'05 F-350 Front end Shimmy

[Matt24601]

My 2005 F-350 has developed a strong vibration between 55-60mph. Definitely wasn't there before. If I'm turning on the highway like an on-ramp or mix-master at around 60mph I start to get the death shake (death wobble). I've also noticed that my front tires are wearing extremely irregularly. The truck has around 80k miles on it and I'm the second owner.

What's the problem? What should I check first?

Here are some pics of the wear pattern on the tires.
Driver's front. The lighter color on the tread is where it is not making contact and therefore holding the dust. The darker is more worn.

Passenger's front. This tire is a lot more worn around the outside.

 

[DaveBen]

Your alignment is off and off noticeably. That is why the passenger's side is worn more than the driver's side. You need to get it aligned and soon. You are tearing up your tires.

Dave

 

[02Oilburner]

Once your tires get that bad you need to trash them. They will be all wobbly and drive you freaky crazy!! Believe me I dealt with it for 6 months.

 

[Dogman]

It's time for tire class this is info for all age groups. Alignment is off. But tire rotation is big problem. People dont like dealing with it every 3 to 5000 miles but with big nobby tires you have to do it and you just cant rotate them one side front to back. You'll get what is called chopping, most of this happens on the front tires only. Chopping is were the nobby is worn down more then the other side of the same nob. This will give you a shaking in the steering wheel and can trash front end parts too. You have to cross the back tires to the front. So the other side of the nob gets worn down the same. DONT let the tire shops do a front to back one side tire rototion. That just trashes tires at your cost and it less work for the same price. Dont let it happen watch what they do..

 

[02Oilburner]

It's time for tire class this is info for all age groups. Alignment is off. But tire rotation is big problem. People dont like dealing with it every 3 to 5000 miles but with big nobby tires you have to do it and you just cant rotate them one side front to back. You'll get what is called chopping, most of this happens on the front tires only. Chopping is were the nobby is worn down more then the other side of the same nob. This will give you a shaking in the steering wheel and can trash front end parts too. You have to cross the back tires to the front. So the other side of the nob gets worn down the same. DONT let the tire shops do a front to back one side tire rototion. That just trashes tires at your cost and it less work for the same price. Dont let it happen watch what they do..

X2

 

[BIG JOE]

X2

>>> X3 <<< And All The Above.. holds true for ALL Kinds & Types of Tires.

I'll step up'n say: 80% of all Steering/Handling and Ride issues are Tire related.

Joe