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New '25 2500 Cummins - Crooked Steering Wheel on Highway, Fighting to Keep Straight

ilikecarsgunsncoffee

ilikecarsgunsncoffee

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Hey everyone, not sure if this would be the right place to start, but here goes..

Bought a 2025 Ram 2500 Cummins on a year end deal from a local CDJR dealer. First time owning a pick up truck, I come from Hondas and BMWs. Also have a tech degree in Automotive so know enough to know something is wrong with my truck.

After owning the truck for a couple of days, I noticed driving around town what felt like my steering wheel was off and the truck needed an alignment. When I got on the highway (50mph+), I noticed that I was fighting hard to keep the truck straight (steering wheel crooked to the right, truck tracking straight, if I straighten the wheel out I'm going left into the median). Truck went back to the dealer, dealer claimed cars/trucks come aligned from factory but dealer did an alignment anyway. Was really windy the day of so couldn't really tell if it was better or not. Drove it another day or 2, while the truck drove straight now around town, still felt like my steering wheel was off, and also was still fighting hard on the highway to keep the truck straight. Truck went back to the dealer, dealer did a drag link adjustment. Now I feel like I am good around town, steering wheel is straight, truck tracks straight, I still have the issue of on the highway (50mph+) steering wheel crooked to the right, truck tracking straight, if I straighten the wheel out I'm going left into the median. I drove the truck around today for 150+ miles on a variety of highways and I can confirm it has nothing to do with road crown or anything like that. I'm adding a pic for reference.

I'll note I have the Night Package with the 20x8 Rims with Firestone Transforce At2 LT285/60R20 tires.

Planning on bringing the truck back to the dealer for a 3rd time now in the 2 weeks since I've owned the truck but looking for any advice/suggestions/recommendations/what to tell the dealer to check? Also considering taking the truck to a local diesel performance shop for a second opinion.. I understand the dealer is free because of warranty, but I feel like my local dealer is stupid and at this point I'm willing to pay for better service.

Truck has ~500 miles

Thank you in advance and Happy New Year!

Truck.jpg
 
Disclaimer: comments based on brand new vehicle. Camber, caster, and total toe are probably fine. The steering wheel needs to be centered. It's related to the total alignment, but usually does not effect tire wear or the ability to go reasonably straight down the road with hands off the wheel. Centering the steering wheel is the final detail touch of a good-above-average wheel alignment mechanic. The fix is to get a total toe reading for reference, start truck up, center the steering wheel and lock it down in place. Then site down the inner plane of each front tire to see how much of the rear tire can be seen on each side. The space should be equal. If not the tie rods need to be adjusted so the space is equal while maintaining total toe. Was a front end and frame straightening mechanic in my early years. Centering a steering wheel was one of those things some mechanics were good at and others not so much.
 
Besides what’s been said above, my 2500 within 2k miles was wearing the outside edge of both front tires and the steering wheel was off. It took 2/3 turn on the adjustable link on the bar between each of the front wheels moving the front of the tires away from each other and the tire wear disappeared. It was obviously toed in. Another 1/2 turn on the adjustment to center the steering wheel. I marked and made these adjustments myself. Now all is good. If I ever have to have it aligned I will have them use the Thuren specs. Since this is a HD truck and doesn’t have rack and pinion steering like the vehicles you said you’re coming from, it will never drive like those type of vehicles.
 
Hey everyone checking back in with an update..

Took truck back to dealer, requested dealer align to "Thuren Spec".. Issue persists..

Took truck to diesel shop that specializes in lift kits and wheel/tires, they did an alignment per their Hunter machines specs.. Issue persists..

Here is a pic of me driving this morning.. If I straighten my wheel out I am crashing into the median and ending up in oncoming traffic...

HELP!

1767906292045.png
 
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Did you just go to the dealer and tell them, "align to Thuren specs?" Or did you give them the printout? Have you verified the after alignment specs of any of your alignments against the Thuren specs?

If not, get a good shop to actually align it to the Thuren specs as was previously stated. If the wheel is still a little off, crawl under there and straighten the wheel.
 
My '21 was out of factory alignment specs from the time I picked it up
Toe was out. Had tire wear issues.
Had it aligned to Thuren specs ( 0 to -.05 toe in) and issues resolve.

Once the truck is aligned properly, then they have to adjust the drag link to recenter the steering wheel.
 
Mopar73340 said:
It took 2/3 turn on the adjustable link on the bar between each of the front wheels moving the front of the tires away from each other and the tire wear disappeared.
Click to expand...
It’s called the tie rod.
 
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flatfish said:
Disclaimer: comments based on brand new vehicle. Camber, caster, and total toe are probably fine. The steering wheel needs to be centered. It's related to the total alignment, but usually does not effect tire wear or the ability to go reasonably straight down the road with hands off the wheel. Centering the steering wheel is the final detail touch of a good-above-average wheel alignment mechanic. The fix is to get a total toe reading for reference, start truck up, center the steering wheel and lock it down in place. Then site down the inner plane of each front tire to see how much of the rear tire can be seen on each side. The space should be equal. If not the tie rods need to be adjusted so the space is equal while maintaining total toe. Was a front end and frame straightening mechanic in my early years. Centering a steering wheel was one of those things some mechanics were good at and others not so much.
Click to expand...
Steering wheel centering never affects the alignment. Also, camber isn’t adjustable on a 4x4 Ram 2500. It’s built into the axle knuckles.
 
Ritchie_Rich said:
Steering wheel centering never affects the alignment. Also, camber isn’t adjustable on a 4x4 Ram 2500. It’s built into the axle knuckles.
Click to expand...
Back in the day camber was adjustable on beam/straight axles with an eccentric sleeve in the steering knuckle upper ball joint. It's been over 40 years since doing front end work for me. I think the shop I worked at used Thuren specs too. We used two toe settings, one for steering linkage in front of axle and one for steering linkage located behind the axle. Shop was a well known frame shop in the Detroit area. Ford engineering would frequently bring engineering mules in to sort out. The shop had all the tools to cold bend straight axles and twin I-beam suspensions into spec.
 
ilikecarsgunsncoffee said:
Hey everyone checking back in with an update..

Took truck back to dealer, requested dealer align to "Thuren Spec".. Issue persists..

Took truck to diesel shop that specializes in lift kits and wheel/tires, they did an alignment per their Hunter machines specs.. Issue persists..

Here is a pic of me driving this morning.. If I straighten my wheel out I am crashing into the median and ending up in oncoming traffic...

HELP!

View attachment 92828
Click to expand...
Have them lock the steering wheel down with it clocked in the opposite direction (left side down.) Then reset linkage. It's a mass produced vehicle and sometimes the acceptable build tolerances are all stacked in the wrong direction.
 
Sounds like you need to hop under the front end and adjust the drag link a bit. Based on the picture above, I'd guess 3-4 rotations toward the rear of the truck would get it just about centered.
 
I had the same issue. I adjusted the drag link a bit at a time until the wheel was straight. Took three or four tries to get ti perfect. Easy to do. Undo the locking collar, adjust the drag link and tighten the collar to spec.
 
As others have said, the drag link needs to be tweaked. It takes 5 minutes to do. I've also noticed that in most cases the steering wheel will only be truly straight on the center lane (3 lane highway) due to the enginneered crest. It will still be "off" in the far right or left lane.

Drag Link Adjustment
 
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