Please help!

I was doing about 75mph on the highway last week, thought I suddenly blew a rear tire! Truck shook and jumped violently for about a quarter mile as I limped off the highway. Scared the crap out of me, had the whole family on board. To my surprise, no flat tires, no split tires, no sign of anything wrong!
-Discount Tire claims my tires are fine (19K on them).
-My mechanic says there is nothing mechanically or structurally wrong.
-The dealer blames it on my leveling kit (the only non-stock item on my truck), says I need a dual steering stabilizer...

The dual stabilizer is now installed, but I'm not 100% sold that it is the answer.

It was very violent, I almost went into the concrete wall, honestly thought I blew a tire. It hasn't happened again, but I'd like to be confidant that it never will. Anyone ever experience anything like this?

Any opinion is greatly appreciated.

 

Very sorry to hear about that! Sounds like death wobble and I've heard the leveling kits may contribute/cause this. Search this site and threads for "death wobble" and you'll find lots about it...

 

I see that you're in a cold climate area. I've had some very severe vibration issues caused by snow and/or ice inside a wheel. One time that I vividly remember, I had snow packed in a wheel that melted after I had driven for a long ways...40+ miles...and froze when the truck was parked for a couple of hours while I watched my son play basketball. I didn't notice the issue until I jumped on a 4-lane to head home and it almost shook me off the road.

 

Death Wobble!

I had it after my leveling kit scared the hell out of me.

Adjustable track bar and I have never had a hint of it back.

 

I just finished reading way too many "Death Wobble" threads, now I'm more concerned than ever. No question that I experienced a severe "death wobble." It doesn't sound like any real answer has been found...

-Already dumped $500 on the Pro-Comp dual steering stabilizer and alignment.
-Is an adjustable track bar my next purchase?
-Would a good quality 2" - 3" lift solve the issue (minus my current leveling kit). It sounds like low-end components on the truck are to blame, I have to assume that a quality lift would replace most of them...

Nothing like owning a new $50,000 truck, only to be afraid to load your kids in it. I've never been more frustrated.

 

I've been dealing with DW for 130,000 miles. Everything has been replaced except the steering box. The only thing that seems to work is keeping fresh rubber up front. About every 20,000 miles I'll buy two steering tires and run them out on the rear. I'm at the point to where I just deal with it anymore. I'm convinced that this DW is due to a design problem for where there really is no fix. The thought that a truck with low miles suddenly develops DW due to worn parts is a bunch of garbage. Ball joints and steering dampers going bad in 30,000 miles? The need to dump more money into something that should have worked properly in the first place? No. Its something much more involved than just spending thousands more trying to fix a design flaw.
It's a Dodge thing. Most people wouldn't understand.

ps.
You may notice your forearm muscles growing from having to "white knuckle" your steering wheel every time you hit a bump in the road.
Get used to it.

 

Have all your frontend components checked thoroughly. Front tire balance is especially critical as I believe that was a contributor to mine. Discount rotated and rebalanced mine. I got on the freeway and experienced dw for the first time. Took it back and all four tires were out of balance up to 4 ozs! The kid who did the work was nowhere to be found. Two more guys rebalanced them shaking their heads apologetically and zero issues since. 3" lift coils will give you a better ride,but won't affect the dw issue. Mopar has a 2" spacer setup authorized by Dodge available on the newer ones,so the lift isn't the issue. BFG 315-70-17 tires are the most frequent common denominator for dw sufferers also.

 

Running big tires, getting the death wobble. LOL
Cure is as follows:
Get rid of the stock inverted Y steering linkage and go to the 98 3/4T HD or 1T Steering linkage. Price and shipping from Rock Auto up to Alaska was $189. If youre not understanding check out this guys site ( http://www.mark74.com/ram_modifications.htm) doesn't talk about the death wobble but cured my death wobble. Steering is amazing and I'm way more confident going down the highway with the big tires.

 

Wheel alignment on front end will cause this to happen even with out any kits. Had the same troubles got front end aligned and no more trouble. Good luck the DW is scary as Hell.