2003 2500 4X4 CTD, Leveling Kit, NO Chips or Mods. I can feel a vibration when starting off of a dead stop, feels like the tranny or maybe rearend,almost everytime if on an incline or pulling a trailer. I was told today at a local shop he has had several with bad u-joints that dodge replaced on warranty. I crawled under the truck but really couldn't feel any slack. Anyone else had this problem?

 

could be a carrier bearing going bad. The fact you say it happens more on inclines and with weight kinda leads in that direction IMO. That vibration is a very common thing with the newer trucks. Yours may be from wear because of the miles being a 03, but, there's many threads out there about the vibration. It's never been found to be a problem and has been attitubuted to the rear end being so light or the TQ not locking in right away. Mine has done it since I bought it and I don't give it any thought.

 

sounds like shudder on acceleration from a stop.....there is a tsb from dodge on this problem. the angles a driveshaft work at are neg and pos depending on wether the truck is loaded or not. you may have upset the happy medium of angles with a leveling kit. the tsb refers to angles and there are 8 different height brackets for the carrier bearing in the driveshaft to correct this. if you have a problem getting a copy of it let me know. ill send u one (BlewMoney@aol.com) the tsb number is 03-003-04

 

Thanks for the replies, I think you guys know what I am trying to describe. Shudder is probably the best way. Sorry I amslow with acronyms like IMO, TQ. Maybe a hint triton. Thanks again.

 

could very well be ball UV joints... been down that road up untill I installed the Kore system...

"acronyms" : IMO = in my opinion
IMHO= in my humble opinion
TQ = torque converter
SAC= smart a$$ Canadian
NNT= need new tranny
IAFU= injectors all F----- up

 

I think I figured it out, the other day it rained really hard and the streets were flooded, it seem to get worse. Decided I was going to pull the rear brake rotor/drums because it felt like drum brakes when you have a leaking axle seal. Sure enough the emergency brake shoes were all gummed up, cleaned them up good and it hasn't done it since.
I had a leaky axle seal about 16 months ago, had the Dodge Dealer fix it and apparently they didn't clean the shoes very well.
Thanks for all the input, Great site.