CIJeep

Our experience may be about the same in years, I never counted it up, but I disagree with you on the Jeep thing. Stuff like this happens on sports cars, sedans and trucks both large and small. I've seen it happen and am well familiar with it.

The term might have recently been used on other than motorcyles, but I can assure you that it started there. Some might have tried to migrated the term but a death wobble? C'mon. I won't say that it was never the cause of a persons death, especially since a lot of people know next to nothing about handling vehicles, but I can assure you that there are far more bikers with road rash from it than 4 wheeled vehicles.

Its funny, now there are two people who told me I have no experience and am ignorant. LOL Oh well, just please don't tell my friends.

Sorry if it hurt your feelings.

Chandler

bottom line, there are quite a few of us that are having a bad experience with a serious wobble in our front end, I dont care what you call it but its not a shimmy, its bad enough that I cant drive my jeep at 70kms, thats brutal, its only got 15000lms, it shouldnt be fubared already...ive checked all the bolts and its been extremely well maintained, ...if anyone has any experience with this then i would greatly appreciate some help...if these guys argueing about the name only had some experience with how to fix the problem then i would be good to go...

wayoflife

Okay guys, seriously, I'd be grateful if we could please try to keep this on topic.

Chandler, for not having read the entire post and if you've covered it alread, I do apologize for asking it again but, have you tried getting your wheels re-balanced? Typically, a high speed sensitive shaking/shimmy is a balancing problem. Also, when you say that you checked "all the bolts and its been extremely well maintained", are you saying that you have double checked to make sure that they are tightend to the required torque settings? It is critical that they are.

CJK

CIJeep, maybe we were a bit harsh on you. I can certainly see where a condition called "death wobble" would be far more serious on two wheels versus four. Maybe the Jeep term should be "headed-for-the-ditch wobble" but regardless it's not a fun ride.

Chandler, there have been many posts on the topic and how to avoid it or correct it. "Death wobble" is a term used (in Jeeps) to describe a borderline out-of-control event where your tires start hopping off the pavement which then causes extremely violent shaking of the entire vehicle. It is not a vibration or a shimmy - DW may start out as something that minor but it quickly graduates to a "Oh SH!T" situation. Simply take your foot off the gas and try to keep it headed in the right direction until the bouncing stops as you slow down.

Any coil-sprung vehicle running large heavy tires/wheels can suffer DW. I watched a friend's Grand Cherokee enter into DW at only 55 mph as we headed home after a weekend at Tellico. He had bent or damaged some suspension components and the result was the entire front end hopping up and down once he reached a certain speed.

DW is not a Wrangler or even Jeep specific problem.

Most of the time it can be cured by a good balancing job and a front-end allignment. Swapping out track bars is usually not the answer unless the joints are worn. Go over the allignment specs with the technician - are all the numbers within limits? If your caster or camber is out of limits but there is no means of adjusting it within limits, he's most likely going to set it as best he can and not say anything about it. In most cases (all vehicles - not just Jeeps) you have to add adjustable parts (cam bolts, adjustable control arms, etc) to get the caster or camber dead on. He may be thinking "I can't change it but it's close enough - no big deal."

Start with the dealer if you're still under warranty but if you've made any suspension mods I would skip that step and go straight to a good tire shop. Preferrably one that does a lot of trucks and Jeeps and has the capability to "road force" balance larger tires.

Once you rule out tire balance, bent wheel, or allignment check the shocks then start into the suspension linkage including steering stabilizer, track bars, and control arms.

Hope this helps.

troy_boy

This is a good discusion with lots of opinions. So i'll add mine.
My stock ride was perfect. I put 33" baha claws on a 16" wheel, still, great ride even on dirt roads, stock suspention. I have 10,000 miles on mine and 5000 is dirt road. Once I put the lift on, it was over with. As soon as I got on the dirt road that day, the dw kicked in on the first bump. Not having time to get it looked at as my job requires dirt road driving in the middle of nowhere, it eventually broke off the front t bar mount, luckly there was a welder over the hill that welded it on.
I since put adjust t bars on. The dw went away but still have bump steer and on the verge of dw at times.
What I am trying to figure out is, will a high dollar lift...that is 4 new springs, adjust uppers and lowers and t bars, beefed tie rod ends, beefed tbar mounts...you know, the works, fix the handling issues?
Now for the opinion...hehehe...The new JK's are heavier, longer, taller, wider, right? I dont believe these lifts that are less than the max can handle the jeep. I believe we need to completely tune the suspention when lifting. As in alignment, axel rotation, t bar tuning ect. It seems that on the write ups I have read with the full suspention kits do not have the dw or bump steer! At least this is what I have researched. I cant think of any other reason the handling would be so bad on a bb lift? My tj just had a 2" spacer and no problems at all, I dont get it. Also, I dont think the adjust t bars and beefed mount is the answer. There, Im done.

TeraFlex

Do you still have a stock steering stabilizer? They tend to be on the weak side. Also recheck everything to make sure it's nice and tight. No this problem is not just with TeraFlex lifts. It seems that people are starting to assume this a little too quickly.

NE Wrangling

I will defend the Teraflex statement, It might be assumed Teraflex because it is very popular BB. Please check everything that was mentioned here.

1) tourquing and installation of all components

2) factory brackets for any stress cracks and stress cracks on factory components like the track bar or sway bar.

3) Full balancing, A weight falls off in the wrong spot on a wheel and you get this for any car or truck

Chandler

yeah I made sure that all of the bolts are torqued to spec, I had the tires balanced and rotated, so now the trials begin..thanks for the input

wayoflife

In my experience, most tire shops have a difficult time balancing larger off road tires and I have had to have my tires re-balanced 2-3 times before they've gotten them on right. Need I say, just because you've had yours balanced, you might want to have them do it again. Also, if you bought aftermarket wheels, you might want to have them checked to make sure they are not out of round. A significant amount of weights used would be a clear indicator of this.

MC22958

I don't think it was mentioned that the shocks were changed? If you are still using the factory shocks that may be an issue. Once you have changed the tires and rims most likely you have increased the unsprung weight. If the suspension can not handle the extra weight then that could cause a problem. I have seen a whole tire and wheel assembly come off because the tire and wheel package was too heavy for the suspension.
I would think that if the balance was that severely off it would be felt, to some degree, at lower speeds. However, most tire place do guarantee the balance. If you take them back to get re-balanced try to watch. If you can watch the tire spin on the balancer watch to see if the tread is hoping up in down. If it is then you may have to rotate the tire on the rim to get it to run smoother. Also have you checked to make sure the lugs are properly set and torqued?