Power Wagon Registry

I've owned my 2007 PW for about 3.5 years and during that time I've tried to address the "loose" steering feel by doing a bunch of stuff but the truck still wanders around all over the road. You have to steer it to go straight down the road. There's never been any "death wobble" or anything like that but the steering is so loose my wife won't even drive the truck. I had the old style steering changed over to new (Y to T), replaced the ball joints (MOOG) and had the rest of the front end parts inspected, replaced the track bar (thuren), shocks (Bilstein), steering stabilizer (Bilstein), added a Pro Fab steering brace, Borgeson steering shaft. No luck. About the only thing I haven't changed is the steering box. I'd gladly spend the $600-$700 for a new one (well maybe not gladly) if I knew it would make the steering feel like a modern truck. I guess my question is can the steering feel be tightened up on these trucks so they feel like a modern vehicle or is it just the nature of the beast?

It sounds like you could use:
- Maybe new tie rod assembly
- probably new ball joints. Get EMF, Dynatrac or Carli. Moog is complete garbage to the extent it was even found they were re-using worn pins in new sets of joints.
- Absolutely get it aligned if it is not or hasn't been in a long time. If you replace BJ's or tie rod then do the replacements before alignment so you aren't wasting time and money. Thurens specs do great.

I've got a pretty solid front end at this point and have to say my truck still needs lots of steering input. It's just something I'm used to, I'm about to hop in and drive it so I'll pay attention to how much I really do now.

On my '08. I had to replace the steering box. It went bad in Moab one year. After that. I have replaced the linkage like you. Y to T. Changed ball-joints. Installed the Carli's. Have a modded PSC steering brace on. RCV axles. DynaTrac FreeSpin hubs. My steering is tight. One thing that I have notice. Air pressure will change the way it feels. If I run the factory air pressure at 60 psi. The PW will wander some and bounce like a basketball. I normally run 45 psi front and 35 psi rear when empty. Try changing your air pressure to see if that makes a difference.

I am totally on the same page as RustyPW. I would add that I've had about 7-8 steering boxes and each box was different from the others. Meaning each one had a different amount of play and smoothness. With that in mind the hydro assist really helps cover up the weakness of the steering boxes. I pretty much have the same upgrades as Rusty without the RCV axles. My axle shafts have been worked on by East coast gear supply though so they aren't stock either. I run 37"s so I've spent a lot of attention to tire pressure. Some tires do seem to wander or track at high pressures.

I've replaced everything between the frame and the knuckles,and the biggest improvement I had was when I installed the Synergy Manufacturing heavy duty steering kit.I had someone turn the wheels while I was checking the stock tie-rod assembly,and it was actually bowing a little bit

There's still a little bit of wandering I attribute to the 37s and a small amount of play in the track bar bushing on the frame end.
Then get it aligned to Thuren specs

I also have Dynatrac BJs,Thuren/King stabilizer,PSC steering box and Dynatrac no-spin kit.
The no-spin lets it steer with less effort,but doesn't do anything for the wandering.

Thanks guys. Guess I need to decide how much $ I want to invest.

RustyPW wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 10, 2017 7:51 pm

On my '08. I had to replace the steering box. It went bad in Moab one year. After that. I have replaced the linkage like you. Y to T. Changed ball-joints. Installed the Carli's. Have a modded PSC steering brace on. RCV axles. DynaTrac FreeSpin hubs. My steering is tight. One thing that I have notice. Air pressure will change the way it feels. If I run the factory air pressure at 60 psi. The PW will wander some and bounce like a basketball. I normally run 45 psi front and 35 psi rear when empty. Try changing your air pressure to see if that makes a difference.

Hey Rusty, does your new steering gearbox have a 4 or 6 bolt top cover ? Just curious.
https://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/pr ... r-upgrade/

When I got it. It's was the new style 4 bolt top from PSC and ported for hydro. Never did hook up the hydro.

My 2017 wondered all over the road abd it was fixed with an alignment. The factory specs for toe is .11 but mine was at .33. Way off! I had them get it as close to 0.0 which thuren recommends. Now I'm just waiting for Dodge offroad steering brace to arrive, preventative measure.

I just did the DOR steering brace on my 2016. Totally worth it. Made a huge difference and really smoothed out the steering.

TankerZak wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 16, 2017 9:55 am

I just did the DOR steering brace on my 2016. Totally worth it. Made a huge difference and really smoothed out the steering.

Just installed mine yesterday. Didn't notice a difference, but my truck only has less than 4k miles so not surprised. Still a worth while install tho.

I did the Mopar HD Steering Box upgrade on my 07 in the spring so far it's been great. I had two original style Redhead boxes on it before that and they developed slop relativity quickly, here's the thread on my HD box upgrade:

http://forum.powerwagonregistry.org/vie ... 705#p83631