OK, I searched and there are numerous threads, too many to read all but I got through about 10 of them (most of the 1st page of the search results). You can see by my signature my set-up. In March I had the OME springs and Nitto Trail Grapplers in 295/70/17 installed by a reputable jeep custom shop - they only do jeeps, been in business for years. They re-aligned the jeep and adjusted the track bars.

Everthing worked fine until this morning when it was the 1st time I drove the jeep since I had the tires replaced late yesterday with 4 new (5 incl spare) Goodyear Wrangler Silent Armor in my jeep's original size of 255/75/17 - (reason - lots of highway driving and too much hum and neg affect on gas mileage). I updated the computer with my hypertech for the new tire size.

I get on a highway accellerate to 70 going along fine hit a bump in the road and the entire jeep starts to shake side to side. I bring it down to below 60 and it stops. A while later I'm back on the highway and the same thing.

It's more than bump steer because it moves back and forth until I slow the vehicle.

The only place that can see it quickly is the shop that put the tires on (local good guys not national chain with kids working in it). What about the change in tire size, going smaller mind you, could be causing this??

I know enough to have them check the track bar to make sure it didn't come loose - what a coincidence that would be. I don't have aftermarket control arms so the shop that did the lift couldn't have adjusted the castor, could the caster be more out as a result of tire size?? I hope they will be able to get it on an alignment rack and see if its out of whack. I will have them verify wheel balance and toe-in also.

Any other thoughts??

Thanks,
Jim

 

Im not sure its DW like you said.I had DW and when I got I had to almost stop the jeep I mean from 70mph to like 10mph to get the shaking to stop. I found that all 4 of my ball joints were I put new ball joints in and added a dual steering stabilizer.I have no more wobble good luck

 

Not sure what else to call it. To me, anytime the vehicle shakes out of control and won't stop shaking until you slow it down could be classified as the dreaded "death wobble". Perhaps there are various degrees, depending on what's causing it? I'm not excited about the cost of ball joints - would their condition be exposed by going to a smaller size tire?
Perhaps the Jeep gods are punishing me for putting on smaller tires

 

I too would make sure: The balance was correct and that everything from the tire install was done correctly. Changing to smaller tires shouldn't cause the issue. Normally, as mentioned, death-wobble requires reducing speed much more than that to get the vehicle under control.

 

First thanks Toad and PasterSteve for your input.

I was able to be seen by the shop that put the tires on this am. He assured me that the tires balanced up very well and with very little weights. He didn't offer to re-balance them and I didn't want to force the issue yet. He pulled it in for a looksee and found the lower bushings on the tereflex swaybar links were very worn and loose to the point of being able to jiggle them freely by hand. He retorqued the trac-bar to 130lbs, the bolt on the frame end tightening ever so slightly. The toe-in measured manually less than a 1/4". Ball joints and steering stabilizer checked out ok. Off to Jeff Daniels Jeep picked up a set of Rubicon Express Gen II Swaybar Disconects, I had them install them so I know they are right and tight.

My findings thus far - severity of the wobble is down, most times it happens it does not get out of control. I've probably felt it happen a dozen times today in roughly 30 miles of highway driving, but only two - three times did I have to slow down to get it under control. It starts as a slight shake then gets worse unless I slow down. Just to be clear, this happens after going over a bump in the road at speeds in excess of 65 - usually the bump needs to be the width of the trac of the jeep, not a bump that only 1 tire hits. This is not a constant wobble/shimmy at high speeds.

Next step - i'll take a closer look at the toe in and get it down to 1/8" inch. Tire shop also suggested I rotate front to back 1 side at a time and see if the problem goes away. After that I suppose I'll have my jeep shop pull the track bar and see if the mount hole is worn larger.

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Jim

 

For anyone following along I thought I'd update you with what I did and how it worked. I ajusted my to from 1/8" in to 1/16" in. I also switched the passenger side tires (front to back) to see if the front passenger front was the problem (bad balance/bad radial construction).

I test drove the Jeep about 15 miles on a highway and noticed the wobble/shake/shimmy effectively gone. There were at least 20 good overpass/bumps to go over (north east roads!) that would have triggered it previously. There was only once instance of a slight wobble.

Mistake I made was doing two changes, now I'm not sure which one improved it (although I suspect it was the toe). I'll swap the tires back on the passenger side and see if it returns.

Jim

 

Further Update -

After speaking with the dealer they suggested a new steering stabilizer - surprise, surprise.

Well here's the real surpise - I bought it, and the new mount it comes with (different than original factory mount) and it made a HUGE difference. Not once did the vehicle get out of control, however I could still feel the initial momentary shimmy.

Flash forward to today, installed 285/70/17 Falken Wildpeaks, an 8 ply rated tire with a 121 load index (vs 4 ply 113 of the goodyears) and ALL of the shimmy is gone. Drove about 100 highway miles today and not once did it react different from when I had the 295/70/17 Nittos's on.

 

Glad to hear it Jim!

I think you will be very happy with the new Wildpeak A/T's.

Send me a PM with your address and I will send you a little something.

If you don't mind me asking, which tire distributor did you buy them from?


Thanks,
Andrew Hoit

 

I love them so far! Great riding AT. Extremely quite for such a deep tread .

I got them from Discount Tire Direct, Matt at x 51865 who was excellent to work with!!!