07 Dodge 2500 Cummins Death Wobble

Nelson · Dec 10, 2009

I have a 2007 Dodge 2500 Cummins crewcab short box. It has a 4.5" Fabtech suspension lift that was installed at 30k miles, the truck now has 67k miles. I recently took the truck to the dealership for warranty work with the injectors and they told me the left tie rod was loose and wanted to know if I wanted to go with the 09 tie rod package and update so I agreed to do it. I drove the truck back home and it seemed to drive fine, about 2k miles later I had my winter wheels and tires put on (stock dodge wheels with BFG A/T 315/70R 17 tires) and I was on the highway and the truck started shaking violently at 60-65mph when i hit a bump at a curve and would not stop until the truck came to a complete stop. It does it constantly now at that speed and I can't figure it out. The truck has just recently had the new front end updated (tie rods, linkages, drag link, pitman arm and steering stabilizer), steering box, the wheels have been balanced again and the truck has been re-aligned by 2 different shops. The track bar bushings are brand new, the wheel bearings, ball joints and axel u-joints are within tolerance and in good shape, I'm at a loss and can't get this figured out. I want to put my summer wheels and tires on which are 18x10 with Toyo M/T's to see if it will still do it but my stock wheels are balanced. Could the BFG tires cause this? I'm gonna have them rotated and the tire pressure check again tommorrow. Could a brand new steering stabilize do this?

I know people are gonna say welcome to the world of lifted trucks, but I have owned 5 lifted trucks, the last 2 being Dodge's with the same lift. My 04.5 Cummins had 115k miles on it when I got rid of it and didn't have a single problem with it.

Again the truck didn't start doing this until the dealer replaced and updated the tie rod kit and when I had my winter wheels and tires installed.

Any help from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Josh

SpokaneRMK · Dec 10, 2009

Weird, i just had my first death wobble two weeks ago pulling my trailer, one week after putting on my winter wheels w/ 315's, i was told the fix was the 09' update, put it on last night and get it aligned tomorrow, hopefully thats the fix, doesn't sound like it fixed your problem though??

Oh ya 04' 3500 w/6" lift.

Cyle · Dec 10, 2009

That is weird. You've obviously took out the chance of a bent rim, but it still could be the tires. The major things that can do it is bad steering like track bar and tie rods. A steering stabilizer won't do it. I really don't know, if you can exclude your tires, I would bet something is wrong with the steering. Are you sure you don't have the steering that was recalled?

I have an 04 3500 with 6" lift, going up to 8" next week. I absolutely refuse to "upgrade" to the new steering. So many people have issues with it, and my truck steers great so why change it? I am just going to get a bigger drop pitman arm and replace the stock tie rods with upgraded stuff when it wears out, over 80k miles on stock steering without an sort of issue.

Do you have a new track bar or a drop bracket? New track bar would help a ton.

It sucks now that your having issues, but the new steering could be giving you problems.

machinest660 · Dec 10, 2009

my 06 2500 had wobble issues to, i changed the track bar and the steering stabalizer and still samething. i just put on 285/75/17 tires good year mtr 8 ply and it has not done it since. there are lots of aftermarket track bars etc but not sure if that would be the answer. i was told good tires are the key hope this helps

SpokaneRMK · Dec 10, 2009

Tires could b the problem, my 315's are cupped pretty good, i had no wobble w/ 37's pulling my trailer.

Nelson · Dec 10, 2009

Cyle said:
That is weird. You've obviously took out the chance of a bent rim, but it still could be the tires. The major things that can do it is bad steering like track bar and tie rods. A steering stabilizer won't do it. I really don't know, if you can exclude your tires, I would bet something is wrong with the steering. Are you sure you don't have the steering that was recalled?

I have an 04 3500 with 6" lift, going up to 8" next week. I absolutely refuse to "upgrade" to the new steering. So many people have issues with it, and my truck steers great so why change it? I am just going to get a bigger drop pitman arm and replace the stock tie rods with upgraded stuff when it wears out, over 80k miles on stock steering without an sort of issue.

Do you have a new track bar or a drop bracket? New track bar would help a ton.

It sucks now that your having issues, but the new steering could be giving you problems.

Sorry, It's a drop bracket not a new track bar, I meant upper and lower control links. Bushings look good though, why would a track bar go out this soon? I haven't heard of that before.

I know, I never had a single problem before they put the update kit in, I just figured because its heavier duty then the OEM parts that were in it that I was better off. I wish I would've had them replace the tie rod only.

And the dealer has been no help. The only thing they're good for is scratching their heads. I guess if my nuts itch they might finally be some help.

Nelson · Dec 10, 2009

SpokaneRMK said:
Weird, i just had my first death wobble two weeks ago pulling my trailer, one week after putting on my winter wheels w/ 315's, i was told the fix was the 09' update, put it on last night and get it aligned tomorrow, hopefully thats the fix, doesn't sound like it fixed your problem though??

Oh ya 04' 3500 w/6" lift.

Let me know how yours drives, My 04.5 with a 5" Skyjacker drove awesome and at 115k miles just needed ball joints and a tie rod. No issues after that or beyond, my buddy owns it with about 130k miles on it now with no issues.

I'm thinking about putting my other 35's back on to see if it still does it.

That's about when mine first flared up. I drove the truck 180 miles on the interstate back to my home when I had my 35's with know problem, probably put 1500 miles (town driven) on the front end before I put my 315's on and the first time on the highway she about shook me off the road.

Nelson · Dec 10, 2009

SpokaneRMK said:
Tires could b the problem, my 315's are cupped pretty good, i had no wobble w/ 37's pulling my trailer.

Same here, BFG's are horrible at cupping. Only question I have is on 2 of my Chevy 1/2 tons (94 and 99) I ran BFG 315/70R17's on them and didn't have a single issue, they wore the same as this set.

What would cause a tire to make a truck shake and only shake when I hit a bump? I mean its not constant, I can drive at 65mph and the truck will drive fine but once I hit a bump in the road it shakes until my speed gets down to 20mph or less.

Nelson · Dec 10, 2009

machinest660 said:
my 06 2500 had wobble issues to, i changed the track bar and the steering stabalizer and still samething. i just put on 285/75/17 tires good year mtr 8 ply and it has not done it since. there are lots of aftermarket track bars etc but not sure if that would be the answer. i was told good tires are the key hope this helps

I'm almost thinking on the same page with the tires being the issue, just trying to figure out why though?

BigFish BC · Dec 11, 2009

mine did the same thing & found out the stabilizer shock had leaked would do the same thing every little bump i hit it would rip the steering wheel out of your hands,changed the shock no prob after that.:beer;

JSCC · Dec 11, 2009

Bad wheel bearings will cause it to shake as well. Just replaced another on our 07' and it solved it, for now.

SpokaneRMK · Dec 11, 2009

With the 09' update and a new alignment, its worse, so les scwhab will have it all day on monday to figure it out, I'm pissed, and then les scwhab says maybe you should think about getting rid of your truck, r u kidding me i've put close to 4k, lift and front end parts in the last year and a half. My truck only has 87k and is rarely off of the pavement. Rant over till atleast monday.

Nelson · Dec 11, 2009

JSCC said:
Bad wheel bearings will cause it to shake as well. Just replaced another on our 07' and it solved it, for now.

The wheel bearings are fine, as are the ball joints and axel u-joints. I was out with the tech's each time they were checked.

Nelson · Dec 11, 2009

SpokaneRMK said:
With the 09' update and a new alignment, its worse, so les scwhab will have it all day on monday to figure it out, I'm pissed, and then les scwhab says maybe you should think about getting rid of your truck, r u kidding me i've put close to 4k, lift and front end parts in the last year and a half. My truck only has 87k and is rarely off of the pavement. Rant over till atleast monday.

Exactly, I know just what you mean. They told me the same thing when I took it back to Les Schwabs today, I was like pi$$ off buddy I've got quite a bit of cash into mine to and if anybody knows me and my trucks, they're pavement pounders.

Well I was prepared when I went there today, I took my summer wheels and tires with me because I was gonna start with what was gonna be the cheapest first. Well with the 18's and 35's back on her I took her for a drive going over the same bumps at 65-70mph that have been giving me problems on the highway and causing the wobble and the truck never did it, I thought WTF........so I increased my speed to 85mph over them again and nothing she drives fine, so that limits it to Tires or Wheels which I couldn't understand because they've been balanced and the tire pressure checked, so they threw them on the wheel balancer and the weights had never changed they balanced just fine but they noticed the tire that came off the right front had a ton of weights on one side which led them to believe that the tire is out of round and they were correct. The wheel isn't bent due to the fact there is no constant vibration so they threw the BFG's back on the truck rotating the fronts to the back and the truck still drives just fine.

I have come to the fact that BFG's are crap, well the A/T's at least and I'll never own another set.

I'll keep you guys posted if it starts happening again, crossing my fingers that it won't.

Nelson · Dec 11, 2009

Also, when the truck was last aligned they changed the caster on the front end from 4.5 to 2.9 on the left front and 4.2 to 2.7 on the right front.

scott merritt · Dec 11, 2009

Had this problem on my 99 dodge, 4" lift 315's tires wore fine, but the inner belts on two of the tires were broken, they replaced them it was fine for 60,000 more miles until I traded it in for 2006

SpokaneRMK · Dec 12, 2009

Nelson said:
Also, when the truck was last aligned they changed the caster on the front end from 4.5 to 2.9 on the left front and 4.2 to 2.7 on the right front.

They need to change the caster back to 4+, put the longer control arms on the bottom and toe the wheels in a bit, this is what they did to my buddies and it drives perfect.

Plowboy · Dec 12, 2009

I'm going to say the main culprit is tires. I have been following this issue for many years and it seems to be tires more often than not that cause it. Have an old 2 1/2 ton farm truck that was doing it and the only thing that cured it was tires and in its case wheels as well on the steer axle. Seems like guys running BFG tires are having the most issues with other brands being few to no issues. I have a 1998 Ram with 185k and have never experienced this death wobble with it and it has all the original parts under it. I have always ran LeSwab tires on it with a 10 ply rating and seems to have been working for me.

JSCC · Dec 12, 2009

Plowboy said:
I'm going to say the main culprit is tires. I have been following this issue for many years and it seems to be tires more often than not that cause it. Have an old 2 1/2 ton farm truck that was doing it and the only thing that cured it was tires and in its case wheels as well on the steer axle. Seems like guys running BFG tires are having the most issues with other brands being few to no issues. I have a 1998 Ram with 185k and have never experienced this death wobble with it and it has all the original parts under it. I have always ran LeSwab tires on it with a 10 ply rating and seems to have been working for me.

This could be VERY true. As I just changed over to Nito's while we did the axle bearings. I have always ran BFG's on my trucks. I attributed it to the bearing, but maybe it is the tires....?

Nelson · Dec 12, 2009

SpokaneRMK said:
They need to change the caster back to 4+, put the longer control arms on the bottom and toe the wheels in a bit, this is what they did to my buddies and it drives perfect.

Yeah I'm gonna have them change it back when I get back from my trip. Sucks though, $60 worth of alignment that didn't need to be done and I'll have to pay another $60 to have them change it back.

07 Dodge 2500 Cummins Death Wobble

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