Wandering Ford

gbsb wrote:
Front end parts all checked and all tight, tie rod ends, Ball joints, sway bar links, shocks are original 120,000 miles and the steering damper has not been changed the steering box has not been adjusted. The tires are original size for a F450 and have 2500 miles on them now. Not sure about the side to side sway just seems like going down the road at 60 mph and the truck will wander and sway around on road,

Mine had similar wandering but adjusting the steering box slack (after 230,000 miles) improved it a lot ;)

19.5 is what a F450 comes with, and it did wander before I changed tires. It may be a tire tread problem they are highway treads. The truck is a crewcab and the truck looks like it is front end light, I have not had it weighed. The center of gravity sticker on the camper is directly center of the rear wheels, but I have a long hitch stinger out past the end of camper with a spare tire mounted on it. a lot of weight back there. and just looking at the rig from the side it looks high in the front and low in the rear. I don't know how I could move more weight forward.

My 2003 Ford Excursion had this same exact steering "wandering" problem. We took it to the dealership a few times, while it was still under warranty, to resolve it, but they were unable. Different tires, different pressures by me never resolved it either, so we just lived with it. Well, I lived with it, my wife didn't. She never liked driving it because of this issue.

I know that this issue was a systemic problem found in many Ford trucks in the early 2000s. Not sure when they resolved it, but they did. It was the only real issue I had with that Excursion. I never had a problem with 6.0L PSD.

gbsb wrote:
I have new 19.5 tires...

Sounds to me like you are experiencing "tread squirm".
Did you have this issue before you put the new tires on?
What brand/model tires do you have?

IF it is tread squirm then it will diminish as the tires break-in and as they wear-down. Unfortunately, this can take a lot of heat-cycles and miles. In the mean time, reducing the air pressure will help considerably… I suggest you run them at the lowest possible pressure for the load you're carrying (check the mfr.'s load chart to determine this pressure).

Cheers,
-Mark

If you are running drive/traction tread up front there will be more front end wander. This will improve as the tires wear in.

Try lowering the front pressure to around 80 if you are higher. I don't think shocks are probably it.

Did it handle this way before the 19.5 wheels were installed or did you not have the truck with stock wheels? Sometimes you have to put up with what you get if there is no resolve to the issue. I don't know that shocks will help with anything other than side to side motion, porpoising, and general bouncing down the road. I will say, as bad as my old lower ball joints were, I would not describe wandering as a problem from them.

Front end parts all checked and all tight, tie rod ends, Ball joints, sway bar links, shocks are original 120,000 miles and the steering damper has not been changed the steering box has not been adjusted. The tires are original size for a F450 and have 2500 miles on them now. Not sure about the side to side sway just seems like going down the road at 60 mph and the truck will wander and sway around on road,

I just had my upper and lower ball joints replaced. Much tighter control. The bottom joints had about 1/8" slop in them and freely rattled. The uppers weren't that bad but at 170K I changed them. All the other components were in good condition. If your tires have traction type tread, that could contribute. Are your tires inflated equally? Did you get a full front alignment? Toe in/out, camber, Steering wheel centered. Also, I once had a truck with tires that were a bit wide for the rims. They wore the center of the tread down but also always felt not quite right on the road.

Have a look at your steering shock and get a good replacement. They wear out and just become an empty rod. Replacement with a good Rancho unit made a huge difference in mine.