Dodge death wobble.

[Motownfire]

Well my truck and loaded trailer are sitting at the dealership in Cameron Tx. If I even hit a cigarette butt at highway speed the truck turns into a 6 wheeled death chamber. They told me it's the steering stabalizer. I told them if that's all you replace you can either buy the truck back or talk to my lawyer. Anyone else had to deal with this before???

[ccoop769]

Well my truck and loaded trailer are sitting at the dealership in Cameron Tx. If I even hit a cigarette butt at highway speed the truck turns into a 6 wheeled death chamber. They told me it's the steering stabalizer. I told them if that's all you replace you can either buy the truck back or talk to my lawyer. Anyone else had to deal with this before???

Newer 6.7 trucks had a recall that beefed up the entire front end on 4x4s.

Death wobble can be numerous things. Very common 4x4s

[pmmjarrett]

Google "death wobble" and you will pull up a million results. Like Coop said, very common on 4x4 Dodge trucks, Ford trucks and jeeps.

[Motownfire]

Well it's sitting at the stealership now waiting to be "repaired" and I got another carrieto take the two cars. They have no clue what is causing it. I know all my past Fords were 4x4 and I never had a problem, I know they will do it also.
The highlight of the day was when I was taking the mechanic for a test drive and when I went across some railroad track the death wobble came in at full force, I've never seen a grown man grab the dash board so fast lol.

[cosgo]

See if its on the recall list. this is a very common problem.

[Motownfire]

The service manager stated no recalls. I stated, you damn sure need one for this sh!t. I called this morning, service manager stated they replaced the steering stabilizer and it won't death wobble again. I told him to drive it again that's only a band aid. He drives it again and calls me back an hour later. "Well it did it again and we found the bushings are worn out on the trac bar." Well what do you know, something is actually broken. I asked him to save the old one so I can see it. Should be ready tomorrow. Watch your evening news tomorrow, if you see about 20' of a grey enclosed trailer sticking out of a Dodge dealership show room, you know it death wobbled on my way home and I lost control of it and stopped inside the dealership.

Y'all have a good one, I guess the good thing about this is that I am not out during the DOT blood bath.

[Motownfire]

Google "death wobble" and you will pull up a million results. Like Coop said, very common on 4x4 Dodge trucks, Ford trucks and jeeps.

Thanks, now my brain hurts from reading a bunch of the hits. I wish I would have read that prior to buying this truck. Now I know why I got such a killer deal on the truck.........................

[ccoop769]

Dealership is stupid. How do u miss worn bushings???? I mean yah the wobble is there so it can be only a hand full of things. Which 90% of it is smack right there on the front end.

A wobble is nothing to worry about. Easy to diagnose and cheap to fix. Recalls were 07-09 i beleive.

[Slim]

The new track bar should correct the violent steering wheel jerk. When sideways movement of the axle is allowed, the steering gearbox hydraulic control head gets confused on which direction to apply assist pressure (for your power steering). It then goes into this frenzy of applying pressure one direction then the other so quickly that it feels like a wobble. I've repaired quite a few of them (more fords than dodges) and if you don't get stopped quickly, it will rip your arms off.

[Motownfire]

Yup, hopefully the new track bar does it. It sucks having the truck in the shop with only 26,000 miles on it...............

[Motownfire]

Dealership is stupid. How do u miss worn bushings???? I mean yah the wobble is there so it can be only a hand full of things. Which 90% of it is smack right there on the front end.

A wobble is nothing to worry about. Easy to diagnose and cheap to fix. Recalls were 07-09 i beleive.

The funny thing (not funny haha) is that the service manager, mechanic with 20+ years and the dealership owner all agreed that they have no clue what really does cause it or how to actually fix it so it won't do it again. The good thing is they are trying to fix it because after having me there all day yesterday, they really do not want to ever see me again.

[Motownfire]

Got the truck back today. Both bushings on the track bar were almost completely gone. Now the big question is, what caused them to were out in 25,000 miles ??? Thank god I hammered the service managers a$$ when all he wanted to do was slap a steering stabilizer on it and send me down the road.

[ColoradoRVHauler]

There are some aftermaket trac bars available. Id call rich at Doghouse Diesel and see what he can do for ya. Maybe you should have bought a 4500 instead of a 3500. Who knows. I had almost 400k on my old dodge and it never had a problem. Maybe they are using a cheaper bushing now.

Carey

[Motownfire]

Here's one that someone over on the cummins forum had posted a link to. http://www.thurenfabrication.com/3rdgentrackbar.html I "looks" like it has some fairly beefed up bushings that "should" last longer. I doubt I will need the aftermarket track bar itself (dodge put a new one on), but I would like to find some super freakin' duper heavy duty bushings to replace the ones that dodge just installed on mine yesterday. Do y'all know of any ???

[h2oskibumz]

So the real question is... how is it doing NOW?

[Motownfire]

No death wobble. The bad thing is it's a ticking time bomb until the bushings on this track back wear out and send me shaking down the highway in the 6 wheeled chamber of shaking death.

[Roadmedic]

There are some aftermaket trac bars available. Id call rich at Doghouse Diesel and see what he can do for ya. Maybe you should have bought a 4500 instead of a 3500. Who knows. I had almost 400k on my old dodge and it never had a problem. Maybe they are using a cheaper bushing now.

Carey

Got over 600k on mine now and no death wobble.

[Slim]

There are a few things that can contribute to this happening in some vehicles and not others.
Steering position tires either out of balance or out of round.
Alignment setup with caster at max positive settings.
Spring eye and spring shackle rubber bushing failure.
Warped front brake rotors.
Loose wheel bearings.

[ETS]

There are a few things that can contribute to this happening in some vehicles and not others.
Steering position tires either out of balance or out of round.
Alignment setup with caster at max positive settings.
Spring eye and spring shackle rubber bushing failure.Warped front brake rotors.
Loose wheel bearings.

Coil springs....

The "Death wobble" is much more severe than any warped rotors or loose wheel bearings.

Also not as easy to diagnose as it may seem to some of you.

Glad they got it taken care of for ya.

[Slim]

Coil springs....

The "Death wobble" is much more severe than any warped rotors or loose wheel bearings.

Also not as easy to diagnose as it may seem to some of you.

Glad they got it taken care of for ya.

It's all in how these things affect the control valve in the steering gear box. The violent shake is caused by the power steering hydraulic pressure quickly being directed back and forth between left and right. The control valve should send hydraulic pressure only to the direction being steered. It picks up false signals caused by loose parts and heavy vibration.
Lighter vehicles may have coil springs, but leaf spring vehicles with worn out shackles and spring eye bushings will allow the axle to shift and cause this violent shake.

[Motownfire]

These trucks have coils up front.

[Motownfire]

Got over 600k on mine now and no death wobble.

What year is your truck ??? 2wd or 4wd ???

[ColoradoRVHauler]

Medics truck is a 2007 3500 4x4 dually. Yep for sure castor and lose leaf springs can do it.

Dodge presently has a problem on 1500's too if the owner installs a 3 or more inch lift. This is on the new 4th gen model.

A coil spring truck is more touchy on this subject than a leaf spring rig if both have tight bushings. Jeep cj's and some early wranglers had this problem too, if they were lifted. These were leaf spring rigs.

Heres a thought. What are your axle weights when this has happened. Say you are approching the max weight of say 9500 on the back axle. Does your truck feel a bit light in front steering when at the rear axle weight?

If so install a BIG front bumper to help to act as a counterweight on the front.

My dodge felt horrible in the front end when I was in the 22-23k gross range and up. The front end felt very light. Some rear air bags helped, but the thing that solved it was a 350-400lb front deer kill bumper. After building that bumper my front end was flat planted and was very comfortable in every situation. If your weight balance is off this can greatly contrubute to a death wobble type condition.

Tell us more about your weights, your specs, and what options you have installed. This could very easilly be a weight issue helping to cause this too.

Carey

[Motownfire]

This is not a weight distribution issue, this is a horrible engineering design issue. The truck death wobbled multiple times while taking the service manager, mechanic and the dealership owner for a wild ride. But since you asked. The only additions to the truck are B&W gooseneck hitch, 92 gallon tank in the bed with gravity feed to the main, Firestone Airbags with the on board compressor and DARK window tint.

I have never weighed my truck loaded, only empty. With no cars in the trailer the steers were 5100, drives 5640 and the trailer axles 5660 for a grand total of 16400. This was weighed on a CAT scale with no fuel in the external tank and the generator for my sleeper in the bed. With two cars in the trailer add 8-10K lbs.

Needless to say Dodge needs to FIX this ASAP before someone gets killed due to this or before a very satisfied customer goes postal inside one of their dealerships.

[Slim]

If I were given the task of repairing your steer shake and you had no other noticeable issues that could possibly contribute to it, I would first measure ride heights and check alignment to determine if your current alignment settings are optimal for your actual ride heights. This is the best place to start to get a handle on it.

[truckerjack]

Motown, is it possible your truck is going in and out of four wheel drive? My '07.5 would sometimes go into four wheel drive but I would only experience the wobble when changing lanes or turning. The 4X4 light on the dash did not come on when this happened. Also this would only happen with an electronic transfer case.

[Motownfire]

Nope, manual transfer case.

[Buster]

The question was asked about weight. I would want to know where exactly is the gooseneck hitch mounted on the truck in relation to the rear axle. Is the gooseneck ball forward of center of the rear axle? If so, how far? If not, where is it mounted? It may not be over weight and still have the weight distributed incorrectly.

[ETS]

I believe the truck was fixed with the new Trac-bar and steering stabilizer guys. Pretty sure it has nothing to do with any weight distribution.

[Buster]

You might be correct about the weight issue having nothing to do with it, BUT, if we knew the info we asked for and you are willing to accept the knowledge available here, you could be SURE its not a weight issue.

[Motownfire]

Thanks for the information and trying to figure this out guy's. The gooseneck ball is about 3"-4" forward of the rear axle like is should be. I've never weighed the truck/trailer when loaded, I will later this week or early next week when I head out on my next trip.

[Buster]

Motownfire that is a pretty good point to mount it. Weight should not be a factor.

[Motownfire]

Thanks buster. I appreciate the help.