Death Wobble Reprocussions

Ricky B

Ricky B

Wiiide Open
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Location
LKN - Tha Dirty Mo (Mooresville, NC)
Ok so the 40x17 Gumbo Mudders are Death Wobblin at me round the usual 35 mph. I realize this is Death Wobble and that there is really nothin you can do about it other than get a steering stabilizer but thats like putting a band aid on a broken arm so . . .

My main question is can death wobble be detrimental to anything, cause it sure feels like its gonna break something at 35/40 mph.

Thanks
 
jrraw23 said:
I realize this is Death Wobble and that there is really nothin you can do about it other than get a steering stabilizer but thats like putting a band aid on a broken arm so . . .
Click to expand...

Death wobble is a sort of harmonic vibration, if ignored it could literally shake the front end of your rig apart. It can be caused by many things, but there IS something you can do to fix it.

It could be your tires, your alignment, or possibly worn or loose front end components. First I would try swapping the tires front to rear. There is a very small chance this could solve the problem.

Then I would check your front end components such as TRE's, Rack and Pinion (does a chevy ifs use a rack?), Ball joints, and all the bushings up front.

After that I would take it in for an alignment.
Death wobble is somewhat hard to diagnose, however especially on a daily driver I would not just ignore it. You need to do something about it.

Hope this helps. -Tim
 
thanks i'll try a couple of those things however the last 2 sets of 35's I had on there didn't have this problem in the slightest so thats why I pretty much figure it has to be the 40" tires I just put on it then started experiencing the prob, also just had it alighned not too long ago and had the steering all completely redone because the damn steering box keeps busting open and spewing out all its fliud but yea honestly I swear its the tires, but i'll try the front to rear thing and see if it makes any diff then I'll start looking more in depth.

Oh and by the way I wouldn't be surprised if the fact that im useing the old golf balls in the tires method of balancing is causing it, I put in 3 per tire, however I used this same method with my 35's and they balanced out perfectly, my truck drives smooth every speed except around 35/40ish so I knew it had to be Death Wobble just wasn't sure on what to do bout it
 
To be honest with you, you have WAY too much tire on that front end. That's probably 3 times the weight it was ever designed to handle.

Best way to fix it (which happens to be cheapest) - ditch the out-of-round bias-ply tires. You'll be better off in the end.
 
I have had good luck overcoming death wobble with 40-44" tires by having them pad balanced. I think this is about the best way to try to get 40"+ tires close to streetable. However all my 40" tires were mostly run on 3/4 and 1 ton straight axle trucks.
Personally I would't run anything over a radial 12.5/35 on a GM independent front. If that.
 
yea ditch the ifs or go back to smaller tires, its only going to get worse. you will be eating up front end stuff like nobodys business with that big a tire on it. and im not talking about cv's, although those will eject as soon as it goes into 4wd. im talking about balljoints, steering links, TRE's etc
 
The 15" wheels with that backspacing is not helping any....I used to run 15x10's with 37x12.50's on my tahoe and it was hell on all of the above mentioned parts. I switched to 17x9's with 37'' toyo mt's with more backspacing and things are alot better now...Parts wearing out is just part of having ifs and big tires but things are definately a lot better now. Also the toyo's are the smoothest riding large tire i have ever run...They are a little rough over big bumps being 10ply but ride like a caddy on good pavement.

There is a good chance you have something worn out that the big tires multiply the effect. I would swap front to back first then jack the front end up and see if anything is loose...chances are something is bad.
 
Yea im gonna prob mess with it sat and see if i cant get something to work, I have noticed that the majority of the vibration "seems" to be coming from the front left tire, and I tryed putting th spare on to see if it was just that tire but it made no diff in the vibration depo. But yea i'll check it all out this weekend. Oh and they are 15x8's actually but the backspacing is still a good amount.
 
I'd get use to the vib your running 40" biased ply tires. Rich and a couple of other folks were talking about radiator fluid and some type of beads for balancing awhile back. I added the radiator fluid in mine and that worked extremely well. Might want to try that. The truck looks good but your really not going to be able to use 4wd much. I'd switch to something smaller like 37's or close.
 
Ya, if you have your heart set on using them, either put some anti-freeze in it or AirSoft pellets. It'll take about 2000 of them per tire, but it's a more effective balance than pads, golf balls, or wheel weights.
 
There is a good chance you have something worn out that the big tires multiply the effect. I would swap front to back first then jack the front end up and see if anything is loose...chances are something is bad.
Click to expand...
Y'know, that sounds like the same thing that's going on with my 31's. I was getting a little bit of vibe at over 60mph, but just had them rotated and now they shake like a blender. Under 60 there doesn't seem to be any to speak of.
 
3 golf balls isn't nearly enough if you're going to balance them centrifugally like that.
 
Yeh. I hope they catch the rat bastard(s) who cut your tires. Have the judge make them buy you a new set, if they do. Among other things.

Maybe some community service, clearing trails at Uwharrie, in a downpour, without rain gear, for example.
 
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