THAT was a good one!

I'm watching the thread. I think it's ok. I think a lot of us are in it to see what becomes of the OP's case, and so it is understandable for the conversation to have a bit of steering wander while we wait for his infrequent updates.

 

See if you can pay them to install an aftermarket steering stabilizer?

 

By "steering wander" do you mean others with DW also posting their experiences and failures on the part of dealers to fix it? Or is it others posting how amazed they are at the incompetence of the dealers? Maybe it's all the suggestions being offered? Should the OP be the only one posting?

 

Its not a bad idea to toss out the culprits and how people fix them. Its an open forum.

If it was mine I would do everything at once and move on.

Mine has real bad bump steer I fixed with an aftermarket steering stabilizer.

 

Here’s my ‘best bet’ guesses/conclusions so far;

1) Ford cheaps out on the shocks, steering stabilizer, and track bar.
2) At least some ford frames are not built to spec, potentially leading to premature wear, particularly in the track bar, which is really the only rigid lateral link in the entire suspension system. Carli has some note of the tolerance issues on their website.
3) wear or failure of any of these components spreads load to the rest of the system, which then prematurely wears across the whole system, eventually leading to death wobble. Where cheap parts are used, particularly in dampening roles like the shocks and stabilizer, failed parts will lead to undamped impacts in the system, multiplying deterioration rates.
4) tires don’t play an outsize role
5) some people are just idiots who beat the hell out of their trucks to the point of creating death wobble all on their own.

best bet solutions seem to be centered around:
1) install a new HD track bar
2) install new shocks
3) install new steering stabilizer.

this assumes that the ball joints and steering system hasn’t been beaten to hell either from repeated DW, or general use wear.

depending on your budget, you can spend upwards of $1500 on all Fox bits and a high-end track bar, or as little as $150 on generic (but better than Ford) shocks and steering stabilizer. I’d bet the $500 top end track bar is a good bet in any indication of DW, but if you’re ok now and just looking to prevention, the shocks and stabilizer alone may do.

did I miss anything?

 

Those are all great questions @ForCal . I almost merged another DW thread that spawned concurrently soon after this thread had already begun, but in the end elected not to. There have been other DW threads before, and there will be new DW threads in the future, so it is impractical to merge all of the DW threads, even while it would be useful to condense all of the DW solutions, as @FractureCritical is attempting to do in the post immediately above.

Threads grow organically, influenced by the subset of particular participants who take an interest in them. Each participant has their perspective, all of which fleshes out the conversation, and flushes out various ideas. As a thread winds it's way through an unpredictable course, it is ok if the vehicle leans a bit in the curves. Catching air on two wheels from time to time doesn't always mean eminent rollover crash and burn. Even with death wobble, the fact that so many report it... means they actually didn't die. They slowed down, hung on, and made it through. This thread can make it through until the OP's final resolution / report.

 

I think the bigger question to ask is, why do some of these trucks have DW and most don't. They come from the same plant, and have the same parts, so why is it some people experience the dw and some never have a single issue.

 

I wonder if it's the way the wheel and tires are balanced. They do not have an outer lip for hammer on weights. So you get stick on weights and maybe inner wheel lip weights. Just a thought. Maybe they should do balance beads in tire on some other DW trucks.

 

you seem to forgot the trucks here is only a drop in the bucket to the amount sold each year. we could only speculate how many of the few million other 2017+ trucks have dw

 

They fixed the alignment on mine and installed new tires BFG KO2, I haven’t driven it far enough to say for sure but the truck definitely inspires more confidence, it just feels more planted. If it still has the wobbles I’ll order the fox stabilizer.

 

There is an ENORMOUS difference
between “ death wobble “ and
EARLY death wobble.
Since the 2017 upgrade, there has been
a huge increase of reported DW issues.
Ford knows about this and needs to be forced to address their problem.
Keep reporting!

 

I think that comes down to the production tolerance issue i noted.

 

Do you mean bump steer? Maybe thats why Ford is dropping the suspension height on these for 2020.

As far as being a big deal what I’ve learned is to go ahead and address it early. I dont want to beat my front end apart if it happens.

 

Death wobble.

 

second trip to dealer and just another steering stabilizer. I am going to get the upgraded trackbar from ready lift and start there to permanently fix my truck myself.