Violent shudder at 85mph

[DankjeeP]

And she still has 2 gears left.

I feel the need lol Good stuff thanks for sharing.

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[Overland-2021]

I just got my truck back from the dealer to "fix" a mess they made. And they rotated my tires to be helpful. Yesterday I got on the highway and at 72mph I got the death wobble. Mind you... Ive gone above 80 several times with no issue and the truck has 8k on it, so just a bit of a surprise.
I will definitely check the tires and rotate them front to back. My brother likes to mess with me and says "you bought a jeep, what did you expect". Not liking him right now...

 

[mjc999]

Well, I picked the truck up, got to the highway, hit a bump and identical behavior as shown above. I called the dealer quite upset as they assured me the checked all hardware for proper torque AND replaced the stabilizer. They did rotate the tires .

Service writer says 5 jeeps, 3 gladiators and two wranglers, came in with same issue over the past several days (theorizing it had something to do with the cold). My issue developed in Sept when it was still quite warm.

No TSB on the issue. Dealer really has no idea what the issue is. Jeep has a serious problem here.

Truck is back at the dealer. This truck has under 5k miles and is completely stock. We are at visti 2 of 4 before lemon law kicks in.

Will update again when I have more info.

Picked the truck up Sat morning after them having it for a week. They spent a bit of time on it, were able to replicate the issue and did the following:
Replaced the stabilizer again
Replaced "some nuts and bolts". Not clear which ones.
Adjusted the frond end to change the toe in.

They said it was fixed but should expect a little shimmy over bumps but it should almost instantly resolve itself.

That was my experience on the way home (while still not the same as when the truck was new) and seemed tolerable until....driving with my wife on the highway at about 70 mph, hit a bump and the front end shook for over 10 seconds. I was trying to ignore it but my wife commented..."why is the truck shaking like that?".

So, they've made an improvement, but not fixed the problem.

More to come, I'm sure.

 

[Wat Dog]

Damnit, I came here looking for a solution to the exact same problem. It seems to be worse in the morning when the temps are lower. This video is from my drive to work this morning…

 

[Glad_he_ate]

hope it gets resolved for you guys. I know drive slower is not what anyone is looking to hear. But seriously if I drive a dump truck or even a 2500 hd at 95% max speed will it shake ?? I’m thinking it might , idk I drive it like it was designed to be driven. I wish you all and should I experience it myself, the best of outcomes possible. I just think the solid front axel in any vehicle makes for a less responsive more demanding ride.

 

[Bucephalus]

hope it gets resolved for you guys. I know drive slower is not what anyone is looking to hear. But seriously if I drive a dump truck or even a 2500 hd at 95% max speed will it shake ?? I’m thinking it might , idk I drive it like it was designed to be driven. I wish you all and should I experience it myself, the best of outcomes possible. I just think the solid front axel in any vehicle makes for a less responsive more demanding ride.

If the truck would have behaved this way from day one then it’s obvious I was pushing it beyond it’s limits. But this thing drove better than most cars at 85+ For the first 8k miles.
So clearly something is broken.

 

[Glad_he_ate]

Not discrediting that something has changed. I’m guessing all the bushings have broken in. Like I said I really do hope they get it sorted for ya.

 

[Bucephalus]

Not discrediting that something has changed. I’m guessing all the bushings have broken in. Like I said I really do hope they get it sorted for ya.

Thank you

 

[mjc999]

If the truck would have behaved this way from day one then it’s obvious I was pushing it beyond it’s limits. But this thing drove better than most cars at 85+ For the first 8k miles.
So clearly something is broken.

Agree that something clearly changed.

And for me it routinely happens in the 60-65mph range and sometime slower.

As I said in an earlier post, they did make it better, but it is still unacceptable and feels unsafe when it happens.

I tried the higher tire pressure and it had no positive effect. I'm going to try lower. Tire pressure within 5lbs should not have this impact. My only reason for trying it is to isolate that maybe the low profile tires (I have the 275/55/20s) are not absorbing as much of the impact and thus upsetting the suspension in ways Jeep didn't account for. It might explain the cold weather connection as well since cold tires are stiffer.

I'll be on visit 3 of 4 before lemon law kicks in. My truck is bone stock with under 6k miles and was delivered new in April.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

I can attest to the fact that a bone-stock Gladiator can easily do over 90 with no vibrations at all, no wobble, and total stability.
I've had mine to 95. I believe the Overland is locked at something over 100 - most likely because of the SPEED RATINGS OF THE TIRES. I now have A/T tires but it's still rock-solid and stable at 90. I had to laugh as yesterday we were out and about again and the high wind warnings were coming in at 70-90 mph and a meteorologist friend send up some messages with extreme warnings. The wind was out of the south really strong and we had to go south to get to the road home. It took a lot of throttle so now and then we'd drop speed and my wife, wanting once again to "beat the system" home kept motioning with her hand to go faster, faster - so against extreme winds, that truck spent most of the time in 5th just to keep speed up, I think I saw 6th once as we went down a small hill, that's how bad the wind was, anyway, I was pushing it hard, going fast enough I was glad there was no IHP out and about watching for speeders. The truck was solid, stable, no shimmy, no shake, no wobble, solid as a rock. (other than being knocked around by extreme winds, that is)
All that tells me - if your truck can't do that it's either modified, or something is LOOSE or giving while on the road. I'd be really looking hard at that track bar, make sure it's torqued and there's zero signs of any movement. One engineer said that in years past, they found track bar flexing to be an issue and made design changes to handle that.
Loose stuff, worn stuff, ball joints have actually been found to be loose, there's a TSB about that, toe (but it has to be extreme to cause wobble, I have a document somewhere about that, too)

 

[Smart Like Rock]

Another shaking 2021 Gladiator- mojave model... No issues until I swapped out the stock rims and falken wildpeaks for a set of OEM 17" steel rims with Snow rated Firestone Destination A/T2 same stock specs size 285/70/17 (all bought from the Jeep dealer I got the Mojave from). Since the change over (due to Quebec Road Laws here in Canada) I get a violent shaking from front end only at highway speed (90km/h +) when I hit any sort of bump on a road. It shakes so violently I have to break to a speed at under 40km/h or simply pull over to stop...
Took to the dealer, they promptly balanced all 4 tires, but problem remained. They changed the stabilizer bars, problem remained. Finally after talking to FCA, they decided to put the summer tyres and rims back on.... and guess what.... NO VIBRATION...

Anyone have any answers to this? Dealer has no clue as to why the winters cause this issue, FCA claims these tires and rims work fine, infact, the same tires were put on a Sport model, and driven without issue, no vibration. But on the Mojave it's still vibrating.... See below video....

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Another shaking 2021 Gladiator- mojave model... No issues until I swapped out the stock rims and falken wildpeaks for a set of OEM 17" steel rims with Snow rated Firestone Destination A/T2 same stock specs size 285/70/17 (all bought from the Jeep dealer I got the Mojave from).

Gotta ask because I don't know the specs on Mojave wheels or the steel rims you got - are the offset and backset specs the same?
In other words, does the center of the tire sit out the same as the center of the tire did originally? With tire size changes (diameter and width) and wheel changes, an unacceptable scrub radius could be introduced.
If you have positive scrub radius and increase the tire diameter and nothing else, you can end up with no scrub radius which can introduce squirm which I could see in theory would cause wobble.

 

[Smart Like Rock]

Gotta ask because I don't know the specs on Mojave wheels or the steel rims you got - are the offset and backset specs the same?
In other words, does the center of the tire sit out the same as the center of the tire did originally? With tire size changes (diameter and width) and wheel changes, an unacceptable scrub radius could be introduced.
If you have positive scrub radius and increase the tire diameter and nothing else, you can end up with no scrub radius which can introduce squirm which I could see in theory would cause wobble.

Well... I'm not sure, all I know is that the steel winters are the jeep OEM 17" Black rims that you would get with a normal sport model without alloy package... The dimension of the tyres are identical...
I'll ask the dealer the above question....

 

[NachoRuby]

Well... I'm not sure, all I know is that the steel winters are the jeep OEM 17" Black rims that you would get with a normal sport model without alloy package... The dimension of the tyres are identical...
I'll ask the dealer the above question....

Mojave wheels do indeed have less positive offset (stick out more) than the other models. It's a theory worth testing. +37mm on Mojave, and +44mm on everything else. Width is the same as 7.5 inches.

 

[Smart Like Rock]

Mojave wheels do indeed have less positive offset (stick out more) than the other models. It's a theory worth testing. +37mm on Mojave, and +44mm on everything else. Width is the same as 7.5 inches.

Just got off the phone with the service manager....
So, you are correct, the 17" OEM Jeep steel rim is slightly smaller then the stock alloys- that might be throwing the offset off... which would explain variance in travel, and might cause the wobble....
More to follow... hope Jeep has a solution to this...

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