Align immediatly after OME lift, or wait a few days?

*Maybe this should go under technical chat, if so, mod please move*

Allright, I ordered a front OME setup *880 coils and the 90004 shocks* for my truck last night. After it gets here and is installed, should I have it aligned immediately, or wait a few days for the springs to settle a little bit? It seems to me like waiting a while would be a good idea, but it could also have bad handling during that time as well. Will these springs settle enough to tweak out the alignment if I align immediately? Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Sam

 

I did mine immediately after new coils/struts and would recommend the same. I took mine for a quick drive (about 5 miles or so) retightened everything, then drove it the 15-20 miles to the shop for an alignment.

 

yeah driving to the shop already settling down the coils already.

 

Let it settle, i drove for 5 months with stock wheels with no alignment till I got it done.

 

After I installed my lift I took the truck for a spin everything was fine handling wise. Tightened things up when I got home. I had plans to install rims and tires later so I waited, after I got the rims and tires I ordered UCA's. Once those were all in and on I went ahead and got an alignment. No negative affects. This was over the course of 6 months or so.
If you see any thing that concerns you, your tires leaning or pointing, strange driving, then I would certainly go and get things checked immediately.

 

Probably a good idea to drive it a few days first. Couldn't really hurt, may help. Regarding this 'if it feels right' type of comment - mine all looked good, nothing noticable, drove decent. Took it in about a week later - it was quite a bit out of alignment. You should DEFINITELY get it aligned after a lift.

 

Good info, i will be doing mine soon, and i would have aligned it right away.

 

x2. Mine was way out of alignment and I only installed a slight lift (5100's at 0 with Eibachs for about 1.5" lift). When you drove it though, nothing 'felt' out of place. It didn't drift or pull but if I left it for months it would have just chewed up my tires.

 

I didn't mention it in my first post, but my alignment was certainly off after, no doubt about that, any time you take your suspension apart it will throw your alignment out. However it won't harm anything except your tires with prolonged usage.

 

As long as you don't have any vibes or hard pulls (safety first!), I'd give it about one week to drive it around and settle everything in so you only need to get one alignment. Go through some parking lots and roll over a few speed bumps at different speeds so you can flex those coils. That should do it.

 

Having your alignment out of spec affects how the truck handles and brakes. You're right that the only part that gets worn out are the tires but tires are expensive and it can be dangerous if the truck is pulling when braking.

 

All right, so maybe I'll wait a few days. I don't want to pay ~$75 dollars twice for an alignment. I just need to give the coils a good workout, like maybe hit the gravel bar etc. Thanks guys

 

Ok so my point is if you are competent enough to drive your vehicle then you can wait longer than those that aren't. Damn.

Yes a vehicle that is out of align is not as save and guaranteed as one that is aligned. But that also goes for a vehicle that is lifted or modified in any way, everything is affected when you change things out of stock specs. Keep in mind when you wheel you can knock your alignment out so you should check it frequently, just giving a heads up.


Drifter search around some shops have a lifetime alignment policy. It normally cost about $190-$200 bucks but its lifetime.

 

I knew what you meant, just clarifying so someone didn't just take it at face value. Sometimes common sense isn't so common ya know...

 

^ This is a very good point! Thanks man