The alignment compromise. Caster vs. camber

Nice. Add the pinch weld mod to my list. Having more Caster makes highway and bumpy road driving SOOO much less demanding on the the driver (me). Will be taking your route very soon, as long as you don't take mine Thanks for sharing!

 

Ok, so I got some numbers from an alignment yesterday but am going back today to finalize.

With the rear control bolt maxed for positive caster and negative camber I left with...

+1.5 caster
+.5 camber

Caster can be increased but will sacrifice camber. It looks like 2.0 caster is achievable with about 1.0 camber.

Like the title of the thread... the alignment compromise. It doesn’t drive awful but I have not added the bigger tires yet either. I am not replacing the uca at this time. Where would you leave it for now?

 

I was under the impression that if you max out castor you can add in negative camber to increase castor a little. Am I wrong?

I’d prefer that anyway as it should keep the outside edges of the tire from wearing if you don’t like to slow down to take turns. Like a round on/off ramp.

 

You are not wrong, it just depends on where you want to start. Maxing caster would be Turning the rear lca bolt to push the lca away from the centerline. Then you would take the front bolt and turn it to pull the lca to the centerline. This moves the lower ball joint foward in the wheel well.

At that point that would be your max potential positive caster.

However you would probably also be out of spec with too much positive camber. You would us the front bolt to dial that out. As you push the front of the lca away from the centerline, you would reduce positive camber but you will also be reducing positive caster.

 

Had this exact problem with mine in”stock” form, it only had 1.5-2 inch spacers on the coils, maxed camber and castor,was still out, toe changed depending on where the other adjustments were, but is the last adjustment to be made anyway. Had problems with left pull, then right pull, it was fd up. Left the numbers as high as we could All around....

Ended up getting UCA’s, settled at about mid adjustment on stock numbers, once the UCA’s were put on, castor was set at 3.5 give or take .5. It sits at 3.5 right and 3.2 left with as much camber as they could get with the limited adjustments that Toyota provides.

No pulling, no walking, no shimmy

You really need UCA’s to get it “right”.

Look into the SPC ones, not to expensive. Icon are badass but not in my price range.

 

1 degree camber is not good . I would go for less than a half a degree of camber and caster is what it is until you get the parts to finish the job or lower it . It's all easy enough to do at home .

 

Yeah I would prefer to not torch my brand new BFGs, so I will stay away from 1* camber or more.

However, Toyota does seem to spec positive camber stock, I assume its inherent in the design arc of the control arms. I can say stock was slightly camber in and I experienced pretty even tire wear.

 

positive camber means the wheel leans out at the top, correct?

EDIT: answered my own question in 2 seconds on google ...

 

Yup I understand and agree with Toyotas spec +/- a hair either way from 0 and thats why I strive for 0 camber at home and that gives me a little leeway to be slightly off and still in Toyotas spec. Trying to set it on the outer edge of their spec really make work at home a little tougher . Home you have many variables like accuracy of your angle finder how true your tires are straight ahead so ackerman angle is not having any effect , are ya sure your control arms are at the angle they should be and more . I just shoot for 0 and I will still be in spec due to other inaccuracies. Also I try to get it this close before I take it to a pro as I have adjustable uppers and if I do my part right they don't have to touch the uppers as many are scared of the uppers it sounds like. All the fine tuning can be done with the lowers and they have no excuse to not get it right with even minimal experienced tech

 

Agreed but according to my last alignment sheet the camber spec is -.3 to +1.3 degrees. The sweet spot being +.5 degree.

 

1.3 don't sound right. thats a lot of lean there


I just checked a few places and it sounds like what you said is right but I will be damned if I would set it like that. Guess that is another reason I did not look at uppers as optional.

 

Damn most threads say to ask for 0 camber setting so I never really looked close at the real specs. I would think that shooting for between -03 and +1.3 like a +.05 would be more accurate than shooting for 0. Its not much different but I am glad you brought that to my attention. Now will have to monkey with mine some more as I know it be better now, Damn it !

EDIT: Actually being I have a 9" wide wheel and a 1200 width tire. I think I will leave mine closer to 0 so the tire sits more even across it vs more on the outside

 

Well I ended up with +1.6 caster and +.7 camber. It’s not enough camber to look funny and it’s well in spec. With stock tires it drives fine, but with the bigger tires it does feel a little vauge at speed. Like I am steering a boat.

I will drive like this for a while but I am seeing uca’s in my future.

 

This is the alignment specs on my 1rst gen Pre Runner , prior to this recent alignment the steering felt heavy and had some bump steer . The previous alignment was done 2 yrs ago

My truck has a 2.5" Rancho lift

 

Its also a Gen 1 . I understand thats a different animal than what we are dealing with here in the Gen 2's