So I switched my wheel setup today and on the drive home I got the wobble. On my old set I never got the wobble why is this set so different. My old set was 33x15.50 on 16in wheels this new set is 35x12 and a 20in wheels. Can someone help me solve this? I don't want to spend the $1200 for a bar like my friend did to fix it...


Old setup...


New setup

 

What is different is the weight of the wheel tire combo. Your truck may have been at the brink of being able to control the old combo and these put them over the edge. Another thing to take into consideration is the offset of the new wheels. Are they more negative than the old ones (stick out farther)? If so that give the wheels more leverage on the suspension components.

Were these new or used tires? You could simply have a bad tire or improper balance.

If it's getting the "death wobble" with 35" tires, granted the tires and balance are ok, then the worn components should be fairly obvious. Have someone saw the wheel back and forth with the truck on the ground. Watch every link in the suspension for play especially the track bar and make sure the nut holding the pitman arm to the steering gear is quite tight.

 

As with many things in life, if it an't broke, don't mess with it.

You have seemed to gotten something way out of balance. Did you get your front end realigned? The camber/caster may have been withing tolleration before and now it is not. You might first try rotating your tires to see if there is any difference in the way it rides.

Also,If those are your first set of tires in that back of your truck, try putting them back on to see if the 'wobble' goes away.

 

Yes that's the first set in the back, when they were on it never did it. Yes these were used, can balancing really make it go into the death wobble?

 

Did it do it immediately? If not a belt in the tire may have broke. If it did it from the get go, the belt may have been broke the whole time. The tires are the easiest to check.

 

Diagnosing a death wobble is difficult to say the least. Fortunately for you, you know the variable that changed to make the wobble.

 

Why is a track-bar solution $1200.

I would make sure current track bar bushings are good first - along with wear/slop on any of the other steering and suspension components. Shocks good? How about steering shocks?

I agree - the bigger/heavier tires are likely exposing the weak links in your suspension. What size lift is that? All springs up front? Does it ride level without the tires in bed?

When my track bar mount failed - death wobble from every bump. I also had some wobble with worn-out Steeltex's and dead shocks - but not like the track bar!

 

Well looks like i have my work cut out for me! im pretty sure i need new shocks, and steering stabiliters. As for the track bar i dont know. I dont know a lot about trucks, im more into my car, but i still need my truck to be right.

I dont know..lol Im not all into my truck, but my friend has a crew cab 2006 f250, and thats where i got the wheels. he has a 10" lift with 44" tires, and some other stuff, wheel with these tires he was getting the death wobble, and the store that did all his lift work told him the way to get rid of it was this bar, and it was like $1200. well at the time my truck was all good so i didnt ask to much about it...

 

Ok so he was getting the wobble? Then you put his wheels on your truck and you're wondering where the wobble came from? Get those things balanced.

Go to a good shop too. Just because they have a spin balancer doesn't mean they know what they're doing, or use the correct weights. I tried to save a buck once and while driving away from the shop I could hear the weights flying off and hitting the fender liners... Nice... Went back and they didn't even have the right weights and the ones they had were used. I screamed at them for a while and ended up going back two more times to get new ones put on by the owner. Those who know me would probably agree that while I'm a VERY laid back person, you wouldn't really want to have me p/o'd in your face! Something about being five foot fourteen and 240+ seems to get folks attention when I need to...

 

I second the balance, or 3rd,4th it. I bet them jokers don't have the 1st weight.

I would also recomend a dual steering stabalizer, and you already started a new thread about shocks, well you called them struts.

that's alotta rim

 

Yeah, lol ill get that done ASAP

Yep I already have dual stabilizers, but they are shot i need new ones, and all new SHOCKS...lol sorry they are struts on my car..lol im still learning the truck lingo...

 

As I'm sure you already know, a dual stabilizer is just a double band-aid for an underlying problem.

So now we have to chase threads to find out what fixed this problem?

 

You're surely not implying that these trucks can get away without a steering stabilizer are you? Maybe with 265's on a stock rim, but anything bigger than that you really can use at the very least one steering stabilizer. Without one I've had the steering wheel ripped out of my hands... My only beef with the dual is the lack of quick centering after turning.

 

I had the wobble the other day.. Time to start looking !

 

Well, I sorta am but it depends on what you're trying to fix. A stabilizer to control wandering yes, but to fix a "death wobble" no. If you have the death wobble and you put on a steering stabilizer and it fixes it great. However, you didn't actually fix the problem. All you did was put a damper on the steering linkage to control the wobble and reduce it to a managable shudder.

I have lifted many Super Dutys and put on 35"+ tires with no stabilizers at all with no problems. I only start recommending them at the 6" or higher lifts. Usually if I do a dual stabilizer on a smaller lift it's because the customer thinks it looks cool.