I've had my F-350 CCLB almost a year and 17,000 miles and I have never been really happy with the steering. The return to center was lackluster, it tracked poorly, and I was always making steering adjustments, basically undoing what I just did. It seemed to get better as I put miles on it, but perhaps I was just getting used to it. Since there are several bridge expansion joints here in Colorado Springs that give the truck a good jostle when you cross over them, I decided to give the new Ford "upgraded" steering stabilizer a try and see if it calmed the front end down any. I took the truck in earlier this week and the tech noticed some movement in the tie rod joint and the track bar so he replaced both of those pieces along with the stabilizer. Suffice to say, the truck drives and tracks awesome now. I never suspected it on a new truck, but it appears there were a couple of defective parts on it from the beginning. The new stabilizer was also a great improvement over the original one. Those same bridge joints no longer jostle the truck like they used to.

So, for those that also might be experiencing less than stellar steering, it might be worth doing a careful inspection of the steering pieces and parts up front.

Adam

 

its a shame those type of parts need changed so soon. i wonder if any ford represenatives ever visit these forums or perhaps theyre to embarassed

 

I did the same thing on my 2019. Great results! Stays on center better, a lot less bump steer and vibration coming through the steering wheel.

 

Truck lifted or have larger tires? All fixed under warranty I assume?

 

I've had more or less the same steering experience as you have described, since new. I plan to talk with the service advisor to see if they will change the steering stabilizer under the FSA, even though I have never experienced DW. Even if they will, I kinda doubt they will even check any other parts while under there. It sounds like you have a good service department there.

 

My truck is completely stock and it was all fixed under warranty. I asked to inspect the parts and while it's hard to "test" these parts without them being in vice and getting some force on them, the tie rod end was pretty rough as I moved it around. After taking the truck for a test drive and being really happy about the way it drove, I stopped by the dealership and gave the service writer and the tech a six-pack each of some fine European beer.

I wrench on all of my other vehicles and honestly, I didn't even bother considering I would have loose/worn/defective parts at 17,000 miles. If you can find a helper, it's easy to have them cycle the steering wheel back and forth to see if you might have bad parts as well. With that knowledge in hand, I think the dealer would be pretty obligated to fix anything moving around more than it should.

And to be clear, I did not have death wobble. But the original stabilizer didn't do a great job of controlling the front end when it encountered certain road imperfections.

Adam

 

Figured I'd do a follow up to my complaint about poor steering/tracking on my 2019 truck. I'm currently sitting at about 26,000 miles, completely stock, and about a month ago I put some Falken AT3's in the 285/75-18 size. The truck drives and tracks much better with this tire than it did with the factory Goodyear kevlar tires. The OEM tires ran smooth and balanced out well, but, for whatever reason, didn't track nearly as well as these new tires. The truck is much more enjoyable to drive now.

Adam

 

with the new tires did you get an alignment? I forget which it is they can adjust (caster, camber or toe in), but a small deviation adjustment from the stock specs makes the truck drive straight better.

 

I took the truck to a well respected shop that only does alignments a few months before the tires went on and they said the truck was right where it needed to be. They didn't change anything and were kind enough to not charge me for checking it out. They also checked the components on the front end and said everything looked fine. The only thing that has changed since I started this thread is the addition of new tires and it drives and tracks much better now.

 

Most people suggest adding more castor than what is set when the truck is delivered. My truck was under 3* positive and allows up to 5* while staying in spec.

 

My specs were as follows per the printout:

Left caster was 3.0 with acceptable range between 2.3 and 4.7.

Right caster was 3.8 with acceptable range between 2.6 and 5.0.

Camber was 0.0 and 0.0

Toe was .03 L and.05 R. Total toe was .09 per the print out.

Seems like it was right in the middle, but could have taken more caster if they were inclined to make any changes.

My truck does have the snow plow package, but not exactly sure how that would affect my numbers compared to a non snow plow package truck.

 

My 89 p/u I thought the same thing when I got shake through the wheel @ 11K no way it's front end ( which affects the wheel), had a bad center link and one outer rod end. 13 K @11 months dealer would not honor 12 and 12 warranty. I took it up the chain to a hearing and lost. All I wanted was reimbursement for parts.