[SOLVED] Getting Mini Deathwobble at speed

[Destroyer]

Guarantee a tire is out of balance up front. Swap the front tires to the back and see if you still have the issue. Quick and easy way to troubleshoot things. If you have a Hunter RoadForce balancer at a local shop, I recommend getting them balanced there.
Check your front tires for balance weights. If you have one that has an abnormally high amount of weights on it, chances are whoever mounted them up had issues balancing them. Not abnormal to have a tire that defective and cant be balanced correctly. I've had a 37x13.5 Ridge Grappler that multiple shops could not get to balance correctly and was constantly taking 10+oz of weight. Eventually the tire shop labeled it as defective and I was able to get a replacement

Sponsored

 

[Romano]

Interesting, I thought for sure it was a lifted/modified vehicle thing. Can pretty much guarantee thats how the dealership will see it if I take it in.

Everything is Ford’s fault right now.. mAke them warranty it!

 

[Knownman]

Likely it's the 37" tire/balance related. Plus I wonder about using a 3" spacer lift without recorrecting the suspension geometry? Alignment won't fix your CV angles being so high.

 

[Knownman]

Guarantee a tire is out of balance up front. Swap the front tires to the back and see if you still have the issue. Quick and easy way to troubleshoot things. If you have a Hunter RoadForce balancer at a local shop, I recommend getting them balanced there.
Check your front tires for balance weights. If you have one that has an abnormally high amount of weights on it, chances are whoever mounted them up had issues balancing them. Not abnormal to have a tire that defective and cant be balanced correctly. I've had a 37x13.5 Ridge Grappler that multiple shops could not get to balance correctly and was constantly taking 10+oz of weight. Eventually the tire shop labeled it as defective and I was able to get a replacement

I had the same issue with my Ridge Grapplers. No luck getting a warranty on it though so I sold them.

 

[Monster1926]

I concur with destroyer. To add to it most shops don’t want to take the time to properly road force balance a wheel/tire. It takes a lot of time to do it properly.

 

[Knownman]

I don't think it has any thing to do with your lift setup. What size engine do you have? Rpm's are low, and your truck is prob kicking into 9th or 10th gear. Any chance your having turbo issues. I say this because I experience the same thing, sometimes even harsher shake in the wheel when my turbo isn't working correctly.

This is when I know I'm having turbo issues.

That doesn't really show turbo issues. That's more likely just a slightly inaccurate sensor or a dwell setting that isn't adjusted to be less sensitive.

 

[Saltlife4shore]

			That doesn't really show turbo issues. That's more likely just a slightly inaccurate sensor or a dwell setting that isn't adjusted to be less sensitive. Regardless. When I have the random 0.1 / 0.0 with auto start/stop active engine off I know my boost levels aren't right. My steering wheel shakes along with the engine as if I'm driving stick pulling off in 2nd gear. When I cycle the engine off and back on 50% of the time this flip/flop will stop and the truck drives normal. This behavior of shaking always happens when cruising above 50 and the truck wants to consistently be in 9th or 10th gear.

 

[Jroub21]

Exact reason why I hate touching suspensions on any vehicles. Too much to f up…

 

[Knownman]

			Regardless. When I have the random 0.1 / 0.0 with auto start/stop active engine off I know my boost levels aren't right. My steering wheel shakes along with the engine as if I'm driving stick pulling off in 2nd gear. When I cycle the engine off and back on 50% of the time this flip/flop will stop and the truck drives normal. This behavior of shaking always happens when cruising above 50 and the truck wants to consistently be in 9th or 10th gear.

Sounds like you have an issue for sure. Curious if it exhibited the problem before you modded the suspension? Are you running aftermarket tires too?

 

[Saltlife4shore]

2" rough country spacers. Stock sasquatch wheels and tires. But like I said, I only have the issue when when the flip/flop shows. No other time. This start and 1000 miles ago. I have over 4000 miles on the truck. It's had an alignment and tire balance, with no issues.

 

[Lazerus]

Yeah, that is a shimmy in the steering wheel.



Having had the dreaded death wobble in my old JKU, I would definitely disagree. It is most definitely dangerous.

For those not familiar with true death wobble:

Great example of a bump starting the resonance. Beyond control issues, a lot of the danger comes from having to slow down to under 20mph to get it to stop -particularly when you're doing 75 in the fast lane...it can become quite problematic.

...and every time it happens there is a good possibility of further damage to components. Bushings and ball joints can really take a hit. It takes a lot of force to move a suspension around like that.

 

[Boreal]

There was a thread a few days back where some owner with Fabtech UCA’s had the main Heim/Balljoint? Bolts come loose and dropped their driver side knuckle. Might be worth to double check all suspension/CA related torque specs.

Also, could just as easily be a thrown weight/misbalanced wheel

 

[Brockdog12]

Kind of totally unrelated, but I had a Flex with the band mounted TPMS, not the stem type. I took it back many times to Discount after I had aftermarket rims put on, they'd balance the tires and within a few miles they'd be out of balance again. They roadforce balanced them and everything. Finally one of the technicians asked another tech, hey did you guys use the TPMS rebuild kit on that when you moved the sensors to the new rims? Turns out, the TPMS were moving on the rim from the rotation and causing the out of balance. Installing the TPMS kit on all 4 solved the problem.

 

[RainbowStix]

I don't think it has any thing to do with your lift setup. What size engine do you have? Rpm's are low, and your truck is prob kicking into 9th or 10th gear. Any chance your having turbo issues. I say this because I experience the same thing, sometimes even harsher shake in the wheel when my turbo isn't working correctly.

This is when I know I'm having turbo issues.

Turbo psi always kicks but thank you for the suggestion! Think this was just a straight flat road.

How long have you been running the 37s? "E" rated tire I presume? Not uncommon for larger tires to be a PIA to get balanced.

D loads

If your alignment is OK, have your tires ROAD FORCE BALANCED and the vibration will be gone.

I second the tires out of balance. Not all shops can balance tires properly. Depends on the technician's experience and quality of the machine used. The bigger the tire, the more of a chance it's going to need more weights and could be harder to balance. Also tires could be out of round or wheel bent. A lot of weights can take care of this.

I ordered brand new 31 X 10.50 tires for my 97 Wrangler 2 years ago from Tire Rack. Had them mounted and balanced at a local tire shop. They did a great job but some of the wheels needed a lot of weights for the balance to come in- and they used an experienced tech to do the final dial in and install of the weights. No vibration or wobble at all.

Can we do this on beadlocks? Apologies if that’s a crucial detail I forgot to mention. I did not get them rebalanced since the install (been about 1500mi since the install).

This sounds just like steering nibble. Kind of common especially on EPAS steering. Your caster does appear to be at and above the upper limit of the Sasquatch spec (3.18° +- 0.6) so I think it’s extra nibble induced from that. The software in the EPAS has a nibble control feature however it’s designed around stock systems and I’m sure gets a little more hard to control with a modified suspension/tire size like that.

A possibility for sure but I did have a higher caster of 4.5/4.7 before with no wobble (not sure why the shop told me it was currently at its higher limit). Camburg also told me I should be getting around 6 degrees of caster from these arms

 

[RainbowStix]

Scheduled a Road Force balance appt for Monday. Will report back if that fixes it

Sponsored