Death Wobble 2011

[Bianjames]

Hey y’all, new member here!
I just picked up a 11’ PW from my Old Man last week. It only has 30,000 miles on it and has spent some time sitting here and there in West Virginia. I’m somewhat familiar with the truck because I bought it for him in Denver, CO new in ‘11. I put a Northern Lights slide-in in the back and that was his new adventure rig. Well, he only ended up taking several trip with it (mostly with me) and know is too old to drive it.

So here’s my issue with the truck. I’m driving it back from West Virginia to Montana (where I live) and I’m initially experiencing some odd shimming over rough roads in construction areas on the highway. A couple of times it lasted a couple of second after impact (DW). This was the first time I’d experienced anything like this in this particular truck. About a thousand miles later, in the dark, I hit a bridge and experienced true DW...

I get back to Montana take it to a trusted alignment shop in town and they replace the steering stabilizer and drag link. I leave the shop and two miles later I experience the worst DW ever! At 45 mph. The steering felt so much better after leaving, much tighter, with very little play. But the lack of slop seemed to exacerbate the issue! Mind you, I have the original BFG KOs on the truck and they have significant wear right down the middle of them. I take the truck back the next day, he drives it, and puts another stabilizer on it, thinking the one he put on was defective. When I leave the shop, I can’t duplicate the DW where it happened the day before, but the front end still feels jittery, especially on the highway.

The shop said that everything else under the truck looks great, track bar, ball joints, steering box, control arms, etc..So might thought after doing a little research is the tires. Are they really bad enough to cause DW?? According to Carli and Thuren they are!

Anyway, sorry for the essay, but I thought that a little background would be helpful.

[gtomike60]

The stock BFGs are definitely known to cause DW.
Seeing as you need new tires anyway,that's a good place to start,then have it re-aligned to Thuren's specs.

After that,I replaced my track bar,then went with Synergy Steering drag link/tie rod assembly before it was cured for good.

[Bianjames]

Thanks for the response!

[MSCH2112]

dump the BFG's to start. #1 cause for DW.

mike

[Mule007]

Lose the BFG’s; check the upper & lower ball joints

[RustyPW]

The PW is picky on what steering stabilizer is on it too.

[DamageWagon]

A steering stabilizer does not cause, nor is it needed to prevent, death wobble. I haven’t run one in three years on my 2011. They do help but will never address the root cause.

The first sketchy thing I see is that they replaced the drag link. Your drag link has zero affect on death wobble. The ONLY things that affect death wobble are:
- tires
- tie rod
- wheel bearings
- ball joints
- alignment
You can ignore other hard parts. Your drag link and gearbox can be total trash and will not affect death wobble because they do not affect the active alignment of your steering system.

Those tires could be the issue but it’s also likely an alignment issue. You need right at 0.00 Toe. Caster is up to personal preference, I’ve tried 2 to 6.5 degrees and I like right at 3.0.

What are your alignment numbers? How do your tires look and feel? A 9 year old truck on factory tires, I imagine they might be pretty flat spotted?

[Bianjames]

Right toe is -1/32” Caster is 4.8

[DamageWagon]

Caster is a little high but that’s ok. What is TOTAL Toe?

[Bianjames]

3/32”
Sorry the previous right toe was -3/32” I accidentally gave you the right toe for the rear.

[Bianjames]

I had the dealership take a look at the front end and they said the tie rod ends and track bar were the issue. I just ordered five 315/70R17 Toyo MTs. It will be interesting to see if this helps. If not, I’m going with a Thuren track bar and a Synergy HD steering kit.