The boss and I were driving down a country road today when all the sudden we hit a rough patch of road 8' long. After that patch the truck would not stop shaking, it was the dreaded death wobble! I tried to speed up, got worse, slowed down to 20mph where the shaking stopped. Needless to say the boss had all he wanted, so a few 6.7 purchases are off for now. He said he had never saw that before! I have a Rancho 5000 steering dampener on the truck and I think its worse than stock. Figures though, their stuff sucks!

I ordered a Bilsten dampener and 4 new shock from them today. Only 4000 miles in the Ranchos 9000's, but I dont trust them.

What the heck is causing the death wobble? I think its just part of the solid front axle with coil springs, although Ford will not admit it they know its there for sure. Any ways to fix it? Pretty embarassing for a new truck to shake like that. Plus the fact Ford is losing a few sales for a bit.

 

I was about to say it seems strange this doesn't happen to all these trucks but there are a few issues out there that don't happen to all 2011 model trucks, the shift issue for example, so never mind.

I have hit all sorts of rough roads and bumps at various speeds that I figure would cause this wobble problem but I've never experienced it.

Will you be driving this road again in the future before your Bilsten upgrades to see if the issue happens again?
Then again after the Bilsten upgrades?

 

Yes. I plan to drive the road again at the same speed and see what happens. I have had other slight death wobbles that last a few seconds in the steering wheel, but this one was in the whole truck.

 

Yes it's a real shame this problem hasn't been fixed since the coil spring suspension came out in 05.

I have a 05 with ~150k miles and my truck has never developed this problem.

 

Sorry to hear about the DW. If the Bilstein's don't cure it, and you cant get it resolved with Ford, consider taking it to a shop specializing in suspension mods. I have seen the issue in Jeeps and having someone knowledgeable in this area will help get resolved quickly.

 

Damn that sucks, i hope my truck dont "develop" this problem

 

What is the part number of the Bilstein? I looked before and couldn't find it on their web site

 

Lex,

Any chance it may be caster related? Like the shopping cart wheel effect that happened when I raised my front end two inches? Have you leveled or otherwise changed the frontend geometry in any way? I felt like the truck's OEM steering was too light to begin with and prone to this type of action/reaction and changed mine early on. No problems since.

 

No change in the front. Do I need to add or take away caster?

 

It's a pretty quick and cheap change. Any good alignment shop can change the caster angle a degree or so and it makes a noticeable change in driving behavior. On mine, I didn't like the factory looseness of the steering which was only exaggerated by my front end lift. My alignment guys advised me to not restore to factory settings but also add some caster beyond spec. The effect is a much more positive steering feel. It requires slightly more driver input but more importantly, it removed the loosey, wobbly feeling I would get on the freeway. The truck tended to wander in the lane a bit and required too much driver attention in my opinion. If your wobble is in any way related to a slightly too-vertical caster angle, you could fix that.

 

I reported a wobble experience too, I also think that Epic is on to something, I have been thinking about his caster correction over the past week. Unfortunately I can't do anything about it until next week.

 

I've got a friend with an alignment rack that I can use. What are the actual specs for how much caster to add/subtract?

 

There is a part that is replaced in the steering knuckle that determines the caster angle. If you want an extra degree, you install a bushing that has the factory spec + one degree. I cant't remember the numbers from my alignment but a qualit shop should have those specs and bushings on hand.

EDIT: I'm not sure if the part has to be replaced or just rotated to the setting desired. I know my OEM bushing was replaced with another one.

Here's an example of a caster bushing on our trucks:

Ford F250 F350 Super Duty 4x4 Truck Camber/Caster Alignment Bushing 2005-2011

 

It is truly amazing when a customer working in his home garage without the benefit of so called Ford engineering expertise can come up with a possible solution to the 10 year old "Death Wobble". My hat is off to you Epic. Ford needs to get with the program before some product liability attorney drags them into court like they did with the ignition fires.

 

I called Bilstein US in Poway, CA and s/w Ryan. He stated the Bilstein 5100 steering stabilizer for a 2011 Ford Super Duty is part number 24-158848.