Tire imbalance or death wobble?

13jkjunky

Member
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.
 
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I didn’t think much of it until now as I’m chasing down a shake/wobble while driving.

I noticed with the new ball joints installed, and just the knuckle connected to the ball joints (no axle shaft, wheel bearing etc), the knuckle has no resistance when moving side to side. It just rotates side to side effortlessly. Is this normal? Should there be resistance when rotating it side to side?
 
This. Every Jeep that would come in to the shop with them always had a shake. Remove all of them and take it to discount tire and have them balance them and go from there.
No discount tire near me but I am taking it to my local shop Thursday that’s the local go to. I’ll have them remove the beads and rebalanced with weights. Hopefully this will cure it. Just not sure why it didn’t shake before but shakes now
 
No discount tire near me but I am taking it to my local shop Thursday that’s the local go to. I’ll have them remove the beads and rebalanced with weights. Hopefully this will cure it. Just not sure why it didn’t shake before but shakes now
Are you in California? Out here Discount Tire is rebranded America’s Tire. Same company different name.
They are quite plentiful.
 
Get rid of those beads.
On a separate note I’m curious what the charge is to mount and balance 37s. Anyone here have 37s mounted and balanced on aftermarket nonbeadlock rims? Curious what they charge?
 
Get rid of those beads.
On a separate note I’m curious what the charge is to mount and balance 37s. Anyone here have 37s mounted and balanced on aftermarket nonbeadlock rims? Curious what they charge?
America’s Tire charged me $120 for the lifetime rotate and balance warranty to mount 5 BFG KO 2’s on my Rock Trix wheels. I go in every 3,000 miles or after every wheeling trip to do the five tire rotation. Never had an issue at all.
 
Get rid of those beads.
On a separate note I’m curious what the charge is to mount and balance 37s. Anyone here have 37s mounted and balanced on aftermarket nonbeadlock rims? Curious what they charge?
I have beadlocks so I don’t know what they charge for mounting but I think it’s around $25. When I buy my tires there I got the lifetime balancing and I want to say it was $35 per corner. I don’t think I’ll do that again though because these Nittos only needed a little initial adjustment and I haven’t been back.
 
America’s Tire charged me $120 for the lifetime rotate and balance warranty to mount 5 BFG KO 2’s on my Rock Trix wheels. I go in every 3,000 miles or after every wheeling trip to do the five tire rotation. Never had an issue at all.
I have beadlocks so I don’t know what they charge for mounting but I think it’s around $25. When I buy my tires there I got the lifetime balancing and I want to say it was $35 per corner. I don’t think I’ll do that again though because these Nittos only needed a little initial adjustment and I haven’t been back.
Thanks I got burned to the ground by the local garage.
 
Thanks I got burned to the ground by the local garage.
My guy charges a flat "large tire or custom wheel" fee of $25 ea min. Between 40" tires and these 24"+ wheel combos and the retarded undersize tire shit that I still don't understand, they really get beat up sometimes. Can't blame them. Lol, they struggled with my sets of 40's - I think the wheel and tire weighed more than the guy balancing them
 
I was able to capture it on video. This is the worst it has happened so far. It shakes the whole jeep pretty well.

Shit dude that’s barely a shimmy. If I can edit a little bit of video I’ll show you my for real death wobble.
Yours is fixable.👍
 
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Shit dude that’s barely a shimmy. If I can edit a little bit of video I’ll show you my for real death wobble.
Yours is fixable.👍
Personally I don’t think the video does it justice. The entire jeep does shake pretty good. But it’s also not as violent as full on death wobble. I just find it hard to believe death wobble is either 100% or 0%. Every one treats it as you either have full on death wobble or you don’t at all. Why can’t it be possible to be at 50%?
 
Personally I don’t think the video does it justice. The entire jeep does shake pretty good. But it’s also not as violent as full on death wobble. I just find it hard to believe death wobble is either 100% or 0%. Every one treats it as you either have full on death wobble or you don’t at all. Why can’t it be possible to be at 50%?
It either is or isn’t death wobble. That isn’t.

You are either dead or you’re not your not partially dead.
 
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