Death Wobble

Atlas171

Atlas171

Member
Purchased my wife a new 2023 Gladiator 2 months ago. At 250 miles we had a Rough Country 2-1/2” leveling kit an a dual steering stabilizer. A few days and death wobble shows up. Back to the 4x4 shop and had them install forged Trac bar, larger adjustable lower control arms, alignment. Still the death wobble is severe. 2,000 miles now and back to the drawing board. Is it possible I have other parts already wore out or do I need to take it somewhere else to go over the front end to ensure all proper adjustments and torque settings are correct? I am considering Synergy drag link and tie rod. Even looking at the steering gear box brace for the aluminum gearbox. Oh, one more thing. I had the exact same parts installed at the same shop for my 2020 Gladiator with 30k miles and it drives fine. IMG_0980.jpeg
 
Atlas171 said:
Purchased my wife a new 2023 Gladiator 2 months ago. At 250 miles we had a Rough Country 2-1/2” leveling kit an a dual steering stabilizer. A few days and death wobble shows up. Back to the 4x4 shop and had them install forged Trac bar, larger adjustable lower control arms, alignment. Still the death wobble is severe. 2,000 miles now and back to the drawing board. Is it possible I have other parts already wore out or do I need to take it somewhere else to go over the front end to ensure all proper adjustments and torque settings are correct? I am considering Synergy drag link and tie rod. Even looking at the steering gear box brace for the aluminum gearbox. Oh, one more thing. I had the exact same parts installed at the same shop for my 2020 Gladiator with 30k miles and it drives fine. View attachment 416702
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Assuming you really have death wobble (violent uncontrollable shaking of your entire Jeep and to the point where you can only make it go away by coming to a near stop) and not just a bad shimmy at your steering wheel, I would double check your new track bar bolts to make sure they are in fact tightened to the proper 120 ft lbs of torque. If they are, it is possible that your ball joints are loose. This is something that I have seen and right from the factory and probably because of the aluminum knuckles.

That said and not that I'm saying it's your problem but I've never been a fan of aftermarket steering stabilizers and especially dual ones like you had installed. The ONLY aftermarket one I would run is the Rancho RS7MT. Otherwise, I have found that OEM is about as good as it gets.
 
What is your alignment readout after their alignment? What size/brand of tires and what is cold PSI? Any chance they had another 'tech' do your install and they either torqued everything in the air or improperly torqued your suspension?
 
Factory tires and wheels, wife is out of town but I’ll check cold air pressure when she returns. Yep, it’s the severe death wobble. I’ve experienced it years ago and wheels dancing left to right. They are an accessory sales shop, I have located a Jeep specialty shop that actually does mechanical repairs not just accessory sales. Going to have them go over everything to try and solve it prior to just installing upgrades. It’s going in next week and I’ll give an update. Also I’m now 66 years old and don’t really crawl under my vehicles anymore but when I was younger I certainly did.
 
My wife is out of town this weekend with here 2023 so I’m outside looking at my 2020 Gladiator as I am researching and posting about the wobble issue on hers. My 2020 has the aluminum steering gearbox. I bought mine used 2 years ago and have only put 15k miles on it, now @ 30k. I haven’t had issues with it. I have seen an old recall to replace it but being a 2020 I doubt if they would now honor that recall. I didn’t know about this so I miss posted hers having an aluminum steering box
 
Atlas171 said:
My wife is out of town this weekend with here 2023 so I’m outside looking at my 2020 Gladiator as I am researching and posting about the wobble issue on hers. My 2020 has the aluminum steering gearbox. I bought mine used 2 years ago and have only put 15k miles on it, now @ 30k. I haven’t had issues with it. I have seen an old recall to replace it but being a 2020 I doubt if they would now honor that recall. I didn’t know about this so I miss posted hers having an aluminum steering box
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Update of Steer Smarts Yeti installation. I took the Gladiator to a different 4x4 shop, previous shop sold accessories and I lost confidence in their ability to diagnose DW issues. New Yeti tie rod & drag link installed. Removed the Rancho N3 dual steeeing stabilizer and install a Falcon unit they recommend. Had alignment adjustment of caster with the adjustable lower control arms I previously installed and readjusted the tow setting. Checked torque on previous RC adjustable forged track bar I had installed. All good now and drives great now. DW is gone!
I’m still running stock factory wheels and tires same will wait until about 30k miles on them before I get new tires
 
Atlas171 said:
Update of Steer Smarts Yeti installation. I took the Gladiator to a different 4x4 shop, previous shop sold accessories and I lost confidence in their ability to diagnose DW issues. New Yeti tie rod & drag link installed. Removed the Rancho N3 dual steeeing stabilizer and install a Falcon unit they recommend. Had alignment adjustment of caster with the adjustable lower control arms I previously installed and readjusted the tow setting. Checked torque on previous RC adjustable forged track bar I had installed. All good now and drives great now. DW is gone!
I’m still running stock factory wheels and tires same will wait until about 30k miles on them before I get new tires
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oh dude, they also sold you a bill of goods without actually diagnosing the issue - dual stabilizers are never a good idea.

you likely had something loose, but they went fishing and hooked you.

I was sold by steer smarts marketing once, turned out to be the absolute worst warranty support and expensive lesson.

If anything, you should've stuck to your initial thought of Synergy - replacement wear parts are affordable unlike Steer Smarts where rod ends are almost as expensive as the whole thing.
 
Any solid axel suspension system has a natural oscillation tendency due to the length and flexibility of the suspension components and the flexibility of the tires. The stabilizer is there to soak up the oscillations. If it is too pliant then it won't soak them up, and if it is too stiff then it will conduct/promote oscillations as if it was a rigid member. If the stabilizer is not selected based on complex computations, it may be selected based on testing or experience.

This is why using the OEM stabilizer (or one proven by many based on actual experience) is a good idea. It is said that Jeep's current stabilizer has improvements over the the one that came the first couple of years of JL models. The improvements lessen the chance of "death wobble".
 
bobfriesenhahn said:
Any solid axel suspension system has a natural oscillation tendency due to the length and flexibility of the suspension components and the flexibility of the tires. The stabilizer is there to soak up the oscillations. If it is too pliant then it won't soak them up, and if it is too stiff then it will conduct/promote oscillations as if it was a rigid member. If the stabilizer is not selected based on complex computations, it may be selected based on testing or experience.

This is why using the OEM stabilizer (or one proven by many based on actual experience) is a good idea. It is said that Jeep's current stabilizer has improvements over the the one that came the first couple of years of JL models. The improvements lessen the chance of "death wobble".
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Where'd you copy and paste that from?
 
bobfriesenhahn said:
Any solid axel suspension system has a natural oscillation tendency due to the length and flexibility of the suspension components and the flexibility of the tires. The stabilizer is there to soak up the oscillations. If it is too pliant then it won't soak them up, and if it is too stiff then it will conduct/promote oscillations as if it was a rigid member. If the stabilizer is not selected based on complex computations, it may be selected based on testing or experience.

This is why using the OEM stabilizer (or one proven by many based on actual experience) is a good idea. It is said that Jeep's current stabilizer has improvements over the the one that came the first couple of years of JL models. The improvements lessen the chance of "death wobble".
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Didn’t I read that the PSC ram assist was the best steering stabilizer ever?
 
I l
OverlanderJK said:
If you did you should never read anything from that source again because it’s not a stabilizer.
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Here’s what I found from GenRights site.

This is the GenRight spec Ram assist kit from PSC.

Designed for Extreme Off Highway driving and 38" to 42" tall tires.

-Provides double the turning force
-Reliefs stress on steering box and frame mounts
-PSC ram assist is the ultimate steering stabilizer
 
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