Death Wobble on a new truck???

[J.hogue]

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!!

sounds familiar i have a 2004 with a 4inch superlift and 35 inch tires. i had daul stabilizers and installed a new pro comp track bar with a helm joint helped out alittle but not enough couldonly drive 55 on freeway. finally i installed a kore streering stabilizer and wow what a difference i can drive 80 on the freway now and have not had anymore death wooble problems. i cost me 450. 00 installed at rock star engineering in san jose, but you can get one from kore engineering ,it was worth every penny i hope this helps you.

 

[THUREN]

Hey guys. .



Let me post some things here as I've dealt with TONS of death wobble issues on various vehicles, but for this discussion, I'll focus on the Dodge front end...



Three things that you have to get before understanding where I'm coming from...



#1, the tires are USUALLY what get the death wobble going. It can be for various reasons but the tires ARE out of ballance/round if you get death wobble when you DON'T hit a bump to get it going. This may be a very small amount as there is no such thing as a perfectly ballanced tire but regardless, the tires are the MAIN thing to focus on. I've seen D rated and E rated tires create DW so, IMO, the tire "rating" doesn't really have to do with creating DW... A ballanced tire is a ballanced tire...



#2, If you get DW from hitting a large bump, it's most likely the shocks... I'da never thought this until recently when a customer got DW after installing leveling coils and nothing else. . He also had previously installed my trackbar... As we were chasing the DW, and I was building him some Fox shocks, he decided to go to 4wheel parts to get it checked out. . They said DUAL-STABILIZERS would fix it FOR-SURE!!! eeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhh, NOT!!!!!!!!! Anyway... . DW was the exact same. He also had the stock size E rated tire. So, he dealt with the DW hoping new tires would solve it, but before he had the tires on I finished his shocks. The shocks COMPLETELY fixed the DW. . I would have NEVER thought but it was so... The conclusion I came to is that this type of DW is created by the control arms moving "front-to-back" once a lift is put on. The bad shocks are getting the vibation to transmit into the steering...



#3. Now , and most important, the track bar is the one thing that can bring all of these factors to a minimum. If you have ANY noticable movement in the track bar it needs to be fixed along with getting the tires ballanced(speed related DW). If there is movement in the trackbar it DIRECTLY feeds back into the steering wheel in a HUGE amount. When DW is happening you can hold you steering wheel perfectly center, as most of the wobble is being forced out of the trackbar, and watch your tires go NUTS... This would be the reason the trackbar is so prone to being the main factor... They are MUCH more touchy than you think as . 25" of trackbar play is 5 degrees of tire angle, or, almost a 1/4 turn of the wheel... .



Don Thuren

 

[TexBamBam]

Its the tires man... . ditch those BFG's... . and if it still does it then you know... it's something else.

 

[THUREN]

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

How bout' now...





Anyway, if you have the stock track bar with the drop bracket, I'd look into a new track bar with much more solid bushings and double check the tire ballance... If you changed the trackbar what do you have?



Don

 

[THUREN]

Its the tires man... . ditch those BFG's... . and if it still does it then you know... it's something else.

BFG's are pretty good usually... I don't think it's that...

 

[Bertram65]

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.

Thought you DW problems were behind you from this post... . https://www.turbodieselregistry.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131066&page=1&pp=15

Doubt going to E rated tires will make any difference, you should try putting the stock tires back on it if you still have them and see what happens, if it still has DW chances are it is the suspension mods.

 

[GDouglas]

I have been watching these DW posts for a while now and have a co-worker with a 4x4 2500 that has just happened to experience the DW for the first time. I have done some research on the International Automobile Technicians Forum and have seen people fix the DW by doing a lot of the same things you guys have done so far. Not all trucks have the same fix for the DW as others. One thing that I haven't seen on this forum is the steering gear as a source or contributor to DW. A few guys on the above mentioned forum have tried everything - ball joints, various steering stabilizers, track bars, caster angles, etc, but in the end with some of the nightmare trucks, it ended up being the steering gearbox. It seems that an OEM replacement is the only way to go according to these other technicians. They say that aftermarket ones they tried did no good. I am just wondering if tightening up the backlash in your existing steering gearbox with the adjuster on top can make a difference in DW. It's worth a try before shelling out the bucks for a new one.

 

[PSoffe]

Your death wobble is simple. The caster is incorrect and a perfect example would be the wobbly wheel of a shopping cart.



Take it to an alignment shop and have the caster checked and set. This is a commomn problem among 4 link front suspension when they are lifted.

 

[SJanko]

I have the BFG 315's. Death Wobble is ready to kill me!

 

[CATCRACKER]

i had 03 and as soon as i put 315 bfg's and 2 " lift developed death wobble. put lift on my 97 developed death wobble my new truck with not get the 2" lift

 

[Forrest Nearing]

digging up and old post while searching for info on trxus tires...



I've got 315 BFG's on my quad/short, 2" leveling kit... front end was rebuilt. zero hint of death wobble. been on some rough roads and had it as fast as 110mph.



tires may amplify worn suspension, but there's nothing wrong w/ the BFG's