Kojack

I agree, I would say 90% of people who say they had death wobble, really never. just a shimmy. there is a big difference.

Go on youtube and watch some videos. You will be down right shit baked with real death wobble.

realjeep

The early posts are correct about DW and I had it bad after 90K miles even after replacing Steering components so this is what I did.

I myself did a 2008 JKUX build with 4” Rockroller lift, with most of the Tie rod and drag link accessories. I also ran 33” With 2.5 Back spacers all the time.

This ended up costing me about 1500+ a year in replacement parts maintenance IE: ball joints, tie ends, power steering gear box etc. And I wore out those fancy $600+ rebuild-able ball joints twice and once with the Moog ends. Just driving around town normally.

My Jeep is a DD 99.5% of the time.

I decided to trade my 2008 X for a 2015 JKUR. I kept my front and rear bumpers with dueling wenches. Then I put armor on the differentials, Full Synergy armor plates from gas tank to oil pan. That lowered my stock hight about 1” in from and 1.25” in rear so I put 1.75” Synergy spacers on the stock coils. Then I bought a second set of Rims with 5” back spacing and put 35” Kevlars for off road use only and a set of cheep thin fender flares to clear the 35’s (to be upgraded later.)

Basically with the 35” and spacers on I got a real lift of around 4” (from stock) with one of the best under armor kits out there. I’m not sure why I get that much lift my speculation is that the 35” tires are holding their roundness better then the stock tires. And if stock parts ware out they are very cheep to replace compared to aftermarket kits. One of my mechanics told me that driving with large tires and back spacing all the time put tones of extra ware on the system. Even though 33” is only 1 inch size bigger than stock the back spacing really stressed out the axles.

So I DD with the stock Robi Tires. They seem to work better in the snow anyway and I live on the side of a mountain. Either set of tires I get a factory style ride all the time and when I deflate the 35”s down to say 15 LBS I get the same cushy ride I got with the 4” lift and 33” tires.

Of course this limits me to intermediate trails but I’m not looking to do a lot of body damage repairs.

My 2 Cents

PS I spent about $4000 with tires, armor and labor. Keep in mind I already had the bumpers and wenches from the old jeep witch is probably another $2000+. I need to get better rock sliders and fender flares ... have to save for now.

OSkullivan

I'm certainly not an expert but hose above me probably are. Regardless, my .02:

Old jeep was 2004 TJ, no lift, only aftermarket item was 31in tires. Right before I traded it I bought some alloys to replace my steelies. Tires on the takeoff were trashed but I mounted them anyway, just long enough to drive to the tire shop to buy new.

However...I ended up buying a 2012 in a few weeks so I drove those terrible tires for a while. Horrible idea and I now know what DW is for sure. Scares the poop out of you and there is no comparison (as someone said above) between a shimmy and a real, dangerous wobble. Felt like a gorilla would not be able to keep the vehicle on the road.

New jeep is lifted with big knobby tires and drives 1-finger at 75mph.

Point is, to your question, a quality well-installed lift is not the source of DW.

Hope that helps or at least shows my own experiences.

lonestarvtx

Great feedback from everybody! Thanks for helping clear things up!