Ridiculous amount of caster?

2 years ago I installed the JBA high caster control arms.. been fine.. drives nice and straight (with the exception of steering shimmy... but that's the tires...bad balance.. they need to be replaced). And some pretty significant bump steer... feel every single bump in the road.. reflectors..etc. but steering is tight.. very responsive..

I run a 2 inch lift... that's why I went with the JBAs... but..

5.4 positive caster? Thoughts...?

 

That caster is why your bump steer is so bad. I think you need to find a better shop for alignment.

 

Not agreeing or disagreeing, but some folks run 7-8 degrees on their trucks with long travel set ups. Certainly a lot of mid travel folks, myself included, are running 3.5 degrees caster, 0 camber, 0 toe, with great success. It's a good place to start, but do realize that will bring your wheel/tire back in towards the cab mount. That might cause problems depending on what you're running.

 

Perhaps for those setups it's good. I honestly have no idea. On a 'regular' lift setup, too much positive caster will make the tires follow imperfections on the road and make it feel squirrely. I had this issue on my last Tacoma at 2.5" of lift without adjustable UCAs. It's like a shopping cart wheel facing forward making the wheel shimmy all over the place.

 

I had 6+ caster on mine when I first lifted. I could tell a difference in the steering...felt heavier/harder, and I didn't like the idea of my power steering working that much harder so I went down to 3. Maybe that's not a concern but it made sense to me.

 

im at 3 caster and drives straight as a string..

 

You've got it backwards. Too low of caster is what causes that. Think shopping cart wheels.

 

I always get a cart with 1 caster locked up so I hope mine don't end up like that lmao

 

You're right, I was thinking positive caster caused squirrely wheels.