"Death Wobble" HZJ78, modified

[ATL Cruiser]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread on "death wobble" vs normal tire balance vibration. I'll summarize.

Death wobble - defined as almost losing control after hitting a bump typically over 50mph. Caused by loose front end components (tie rods, wheel bearings, etc), a bad steering dampener, and/or incorrect caster following a lift.

Jeeps are notorious for this. We fix these weekly. Thank you, Jeep owners.

Tire balance vibration - defined as the entire vehicle vibrating around 60mph. However, steering control is still fully present.

I have personally never seen a "death wobble" come from tire balance, old tires, tire road force, or really anything tire related. But I guess anything is possible.

 

[Rigster]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread on "death wobble" vs normal tire balance vibration. I'll summarize.

Death wobble - defined as almost losing control after hitting a bump typically over 50mph. Caused by loose front end components (tie rods, wheel bearings, etc), a bad steering dampener, and/or incorrect caster following a lift.

Jeeps are notorious for this. We fix these weekly. Thank you, Jeep owners.

Tire balance vibration - defined as the entire vehicle vibrating around 60mph. However, steering control is still fully present.

I have personally never seen a "death wobble" come from tire balance, old tires, tire road force, or really anything tire related. But I guess anything is possible.

Absolutely agreed. Fix the loose/worn things first.

However, I have noticed that in my land cruiser I will get (albeit very minor) wobble around 75km/hr with my 35x12.5 tires that is greatly diminished as long as I keep the tires balanced. I suspect it is partly the size of tires as when I put on the tiny little winters (stock size tire) the issue is not there at all. I have proper radius arms for castor correction, and tested and set the preload on the bearings, sway bar rubbers were good, and new steering dampner.

My next set of tires will be narrower as this also helps if they are larger.