Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives Death Wobble

I was on the Interstate yesterday when a really nice crew-cab 1-ton dodge welding truck passed me in the fast lane. It caught my eye because it was red, with a custom black bobtail flatbed, big welding machine, and 35" or so offroad tires on polished alloy rims. Fairly new truck and spotless. Driver's front seat probably wasn't spotless after the enormous shimmy that developed in the front end right after he passed me. I've never seen anything like that in my life. Those big front tires began oscillating so badly that they looked to be nearly15 degrees off the vertical axis, flopping in and out of the fenderwells, and all of this at 75mph. Guy pulled over into the grass median and shut it down.

I'd be really sore if my $50k+ truck nearly killed me on the highway. I'm assuming it was death wobble, as the whole front end was doing it, although I suppose something could have broken. Anybody ever had it happen to them? I know of one local guy who had Dodge take his 3500 4x4 back after they couldn't solve it.

Like this, but worse, with big tires and at high speed.

It's why they call it a "ram" .......into oncoming traffic.

Another fun fact:

Back in the 70s clear through the 90s, they put the three speed 727 torque flights in EVERYTHING.

These mother fkers couldn't get 3 speeds right, now they wanna try 9 speed tranmissions?

Sorry, I love raggin on Dodges. Especially family members and neighbors who drive these pathetic, urban-cowboy show-bro pieces of sht.

Owned 2 ram trucks 2004 & 2016 trucks that were 3/4 ton NEVER experienced a death wobble..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjqRf5ck2EQ

Good thing Fords are immune from that.......................

I had one in my '08 2500 a while back. The tie rod ends, pitman arm, and the ball joints were worn out at about 135k. Remember a while back when we had a thread about the pickup that was hanging by it's trailer hitch off of a bridge in so. Idaho? My shimmy started on the same bridge although in the other direction. I'd slowed to about 60 as I was towing a light utility trailer but when I hit that bump, it got lively. It quit when I got down to about 50. They hadn't given me any hint of being worn until then.

Back in the 70's and before, this was common. I'd experienced it quite a few times growing up. Modern cars are much better built and now it's almost a rarity in comparison.

Replaced everything on my 98 when I had from the bottom of the steering box all the way to tie rod ends. Scared the crap out of me when it did it

Had it happen, and there isn't any question when it happens. Emptied the door pockets on my truck it shook so hard.

New track bar bushing fixed it for me, but my tie rod ends were relatively new.

Beetles used to do that when the steering dampener failed.

Really exciting even at highway speed.
I'm betting it would be more exciting with the weight of those big tires and rims on that Dodge.

I assume he slowed down and it went away"?

i had a 2012 power wagon that did it so bad that even after upgrading the track bar and tierod ends it still did it. ended up trading it in because i didn't want my wife to drive it

I don't know anything about the death wobble with Ram trucks, but recall handling problems with the 1st gen. I remember driving my boss' truck from Phoenix to Tucson and at one point it had a mind of its own and wanted to change lanes on me. Might have been the road surface, tires, or something else and not the truck though. Scared the crap out of me.

THE “DEATH” OF DEATH WOBBLE

https://carlisuspension.com/the-death-of-death-wobble/

Any truck with a solid front axle can be susceptible to it. Fixes include replacing any worn steering/suspension parts, and most importantly, adding more cater to the alignment. Go to the high end, or even over the factory specs.

And that is why you NEVER buy a used dodge pickup.

My '11 F250 PSD did it @ under 30K Mi. Nothing was worn. I'd put on a set of NItto Trail Grappler tires and had them @ 65PSI per the sticker in the door. At the prodding of the service advisor I trust who'd replaced a bunch of stuff on several super-duty's prior to mine I ran them up to ~72-75PSI and never had another problem. He'd diagnosed the problem as "Sidewall flex" in the tires. The Continental highway tires the truck came with were fine @ 65# as were a set of BFG AT 2 and now Nitto Exo Grapplers w/3-belt sidewalls. The Nitto Terra Grapplers I run in the summer are better handling @ 75-80PSI.

I was skeptical that the extra tire pressure would fix my problem, but it did. I'm just @ 190K Mi. I replaced the shocks/steering stabilizer about 20K Mi ago as well as upper/lower tie-rod ends. It goes down the road @ 80MPH with nary a wiggle. Between today and Sunday I'll put another +/- 700Mi on it mostly running 80ish on the interstate and 70 on the little bit of 2-lane I'll have to run.

All fixes are only temporary.

Jeeps are even worse.

I forgot to fully tighten the lug nuts on both front wheels at a friends house once and drove off. Felt about like the truck in that video as soon as I got going.

98 grand cherokee. scared the p out of me! thought the thing was going to disassemble right in the middle of the freeway.

late model Ford superdutys are way more susceptible and likely to get DW than the Rams........

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