Anyone here experienced the death wobble in a Ford F-250 ? I had my first a couple days ago and hopefully my last , unnerving to say the least

That looks fun....@ 1:00

use to get bad in the jeep Cherokee i use to have,it had a 6 inch lift and 32 inch tires.

Owned 6 of them all 7.3s from 2000 to 2003s and never had that happen , also all were lifted 4" in front. Yes I have a redneck tendency to do silly things to trucks.

Not in a Ford, never known anyone who has either. My F250 has 250,000 fairly hard miles and front end is completely original. Never a hiccup. Now I'm jinxed!

Probably tie rod ends or maybe ball joints.

Looks spendy.

had it happen once with my 97 dodge dually 4x4, hit a good size bump just right and it started the shaking.

Only experienced it in a Jeep Wrangler. New front stabilizer fixed it.

Leave well engineered steering geometries ALONE.

These stupid "lift kits" ,

...and sold off the corner high wheel / tire combos seem to be one of the PREVALENT features of bad roll-over accidents here.

They DO look really cool , down at Pizza Hut,...

tell ya' one thing,....the folks driving the more bizarre ones are dealing with some serious "Issues", and are almost pathologically aggressive, in their driving style.

WTF am I not surprised ?

GTC

I was hauling a load of Pepsi one time with a borrowed heavy haul tractor. It was over a hundred thousand gross so I was using the tractor drop axle down. Hit a bump and thought I was going to shake the whole rig apart. I hit the switch and raised the drop and it quit, lowered the drop and went on fine. Delivered the load and headed empty to the shop. New shocks and it was fine. Soda loads in the plastic two litre bottles will tip in a trailer and make a real mess. I didn't tip that load or any other I hauled. I was shocked when I opened the doors and found it still standing and no soda pouring out.

Talk to some of the boys that hauled "Swingin' Meat" through the Roger's Pass.

STUPID to have allowed them to drive that fast in the #1 place

#2,...alla' those hippies down in Vancouver B.C. hated us anyway, called us "blue eyed arabs", and as vegetarians seemed to take delivery of an inordinate amount of Alberta Beef.

everybody slow the F down !

GTC

66niteowl,

I had it twice on a 250 I had, so I may be able to help, but I need to know more before trying to give you a solution.
(Mine was so weird that it is hard to believe.)

First, a few questions to eliminate the obvious:

Is that your truck in the video ?
Does this happen mostly on a straight road or coming out of a 90 degree turn ?

What year is your truck ?

What type of front axle does it have - Straight axle or independent (swing axle) ?
If a straight axle - a Dana 60 maybe ?

Lockout hubs ?

Part time or full time transfer case ?
And do you drive for extended periods with the hubs and transfer case both disengaged ? (Spring through summer, maybe ?)

Have all front end parts been checked ?
Tie rods ?
Drag link ?
steering stabilizer ?,
Ball joints ?

I won't be back on here tonight, but will check this thread tomorrow.

Myron

Check your track bar, that ball joint gets loose and causes problems.

'68 Binder
'65 Bronco
'94 Dodge 2500
Coupla more I don't remember year/make

ALL wound up getting front end repairs!

When I was a teenager (in the late '60s) I borrowed my uncle's '55 Dodge pickup. He warned me not to go over 50 miles an hour because it had bad ball joints. All went well until I let it creep up over 50 and all hell broke lose! I thought it was going to shake the body right off the truck.
The first time I saw this commercial I thought of that truck.

Agree 100%

Ive had that happen on a jeep and a chevy, both times it was tires,, they will do the death wobble when you have a tire separating, or already separated...

It's an issue on all F-250/350's from '06 to present due in part to their switch to coil springs up front. '05 and earlier had leaf springs up front and didn't have the issue. I had it a couple of times on my '06. Hasn't happened on my '11 yet, but it will. There's a particular bump within a construction zone I drive almost weekly and every time I get feedback through the steering wheel for ~35-50yds and then it settles down again. I've read a new steering stabilizer will fix the issue until the new one wears.

horse1,

It happened on some of the earlier ones as well.

Mine was a 1978.

Myron

I never drove swing meat but I understand it is like driving a half full tanker without baffles.

Haney taught us to drive all day with a two litre bottle half full sitting on the floor next to the gear shift. Drive all day without tipping it over and you passed.

96 dodge cummins did that to me. Not a fun experience...

'96 Cherokee has it, randomly starts as you accelerate to about 45. Didn't know Fords could get it.

Lots of different causes on a coil spring live axle, from insufficient castor angle to worn components, out of round tires or wheels, even incorrect tire pressures can aggravate it. Never experienced it on my own trucks, but saw a 2nd Gen Ram 1500 do it on I-25 near Fort Collins last year. It was so violent I could hear the banging with my windows closed, and watched wisps of tire smoke from the fronts as they touched down at an angle to the pavement.

I have a 88 superduty that will do it on occasion. Definitely will wake you up. Never experienced it at highway speeds, i don't think I want too.

Had that happen on my 06 dodge 2500 at a high rate of speed. Replaced tires and it never happened again.

damn I thought he was talking about the Clinton campaign...

All hearsay, but I have been told that milk tankers are real bad because they will not let them baffle them, for sanitary purposes. miles

I recently replaced all the ball joints on my '08 Dodge Cummings. It hadn't gone into a full blown shimmy on my yet but I could feel it getting close a few times. Dodge has been ordered by the courts to have a buy back program because of it. Mine is one of the bad ones. I don't know yet what they're doing or what they're offering to buy back. It hasn't got that far yet.

Have an old 67 chevy truk that would do that every time I drove it. Imagine a truck built in 67 having worn parts. changed the ball joints and it never did it again. It now is awaiting restoration. My pop bought it for me when I was 15 y.o.

1976 ford 4x4 did it bad.The rubber bushings in the front were bad. Replaced them and all good again. ED K

I had it happen several times on a 91 F150 that I bought brand new. Never lifted it or made any modifications other than putting all terrain tires on it.

Suspension lift kits / Not for girls that stay in girly places.

Why don't I drive a Ford? Well that answer is simple...

I see a lot of older Ford pickups going down the road with the front tires at an angle. The square body Fords especially. Ball joints. The 7.3 OBS Fords really liked eating ball joints and wheel bearings. If a Box Chevy is doing the death wobble is an incorrect steering angle (Bubba Inc. lift) or the steering stabilizer is completely shot and running bigger than stock tires.

I think you'd prefer a Ferd F-15000

U can haul a whale and it makes u grow extra testicles....... And the US Gov't classifies it as 8 tanks not a truck

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8P5vGcf-NU

Food grade tankers cannot have baffles. I think they are set up to be full whenever they hit the highway.

It is a common problem on Chrysler products. Most of the time caused by worn tracking/stabilizer bar. About a $350 fix on my 98

It's gonna be an issue on most any vehicle when the pittman arm, center link, tie rod ends and ball joints get sloppy. Loose wheel bearings will add to the problem.

It is that and more.
Makes the nerves go on overtime and it lasted for me for days.

Did drive a 8000 barrel tank with a 6 speed mack hooked up and let me tell you,one should not try any of that Joey Chitwood style of driving with a short load.
Also found out that the only brakes on the rig were the air trailer brakes and with them it took about 3 miles to come to a complete stop.
When in the shop it took 8 drums because they were cracked.

Had it happen on a 97 F-250 that we swapped a solid F-350 (Dana 60) front end into. Steering stabilizer cured it.

Oh, it IS that and more - the bushings in those areas too..

Easy to know when it's time to do some major front-end maintenance. Go over a bridge deck joint (and with rare exceptions, DOT crews or road construction firms have NO CLUE how to match up a road surface to a bridge deck) and if the steering wheel does a brief 'shake', it's time to head for the shop..

I just got my F-350 back on Friday morning. A few days earlier I noted a brief shake going over a bridge deck and called the shop post haste..

Total for the front-end repair was about $1300 - paid for by Ford's ESP.. This was a 53K on the odometer.. Previous (2004) truck needed it at 30K but the front-ends back then weren't quite as beefy..

many years ago my dad had a 76 F250 that would do it on a regular basis. Not fun. Don't remember if he ever fixed it before getting rid of it, but it had lots of issues by the time it went on down the road.

Had a CJ-5 that would almost throw you out of it.