Do I have death wobble?

Andy J.

Andy J.

Doin’ it LIVE
Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Location
Winston
I'm still trying to troubleshoot this wobble I have. When it's happening and I look out the window at the DS tires, they look out of round (both front and back). I'm thinking that is a result of the bouncing/wobble, not because they are actually out of round? Happens mostly in the 50-60mph range, although occasionally will start at 45 or go up to 65. It doesn't seem to be consistent in severity either. Just today, I was accelerating to get on the hwy and it started bouncing/wobbling around 50, but then mostly smoothed out at 65. Then, I dropped to 60 and it came back pretty hard. Sped back up to 65 and it was still wobbling pretty good - much more severe than just a few seconds ago at the same speed.

Pertinent info: 9"/D44, leaves in the back, extended radius arm front suspension, 37" Goodyear MTs on recentered H1s with 9 golf balls in each for balance. I scrubbed all the grease out of the tires with dish detergent prior to mounting, so the gold balls should be moving about freely.

Final thought: Am I asking too much from this wheel/tire combo? Seems like Humvees should be able to run down the highway at highway speeds so I'd like to think that this wheel/tire combo would balance out with 15oz of balls in each one.
 
Good Lord....9 golf balls?! I had 39x15.50-16.5 bias ply Swampers ride like glass with 10oz of AirSoft BBs on recentered H1s. I think you need to try a different method of balancing. If you get the big contained of the higher density BBs from Walmart, you'll have plenty to do all four tires. You may not even need as much as 10 oz per tire, honestly.

I would usually mount up one tire and spin it on a balancer just to see how far out it was and then base my amount of BBs off of that.


I believe the problem you're having isn't necessarily even from too much total weight, it's more likely that the golf balls are heavy/dense enough that all of them collected in one place at speed is throwing it out of balance even further. With a powder like Equal or AirSoft BBs, they can disperse a little better and won't be able to have such a negative affect on the dynamic balance even if you do have a little too much weight.

You may even have better luck with nothing in the tires at all. I've even balanced the rims separately with pad weights (or regular knock on weights) and then added a few ounces of BBs just for the tires.
 
I don't golf and had a bag of 45 golf balls. 45/5=9 haha! At one time, I balanced a set of 38" TSLs on plain steel wheels with 6 balls each and they rode well.

Theoretically, they should disperse themselves evenly to balance but I have considered that it could be causing the issue. I was trying to avoid breaking these down multiple times, but it is what it is I guess. I don't have easy access to a balancing machine, so it's trial and error to figure out how much weight to use.
 
HMMWV's don't go highway speeds :lol: the speedo pegs out at 55, and that 6.2 is screaming its asses off just to do that. Anyway...

9 golf balls?? Holy balls...I'd do what @Croatan_Kid said and use AirSoft BBs. Sounds to me like you do have the death wobble, and I'd start looking at the radius arm mounts and the track bar mounts as suggested in another similar thread. Track bar mounts are by far THE biggest culprit in death wobble. I've seen it numerous times in an XJ a friend of mine had that swapped a 44 and 9". He kept thinking that all the bushings were good, and could never track it down, until we found out that the bolt hole on the axle mount was wallowed out.

I also second what @Croatan_Kid said about the golf balls possibly congregating together in one massive weight. FWIW, I swapped a few sets of the Good Year MTZs on H1's while I was playing in the sand box and never experienced any wobble or vibration other than was normal for those noisy bastards...and those things got the living shat driven out of them.
 
HMMWV also weigh a lot more than Jeeps and weight helps compress the sidewall.

But to answer the question...death wobble is one of those things where you dont ask do I have it...if you have it, you know
 
Ron said:
HMMWV also weigh a lot more than Jeeps and weight helps compress the sidewall.

But to answer the question...death wobble is one of those things where you dont ask do I have it...if you have it, you know
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True story, on both accounts... ~8k lbs for HMMWV, 3500 for a fat bastard Jeep... and I had the wobbles in my CJ once right after a solid axle swap...damn thing would shimmy the steering wheel right out of my hand it was so violent. That got fixed with a quickness.
 
I’m gonna go along and say balancing issues if not bent wheel? But for a safety note I flopped my zj once driver side and started having a terrible wobble at diff speeds turned out trac bar mount had broken and was moving all over the place still mounted half on frame I’d hit a big bump and it would start the wobble until I slowed down ... just something to check out it’s easily overlooked!
 
HMMWVS absolutely cruise highway speed. I drive mine almost everyday to the field and get it into the 70-75mph range going from Fort Polk out to the live fire area. They are balanced with clip on weights. Mine has O/D so it doesn’t scream so bad. On my XJ I had military 37” MTRS and they were on Trail Ready beadlocks with 10 oz. of airsoft BB’s each and were buttery smooth. I’d say swap the golf balls for BB’s and ride out.
 
skyhighZJ said:
HMMWVS absolutely cruise highway speed. I drive mine almost everyday to the field and get it into the 70-75mph range going from Fort Polk out to the live fire area. They are balanced with clip on weights. Mine has O/D so it doesn’t scream so bad. On my XJ I had military 37” MTRS and they were on Trail Ready beadlocks with 10 oz. of airsoft BB’s each and were buttery smooth. I’d say swap the golf balls for BB’s and ride out.
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Well damn. I was driving beat-to-hell up-Armored M998's...damn thing could barely get out of its own way when you matted the fuel, and it took about 8 months to peg the speedo at 55 -- IF it would even get there.
 
You've been busy...damn.
 
I swapped the golf balls for bbs in the rears today. A quick trip around the block and it seems that the issue is 75% fixed. Still have a tiny bit of bounce it seems, but I need to drive it some more to confirm. Interestingly, when I took the passenger rear apart, the insert looked bowed/slightly collapsed. Like it was a smidge too wide or something. Anyhow, I’m gonna run’em like this for a few days and try to get some highway miles in.
 
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