Excursion is shaking

doesn't do it right away, cold mornings are ok for a few miles. Then it starts to have a little wobble in the steering wheel that gradually gets worse. Hitting the brakes doesn't change it at first. After about 5 miles or so of driving the shaking in the front end gets worse with higher speeds and hitting the brakes makes it a lot worse. after about 15 miles if I slow down for a stop sign the steering wheel shakes hard in my hand "holy crap I better fix this type of shake". BUT If I turn while I slow down the steering wheel does not shake at all.
So instead of just trying to turn every time I come to a stop sign to keep it from shaking I am gonna try to fix this. I'm guessing it is the unit bearings (again). If it were warped rotors then it would shake every time I hit the brakes no matter if it were cold or not right? Drive it to get it hot and Jack it up and try to see if there is play when I move the tire? I've replaced these before at teh same time I replaced the rotors and the shaking went away. I'm just trying to avoid throwing parts at it blindly.

Sounds like unit bearings to me. Maybe a bad ball joint?

Jacked it up and could not shake the wheel, no play at all. you would think if the unit bearings or ball joints were bad then there would be some play top to bottom (tilt)? I've kicked it, shook it turned while under the vehicle and can't find any play. Looking at just replacing the unit bearings but that is $360 each or the china made ones for $200 each which are reportedly crap.

Suggestions from other forums:

Steering intermediate shaft, between the steering column coming out of the firewall and the steering box.

track bar upper bushing