I bought my gladiator a little over a month ago. It came with a spacer lift and 37’s. Drove it 3 hours home with no issues. Decided I wanted to replace the factory suspension and spacer with a full suspension kit. I installed a Metalcloak 3.5” game changer lift. For about 2 weeks after the lift was installed it drove great, no complaints. Then I started to get a shake in the steering wheel around 50-60mph. My first thought was tire imbalance but the jeep had 50k on the factory ball joints as well as tie rod and drag link and nothing changed with the tires. I did the steering wheel test with the vehicle off and noticed the drag link had the slightest amount of play at the pitman arm, so I replaced the ball joints with dynatracs, wheel bearing/hubs and subsequently the tie rod, drag link, stabilizer and stabilizer bracket (moves to track bar frame mount) with Metalcloak. I still had the shake, so I moved the tires around thinking maybe they got switched when I did the initial lift install, but knowing there wasn’t a shake for 2 weeks after the install, figured why not try it. At first I thought it was better but it still shakes and shakes even worse. It’s not as violent as some of the death wobble videos I’ve seen, but it’s pretty rough. I do believe the whole jeep is shaking. The tires have balance beads in them, unsure how many ounces as they’ve been in there since before my ownership. Which kind of makes me worried as the beads unlike traditional weights, won’t fall off so I wouldn’t think the tires became unbalanced? They used to drive as smooth as could be. I’m toe’d in approximately 1/16” and caster at 6 degrees driver 6.4 degrees passenger.
IMO this is either less severe death wobble, or sever tire imbalance. It’s not as subtle as typical tire imbalance I’ve experienced in the past, but it’s not as violent as the worst death wobble videos I’ve seen.
The weird part also is that it occurs around 45-60 now, so far every time I’m in that mph range it has done it, but not always at the same mph. Some times it’ll happen at 45, or maybe 55. Slow down some and it goes away, speed up some and it also goes away or gets less severe.
I’m kind of at a loss since if this is death wobble, literally every part has been replaced already and if anything it’s gotten worse. I find it hard to believe the tires have become that unbalanced in 1 month. And I’ve had them swapped around enough by now to know if any were better balanced then another and there’s really no change by moving them.
IMO this is either less severe death wobble, or sever tire imbalance. It’s not as subtle as typical tire imbalance I’ve experienced in the past, but it’s not as violent as the worst death wobble videos I’ve seen.
The weird part also is that it occurs around 45-60 now, so far every time I’m in that mph range it has done it, but not always at the same mph. Some times it’ll happen at 45, or maybe 55. Slow down some and it goes away, speed up some and it also goes away or gets less severe.
I’m kind of at a loss since if this is death wobble, literally every part has been replaced already and if anything it’s gotten worse. I find it hard to believe the tires have become that unbalanced in 1 month. And I’ve had them swapped around enough by now to know if any were better balanced then another and there’s really no change by moving them.
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