So when I first bought my 2001 Ram Off Road I had new tires put on it and a checkup/alignment done on it. Seemed fine for the 600mi drive home, but now it seems like it wanders about the lane. You can hold the wheel in a constant spot and the truck will drift around. Anything I should check? Also my front pass side tire is getting chewed up on the outside lugs? The tires appear to sit perfectly (no camber or castor straight up and down) and they have proper pressure (PSI) in them. Any help would be awesome!

 

When I got my 2000 Ram it was doing the same thing (all over the road) really bad. The previous owner did nothing to take care of the truck. I took it into the shop and had them check it out, front to back. The shocks were bad, the brake pads front and back were worn out, and the tie rods were all bad. It rides like a new truck now, but still wanders some going down the road. I need to have the steering box replaced next because its also bad, the factory steering box on these trucks arn`t known for being the best. I have a Borgeson replacement that I need to have installed. Everything on my truck was original when I got it, with 198,000 miles on it.


So if the steering parts on your truck are all original, there probably worn out and in need of replacement. How many miles on your truck ?.

 

Sounds like a typical second gen dodge.

First off is to check steering linkage. and track bar. Then ball joints.

You can pretty much count on the steering box being bad. Don't buy those 100 dollar "reman" they are just worn out boxes with new seals.

Mopar now sales a completely remaned box for about 300.

Redhead is a great choice

Borgeson is good also but you have to change steering shafts so it's more coin.

 

Time to crawl under there, and inspect EVERYTHING. Including the shaft from the column, to the steering box, and the box itself.

 

First, check the alignment yourself free of charge. I have had alignment shops attempt to use their million dollar machines and it is just laughable. The last time was after I got tires and they tried three times to get it aligned but all they did was add a terrible pull to it. I finally did it myself with some tape measures and viola! Perfect steering and tire wear. I will never use a shop again. If it wanders and everything's tight parts-wise, you have too much toe out. If it pulls or grabs ruts and wears the passenger tire funny, you too much toe in. These trucks need to be about 0 to 1/8" toe. That's IT! So just do it yourself and save money on aspirin.

 

That is what it is doing, wandering and wearing the front passenger tire funny. The truck only has 106,000mi on it and everything seems tight under there to me.

 

There are good alignment videos for Jeeps on youtube and the same principles apply. Get the toe completely straight then test drive as it may be perfect at 0. You may want to rotate the rears up so your new adjustments have fresh tread. When I did mine I found the shop's fancy computer had made them put over 1/2 inch toe in! No wonder the tires wore terrible. Anyway, it's really an easy process so let me know if you need help.

 

You can also do it with a piece of string. That's what I do. Pretty foolproof really.

Took it in after and they said my alignment was basically already perfect. didn't even adjust anything.

 

I replaced all my front steering parts with moog much better now no wander. If you have dual stabilizers on the front it will hide some of your issues.

 

New front end parts will definitely help. However, these trucks are known to wander, so much so that there are different aftermarket products to try to address this. Here are a couple links to those products.

http://www.dodgeramsteeringstabilizer.com/

http://www.dodgeoffroad.com/store_DORbrace2g.php