2001 Dodge ram 2500 pickup. I live in Massachusetts which = crappy roads. I also plow. I bought this truck used, when I bought it I failed inspection for all four ball joints. The dealer I bought it from did them. Next year my passenger side hub bearing assembly went and I failed again for the passanger side ball joints. I did them this time and had a private guy do the bearing assembly. Someone I trust. Those things are not fun. So this past month I had my truck inspected and I DID NOT fail for ball joints but I had a tire replaced and had an alignment done. The alignment tech said my passenger side ball joints are bad. In a week I am going to have my mechanic look at them and see what he thinks. I will do them again my self but why the heck am I replacing these things every year or every other year?

 

Is this always the same shop doing the inspection?

 

I feel for ya man. I had mine done and with probably no more than 10k miles they were completely shot. And that was with no wheeling on them. They said Moog has revised their construction of them and they should be better now. I have a lot of miles on my truck and a lot of wheeling miles too. I am not sure what to do next if these go out in a short time.

 

I saw the name and was lol. That suck never had to get them done yet. They will need redoing soon I have 46,000 on them and as far as I know They are the factory.

 

Just had my ball joints done on my 01, and the shop told me that they use Moog and unless I was doing Dukes of Hazzard style car jumping, that they should last a very long time. We'll see, (normal driving), not the Dukes of Hazzard thing.

 

nope different shops, I have heard that it is a common thing with these trucks. I will keep the Moog thing in mind if infact they are actually shot.

 

It's not THAT common. I'm approaching 100K. I've got oversize tires (though not massively so) and drive it really hard ... including a lot of 4wd on pavement (wet). I'm going to embark on a massive front end rebuild soon but ... these are original ball joints that are 11 years old and are just now (maybe) needing replacement.

Are you certain they're not just feeling something a little loose (like shock mounts or a trackbar ... which ARE very common) and soaking you for ball joints?

 

please tell me that you are not one of those guys that put there truck in 4wd when it rains.

 

TMS Bill, In Mass we have state inspections and I never bring the repair back to them to do. The one that the dealer said was bad I actually challenged it and a state inspector came out to see it. He showed me the tire moving. I replaced them myself and then it passed. These I am going to have a mechanic I trust check them, but if they are shot I will again do them myself. I do have a 2500 too. It has a different front end than your 1500 and a different axle. Maybe I do have a bad shock mount or track bar that is causing them to go bad. I will check those as well.

All I know for sure is that if these are bad this will be the third time these will be replaced by me in 3-4 years. The other thing is it is only the passanger side. The mechanic I trust said he thinks it is because of our roads, all the potholes are on the passenger side.

 

Hahaha ... we gonna start this up again? The manufacturers are silent on this issue. They say that 4wd should be used on sand, dirt and snow (loose surfaces) but NEVER on dry pavement.

Ok ... but what about wet pavement?
"What?"
How about WET pavement?
"Pardon?"
Can you ... awww ... forget it!

They do say that 4wd may be engaged at speeds up to 50mph ... on DIRT?? Are there a lot of people (besides Robby Gordon) that tool along like that on dirt?

When wet ... in 4hi ... it rides like it's on rails.