan

Contrary to what Nitto advertises, the actual weight rating of their 285/70/17 is 3415 lbs, not 3195, at least the set CSilkowski purchased: https://www.turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=119963&page=3&pp=15&highlight=nitto

It does say load range D, but like AlexWV pointed out the Load Range rating is fairly irrelevant. . . weight rating is more significant.



Also note the tire is 70 series not 75.



Vaughn

 

[JSellers]

As long as you have positive caster, 1/16th" toe in and E rated tires. Your DW will be gone!



Enjoy,

Greg Boardman

President DRC

Greg,



Where are you measuring the 1/16" toe? At the rim? Or at the tie rod?



I turned my tie rod sleeve about one full turn, after having the alignment shop set it at dead-zero. That would be about 1/16" at the tie rod. It helped, but I'm not sure if it's too much toe. I don't want to promote more tire wear than I have to live with.



Thanks,

John

 

[cwbyinjeep]

I had a set of 295/75/16 BFG A/T on my PSD 4x4 Excursion and they were by far the best towing tire I have probably ever had and lasted forever too. I wish they offered a 295/75/17, I would already have purchased a set, but I guess I will try to wear out these Goodyears.

 

[Greg Boardman-RIP]

John,

We measure from the farthest forward point of the wheel and the fartest aft point. One turn should be about right.



CWB,

The 295/16 is a good tire. The 315/70/17 is a horrible tire.

I really don't know why they differ so much. They just do.

Greg

 

[SilverSage]

as in Steering Stabilizer?

Yes a good Steering Stabilizer fixed my problem. No change in tires, caster/camber adjustments, steering gear, track bar (Lukes Links did help), or ball joints made any difference. After spending many hundreds and reading hundreds of threads I took my truck to Stan’s Alignment in Aurora CO (303-343-1424), they replaced the Steering Stabilizer (don’t know the make part number) wife lost the receipt. A few hundred bucks and my Death Wobble is a thing of the scary past.

 

[rivercat]

John,
We measure from the farthest forward point of the wheel and the fartest aft point. One turn should be about right.

CWB,
The 295/16 is a good tire. The 315/70/17 is a horrible tire.
I really don't know why they differ so much. They just do.
Greg

how bout 325/80/16 D just picked them up this morning and dumped the old swampers. Couldn't find TOYOs had to go with the new Cooper stt and now here I am looking at steering Threads. I have a legitimate problem though that just wasn't defined enough with the heavy rough riding swampers to notice. It seems my left tire is sticking out an inch or two farther than the right so I ordered thurens trackbar today to adjust the diffrence I think the axle was out of line ever since I had my elchepo tuff country lift installed due to the increased angle in the track bar and inproper placement of the trackbar spacer plate that lowers the ball end down. OR it my have been that honda the wifey ran slap over the hood of when someone waved them out and they bravly/blindly tryed to turn left instead of right.


If the wifeys incident did cause my out of line by the blunt impact fore of 5500 LB front end (right front to be specific) colliding and climbing the 30 or so inch new model accord hood, What -how do you see frame damage or out of squareness so to speak? how do I tell if my frame has been tweaked any. I love my truck but I hate fighting the wheel every where especially a long trip say in the mountains, add some rain. Thanks for any help

 

[CATCRACKER]

i had an 03 developed wobble with 27K after i put 2" level kit and 315's. for what it is worth i will never do that again to a truck or ever tell someone to do it.



when you mod your truck you will lose your warranty dont get mad at dodge.



if you go back to stock everything and change your steering stabalizer with a new oem one you will not have the death wobble that is how you get ride of it for sure.

 

[TCluff]

i had an 03 developed wobble with 27K after i put 2" level kit and 315's. for what it is worth i will never do that again to a truck or ever tell someone to do it.



when you mod your truck you will lose your warranty dont get mad at dodge.



if you go back to stock everything and change your steering stabalizer with a new oem one you will not have the death wobble that is how you get ride of it for sure.

i had the dw when all stock, with level lift and even with a new suspension, had to be an alignment problem, had 3 alignments since then and now the wobble is gone but i wont say it is gone for good, thanks for the info

 

[LHepplestone]

Sounds like you need a new dealer. I have a leveling lift and BFGoodrich 33x12. 5 mud terrains on Centerline wheels and they didn't say a thing when they replaced my tierod ends and drag link. (Never had DW) My tires stick out 4 inches from the wheel well. I even got a new lift pump free one year out of warrantee with a little pushing. The American auto dealers tend to disgust me and a lot of people from a certine line of vehicles. That is a big problem. More people are buying foreign because of that. The japs are now getting into full size trucks. That is trouble for the big three and so are the dealers.



Lee Oo.

 

[JRunge]

My dealer in Salt Lake City replaced the steering stabilizer and track bar under warranty. They were also the ones that installed the 2" lift. They said that they have never had a truck come back with DW after they changed the stabilizer and track bar. They said that my stabilizer was shot and the track bar was out of specs. Maybe some bad parts from the factory. Your dealers should know about this warranty repair. The key word there is "should".



Good luck;



Jim

 

[SHyans]

My dealer in SLC also replaced ball joints, stabilizer track bar, etc when the truck was new with DW after less than 1,000 miles. Full warranty. That was AFTER I'd put on the level kit and 315 BFG AT's. The also don't say JACK about my Juice, air filter, etc.

I'm testing them now. I just put on a TC 4. 5" Easy Ride suspension and Bilstein 5100's. An alignment shop that knew what the hell they were doing did the caster adjustment after the lift.

Hinckley Dodge, Larry is my service rep.

 

[JRunge]

Larry is my rep also. Nice guy.



regards;



Jim

 

[SHyans]

Larry is my rep also. Nice guy.



regards;



Jim

You reading this "Mr Hinckley"

Larry needs a raise.

 

[Big Sur]

I recently got the DW after installing leveling spacers :{



Took the spacers out and replaced them with D25 springs, Bilstein 5100s (0-3" lift) and a Luke's Link. Added another + degree of caster (4. 2/4. 5) Got the DW even more frequently!!!



Replaced the Mastercraft load range "E" tires with Liberator load range "D" and the DW is gone ... sort of ... I can still feel the it wanting to happen through the steering wheel, but the new tires aren't letting it.



Just wanted to add this bit of information since an earlier post in this thread stated that going from a "D" to an "E" would "fix" it. My "fix" was just the opposite.

 

[rjohnson916]

Owned my truck almost 1. 3 years so far, +30K miles. Mods in siq, but otherwise stock aside from 285's, truck had 315 BFG AllTerrain T/A Ko's from the dealer new. I have never had a Death Wobble ever, and I drive this truck hard daily.





-Ryan

 

[Big Sur]

I had another 01. 5 that didn't have the DW. I bought it new and put leveling spacers on it and nothing else. Only had it 25k miles but not one problem with that one.

 

[dmhollister]

I heard when someone did a lift, they made longer controll arms and they say that helped alot. Is your 6" lift that way or did you use stock length arms with the kit?

I agree with the stock arms being too short. When I lifted my jeep, the stock arms were way to short and made it very difficult to drive. Two months later, added a long arm kit and is now much much better to drive, but still has issues because of the lift.