DEATH WOBBLE

Wrong Way Dan said:
Update. I rotated the tires and so far I have replaced tie rod ends and drag link ends and this POS still has death wobble. Anyone have any other suggestions???
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Sounds like you should not have skipped an amazing ride with me to work on your dumb truck.
 
Do you have locking hubs ? You can lock just one side and I bet this would eliminate it as it would disrupt the harmonics and not significantly worsen mpg . Jack the front up and drop it down fast and see if you can hear anything loose or making noise. Also Check motor mounts my old ranger would blow motor mounts and that induced death wobble. Brake stand in drive and reverse and see if you can feel any clunks or bangs , not enough to do a burnout just enough to load up the drivetrain.
 
If you know someone with the same truck , but different wheels and tires ,and of course dosen't have death wobble.....see if they will let you swap out wheels and tires and see if it goes away on your truck
 
We deal with this all the time with the Jeeps. While it can be a tire that is out of balance - the usual culprit is something with a small to medium amount of play.

If you don’t have a lift, you will need someone to turn the wheels (while in park) and search for a loose or clanking part in the steering or suspension. If you do have a lift this is where a large pry bar is handy, go through the steering/ suspension and look for the item with play in it.

I know your truck has low miles, but I have see some low mileage trucks used for towing that are walloped - same if you plow.

Don’t forget to check the ball joints!

Good luck in your quest.

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I had an issue on my Subaru with vibration at highway speed. I figured the tires needed to be balanced and had my wife take it to a tire shop. They said the rims are bent and they can’t balance them. I thought that was weird, I could see maybe one rim being bent but not all of them. There’s nothing obviously wrong with them but who knows.
So after driving it for awhile I got sick of it and brought it to a shop that does wheel repair. I told them to balance the tires and if the rims are bent maybe they can fix them. They balanced the tires and didn’t say anything about the rims. The vibration was better but still there. I proceed to drive 200 miles up to my moms, only to find the tires destroyed. They went crazy with the weights and the tires wore out instantly.
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So I’m stuck needing new tires but I still don’t know if my rims have issues. So I go get new tires and they don’t say anything about the rims being bent. With the new tires the vibration is gone and hasn’t come back.

So in my case it was the tires.
 
I had an older Explorer, truck rode great, steering was nice and tight UNTIL you turned the steering with the truck off. That would somehow induce air into the PS system and the wobble would happen at highway speeds. Easy fix was to turn the steering lock to lock at slow speed a few times to purge the air out. Not sure if your truck's PS system is similar, but do check the PS system for leaks or even foaming of the PS fluid. Maybe even a refresh of the PS fluid would do it good.
 
Jmann said:
I had an issue on my Subaru with vibration at highway speed. I figured the tires needed to be balanced and had my wife take it to a tire shop. They said the rims are bent and they can’t balance them. I thought that was weird, I could see maybe one rim being bent but not all of them. There’s nothing obviously wrong with them but who knows.
So after driving it for awhile I got sick of it and brought it to a shop that does wheel repair. I told them to balance the tires and if the rims are bent maybe they can fix them. They balanced the tires and didn’t say anything about the rims. The vibration was better but still there. I proceed to drive 200 miles up to my moms, only to find the tires destroyed. They went crazy with the weights and the tires wore out instantly.
View attachment 198686

So I’m stuck needing new tires but I still don’t know if my rims have issues. So I go get new tires and they don’t say anything about the rims being bent. With the new tires the vibration is gone and hasn’t come back.

So in my case it was the tires.
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When I was younger (and had limited funds), I used to buy used tires from my mechanic.

On my first road trip with MrsManic (not yet Mrs) all hell broke loose, and death wobble.
Managed to find a tire shop open at 8pm in western PA, and they simply rebalanced the wheel.

That held until it didn’t- turns out the culprit was the steel belts giving up the ghost.
Rebalancing the wheel held until the next one gave out.
Stopped buying used tires after that.
 
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