i have an "06" 4wd auto 3500 5.9 (i'm the original owner) with just under 48k on it and finally got some bucks together to do a few more little upgrades. two weeks ago bought a new set of toyo mt's & yesterday had 4wheel parts install a leveling kit on the truck cause the tires were rubbing some when turned a little sharp and while they were there i had four new shocks installed and a steering stabilizer. they are telling me i need ball joints. how is this possible with less than 50k on the rig? i have maybe 150 miles off road total in the thing and that is good dirt roads and pretty much flat at that. most of my recreational use of the truck and at that minimal, has been towing my toyhauler at speeds no greater than 65 mph. is this really possible and if so what would cause this? i could understand if i did a lot of 4 wheeling or had run really big tires for the majority of these miles, but i have barely 500 miles on my 2 week old toyo's. is there any danger of screwing something major up or having an accident if i don't address this asap or is it something that can be postponed for a few weeks?

 

Welcome to the Dodge part of your truck. Turning sharp and turning the wheels a lot while the vehicle is stopped or at very slow speeds would probably be the main culprit. My truck is an 04.5, when I bought it with 50k mikes it needed all 4 joints, replaced them then 2 years ago, had to replace them again 1 year ago with 72k miles and just did it again 2 weeks ago with 98k miles on it. Make sure when you replace them you get lifetime warranty joints not mopar products. As far as driving it, it depends on how bad they are, if they are about to fall apart you could fold a wheel up in your wheel well, depends on how loose they are, I've driven on bad ones for a bit with no issues, just watch your bumps and pot holes. If you search the forums you will find many discussions on this topic. Unless your running a huge tire it will not have much of a negative impact on the joints by themselves. also make sure you get greaseable joints when you replace them and keep them greased. Good Luck

 

so i am gathering from several posts that dynatrac is the brand to go with. is there no particular brand that might be a little beefier that would last awhile? i had a ford diesel that never had issues with joints and i had over 200k on it when i sold it.

 

I only got 25k out of the original BJ's on our '07. The main problem is the old "y" member steering design. It is a stupid design. It puts undue stress on the front end under compression and turning maneuvers. The new design from '08-on up is much better. You should look into that. There is a TSB/recall for it, H46 IIRC.

 

yea it is possible ive seen it my cousin has a 06 with 41k on it i inspected it and it needed the pass. side joints already. he runs it not even 10k a year and they just wore out i think dodge should look into this problem but i doubt they ever will just somethin you gotta deal with and when they go get the good ones with grease fittings in them and like someone else said keep em greased

 

Nothing but the '08-up steering parts will cure the problem, unless you don't mind repairing front end parts on a fairly quick schedule. They issued a safety recall on it because they got so bad they were wearing out in warranty at an alarming rate on the later trucks.