symptoms, tow/haul no workie. no lights. no codes. while driving straight line, or @ a stop, you can feel, not overpoweringly so, a slight input to the steering wheel to the right. cycles off and on. lasts for a sec or two. turning to the right, a bit more pronouced. when turning to the left, the input changes to a slightly left pull.
there is/seems to be an alignment issue. very small constant pull to the right. and i think that maybe the case and unrelated to this issue. just sayin.
what i haven't done is see if it happens in neutral. will do that and update.
i have ten days to find out if it's solveable, or if there's a way to use this in kinda a fail safe mode to tow a trailer from seattle to reno.
i don't want the dad in-laws truck returned w/ a drive train that's a bowl of jelly.

i am a fairly compitant wrench. presently building a 56 willeys rat and built a chev pu 454/400/456 w/slipperly stuff. old school! but, i'm not at home w/ this gen of obd2 and less familiar with this platform and management.
i included the vin below because i frankly can't tell what options this truck *doesn't* have. it has more options than i thought could even be used on a vehicle. looks like oem 5th wheel capable if that helps.

i know just enough to know i don't know ***** about this truck. will return after neutral test. i didn't check fuses/realys figuring if those were bad and i got no codes, there would likely be a pcm issue. but i will anyway and report.

ty ppl.
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'08 250 sd crew 4x4 vin 1FTSW21R48EA04104
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EDIT, no symptoms in neutral. and cruise works. just given ya more food for thought. steering fluid is fine. nave no frickin idea where the relavent relays maybe. maybe some one post a link to a user manual?

 

Welcome to FTE.

I'll give you a bump back to the top.

Good luck.

 

Check your front 4x4 hubs. Your right hub may be starting to go bad.

Also, check your brakes. A sticky caliper slide pin could also cause these symptoms.

 

i am familiar w/hubs. i have two toy 4x4's. have serviced tons of hubs, varrious makes. blazer's, power wagons, nissans's bronco's too. they should all be relativly the same. physically. just a different weight class hub/axle. i hear no clicking or grinding. i didn't state it, but i should have. the issue exists in 2wd and at a stand still in gear(which i did mention). that should exclude a mechanical hub issue. i did not put it in 4x4 because i don't think that's relavent to this issue. and i didn't want to have a 4x4 dis-engaugement issue.
i found a couple of tie rod end issues. which account for an alignment issue. but i still don't think that explains the steering wheel input.
the main obsticle i have is getting this off the ground to relax the suspension. way to heavy for what i have. 3 ton bottle jacks. i need a five ton or a floor jack.
gonna have les schwab do the rods and alignment. since i can't get it off the ground with what i hava. see what's left. purdy sure the intermittent steering input will still be there.
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EDIT, sorry. little leary bout who i get input from. new to this forum. after speaaking to a ferd tech, he agrees. check service the front hubs.
i will check em and report back.
ty redford sir for your valuable input.

 

upon further reading on this site, i see the hubs can be troublesome if the maint is not kept up. les schwab won't check the hubs. they will deal with the rod end issues and align it. and i've no way to get this puppy off the ground.

but to side step the risk of doing the inspection myself and finding them gone, i'd like to kow if there's a way to dis-able the traction control(what ever it's called) in 2wd? so the hub won't be cycling under a faulty condition. basicaly save what's left of it till i get to cali.

my theory re- hub trouble shooting is flawed.

 

i hate treads left/abandoned to archive w/o solutions. but i have no solutions to this issue.
got the truck back 2day from les schwab. all steering issues not related to alignment are gone. they replaced three ball joints, rotated tiers and aligned it.
my problem is i know the intermittant steering input issues had nothing to do with the ball joints. since the issue was present at a stop, in gear.
but i've never worked on this weight class, and have no tech info on how to replace the joints on this platform.
so my thought's are that some steering gear was moved to facilitate the ball joint replacement. as a result, it may have simply been a power steering service that might have included a bleed job that addressed the issue indirectly.
either way, i'm now confident in going to cali w/this. just have no real idea what the issue was. just assumptions.

ty again.

 

i made it to cali. no issues. 16.5 hours of driving.
i am truely impressed w/this truck.

i was a bit tounge heavy on the tandem axle trailer. the bed had my rollaway and all my other tools. though i doubt it was even close to being maxed out on weight. but w/the self leveling and the 5th wheel package, she didn't wash out at all. never went above 65. pulled over the mountains with ease on cruise. when the second turbo kicked in, i was very impressed.
empty, it averaged 16+ going from cali to the nw. fully loaded, going shouth, 14+. very impressive for a turbo. at some points going over the mountains it punched up to 3.5 boost. down shifted and kicked itself in the butt. impressive. first time it happened, it caught me off guard.
@ 8000+ empty, massive diesel, twin turbo, it does not take no for an answer. it keeps saying, "i think i can, i think i can". and it just does.
very comfortable cab and creature comforts.

two things i didn't like.
this was my ignorance. the screen display was an eye sore @ night time driving. to bright. i've since learned the display can be turned off and still have the radio on. my bad there.
the other thing was, i'm old school. i like gauges. i like to see things fluctuate and start to climb b4 things are bad enough to warrant a look see. with total computer controll/monitoring, i had to trust it. i had to believe/trust that everything is ok till the read out says different. that, i never got used to. i kept looking at the cluster.

other than that, it was grab the wheel and let it drive itself. made me feel i was just along for the ride. which, i suppose is the idea. just not used to it.

i had to sell my 76 chev 3/4 ton trailer pack 454/400th prior to the trip. now i know a gas to diesel is not a good comparison, but that's two different wolds of trucks. the chevy was totally out classed by far.

ty ferd. and you all here.

 

When I lived on the west coast (West. WA) I always utilized Les Schwab. They may not have been the least expensive shop, but they never cheated me. Plus, there is a shop in dang near every small town throughout the western states that will honor their warranty.

Power steering on these trucks can be a weak point. The pump does double duty on some trucks by also providing the power assist for the brakes. Throw on some larger than stock tires and suddenly the pump is unable to keep up with all the demands. Frequent servicing, including changing the power steering fluid, can help.

The steering gear box can be another weak point. A company in Seattle sells an improved replacement box (Red Head Steering Gears) that many owners on this forum have utilized with great results. Link provided below.

Red-Head Steering Gears, Seattle WA - Red-Head Steering Gears Home