Death Wobble fixed now have Tire hop

[Splenda]

Right after I got my new 2023 Mojave in March 2023, I had a Rough Country 3" lift installed with 37" BFG K02's, Method MR705 wheels at a local Off-Road shop.

What lift did you have installed. I do not see a "Rough Country 3"lift" for the Gladiator.

Sponsored

 

[Reddog]

Right after I got my new 2023 Mojave in March 2023, I had a Rough Country 3" lift installed with 37" BFG K02's, Method MR705 wheels at a local Off-Road shop.

I started having Death Wobble a few months ago. I took the Jeep in to have the Death Wobble repaired last week at a new shop and it had the following issues:
Incorrect length sway bar links
Needed new drag link
Pittman arm loose
Suspension sprung
Steering box bolts loose
Tires were out of balance
Toe was off
Bad tire hop.

The new shop tightened all loose components and greased where necessary.
Installed correct length sway bars.
Set the Toe and adjusted steering wheel.
Installed new Terraflex drag link.
The new shop test drove my Mojave with known to be good tires and wheels and diagnosed tire hop with my BFG K02's.
The Death Wobble is fixed but obviously not the Tire hop.
I don't drive much and only have 8500 miles on the tires and the tread looks hardly worn.

The new shop highly recommended I replace the tires because of the tire hop. They weren't pushing or even asking to sell me replacement tires just that they need to be replaced.

Now to my question. If I don't replace the tires, am I going to cause all of the same issues that led to Death Wobble? I just spent a lot to have these issues repaired and would rather not spend another $2300 on new tires. But I also don't want to keep riding the tires and eventually replace the tires and pay to have all of the same issues fixed again.

8500 miles and you had all that stuff wrong? Who installed the original lift? Good grief, some things weren't done right it appears. Just a word of caution here, you indicated that the shop retightened some bolts/parts. Did they replace the bolts or just retighten the old ones? Remember, when a bolt or threaded part runs loose for a while it wears threads out and invariably cannot be depended on to stay tight afterward. If in doubt, replace the parts. Good luck to you.

 

[brsnow2585]

Sounds like we're in about the same situation. Around Thanksgiving I put the Mopar 2" lift on my '22, which is progressive springs, longer end links, longer lower control arms. Drove perfectly fine until just recently when we started staying down in the 30°s. Mine started on the passenger side, hit a bump and could picture in my head what it would look like from the outside, tire bouncing up and down. Show down to ~45mph and it'd settle. I purposely tried to get the driver side to do it, hitting different size bumps at speed, couldn't get it. Once I quit trying, the drive side started doing it, but less severe and less frequent. I'm only coming up on 35k miles on the 33" falken ATs that were stock. As far as I know, the tires are on the same corners from last rotation, I had a dealer do an alignment after the lift and check the torque on the front bits, I grilled them afterwards for details and they said everything was right and tight, only had to put a couple extra lbs on a bolt or two, from what I can see it doesn't look like I've thrown any weights. There's another thread here and I've found other sources calling the factory steering stabilizer into question in low temperatures. Have a Fox 2.0 damper otw, should have it today, and it's about a 5 min install, but need to bum a ride to Rural King for a bolt. I'll update with results

 

[willys 41]

Right after I got my new 2023 Mojave in March 2023, I had a Rough Country 3" lift installed with 37" BFG K02's, Method MR705 wheels at a local Off-Road shop.

I started having Death Wobble a few months ago. I took the Jeep in to have the Death Wobble repaired last week at a new shop and it had the following issues:
Incorrect length sway bar links
Needed new drag link
Pittman arm loose
Suspension sprung
Steering box bolts loose
Tires were out of balance
Toe was off
Bad tire hop.

The new shop tightened all loose components and greased where necessary.
Installed correct length sway bars.
Set the Toe and adjusted steering wheel.
Installed new Terraflex drag link.
The new shop test drove my Mojave with known to be good tires and wheels and diagnosed tire hop with my BFG K02's.
The Death Wobble is fixed but obviously not the Tire hop.
I don't drive much and only have 8500 miles on the tires and the tread looks hardly worn.

The new shop highly recommended I replace the tires because of the tire hop. They weren't pushing or even asking to sell me replacement tires just that they need to be replaced.

Now to my question. If I don't replace the tires, am I going to cause all of the same issues that led to Death Wobble? I just spent a lot to have these issues repaired and would rather not spend another $2300 on new tires. But I also don't want to keep riding the tires and eventually replace the tires and pay to have all of the same issues fixed again.

I am not sure what you mean by tire hop put if its a bounce after hitting a bump at speed and you feel like you get a bounce out of the suspension I have the same problem. Front and rear.
I have been trying to find a fix and have had no luck.
I am running heavy tires / wheels/ brakes and I think this compounds the problem.
I also believe the problem is in the rebound of the shocks. I have Fox 2.5.
After watching Trail Recons new video and about his Gladiator with the Bilstein shocks with rebound adjustment one thing he said caught my attention.
He said adjusting the rebound on the shock eliminated his double bounce.
Bilstein no longer makes this shock and the only one I can find with rebound adjustment is OLD MAN EMU put they do not meet my length and travel specs.
At this point I am going to sent my Fox 2.5 out to have the rebound adjusted and see if this fixes the problem.

 

[Mojavie]

8500 miles and you had all that stuff wrong? Who installed the original lift? Good grief, some things weren't done right it appears. Just a word of caution here, you indicated that the shop retightened some bolts/parts. Did they replace the bolts or just retighten the old ones? Remember, when a bolt or threaded part runs loose for a while it wears threads out and invariably cannot be depended on to stay tight afterward. If in doubt, replace the parts. Good luck to you.

Here is the long story from beginning to end.

Purchased brand new Jeep Gladiator Mojave. Had it maybe 3 months and got the lift from a local off-road specialty shop. Looking back, I should have had the dealership install the Mopar lift (hindsight is 20/20).
I take it up to the local Off-road shop ask for a 3" lift kit and 37" tires.
During the install the shop calls and said the lift kit they ordered doesn't fit the Mojave but they made it fit. I wasn't happy about this but I was too eager to get my new truck back with lift. So they installed Rough Country 3.5" lift kit Item# 60100, BFG K02 37 2.50 17" tires, Method 705 wheels in titanium, Teraflex shock adaptors and locking lug nuts. If you look at the Rough Country 60100 lift kit it is clearly not for the Jeep Mojavie, but does work for other Gladiator models.

Everything was good for a while, then started having death wobble a while back. Because of the issue with the wrong lift kit this time I took it to another Off-road shop to have them diagnose. And they got the death wobble fixed but said I have what they call "tire hop" and that is where i was at yesterday.
I took it to Discount tire this morning and on the way there the right front TPMS sensor errors out. They rotated the tires, but I guess didn't realize that the Gladiator spare doesn't have a TPMS sensor, I didn't either.
To add to all of that I was checking out the truck last night and the longer Sway bar links were supposed to be quick disconnect. But when I inspected the sway bar links, they didn't have the quick disconnect part installed just a regular bolt. I called the shop that fixed the death wobble and they said they didn't have enough room to install the quick disconnect part, but I could bring it back up and they would try.
Now I'm waiting on word from Discount tire.

 

[Stingray 5517]

What a pain it can be to track down these issues. Sometimes going to different shops just add to the confusion. They all claim it was caused by the previous shop. It could be something as simple as one tire with a broken belt. I replaced my tires on wife's FJ with BFG ko2 and couldn't get them to balance. Dealer replaced tires and problems solved. Going to be hard to determine problems since you did some questionable work at the same time.

 

[Reddog]

Here is the long story from beginning to end.

Purchased brand new Jeep Gladiator Mojave. Had it maybe 3 months and got the lift from a local off-road specialty shop. Looking back, I should have had the dealership install the Mopar lift (hindsight is 20/20).
I take it up to the local Off-road shop ask for a 3" lift kit and 37" tires.
During the install the shop calls and said the lift kit they ordered doesn't fit the Mojave but they made it fit. I wasn't happy about this but I was too eager to get my new truck back with lift. So they installed Rough Country 3.5" lift kit Item# 60100, BFG K02 37 2.50 17" tires, Method 705 wheels in titanium, Teraflex shock adaptors and locking lug nuts. If you look at the Rough Country 60100 lift kit it is clearly not for the Jeep Mojavie, but does work for other Gladiator models.

Everything was good for a while, then started having death wobble a while back. Because of the issue with the wrong lift kit this time I took it to another Off-road shop to have them diagnose. And they got the death wobble fixed but said I have what they call "tire hop" and that is where i was at yesterday.
I took it to Discount tire this morning and on the way there the right front TPMS sensor errors out. They rotated the tires, but I guess didn't realize that the Gladiator spare doesn't have a TPMS sensor, I didn't either.
To add to all of that I was checking out the truck last night and the longer Sway bar links were supposed to be quick disconnect. But when I inspected the sway bar links, they didn't have the quick disconnect part installed just a regular bolt. I called the shop that fixed the death wobble and they said they didn't have enough room to install the quick disconnect part, but I could bring it back up and they would try.
Now I'm waiting on word from Discount tire.

You appear to have a lot of patience, far more than I do given those circumstances. Shops that "make it fit" are what we all dread. Hope it all works out for you.

 

[brsnow2585]

Amen to that, Sometimes I "make it fit", but I own up to whatever comes next, or stop and look for a bit and realize how wrong, then undo everything.

 

[C137 Tracy]

Depending on how long and how severe the DW was, it can and will prematurely wear other components. I read that the shop correcting your largest DW issue did replace what they believed needed replacement. Curious if the DW was bad enough to wallow out any bolt holes.

 

[Splenda]

I am anxious to see how using balancing beads instead of weights affects tire wear. I put 10 oz of ceramic beads in each of my 37x13.5x17 Toyo OC M/Ts and have driven about 2000 miles so far. They ride smooth as glass and no death wobble. I still have stock steering components and stabilizer.

 

[Mojavie]

Just got back from Discount tire. They said everything should be good. They road force balanced all 5 tires/wheels and got the TPMS working by switching the spare back.
Here is how the Jeep rides now. There is still a slight bit of vibration at the steering wheel that is felt more at 40-45mph and goes away at higher speeds. Also, at around 40mph hitting small bumps I feel bump steer. The bump steer is very slight and not even close to the Death Wobble I felt before, but it is there and that sucks. At this point I'm gonna give it some time and see how things go. I appreciate all the helpful information from everyone.

 

[Mojavie]

You appear to have a lot of patience, far more than I do given those circumstances. Shops that "make it fit" are what we all dread. Hope it all works out for you.

It does try my patience but on the positive side I'm getting a lot of life experience.

 

[Splenda]

By chance, do you have aftermarket wheels or wheel spacers? I've had vibrations with past vehicles that were supposed to have hub centric wheels, but they were lug centric or did not have the adapter rings.

 

[Mojavie]

Depending on how long and how severe the DW was, it can and will prematurely wear other components. I read that the shop correcting your largest DW issue did replace what they believed needed replacement. Curious if the DW was bad enough to wallow out any bolt holes.

By chance, do you have aftermarket wheels or wheel spacers? I've had vibrations with past vehicles that were supposed to have hub centric wheels, but they were lug centric or did not have the adapter rings.

I don't have spacers but do have Method 705's that are hub centric.

 

[Splenda]

I don't have spacers but do have Method 705's that are hub centric.

I don't know what kind of lug nuts they installed, but you could really benefit from the ET (extended thread) lug nuts. I know they work with Method wheels because the holes are drilled large enough.

Jeep Gladiator Black Spline Acorn ET Lug Nuts; M14x1.5; Set of 20 (20-25 Jeep Gladiator JT) - Free Shipping

Sponsored