Death wobble, death wobble, death wobble...
 

I searched for all articles on Death Wobble on this site and found that one common thread in all of this is that we the owners have to bear the costs on upgrading our front ends to something or another.

From vehicles dating as far back as 2005 (or maybe even older) owners have experienced this once or twice in a lifetime. Or a few like me have experienced it more frequently.

I have a 2011 3500 dually that likes to do this to me when I'm on the freeway, usually at speeds of 70-75 mph. And if the bump is on the curve of a road it's almost a gimmee. It's not if it's going to happen, it WILL happen. I can experience this at least once or twice a week!

No disrespect to my diesel brothers who pour every conceivable penny into their rides to make them taller and faster. They probably don't suffer from this because their vehicles are far from the way the factory intended them to be anyway. but I'm a simple kind of guy who has left mine stock. It's merely a comfortable tool to pull my 35 foot race trailer.

So I have to ask why Dodge hasn't addressed this themselves? I've never had a problem with this type of situation happening with other makes that I've owned.

And I realize that for as cheaply as a couple of hundred bucks you can eradicate this problem yourself. I'm willing to do that, but I just can't get my head around why the automaker themselves haven't taken care of it by now.

Most people never replace their shocks unless they leak, they are more than done for after 50,000ml. My son's 2011 is worn out it needs ball joints and most of the steering joints but he's trading it. It does have good shocks though because he travels really bad roads and has never had death wobble. Bad shocks creep up on you, they may look good but just replace them and see the difference.

Be absolutely certain of your tire balance. That's what caused mine. The factory shocks are junk from day one also.

My 2010 was starting to experience the wiggle wiggle front end that all 4X4 dodge trucks suffer from. I bought a new steering linkage kit from dodge (ya the one that doesn't come with nuts for the drag links and tie rod ends). The old steering linkage had one bad ball joint on the long arm (in the middle). I did the standard steering gearbox check, clunk clunk, must have be around 20-30 thou of movement. Talked to dodge service this morning and found out that its a common issue. Dodge has done a redesign with a larger, stronger steering box. My dealer told me that its only available to be purchased and will not be offered under warranty[verymad] What a joke. I'll get pricing and a part number for the new steering gear box.[duhhh] My 02 truck with 350000km, the steering gearbox is still tight and has none of the wiggle that my 2010 has, with 90000km's.[duhhh] Make me think that the rest of the truck will start to fail at any point.

By the way, any lifted truck/bigger wheels will be more prone to death wobble. Front end parts wear out way way quicker on a lifted truck.[duhhh]

Mike, have you checked into Redhead? The 3rd gen guys on here who've sent their boxes in to be rebuilt have nothing but good to say about them. Got to be cheaper than buying a new OEM box.

http://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/...facturing.html

I have checked out Redhead.

Just found out that my current steering box has adjuster to tighten up all the wiggle that it currently have. I knew that my old truck I could do just that, wasn't sure about the newer steering box.

Once I get the info on the new gearbox, I post the part number and an approximate cost. I'll probably buy the new gearbox and send my old gearbox out to Redhead to get it rebuilt later this year. I use my truck daily for work, so I couldn't justify sending this gearbox out to Red head, mostly for the down time.

I try to stock all front end parts for both my truck, just incase I need to repair stuff late at night [laugh] I'm not impressed with the dodge 52122362AH, low quality stuff and none of the nuts are included. Dodge wanted $24 for the four nuts for that steering kit.[duhhh][verymad]

That's just.... nuts.:(

My stock front shocks were completely worn out at 50000km and were replaced with Bilsteins 5185's. Way better ride quality, to bad most of the dodge front end components are such low quality right off the factory floor but then again dodge expects us to buy a new truck every 100000km's. As all of the emission/suspension in these trucks are completely worn out at that point.[duhhh]

Next time I plan on using Moog premium front end parts and SKF front hubs. My reason for buying the 52122362AH was to move the stock 2010 front end steering linkage onto my 02 truck (with new Moog premium pieces). Might even transfer the 2010 brakes onto the old girl. My dad is blown away with how many parts are transferable between the two trucks. He runs a 04 duramax lb7 with 16in tires[laugh], been trying to get him to at least put on the newer big rotors onto his ride.

Guess I've been lucky. I replaced the frontend parts with the then current '08.5+ suspension due to dw at 21K. Turned out it was a lousy balance job by a kid on his last day. Ball joints are perfect as well as bearings(should be @ 50K) I carry around 2000# all the time,put several hundred miles offroad on it and run 34" tires.
Stock shocks are junk as most new trucks are and have replaced w/Kings.

I replaced my shocks at 30K I used the Bilsteins 5100 I replaced my steering damper even earlier , also with the 5100. The track bar was replaced with Thurens at 40K that tightened up the feel a bunch. I still had a lot of wander and I tighten the current gear box to great effect. I've also replaced all of the tie rods with Dodge's front end upgrade kit. But my old tie rods were still tight as the new ones with 50K. Never had the death wobble and never will if I can help it. Now the front end feels like it should have right from the factory....

Hell Bent Steel and Top Gunz Customs solved all those issues for me

You know, it seems that every death wobble experience is different, as is every theory as to what causes it. I myself had a deathwobble experience once, it was when I was running a "D" rated BFG AT TA KO tire with some payload. The tires had quite a few miles on them and probably were out of balance. My ball joints were a little worn, but my shocks were new, my alignment was good. Replaced my ball joints and have been running Toyo MT "E" rated with no problems whatsoever for over 150K miles. I would start with the tires, then alignment, then ball joints, I think the whole steering gear stablizer set up is overrated, you don't need it IMHO.

Carli or Thuren's first question to people with dw is 315 BFG's? The 50 psi max sidewall is an indication of the tire strength regardless of the load capacity. My friend runs them on his 10,750# '05 3500 qclb w/utility bed and Callen camper. He's never had it,but the sidewalls bulge out so much on the freeway it's scary. The guy gets the tires for cheap and justifies it. He's had sidewalls disintegrate aired down in Baja.