I was just picking ..............

 

I will purchase one. But the neighbor is one of the few I would let do critical welding. He built this one ground up. Granted his steering components are different. Thanks again everyone for the tips and advice. I will keep y’all in the loop.

 

Yes we all have "That cool neighbor" that builds way cool stuff. Old school leaf spring truck, still airing it out. Yes keep us posted on how it goes.

 

Still got mine. Out on "Red Hill".

 

very cool. We are not to far apart. My old boss used to drive for them. I have wanted to make their open house since they moved and haven’t been able to. I have not had time to look at mine yet. Are there any track bars recommended or any to avoid?

 

You should put the Big Foot open house on the calendar this year, it is the 50th Anniversary, June 7th, 2025. I am sure Alan and Earthquake will be there also, airing it out as always, unless he is on the road. He is a super wrencher/driver (of a couple of their monster trucks) for a big team outa Texas. I have it on my calendar this year.




The trac bar somethingclever posted a link of should work just fine. I would not get one off Temu or the cheapest on the web.

 

Sorry Rich, but gonna have to correct you on this statement. Bump-steer and Death Wobble are not even remotely the same thing.
Bump steer of course, is a geometry issue, that causes the vehicle to move (or swerve, or jerk, or wiggle, or jump, if you will) sideways during suspension movement. Whether from hitting a bump/dip/whoop, or from braking/accelerating, causing the suspension to extend or compress.
A true Death Wobble (not just a shimmy or shake) on the other hand, is the uncontrolled movement of a tire, due to a defect in a tire, or steering component (or both), that starts a tire oscillating to the extent that it literally shakes the vehicle and tries to tear the steering wheel out of the driver's hands, until you slow down enough to bring the oscillations back to a controllable level.
It's a repeatable occurrence, often brought on my hitting a certain bump in a certain way, and can almost never be "driven through" to a higher speed. Like some shimmies can. In almost every case, you have to slow down (usually to less than 15mph) to get it to stop.

You can add other characteristics to both bump-steer and death wobble to make the descriptions more accurate, but you can see even from the above that they are not the same thing and never have been. Bump steer is transitory and can come in any time the suspension moves and does not necessitate the need to stop driving in mid maneuver. A real Death Wobble can (usually) only be stopped by slowing down. Which is a good thing, giving you time to change your underwear after the first experience!
I may not have been the actual first in the world, but I was the first I ever knew of to coin the term Death Wobble for this severe characteristic back in the early to mid '80's. When adding "death" to many things was kind of a humorous way of making it sound more dramatic. Not that this needed more drama!
It's been mis-used in more recent years to describe any minor shimmy, shake or out of balance scenario. But for my use at least, it's only when a tire is out of control and shaking the rig apart!
Which can also damage steering components if left un-cured too long.
I'd already experienced my first one in 1970 on '67 Buick Wildcat. Bad front tire... My second one was on the '71 Bronco in about '79. Again, one bad front tire that I had damaged myself just before the first occurrence. After that, it was always a customer's or friend's vehicle, and almost always on a solid-axle truck. Maybe because that's who I hang around with!
Nowadays the Jeep Wranglers, '94 and newer Dodge trucks, and Ford Super-Duty trucks are notorious for it. Oddly, solid axle rigs with straight link steering and trackbars. But it's not exclusive to them, or any particular vehicle or suspension type.

One rig might fix it with a better/tighter trackbar mount. Another a loose steering box. But for me, it's always started at a tire. Easy to tell in those cases though, but simply rotating the tires. If it goes away, you're good as long as you leave the bad tire(s) on the back. If it stays, then it's probably some other worn out component. Or more than two bad tires! Which I've run into multiple times on Broncos and Jeeps.

So real hillbilly, what form did yours take the other day?
Thanks

Paul

 

Paul I appreciate the correction...so now I stand corrected and better educated, thanks. Can bump steer lead to death wobble? I understand that bump steer is when you hit a bump and the road difference to and thru the tire impact is transferred to the steering and is feed back into steering of the vehicle on its own.

I know this for sure that I own a dirty ol 99 Doge Ram 2500 diesel and is has had the front end rebuilt a few times over the years. The trac bar has replace way more than is should of been. 236,000 miles and for the 1st time ever I recently had a death wobble event, to the point I can tell you what flavor my seat cushions are. Lucky for me I was not hauling the Bronco on the trailer either.

I was doing 75 in the go fast lane....at night and hit a bad spot in the road where a bridge and the pavement meet. All on a 4 lane and the seam is at a angle. It came on in the blink of an eye, and I was along for the ride trying to get it shut down and not hit any one, change lanes unwillingly, and keep it outa the center medium/ditch.

I got it shut down and the wobble finally went away at 25 MPH. I then pulled off to the slow lane shoulder and got out to inspect, expecting to my steering box had fell out or all my tie rods had broke.

And now back to the OP, with a lift installed and a none adjustable drag link, the lift kit push's the axle away from the truck and since the trac bar is a fixed length the only thing it can do is pull/push the complete axel to the dvr side. A adjustable drag link can help center the axle.

 

Quick update: truck is actually running dual steering stabilizers. I had taken them off to check them and only had one back on during the pic. The drop bracket fits inside of what I presumed to be the stock bracket. After having the wife work the steering while I lay underneath, it did not take long to discover one of the bolts for the bracket had come loose. Weird since it is a locknut. I will be replacing all the hardware with correct grade and size. After tightening it certainly drove better(obviously). I am putting the 50th Anniversary on the calender for sure. It’s a short drive. And it will give me the opportunity to see my old boss again. Oneton, this was undoubtedly death wobble. The second instance I was prepared for seeing as how the first instance does not leave the memory very quick. I will also make note that the first time you experience it, it takes a person some time to get the vehicle up to and beyond 10mph. I will probably be ordering an adjustable bar early this week. I will keep y’all posted and thanks again for all the help and advice. I have also added a better pick of the drop bracket.

 

So it does have a drop bracket inside the OEM bracket. IMO the best way to keep a bolt tight, it to get one that is grade 8 and you can lock it down with a cotter pin, after you install a castellated nut. Or do the aviation safety wire method. But that kind of hdwr can get $$.

Bolts https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/ha/bolts.html Nuts https://www.aircraftspruce.com/categ...us/ha/nut.html

If one works, then 2 is better, and 3 for a win.

 

That almost looks like something "Johnny Jackleg" built using a thin wall square tubing, and those thin welded ears just to modify a thicker, much stouter OEM mount. Sure, it's finished nice, maybe even powder coated, but no thanks. Left to right, that mount sees some serious stress. Those tires don't help it. I would expect a dropped trac bar mount to be at least as stout as OEM. Does the tube even have a tube between the sides where the bolts go through, the frame does. If not, you could tighten and torque that lowest bolt going through the frame all day, and first drive it take a few bumps and it'll be loose after that tube crushes a hair.

Nice truck, but there's your wobble.

 

T-bear I wouldn't be surprised if that squared tubing that is inside the OEM bracket is probably solid stock. They do make a heavy duty version that's solid stock that goes inside and it has ear tabs to mount it outside also and then you can always weld it to the frame at the top. But yes I've seen some pretty sketchy ones made also.

 

It does have spacers inside of the square tube. But that was my thoughts also. This is actually well executed when compared to the ladder bars I removed from the rear axle. It was 1”square tube about 6’ long attached to the rear axle with u bolts and to the frame by way of a u-bracket welded to the frame then bolted with an additional weld for assurance. If that confused you, yes the ladder bars were welded to a bracket that was welded to the frame. THE LADDER BARS WERE WELDED TO THE FRAME! Thank you for the compliment tbear. It can be stressful at times but I wouldn’t have any other truck. I hate to assume but I guess the adjustable track bars are meant to be used with the stock bracket?

 

I should of looked closer, now I see the tubing has spacers inside it. Ladder bars IMO are only needed for a pulling truck, high power race truck/mud bogger. Not a DD/ mild off roader. Welded at both attachment point, brain surgeon right there....not.

Yes if you get a adjustable trac bar you can probably ditch the trac bar added on drop bracket...as long as when all said and done the new trac bar and drag link are parallel to each other, in a perfect world.

Needs ladder bars, or might already have some?
Probably has ladder bars or locked up suspension.

 

In my opinion,,,1TonBasecamp Paul is correct.
Basically if you had soft suspension as you jump on the skinny pedal the front suspension will try to rise and the wheels will get a case of TOE IN and scuff. (cause drag).
As in racing, coming out of the turn, the front suspension tries to rise and toe in tries to happen and could create some drag.
Good setup this should not happen...