Truck difficult to control

Nice! Looking forward to hear back.

 

My 2019 has had 6 alignments, 2 were my fault do to suspension adjustments, my truck is lifted with 33’s at 36 psi. The last two were from two of the better alignment shops in the Houston area. I’ve also owned many lifted Tacoma’s.

After alignment #5, I took a 2500+ mile trip, it was just as you described. The smooth roads were fine, but anything not smooth and I wondered all over. Two weeks ago after #6, I took a 400+ mile trip, it was better, but not by much.

Last week I started looking at my wheels and noticed a slight negative tow. I said to myself, F-it and made an adjustment on my driver side tie-rod by turning the rod one-flat.

My wheels now look 100% straight and the steering is so much better. It’s hard to believe such a small adjustment has made my truck livable again. I should say fun again, it was driving me nuts.

PS, the place that did the last alignment has their machines calibrated every 3 months.

 

Interesting... Now I'm tempted to spin my toe ends a hair lol. I'll give my air bags a run first, but if that doesn't seem to help, i'll mark all the current positions and give it a whirl.

I'm getting the TSB for the diff howl done shortly, so still waiting on the air bag install.

 

I know little to nothing about wheel alignment, but when I look at my truck from the front sitting in my garage, the bottom of the tires are noticeably in closer to the center of the vehicle than the tops. Is that a negative toe?

Edit: Just did some research. Looks like I'm referring to positive camber. From what I read that may partially be the cause of my loose steering.

 

I don’t know about the loose steering, but you are correct about the positive camber.

 

I bumped into a stump or something on my right front wheel, that threw my alignment out. I had it fixed at my work so the wheel is straight now, however the steering rack binds a little from lock to lock. Took it to Gresham Toyota where I worked for 5 years and they said they couldn't replicate the issue. The tech said it turned stiffer than normal due to my Ikon stage 4 lift and my 37 Nitto G2's. I am at 35200 miles and almost out of warranty. I am going to take it to another dealer to see if I can get it fixed under warranty.
Anyone know where the best place to buy a new rack and pinion is at the best price? Is there any aftermarket racks that are designed for off road wheelers. I am not going to stop riding the rough trails and I would assume this will not be the last time is crck something. I would want to replace it with something better?

 

With lift and tires that big I seriously doubt anyone is going to warranty anything suspension/steering/drivetrain.

 

Didn't read entire thread but check out a road force balance. In fgo only a few can preform it , not cheap. I was trained on it .it can balance the rim than the rim and tire and will tell if a tire is shit. All done with a computer. And is accepted by tire manufacturers for a bad out of round or broken belt

 

Yeah, I know, I was hoping that my employment history would have been a little help. The answer is always no if you don't ask. I will probably get one from a wrecking yard and have it installed at my current employer.

 

Hey everyone. Quick update on my truck: I had the diff howl TSB completed yesterday. Whole new leaf packs went in. No noticeable change to how it's driving. I'll be installing the air bags this weekend, but I'm thinking now that it won't make a difference either.

 

You need to increase your caster. Request the alignment shop to max the caster and then bring in the toe and camber. Slightly negative camber up front is fine (less than 1 degree). If you have a lift, UCAs will probably help as well.

 

@1000101

@halo07 and I finally got around to swapping our wheels over the weekend and we both saw immediate results. We both have 255/85r16 Cooper ST Maxx's, but he has TRD Pro wheels and I have the stock Offroad wheels. On his drive home, his truck wandered on the highway and required constant correction with the Offroad wheels. I have found that with the TRD Pro wheels my highway driving is night and day better than it was before. We assume that all of this is due to the difference in offset between the two wheels; the stock Offroads having a +24mm offset while the TRD Pros have a +13mm offset, making track width about an inch wider.

We are going to switch back this weekend, but I have ordered some Spidertrax spacers to further test out all of this. I am assuming with my OR wheels, pushing them out with the spacers will improve handling even more.

Will update her after that.

 

I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.I'm experiencing the same issue with my 2020 OR.

 

Stock tires?

 

Noticed it with Stock tires,now replaced with Michelin X-Ice,slightly better maybe, and 2 alignments.Still the same issue.

 

With those tires and the OR wheels you have zero to negative scrub radius(bad on a RWD)
With those tires and PRO wheels you gained back your positive scrub.

 

Been from 29 to 39 warm.

 

Whenever you change offset and/or tire diameter, you are changing the scrub radius.
Scrub radius is the distance from where the axial point of your SAI and caster intersect the tire at the ground to the center of the tire.
When you go with more negative offset you are adding scrub.
When you go with a taller tire you are subtracting scrub.
On a vehicle that has, at most, 6mm of positive scrub, things like 33" tires, wheel spacers, high offset wheels...are going to move scrub around considerably. It will also have a greater effect on your dynamic alignment.

On a completely stock OR; adding 1.25" wheel spacers adds 30mm of positive scrub, 33" tires subtracts 10mm of positive scrub, 0 offset wheels adds 25mm positive scrub, -12mm offsets adds 37mm of positive scrub....
Higher positive scrub you can somewhat compensate for by more positive toe.
Zero to negative scrub, you need a more negative offset wheel or a spacer to correct.

 

Some are confusing bumpsteer with tramlining...
Bumpsteer is when the tire toes due to the suspension cycling.
Tramlining is the tires tendency to grab/pull laterally and toe out in ruts. Outside tread is usually what grabs and the effect is compounded with increased positive scrub.

 

Its seems to be more prevalent in the OR model.The sport model has 30mm offset wheels and the chin spoiler.