I just found this out and wondered if anyone else has had similer problems? I just put new tires on my 03 F 350 Crew cab at 33,000 miles. The shop put it up on the rack to do an alienment and both lower balljoints were toast!! The firestone dealer quoted me $500.00 to do them but as it was under warrenty I took it to the dealer. Furthure inspection revealed the balljoints the grag link and a tie rod end all toast!! Plus there is a problem with the front rotors that causes a pulsing in the brake pedal!!!! I talked to one of the senior write up techs and he told me this is a common thing with the superduty trucks. He also told me that if you are not back in by 30,000 miles then the truck will usually be fine till the 80,000 mile range. Once they replace the ball joint etc they dont seem to have the problem of premature failure. This is really not a comfortable feeling, 30,000 miles and this is major front end repair! I do not have oversized tires and I dont abuse the truck, unless you consider MI roads abuse (yea I guess that is Grin). Once I got the truck back I had to run back to the tire shop as I needed to pick up something and the sales man told me they have had just about every type vehicle in the shop for premature ball joint failure, recently in fact a Dakota with 15,000 miles!! I guess the .15 cent zerk fitting really is worth its weight in grease
johnR