Just installed 5100’s, alignment question

When getting alignment, tell the shop approximately what you want on the caster setting (2-4 depending on lift) and close to “0” on camber and toe. If they can’t, then ask why not. As long as cams aren’t seized and/or there is no damage to vehicle, there is no reason why they can’t. Special thanks to @Muddinfun for helping with this! Now the alignment is out the way, move on to the next upgrade!

 

How do you like the ride now that the ya got the alignment squared away? Is there much of a difference between stock and the 5100s @ .85?

 

It happened to me. I did exactly as OP, upgraded to 5100s on an otherwise stock front suspension, figured I’d try out one notch up on them which is .85” or something. I made sure i marked and re aligned the cams and it was immediately apparent my camber was quite off, which makes sense because that’s how geometry works.

Ok, time for an alignment, took it to firestone, and they said they couldn’t adjust the camber beyond where it was. I fell victim to the toe and go. This firestone was a half hour away, I didn’t pay for the lifetime alignment cause money’s tight, I was looking at it a day or so later and it was obvious the camber was still way off and I’d have poor tire wear. Looking underneath it was apparent they didn’t even touch the alignment cams and used probably a vice grip to just adjust the tie rod length for toe. I was pissed, but im busy these days so rather than try and make the trip there and put up a fight with a shop I feel I can’t even trust I just took it apart again and set the 5100s down to stock height to try and get things back to normal. From a glance the camber looked ok but miles and miles later I definitely am wearing my tires out faster on the outside.

Just had my frame replaced and they aligned it as part of all that, but the tire wear is already messed up.

there’s a thread here on how to do an alignment yourself. This appeals to me, cause f*ck these shops. I need new tires this year, I’ll probably try the method in that thread after I get new tires and see how it goes.

 

The stock Bilstien 4600’s aren’t bad but we’re much stiffer than the 5100’s. It’s definitely a softer ride and truck is nicely leveled with first notch lift. Maybe I’ll give an update after my desert trip in a couple weeks

 

I share your frustration as a victim myself. I hope my experience stops someone else out there from being another toe and go situation. If you have done no other upgrades except 5100’s and one notch lift then show an alignment shop my alignment results and ask them, “can you get close to this?” Cause they should be able to.

I have seen YouTube videos of how to do your own alignment but I didn’t wanna spend all day doing it when a shop should be able to do under a hour (but then again, this situation took 3 days to deal with). Hopefully others can learn from my experience.

 

Yeah let’s us know how the desert trip goes. When you installed the 5100s did you use the “easy install method”, that doesn’t use a spring compressor, demonstrated in the post below:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/billstein-5100-easy-install-method.211535/

 

That’s the exact video I used, pretty easy.

 

Yes, no spring compressor. First time working on my suspension. Took about 4 hours for front but I also change my brake rotors and pads. Rear took me like 20 min.

 

This is with 5100s on the 3rd notch. I work at Firestone so I do my own alignments. A lot of employees have no business doing alignments but the company is cheap and will want the lowest paid person to do do stuff so they make more money.

 

Looks good. Welcome to TW.

 

Same setup here.
The front end shop I use is great.
No problems here except I didnt like them at the 1st notch.

Too low in the front with deavers and a 1" block in the rear and felt too soft, so I pulled them myself and notched em up 1.

Used that vid, thank you!
And also this one was awrsome...thanks for that one too whoever took the time to make it.

https://youtu.be/5E6u7dC7EHg