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Help, think i got the death wobble

2K views 18 replies 9 participants last post by  huntergreen 
#1 · (Edited)
11 ram sport 1500 4x4. No issues till the truck hit 35,100 miles now I think I've got the death wobble. Had it leveled with BFG 34s and now sometimes when hitting a bump the front end shakes like hell. Sometimes aremt as bad as others and you can accelerate out of it.

Other times are horrible but from what google and YouTube are telling me its mainly a2500/3500 problem and shouldn't happen in 2WD either.

Is that what I'm looking at? I'm gonna get it aligned as that's the first thing I can think of.... But is it the death wobble?

This is the first vehicle I've ever wanted to keep but if this is the new norm it's gone


Edit: from what I'm finding death wobble happens at highway speeds. Mines at under 30mph
 
#2 ·
it sounds like the death wobble
i had it on a old truck,
your control arms could be out of adjustment or bent, a alignment should find the problem

Good Luck
 
#6 ·
huntergreen is correct. Real death wobble only happens in 2500/3500's with solid front axles. What most people think is death wobble is no where near the real thing... It is incredibly violent and you pretty much lose all control of the truck.

That being said however, obviously what you're experiencing is a problem.... An alignment is definitely a good place to start but if it's out you need to know why. As GT said it could be that something got bent which would screw everything up. I would also check your ball joints and tie rod ends, they can be a cause for problems like this as well.
 
#7 ·
Check ball joints and tierod ends. You would hope they would not go out this early but with the larger tires and depending on youroff-road usage they may be shot. The symptoms sound like one of these two as the culprit.
 
#8 ·
I'm not a big off reader anymore, but its rough getting to where I hunt. There's no roads for about the last 3-5 miles depending on what part we go too.

It's just a 2.5" kit from a local shop that does a lot of vehicles around this area.
 
#10 ·
Also might have your tires rebalanced, sometimes they go out of balance and cause vibrations.
 
#11 ·
My truck with 2.1 Bilsteins has been flawless with stock size Duratracs. I just switched over to 33" Trail grapplers. When doing so I noticed that my tie rod has play at 33,000kms. I also noticed that now when in 4wd, that I have the shimmy(not death wobble). Need to get that fixed and a wheel alignment now and hopefully it goes away. Maybe like others have mentioned, you front end is out.
 
#16 ·
we got some snow here the other day and i noticed a bit of shimmy/wobble while accelerating in 4x4 HI, nothing crazy like the death wobble on the 2500s but annoying for sure!

accelerating in 4x4 HI from a stop until cruising speed. i'm gonna check it a bunch tomorrow too. i'm running bilsteins at 2.75", rear coilrite airbags on ttc hd springs, and 34.5 duratracs on it.

i vaguely remember testing it for the wobble in the summer on logging roads and it was fine, since then i've gotten new tires/rims. hoping its just alignment issues.

for the lifted/levelled 1500 trucks from what i've read it seems to be related to tierod, balljoint or alignment issues, heard some rumors of cv joints and some about trace bars but i think the trac bar is a 2500/3500 thing.

any other 1500s experiencing 4wd acceleration wobbles/oscillations/shimmying?
 
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