I have 2016 F-350 Lariat. Was driving on the concrete portion of freeway at about 75 mph when the road surface transitioned to asphalt which had ripples in it. The front end vibrated then began to oscillate heavily. I immediately slowed down to 15 mph and the vibration/oscillation stopped. I got back up to 70 mph with no issue. Got home and inspected the front end and didn't find anything abnormal. Bushings look a little worn. Suspension is all stock. Anyone an idea as to WTH happened?

 

Death wobble is what it’s commonly referred to.

 

Jeep invented it..looks like ford added it to their F series line up.

 

Welcome to the forum.
Get your wife / partner / friend / whatever to help you. Put said person in the driver seat, with engine running, trans in Park. Have them rock the steering wheel approximately 120 degrees back an forth rather quickly. You get under the truck, put your finger lightly on ALL joints, tie rod ends, etc. and feel for any movement between components. ( One can feel movement that the eye can’t see). Pay particular attention to the ends on the trac bar. ANY movement on that allows the axle to osscilate from side to side in relation to the frame. Worn tires can contribute / help this happen.
Do a searchon this forum. Look for “Death Wobble”. There are many threads about this issue. It is fixable……but not with band-aids.
Good luck.

 

Thank you Desert Don for the info and suggested evaluation techniques.

 

I'm surprised there isn't a definitive "Death Wobble" thread or is there and I'm blind and not seeing it?

 

There are many threads dealing with the issue, with fixes ranging from band-aids to actually replacing a bunch of worn parts. The true fix is to remove ALL the band-aiud stuff, throw it in corner, find the real issue, get it to drive properly, then re-install band-aid junk if you want. Band-aids being cheap or hifgh dollar steering stabilizers, dual stabilizersl, and all that sort of thing that costs big bucks, but sure looks cool!

A person needs to be able to visualize all the things that are actually happening in the whole front steering / suspension system to understand what is really happening in a DW situation. DW is actually built into all steering systems by Newton’s third law. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. One component pushing one way has another compponent pushing the other way.
The problem is hiow to mitigate that effect.

 

And those are just the threads in the 1999-2016 Super Duty sub-forum where the words "Death Wobble" happened to be in the title.

There are many more threads regarding death wobble, such as this very thread now, where even though death wobble is being discussed, there is no mention of "Death Wobble" in the title.

These types of threads were not presented above, because the search was restricted to only thread titles with death wobble, and further restricted to only check the 1999-2016 sub-forum.

Several years ago, a similarly restricted titles only search was done in the 2017+ Super Duty Forum, which revealed the following:












The yellow box results from the 2017+ Supper Duty sub-forum were derived in 2020. In the four years since, there have been just as many more threads and posts about death wobble. Those latest results, not presented here, can be readily found by entering the term "Death Wobble" in the search box above. By clicking down on the "Threads" sub-menu, an "Advanced" search tab enables anyone to tune any search to specific times and sub-forums.

 

I guess my statement/question/comment was not very clear. I surely did not say "how to I search the forums for death wobble". I was simply saying, you would think with all of DW threads/posts, something would be pinned at the top of the forum. Like, "DW (Death Wobble), if you have questions look here first". I get it, that does not keep the FNG (no disrespect to any new forum folks, we all have to start somewhere) on the forums for starting a new thread, but instead of have 5000 different threads maybe you only have 2000. I dont know, it was just a thought. Thanks for the info posted.

 

How would you pick which thread to stick? With everyone differing on opinions as to cause, and even opinions on effect... who is right?

 

Exactly. There isn't one specific fix, or even one thread, that captures death wobble. Assembling one troubleshooting guide would be daunting. My last DW experience was a failed steering stabilizer. My neighbor had DW from a worn suspension parts. My 2007 truck had DW from lowering the front tire pressure. Still others are caused by alignment issues.

If one person tells you that they have the single step cure for DW, seek additional advice.