Death Wobble on a new truck???

[BShuster]

I have a 2004 turbo diesel quad cab 4x4 with 315/12. 50x17 BFG's, 4 inch superlift and dual steering stabilizers. It only has 19000 miles on it and 10000 on the tires. I noticed that when i hit a bump or pot hole i get a serious wobble out of the tires up front. I've ran BFG's on everyone of my trucks and never had this problem before. I checked and double checked the front end and can't see nothing wrong. After looking through the web site i see alot of people that are running the Hummer tires are getting the same problem. Is anyone else? Another thing, I have the daul steering stabilizers but there not doing much to stop the virbration or wobble. Good money spent on that upgrade!!

 

[FullSack]

yes, more than likely it is your tires. Sad but true, you'll need the E rated tires.

 

[nickleinonen]

i don't think it is the tires, as some here have experienced the DW on stock tires. i haven't experienced the DW [i have 315's] and i tend to drive a little too quick on crappy roads... as for the "E" rating of the tire, the D rated 315's have the same load capacity as the E rated 265's, just at lower pressures. and who in their right mind wants to run 80psi unloaded??? when 50psi unloaded gets you the same weight carring capacity [in the summer, i was running high 30's/low 40's for tire pressures on my bfg's before this massive fuel price increase ]



have you had an alignment done since the lift? out of all the alignment variables, caster effects the DW most

 

[HOBrian]

Bone stock 265 tires! I had the DW on Sat. now the truck has a really bad vib. no matter what speed. Truck is going to the dealer on Wed. I am up for any suggestions

 

[SWithrow]

I had stock 265 E rated tires when the DW happened, changed the shocks because they were bad (45k ???) still DW, went to a 265 C rated, still DW. The dealer said all four ball joints were bad at 49k (?) along with left outer tie rod and torsion bar. $2k + and problem is fixxed.

I would have someone check frontend compnets before you spend a bunch of money.

 

[DPelletier]

The tires don't necessarily cause DW, but they definitely are a contributing factor as is the lift kit. Yes some stock trucks have gotten DW (mostly with worn front end components), but the vast majority have larger load range D tires and some sort of lift or leveling kit.

As I've said many times before, I believe DW is an inherent problem related to the design of the front suspension (very similar to a Jeep TJ) and caster settings. As soon as something changes the geometry (like a lift) and there is enough play (soft tires, worn suspension components), voila; Death Wobble.

The BFG 315's may have the same load rating as an E tire in the stock size, but load ratings and stability are two different things and the D's aren't as stable. Period.



Cheers,

Dave

 

[HOBrian]

I had stock 265 E rated tires when the DW happened, changed the shocks because they were bad (45k ???) still DW, went to a 265 C rated, still DW. The dealer said all four ball joints were bad at 49k (?) along with left outer tie rod and torsion bar. $2k + and problem is fixxed.

I would have someone check frontend compnets before you spend a bunch of money.

Was that out of your pocket???

 

[yycguy]

BShuster

I have almost the same setup as yours except my lift is a 2 inch. I have the BFG 315's as well. After installing the lift and the tires I had Death Wobble bad! My suggestion is do a search on this site for DW and that will keep you reading for awhile, you then can come up with your own determination of what to do to remedy it.

I did ball joints, (30 miles) Kore stabilizer blocks, replaced the Rancho Stabilizer shock back to OEM, front end alignment with lots of Camber. My DW is now gone and hopefully will stay gone (fingers crossed).

Hope that helps

 

[BNakamura]

BShuster,

I have a 6" Tuff Country lift and 37s, the only problem I had was the track bar came loose and DW. Directions said to put Loctite but I thought the lock nuts were enough. Put Loctite on the bolts and didn't have any more problems.

 

[BShuster]

You know I lowered my tire pressure to 40psi instead of 50 and I haven't had the Wobble since.

 

[4xquadrod]

I started to get it, rotated my tires and it went away.

 

[Cummins Cowboy]

what is death wobble, whats it feel like



a few years back I used to drive isuzu COE box trucks the small npr's on one of them if the tire hit a bump just right it would start bouncing so bad it would be all you could do to hang on and get the thing stopped, and stopping all the way was the only way to get it to stop, the tire would just hop violently it was the strangest thing I had ever seen, once a new set of tires where put on, it worked fine, then as that set wore down the problem came back, it happened once at 80+mph going down the mountain one night and..... well I just about lost it. is this the same thing??

 

[BShuster]

Thats the death Wobble!!!

 

[Hercules130]

The dealer said all four ball joints were bad at 49k (?) along with left outer tie rod and torsion bar.

Where is the torsion bar?

 

[NLofton]

I bet he meant to say track bar

 

[JApol]

Bone stock 265 tires! I had the DW on Sat. now the truck has a really bad vib. no matter what speed. Truck is going to the dealer on Wed. I am up for any suggestions

Check your steering stabilizer, i had the DW after catching it on a hidden limp and snapping it in two

 

[jwduke]

Wonder if the track bar isn't strong enough to handle the effects of larger tires & a lift?

 

[BShuster]

Your truck don't have a torsion bar it has a track bar and it is right behind you steering stabilizer running from the right side of the truck to the left side. Your track bar prevents the diffrential from moving side to side. It basically keeps it in the middle of the suspension.

 

[Yo Hoot]

I have stopped DW by just changing from 40 to 50 psi... and make sure both sides are dead even. I still get it sometimes though over 65 mph on a bad angled bump.



Can't wait to go to e rated tires.

 

[HLewallen]

Yo Hoot - I literally couldn't wait. I've got four BFG 315s in my garage with like 9k on them, but TrXus load range E on the truck and no DW.



DW seems to be caused by any number of contributors in the front suspension. Many of the contributions are additive, and their cumulative effects just need to exceed a certain point and comined with the right input form the road - bingo - DW. Thus fixing one weak link can often elliminate the problem, even though there are other contributers still present, waiting to combine with something else to reach their evil goal of DW. Throw in the fact that all trucks are different due to production tolerances and you have a problem that has led many of us to the point that we want to shoot our truck/ourselves/the guy who sold us the tires/Kroeker or Boardman (how can they fix this and I can't!?!)/your friends who delight in making fun of your brand new very expensive truck that has a problem as ridiculous sounding as "Death Wobble"/etc.



Sorry - just my ranting opinion. The "E" tires were expensive.



And a precautionary statement for any currently dealing with DW - shooting your truck or any of the others listed is NOT worth it.