Swayse

I used to have a 97 dodge 2500 4x4 that was rock solid with the aftermarket wheels and tires, 16x8 with about 5" backspacing, and 285/75/16 nitto at. I put a set of factory alloy 17" wheels with factory 265 tires on them from a newer truck, death wobble.

I'm starting to wonder if the factory wheels have too much offset. I had 35" toyo muds on factory wheels on my 06, and it felt like it was really close to the death wobble, but it never got there. Swapped them onto my h2 wheels, and it felt rock solid. Now I'm running the "evil" 315 BFG on h2 wheels, and it feels solid. It might just be that the offset takes the slack out of the front end, whatever it is, it works.

Ace

Interesting. I've been considering getting a set of wheels to along with some new tires when the time comes next year. Hmmmm....

MulesDiesel

well, The ball joints have been swapped out. And it still wobbles This is B.S. I drove a 26' straight truck 8 hours round trip a few weeks ago and it rides better than my 3500

so I guess the question is. what next? keep throwing parts at it.....

included are some pictures.
in one you can see my bent sway bar end link. should pry fix that but if its not causeing my DW Im not real worried about it at this point.
the other two pics show my front and rear springs. based on these pics, do I have a leveling kit or is it bigger than that? are the rear blocks/spacers on my truck a factory thing?

John_P

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MulesDiesel:

IMHO,....the bent sway bar link is not helping your situation. It also looks like you have the front leveling blocks which I have also seen cause it. You may want to try removing those and see if it helps. BTW,....how do your tires look?

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John_P

Rtikul8

Have you had the alignment checked, particularly the caster setting? TJ's have the same setup, and do the same dance at times and I have found that dialing in more caster can help the problem.

MulesDiesel

Im going to go play with the caster. but while that might prevent my DW. (which would be awesome.) I dont think it will improve the ride any

edit: I did have my alignment checked. its at 4.8 deg

MulesDiesel

bad idea. busted caster cam bolt.
new one wont be here till Wednesday

WhiteMule

Am I reading this right? You took off the BFG's and the truck felt better and when you put them back on the vibration came back?

MulesDiesel

yes. but after I put the bfgs back on I had them checked and they were out of balance. after that the constant small vibration was gone. but it still rode like crap with the smaller stockers. just never went in to DW.
so I have these options left.
1. dial in more caster
2. replace the BFGs
3. replace shocks (RS9000 right now)
4. replace track bar (which seems fine)
5. replace steering stabilizer (rancho right now)
6. Remove leveling spacers. (would rather not, I like the stance it has now)

WhiteMule

I am not an expert by any means on the death wobble issue as I have not had to deal with this yet ( knocks on wood). I have just read a lot of posts on different forums and there is a lot of people who attribute their death wobble to the BFG's ( not necessarily a tire balance issue but a TIRE issue), and that's why I asked. Even by your own statement above, you note that it did not go into DW with the stockers. If it were me, I'd move option #3 down to #5 and proceed with your options list. When I bought my truck the ride was not very good either (no DW issue). When I changed tires, the ride improved tremendously. I wish you luck on your quest to solving this problem.

kantdrive55

Pull the spacer out of the front or go with an ajustable track bar. Either of those should fix it up for you.

Fisherguy

...or leave the spacer in and get rid of the BFG's.

Igor

DITCH THE BFJUNKS!

I had the same problem. With 315 junk all terrains.

Looked at everything on the truck, all seemed fine. Replaced stabilizer that was fine. Tried different alignment settings with the superlift.

Took the JUNKS off and put my cooper mud 37s back on, problem went away. I could hit a certain rail crossing and get DW EVERY TIME.

With coopers, NO DW. To test, took off steering stabilizer (so no stabilizers at all, not even stock with coopers), hit track, all good. Played with tire pressure, still all good. Could not believe it, so put JUNKS back on, DW BACK.

Ditch the JUNKs and waste no money/time on anything else

deezl

got sick of DW with my 01 315/75/16 wild country trx's on 16x8 ultra alloy's skyjacker 4.5 lift. control arm bolt that where oval in mounts. steering box brace and track bar off a 03 2500 with bd mount.
torched all of front suspension off of truck. install dana 60 kingpin style on f-250 positive arch leaf springs. high steer kit and rear shackles. added track bar from f-350. replaced delphi box with sagana off of chevy. remove steering shaft and removed rubber isolater added custom steel spacer.

DEATH WOBBLE came back

my thoughts cummins is to heavy for suspension and frame truck in general. my brother 01 cherokee has the DW. is a four link front suspension that bad

HBcalifornia

I tried everything suggested on this board to cure DW this is how I cured it

1. Took my truck to Carli Suspension Phone: 714.532-2798
A. Replace the track bar
B. Welded the track bar drop bracket in place
C. Installed the Carli steering stabilizer

15,000 miles later and no more death wobble.

He literally said my truck was the worst wobble he had ever seen, made fun of the superlift that I have installed saying that it rides like a brick. Then said I could come pick it up at the end of the day. I was skeptical but he knows his stuff. If your not local you should call him, go over your setup and install his recommendations. Cheap, .. no effective YES!