I had the dreaded "Death Wobble". I found a place I could reproduce the "wobble" at will. It was a manhole that was about 4 inches below road grade and I would hit with my left tire. This is where I took the Service Manager for rides.

I put my truck in the dealer's shop the first time and they replaced the front shocks and said a nut had "loosened". I'm assuming the nut was on the ball joint for the track bar. They said the front shocks were dead.

Several months later I took it back in with complaints of the front end bouncing too much. They replaced the front shocks again.
On the drive home I still wasn't happy with it. I called the dealer and got the number for - THIS IS IMPORTANT, SO PAY ATTENTION - ask for the number of FORD CUSTOMER ASSITANCE and file a formal complaint. I called them and they opened a ticket on my truck. I took it to the dealer and left it for a week.

The Ford engineers came onsite and were in charge of all repairs.
They replaced the front shocks with upgraded factory certified Rancho 5000s. They also replaced the track bar and ball joint, along with the steering damper.

This DID fix my problems and I am happy with my truck again.

They also tested and replaced my rear shocks, they said they were weak. This eliminated the bounce I was getting on concrete highways and was not part of my complaint, but I sure am glad they did it. I was ready to pull the trigger on a Firestone R4Tech airbag system.

Before I took it in, I talked to Steve at WC Motorsports about their track bar solution - $825.00 - parts only.

But the item of note is he said you can't run BFG All Terrain KOs on these trucks - which I am. I have standard size with 18" rims. I noticed if I ran 65lbs in the fronts it would bounce like crazy and the Death Wobble was easy to reproduce, but if I put 70-75lbs in them, no death wobble. I did report this to the Ford and their response was, you should be able to run any tire of the right size on these trucks without issue.

Now I am running my BFGs with 65lbs and have no issues.

 

Same issue with my wife's first jeep. The track bar was the problem there too. If the bolts for the track bar ever get loose or the joint gets play in it the death wobble will return. Check the bolt torque at 500 miles after the replacement then at least every oil change or sooner of you have the tools and time. I learned the hard way. Make sure you use a torque wrench because doing it by feel wont be tight enough. Steering stabilizers only mask the problem and will NOT fix it<--learned that the hard way too.
Congrats on getting it fixed. Now you can drive without the "pucker" factor

 

Very interesting....glad you got it fixed! This information will be very useful to a few guys who are currently having troubles with the death wobble. Thanks for posting!

 

TSB 11-6-14, published online on June 17, 2011, titled, 4X4 Steering Wheel Oscillation, applies here. My dealer's service techs removed the steering damper, determined that it had excessive play, ordered a replacement and installed it this morning. This solved the problem for me.

 

so since the BFG's are working fine on there now, is it or not a good tire to run?? thats what I was planning on running on my truck after my stock tires are done which is as soon as I get the money.

 

I experienced for the first time this week coming back from Tenn. It is going in for an oil change tomorrow and I will see what my dealer will do for me....

 

Got my truck back today, they replaced the stabilizer bar, no shocks. Haven't it on the highway yet hope it is fixed....

 

Haven't experienced the "death wobble" but I am curious to see how different tires affect it. Why would BFG's make it worse than Michelin or any other brand for that matter?

 

Well, I experieced my first couple death wobbles in the last week. Yesterday while delivering the 5ver to a renter, it kicked in at 59 mph, and I got it to repeat 3 times. It smoothed out again if I accelerated, or decellerated.

It was a junky road, and I didn't have my airbags set to the correct pressure in the back (gonna go see what they are at right now). I also did some hunting last week, so I'm guessing the tires and wheels have some unbalanced weight on them, as well as the rest of the truck.

I'm gonna wash the truck before picking the 5ver back up on Tuesday, and see if it repeats itself. I did drive this road one other time with the 5ver hooked up in the summer, but I don't think the road was in that bad of shape as it is now that we're getting some cold weather here, I also did not have airbags installed while pulling it the first time.

I gotta believe this wobble is associated with

1) Weight on the front tires,

2) Unbalanced weight on the tires rims, and the whole truck for that matter.

We'll clean "LUcy" up and do the same pull on Tuesday, I'll report my findings back as I know Inquiring minds wanna know.

I will say that, when i disconnected, and drove the same rode back, that I could not get the wobble to reproduce without the 5ver on, that's why I think it's associated with front weight on the tires....

Ahh..just read about the TSB above, I'm gonna have them check it all out when I bring in for first oil change, I have experienced some wobble at about 59 mph with a trailer as well in the last week. Also Tranny re-flash, hopin that'll solve my 2 minor issues. Well the wobble I don't consider minor, as it was shaking violently yesterday!!!

 

The technician who rode with me to the spot, within a mile of the dealership, where I knew I could demonstrate the oscillation to him, tickled me. After we hit the pavement transition, and the truck shook and the steering wheel wobbled, he didn't act particularly surprised. I said, "so that's definitely not normal, huh?", and he grinned and told me he thought it would be kind of a hard sell to try to convince anyone that was normal. Then he proceeded to take care of the problem. Successfully. I appreciate him and the others in that service department.