Help checking my alignment numbers / bad wandering

Good day all,

New member here. Great site!
I have had 3 pickups and am on my third Tacoma. However this one has a bad wandering problem and Im wondering if it is this model or the way it is aligned.

It is a 2011 TRD Sport 4 door prerunner with the 4.0 V6. I installed an aluminum 1/2 spacer between the top of the strut assembly and the frame mount. Then I immediately had it aligned . I WAS running the stock TRD sport 17 x 7.5 wheels with a 265/65/17 Nitto AT Grapplers. There was a noticeable wander as the truck was following the grooves in the road. A few months later I installed Fuel 17 x 9 (4.5 backspace) wheels with the same tire. Now , the wandering is MUCH worse.
I have been looking over this site and people are having different things to say. First, maybe my alignment numbers are off. I have posted them to see if someone sees anything odd with them. I do notice positive camber when looking at the truck. But maybe that's just me. Also someone said Caster should be higher.
Also, how much movement should a rack and pinion have ? Mine has about a quarter inch when I look under the truck and someone turns the wheel back and forth. THanks , Erik

 

The cross caster difference will cause a definite pull to the left. But everything else looks decent. Some more caster couldnt hurt anything.

 

Thanks. It doesn't pull to the left at all. Do you think the caster numbers that are shown are making it wander crazy like it does or maybe its the rack bushings.? The engine has no leaks to drip on them causing premature wear but it does have 115,099 miles. Again, when someone turns the wheel there is about a quarter inch that the rack moves . Or maybe the width of the wheel is just too much for this rack and pinion ?

 

I just wanted to be sure about the bushings before I do that to try to correct it. I just looked and found out it looks way more involved than the first gen tacomas which was as cinch!

 

I had similar caster numbers with 2.5" lift and stock UCAs. It wandered like crazy. Going to skinnier tires and back to stock wheels helped. It went away with LR UCAs and higher caster angle. You need UCAs. That's causing your wandering.

 

Thanks for the input! I figured that with only 1" of lift I didn't think I needed UCAs since they were able to align it in spec. I guess I don't understand how the uca works in junction with the steering.

 

Those are perfect alignment #s the lower caster on the left actually prevents a drift to the right due to road crown.

If you have loose/worn out rack bushings it could cause a "wander". A tire can actually be a major cause of pulls or wanders and even sticking with the same size and replacing the tires can fix the problem. But without seeing the tires and putting my hands on them I can't definitively say that's your wander. By going to the wider wheels you could have just exacerbated the tire issue because they are being stretched more over a 9in wheel which I bet is the max width wheel for that tire size or too wide per the tire manuf.

For reference I have a 3in. lift 17x8.5" wheels with 285/70R17 tires and no wander whatsoever.

 

You know how you can ride with no hands on a bicycle? That's because of the caster angle of the front fork and head tube. The front wheels (and their ability to self correct) benefit from a moderate caster angle (some guys on here claim to have caster numbers as high as 3-4 deg and they say it steers great on the highway). My truck wanders a little, im around 2-2.5" lift in the front. My alignment numbers look pretty similar to yours. I am waiting till after the holiday to pull the trigger on some ucas..

 

thank you ovrlndkull . The tires were on the truck when I purchased it with perfect tread . I now have put 15,000 miles on them and they are still the same way. No cupping , angled tread , etc. I have always had 8-8.5 wheels on other tacomas but it seems like they are getting harder to find, at least in what I was looking for . The closest was a 9" but I went to the Nitto site before purchasing the wheels and the 265/65/17 was for a rim 7-9". So I went ahead and bought them. Even though there was some wander with the 1" lift , it was a night and day difference when I left the tire shop from the new wheel install. From marginal to worse! lol. I believe I might try the energy suspension bushings and go from there. With no leaks on the motor to prem. wear out the bushings, I was surprised to see it move that much. Im so used to everything on a Toyota lasting at least 200,000 miles.

 

Tires can have issues from brand new try swapping the front 2 from side to side and see if that changes how the truck wanders and also try putting the rears on the front and see if it lessens or not. Then that would definitively factor out the tires.

 

That is something i never thought about. I have a question for you. I might have really messed up....when I bought the truck , the tires were put on backwards ( I call it that anyway) so when they were the wheels, I had them put the tires on the opposite way, block letters out. Maybe that's the reason? The tread is smooth all the way across but I'm no tire guy.

 

The only way tires can be mounted backwards is if they are asymmetrical or directional if they are symmetrical then it doesn't matter what way they are mounted.

 

I should have said inside out. Like how people mounts white letters to the inside. Well I appreciate the help and I will swap with a criss cross pattern like you suggested. I will let you know the outcome. Thanks again

 

My tires have white letters or black letters and are symmetrical and can be mounted on the wheel either way and will not have any issues mounted like that. What tires do you have and I can tell you if there is a possibility that they were mounted backwards.

 

Nitto Terra grappler all terrain

 

Yeah those can be mounted either direction they are symmetrical and what you did should not cause any issues.

 

Thanks. I'll let you know the outcome.

 

My toyota wanders randomly, especially letting off accelerator or pressing accelerator, and extremely bad on rutted roads, I have followed toyotas of the same type as mine 2008 for many miles and watched them dog track like the rear axle can not stay straight, was funny just the other day I followed one for about and hour and a half, this guy even openned and closed his door twice while driving and then I saw him shut off his interior light manually lol.
I had my truck into 2 different shops for an alignment at about 50,000 kms and they both said everything looks tight and the alignment is perfectly fine, I gave up and just drive mine the way it is, its absolutley stock still. I even use two different sets of rims and tires for summer and winter with the same issue. I am thinking these rear suspensions are a big problem for some of the trucks out there, mine is an access cab sr5 manual 4x4.
The wandering has stayed pretty much the same for last 70,000 km, was thinking about changing out the rear springs and bushings, but can not be sure that would fix it.
Combine loose rack and pinion bushings with a random dog tracking rear end and that would be really annoying lol.
Maybe have some follow behind you that knows what dog tracking is to rule that out.

 

Update: I haven't had time to cross rotate the tires to check them but I let it slip by me and only until yesterday did I check the pressure since getting the tires mounted. The right front was 38 and left front was 36. That helped and also I took it to a shop for a free front end check since I wanted to rule out the rack bushings. They said everything was fine but after 7 months my alignment was out. Camber and caster was fine but the left front toe was kicked out .15. Maybe I got took for 90 bucks but that helped too. So with the 2 things it drives better. Not like my first gen but better.