Has anyone experienced the 04.5 front-end "death wobble?"

[DDiMarco]

I recently experienced an uncontrollable front end "death wobble" after hitting a small pothole at about 40 mph. The whole front end just shook for a good 6-7 seconds in an uncontrolled oscillation. If there are any sport bikers out there, it was like doing a "tank slapper on asphalt. " My guess is the heavy mass of the front end driveline compresses the coil spring as it goes into the pothole, unloads, and the damping effect of the shocks cannot overcome the harsh return rate of the spring, allowing this wild bounce/oscillation. I could not discern if the front end movement vertical or if the steering wheel was turning left-right. The steering wheel just shook like crazy and I had a death-grip on it until it stopped. Has anyone else experienced this phenomonon?

 

[JVolpe]

Many have and I am one of them. Most have had leveling kit and BFG 315/70R/17s, but some have reported it stock also. Search "death wobble" and should find plenty of threads here, DTR, DieselRam and DTW sites. Some seem to have difficult time correcting.



Mine was a one time serious incident, and scared the ****out of me. On the highway at about 70mph on a right curve, hit a road bump and the bouncing was so hard it picked up the front end and moved over half a lane. Almost hit a car. Had to come to almost a complete stop before it settled down. Bounced so hard it bent both stabilizer link rods, the one on the left had probably a 25-30 degree bend in it.



Mine seems to have been caused by specific conditions, very low tire presure, I lowered the Rancho 9000x shocks to very soft setting and a little play in the Rancho Steering Stabilizer. Replaced the link rods, aired up the tires correctly, set the Ranchos to stiffer setting and put the stock steering stabilizer back on. It has not happened since and only happened the one time. I have 17000 miles on the truck and most with the 2" leveling kit, Rancho and 315s.

 

[JCleary]

although I've not had this problem in my Ram, I have a '98 F250 gasser and a '99 F350 diesel (I was NOT responsible for these purchases )that do a similar thing when I hit potholes. I replaced the shocks on the diesel, and it helped a bit, but it will still change lanes over bumps if you're not careful.



What's different with the Ford is that if you have any pressure on the steering wheel in either direction, it will lunge that way. Scared the heck out of me a couple of times.

 

[SHyans]

Thankfully I am a past member of the DW club. As JVolpe mentioned, 315's and 2" leveling kit seem to be the common denominators for other members.

It's gone now but it took two trips to the dealer and replacement of both ball joints, track bar, etc to exorcise it.

As a fellow biker, I can realte to your "tank slapper" analogy... very similar in the adrenaline department!

DD, you've got issues. Before you start messing with the "camber" settings recommendations (as surely will happen later in your thread), do yourself a favor and get your ball joints looked at. I went down both these roads to find the cure and I already mentioned the solution that made me comfortable driving over 50 mph without wearing a DEPENDS!

 

[Yo Hoot]

Adding caster fixed mine. Had it once with the spacer (poor mans lift) leveling kit long time ago. Once I adjusted the caster it never happened again. I went on a couple of long trips... both over 1000 miles ... no DW.



Since then I dumped the spacers and went to Kore springs and Bilstien 5100's. Much better suspension feel and still tight. I'm at 18,000 miles. Just had the truck up on a lift for state inspection. Everything is tight as new.

 

[Po' Riggity]

No death wobble here, but I think its definetly something that you should take to the dealer for. . Ive heard a few people have had to get new trucks because they couldn't get the death wobble to go away.

Scott

 

[DDiMarco]

Guys, we're talking 7900 miles here, 90% highway miles. If I need new front-end parts now, what am I going to be replacing at 100K? There is significant outside cupping on both front tires but it may just be the result of turning 6000 lbs of truck; it looks like it could use some caster adjustment. I believe I read something on Geno's site awhile back where he aligns the front end to his personal specs and doesn't have any probs.

 

[SHyans]

Mine started at 3000 miles. I was on the verge of crashing TWICE. After that, I wasn't into experimenting on a possible solution. A very high end alignment shop said caster adjusment, as little as there was to adjust, MIGHT fix it. I didn't want to participate in a game of trial and error. At that point a possible third episode of DW was not what I wanted so I took it to the dealer and they gutted the front end. I wanted it GONE. The vision of potential DW while towing the trailer at 70 had me thinking about a good epitaph for myself.

I now have 8000 miles and just recently regained confidence in my truck at 60 plus mph.

 

[chimneyguy]

My 03 developed the DW at around 35K. It almost cost my life when it happened at 70 mph. It wasn't to bad most of the time because I carry about 800 lbs in the back most of the time. That seems to help. But, that day I was empty. My dealer put a new steering stabilizer on and the DW went away. Now the truck has 70K on it and the DW is back. Time for a new stabilizer I guess. I am trying to find a better brand stabilizer shock this time. Maybe I can go 50K between shocks.

 

[TexBamBam]

I had it real bad with the BFG's and switched to the MTR's and now it's gone... some say 6 deg. of positive camber will fix it... going to try that the next alingnment.

 

[THUREN]

I'd tend to say that it's not a caster problem but more an under engineering problem. Think of it this way... would you use rubber bushings for your tie rod ends? Most likely not because of the deflection in the rubber... so why does the track bar use rubber bushings??? I know you are thinking "the trackbar is a suspension part" but in reality it's more related to steering. If the trackbar has ANY play, movement, or deflection it DIRECTLY relates to the steering in an almost compounded amount. . ANY sideloading of the suspension(wind,road,g-forces,TIRE BALLANCE, etc) will shift/deflect the axle causing feedback into the steering even if ALL the steering TRE's are in perfect order. From my experience the track bar is to blame for most death wobble stock/new or not and it usually shows up when larger tires are installed to help get the RESONATING WOBBLE going... The ball joints are the other suspension component related to DW and can have the same effect.....



Just my opinion.....



Don