I'm retired and don't drive my truck very often anymore so this problem has been going on a long time. I have a Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 with a Hemi V8 and short bed with just over 66k miles. I had some work done to it in 2012 and a few months later, it developed an intermittent "shimmy" when taking off slowly when the vehicle is cold running- very much like one or both rear wheels are spinning out. It seems to be Ok if I take off fast(er), and after it fully warms up. Sometimes it's barely noticeable and sometimes really irritating. I can't tell for sure if it's coming from the rear end, a wheel, transmission, or what. I took it to the dealer a couple times and they said they can't find anything wrong and not shimmying when they test it.
Otherwise, the truck runs great and my only other complaint would be gas mileage (Hemi), but the power is great for most any application, especially hauling and driving mountain roads... I'm getting ready to put on a cab-over pop-up camper and add rear overloads to beef up the payload, but getting a littler nervous after reading complaints about rear end and differential problems on other 2003 Ram 1500's. Has anyone had any similar (rear shimmy on acceleration) problem so they can tell me what the problem is with mine so I can get it fixed???
I will accept replies to my email: ebhenry0267@sbcglobal.net.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I'm retired and don't drive my truck very often anymore so this problem has been going on a long time. I have a Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 with a Hemi V8 and short bed with just over 66k miles. I had some work done to it in 2012 and a few months later, it developed an intermittent "shimmy" when taking off slowly when the vehicle is cold running- very much like one or both rear wheels are spinning out. It seems to be Ok if I take off fast(er), and after it fully warms up. Sometimes it's barely noticeable and sometimes really irritating. I can't tell for sure if it's coming from the rear end, a wheel, transmission, or what. I took it to the dealer a couple times and they said they can't find anything wrong and not shimmying when they test it.
Otherwise, the truck runs great and my only other complaint would be gas mileage (Hemi), but the power is great for most any application, especially hauling and driving mountain roads... I'm getting ready to put on a cab-over pop-up camper and add rear overloads to beef up the payload, but getting a littler nervous after reading complaints about rear end and differential problems on other 2003 Ram 1500's. Has anyone had any similar (rear shimmy on acceleration) problem so they can tell me what the problem is with mine so I can get it fixed???
I will accept replies to my email: ebhenry0267@sbcglobal.net.
- Ed H., Sacramento, CA, US