Alignment after 5100 install - veer to the right

So just so you understand my definition of 'Pull', this is an external pulling of the steering wheel to one side, by brakes, low tire pressure, wheel bearing issues... this has been my definition since my first post.

I am not talking about the self steering effect of poor caster. I am not struggling with this premise.

As for the effect of caster offset to the high side, if that compensation works for road crown, then from my experience with my own vehicle I have not seen that or experienced that. As my previous stated post shows my alignment specs... on roads that with the crown going to the left, I can remove my hand from the steering wheel and it still goes in the direction of travel with no need to correct. It does the same with a crowned road to the right.

My experience is with commercial vehicles. And in my experience I have never seen an alignment problem cause a pull. (Please see above for my definition) it has always been seized anchor pins, or s-cams, worn out slack adjusters, wheel bearing failures, radius rod bushing failures, worn out king pin bushings. Never alignment.

The only time I have found alignment issues is when the air ride system is incorrectly set... this causes caster or king pin inclination issues... not major but some vehicles are more noticeable than others. Or the drag link being changed out and toe not being set afterwards...

 

I’m in full understanding of alignment and how it affects drive ability. You keep trying to explain it but this is one subject I know.

It would take a whole lot less miles to wear the inside of a tire given the example in my previous post. I’d say more like hundreds of miles. As far as caster goes, you are taking caster as one angle, at least that’s how it sounds, and saying that readings are to low so that’s causing wander but yet one side is in spec and the other isn’t. Hmmmmm. It is my opinion that it’s still not low enough to cause steering instability BUT since one side is technically low then maybe only that side is wandering. See where I’m going with this. Just to be clear you can have 4* caster on the right and 3* on the left and your gonna pull head on into an accident if your not careful. Some manufacturers take this into account too. Some specs even demonstrate it.

Same principle applies to camber too but it is MORE of a tire wearing angle than caster so it not used to compensate for road crown. I’m now repeating myself.

I understand the whole shopping cart wheel- low caster compared to a motorcycle chopper - large caster - and it’s affects on driveability. Learned that day one. Yes low caster causes wander but that wander is exacerbated by excessive cross caster coupled with road crown. This is just basic alignment knowledge. I’m not making it up or misinterpreting it. Research online. All the information is there. Again just trying to help the OP with the correct information.

 

Wait a second, you are now telling me that you have never seen an alignment cause a pull? Time again for some basic physics. Even @TacoSupremo19 has to be scratching their head on that one. I can explain the physics more if it helps you out, but no point in sharing my knowledge if you are just going to refuse to accept the reality.

 

Maybe you should explain it to me... clearly I am an idiot and you know the way...

To me, a pull is where the steering wheel is physically pulling in one direction. Where a noticeable physical effort has to be made to keep the vehicle going straight. It is also usually only in one direction.

An alignment issue is lighter and free moving. And doesn't require much effort to correct but can be draining because it will dart one direction and then the other...

If you have a different definition than that then please enlighten me.

 

Update: Original shop refused to correct their mistake and horrible alignment after rotating tires did nothing for the veer/pull. They are refunding my money at least. I was lucky enough to get into a recommended Firestone not long after the other shop called and said they refused to help. Here are the new numbers. No veer/pull at all. I’ll let the numbers settle some arguments in this thread. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Thank you for the update.

Now I want to understand the cause and effect here... you use veer and pull to describe the steering. How much pull did it have, was it a light pull or a strong tug? If you released the wheel from straight did the truck want to drive into the ditch quickly or slowly?

I see that increasing caster on the right side has corrected the issue, also they adjusted toe.

 

The truck, when my hand was removed from the steering wheel, would begin slowly to veer to the right and then more abruptly start to head towards the ditch. I would characterize as somewhere between a pull and a veer. You could feel resistance in the steering wheel as you held it straight, more so on a right leaning road crown. It also didn’t help much to be on a left leaning crown, it would eventually begin to go right, although at a slower pace.