Death Wobble on camera

[StarCruiser]

Found this with lots of comments below it from fellow sufferers. Looks like the whole axle shakes from side to side rather than just the steering making me think it’s bushings and panhard rod mountings though I’ve no experience of this myself. While I’m putting this up just for the visual aspect, the thing I’ve noticed is in the underneath shot, there seems to be no trailing arm in the front bracket on the axle in the right of the picture. It appears that the bolt is visible. It doesn’t make sense to me but if it’s the case then no wonder the thing is shaking.

 

[frank rabbets]

Some sort of feedback. Looks like it's starting in the tyres.

 

[Iwan]

Mine was doing this after a 5" lift and it was insufficient castor correction. Coupled with both the upper panard mount and steering box mount were cracked. So they were pivoting on the chassis, in the video you can see the steering damper is moving the most. Very scary when it happens and I took the truck off the road as I was too scared to drive it! Sorted the problems and it's been golden ever since!

 

[Shayne]

I don't need this at 80mph hence i went for a body lift .

 

[Gary820]

Never had an issue and the 80 goes more then 70mph at times.

 

[Shayne]

I want the height without the issues Gary so a smaller suspension lift will follow , but do think i can now find a quick and convenient heavy duty 3" lift kit ......................

 

[Iwan]

I don't need this at 80mph hence i went for a body lift .

Good move mate.. I don't think it was the lift that caused the chassis cracks, there was rust running out of them. It was that between the steering box and chassis was very rusty.

If I was to buy another 80 then I'd take the steering box off to check the condition between the chassis. As it's a known issue and they're getting on now!

 

[StarCruiser]

Cracks that are on the move will generate rust then vibrate it out if them. Clive has had this issue and he’s got a good lift on his 80. He’s also got big tyres which must add to the strain on the suspension bits.

 

[Iwan]

Very true there man, I guess they're all different and was just going off what I experienced with it really.

 

[Higgy]

Id try with borrowing a different set of wheels from a mate.. It reminds me of an old a Agri- Buggy we had on the farm. It had floatation tyres on it and you would get the most terrifying speed wobble at about 40mph.. Just like in the vid.. Dont know what speed he was doing when the wobble starts (did he say)... or if its an optical Illusion but those tyres reminded me of farm floatations...Dont know what else is going on , But id start with changing the wheels....

 

[Shayne]

With regards to the vid i'm thinking full time 4x4 , more power to front wheels and so if the rear axle isn't running true and straight its being dragged into line .

This effect was very obvious in my jacked up swb i didn't have the wobble but cornering at motorway speeds she felt unnervingly "unbalanced" for want of a better word . New trailing arm and panhard bushes cured it .

 

[clivehorridge]

Cracks that are on the move will generate rust then vibrate it out if them. Clive has had this issue and he’s got a good lift on his 80. He’s also got big tyres which must add to the strain on the suspension bits.

I’ve only felt it once and I put that down to the chassis crack I found below he steering box (no rust, just a crack along the brace weld).

It’s scary, and nothing affected it, not accelerating, nor braking, nothing. I put my both feet flat on the floor and just held onto the steering wheel like grim death till the truck had slowed enough for the wobble to stop.

After the welding, nothing untoward, ever again.

IMO it was nothing to do with the lift, that was done some 6 years before the DW incident, although I’ve improved the caster angle since the welding too.

 

[clivehorridge]

He’s got a fair lift on that and I can’t see any caster adjustment on it.

The arm bushings look central, so it doesn’t have correction bushings, and I can’t see correction plates or drop boxes.

Unless he’s replaced the OEM hockey sticks with caster corrected arms.

Without caster correction, I recon that nails his problem.

The axle is moving a fair bit laterally, so I wonder what’s happening at the other (chassis) end of the panhard? It must be moving the same amount, and it looks too much for the bush to absorb.

Maybe he’s got a cracked chassis, but not noticed it yet... mine looked like a hairline (there was no open fissure like you might expect).

 

[StarCruiser]

What do you make of the bolt through where the ‘hockey stick’ end should be?

 

[fbnss]

 

[StarCruiser]

That’ll be it then.

Though unless I’m mistaken, dear ol’ Daniel seems to be calling the axle the differential

 

[fbnss]

 

[Higgy]

Mmm! Now who said, Tyres........ ( Keep it Standard, Keep it Safe!)

 

[frank rabbets]

Re the balancing beads wheels become unbalanceable with weights. Same thing happens when you use tyre sealer from a can. The dried up glue can make the wheel unbalaceable until the tyre has come off and is cleaned off. Difference is tyre beads stay seperate whereas glue ends up in sticky clumps