4 Wheel Drive/SUVs: Front-end Shakes, jeep cherokee sport, brake pads and rotors

Question
I have a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport 4WD (18.5k miles) that has been giving me "shaking" problems for the past couple months. When going at speeds over 40 mph and then stepping on the brakes to slow down, my steering wheel column would shake.  Twice now I have also had this happen while braking on a winding piece of freeway or when changing lanes at freeway speeds -- only, on these 2 occasions, the whole front end shook violently & I had to let the car coast to about 20 mph before it stopped shaking.  I had the brake pads and rotors replaced last week, only to have another one of these freeway incidents occur yesterday. (not sure if this info helps, but the first time I had my tires rotated was about 8 months ago at 13k miles and I haven't had them rotated since.) Any ideas?  

Answer
Jen,

I would suspect bad shock absorbers, or a bad steering stabilizer.  Visually check them for oil leaks, dents or bent shafts.  Another possibility is that the tires may be in need of balancing, or you have an out of round tire, bent rim or axle.  This is a fairly low mileage vehicle and shouldn't have any major suspension problems.  If you can't find anything obvious, take the Jeep to a reputable alignment shop, and have them check it over.

  Carl