of the death wobble happened today. Man did it scare the hell out of me at first but thanks to all the posts here, I knew exactly what was going on, slight left curve and hit a pot hole. 63,900 miles.
Took it straight to the best alignment shop in town and he checked everything for about 45 minutes and said everything is perfect. Told me to rotate tires, putting best two up front. So we shall see.

 

Thom, I also changed the shocks to Bilstein 4600s and put on a Bilstein 5100 steering stabilizer. Most with SRW trucks put on the 5100 shocks around here. It hasn't returned. Good luck.
On edit: forgot to tell you that mine did it at 21,00 miles!

 

usually it is an indication of a worn front end or shocks. Buy some shocks. This is one of those things that you can buy them and put them on at your leisure.

 

I second the new shocks and steering stabilizer. I experienced it a couple times and it never returned when I put new dampeners on.

I might be crazy, but the front end stability always seems to return to "nice" when I get new tires. I don't know why, it doesn't really make sense logically, so I dunno. If it's time for new tires, see what happens....

 

Had my go around a month or so ago. First time at around 35k miles. Took it to the dealer and, of course, they found nothing amiss. Happened again on the same road. Highway interchange, sweeping left turn w/ rough pavement ( no potholes) and just around 60 mph. Sometimes it feels like it wants to break into the wobble but settles down. Haven't been back again, yet. Still playing games with FORD over my trailer hitch issue.

My truck is '15 F-350, SRW, short bed, 4x4 w/ 20" wheels.

See ya on the road sometime,

Roger from NJ

 

I've heard of the issue with bad shocks but I thought that the steering stabilizer is only needed on raised trucks.
Or and I, as my wife constantly tells me, just confused?

 

stabilizer should be used on any 4x4 truck and most heavy duty 2wd due to tire size and weight.

 

'Have a 2013 F250 XLT 6.2 4x4 and installed Rancho RS9000XLs back in 2017 just prior to doing some extended cross country travel trailer towing. I played with the settings for a couple of months and decided that the best arrangement - at least for towing - was 4 in the front and 5 in the back ( I also have Airlift bags installed). This has worked out well and didn't have any problems - the performance seemed fine.

When the covid thing hit most RV parks and all state & national parks shut down to discourage traveling so, we have been staying put for the last 3 years and haven't towed the trailer during that time. The truck has been running fine and have had no suspension problems until two weeks ago when I was driving on a road that had just had some resurfacing done and the resulting pavement had not been completely finished leaving a couple of quarter mile stretches that were pretty rough. I had driven these sections in the past with no problem but this time (I was doing about 70 mph) the rough patch caused a bit of vibration then I hit a small pot hole and that set off the death wobble. I mean it was really bad - the front end shook and the truck bounced so much I'm surprised something didn't come loose. I slowed the truck and the wobble finally stopped when I got the speed down to about 35-40 mph.

Any way - after reading several online posts about what others have done to remedy the wobble, I decided to swap out the shocks and see if that made any difference. I replaced them with the same RS9000XL adjustables and dialed the same setting that I had on the original Ranchos. 'Drove the same stretch of road where I had the wobble and made it through with no problem, but on the way back - driving on another stretch of rough pavement, the vibration started again and then went into the full blown wobble again. Since this 2nd episode, I have had a new OEM steering damper installed and will drive the "wobble road" again soon to see if that solves the problem.

My question is, will a higher setting (stiffer shock) calm the vibration/wobble or should I try a lower setting. I'm going to play with the setting either way but I thought I'd ask for opinions.

Thanx.

 

Shocks only hide the real problem. You have worn and loose parts in your steering assy.
Most of the time the big player is the track bar but you could also have tie rod ends and ball joints
loose to.

Lay under the truck and have someone rock the steering wheel back and forth. If any joint or pivot wiggles or moves
it needs replaced.

 

Thanx for your reply - You are one of several commenters (this forum and others) that have indicated the track bar - more particularly, the bushing on one end and the ball joint on the other - was the item to check. There are some who said that replacing track bar bushing/ball joint solved their problem. I've had two shops look at the steering linkage so far and neither one of them said they could find anything loose. There is a YouTube video by a guy who replaced the ball joint of his truck's track bar and found it worn out once he removed it from its mount. He said the wear wasn't obvious until he got it out and was able to inspect it. If the wobble returns, then the track bar is the next thing on my list.

 

My 96 F250 had a KP Dana 60 SFA out of a 86 F350 I bought from a friend of mine. I rebuilt the king pins when we put into my 96 at my friend's shop. The truck developed DW. I replaced the track bar bushings but it ended up being one of the front tires out of balance.. can't remember if it was just one or both. There's more to this than what was just listed...

Here's a link to an article for you:

It is important to understand that there is no single problem that causes death wobble. Rather, any combination of things, such as tire balance, loose bolts, worn bushings, bad alignment, and even tire pressure can trigger the condition. Correcting death wobble is often a slow and meticulous process of elimination. The first order of business is to rule out the simple things. Look for clues, such as mismatched tire pressures, uneven tire wear, or play in the steering system. Next, crawl under the truck and check for loose bolts, fresh rust, or wallowed-out bolt holes, paying special attention to the track bar brackets.


And I use these in my current truck. Once I had these installed, my truck has never been smoother.

https://www.centramatic.com/

 

I fought death wobble on my 2016. Replaced many parts. Ultimately I found that tire pressure below 60psi was the cause. I was running 50 while unloaded To smooth out the ride. Softer tires were the cause.

 

Overkill2 : Thanks for the info & link to the Motortrend article; it's interesting that the wobble happens on other makes of truck (e.g., Dodge) besides Ford.

 

Low air pressure and some tires can cause it. My second set of tires were BF Goodrich AT2 tires and when they had ~40k miles (~80k miles on truck at that time and currently have 265k miles), I had 2 death wobble events. Soon after I replaced those POS tires and never had a death wobble since. Come to find out those tires were known to create the DW in a Dodge/Ram forum. My front suspension is still all factory parts except shocks and a passenger side hub/bearing.

 

No problem. Any vehicle with a SFA (straight axle) can develop DW, even the Jeeps with solid front axles.