Alignment, Caster, Clearance, and Driving Report with Light Racing UCAs

reread a couple of times. What's your point?

 

Unless I am misunderstanding

Max the eccentrics
Set your UCA BJ
Do your fine tune with the cams at the bottom
Set Camber at the upper nut

 

Yeah basically they're not gonna want to touch the UCA. You might get them to adjust camber from the top, and that's what you want.

You'll need to set your UCAs at home.

Have them rotate the cams for max caster both sides even though. Then ask them to dial in camber using the slot on the UCA. If they can't get it exactly zero they may have to play with the LCA cams a bit.

This isn't something they encounter everyday as most people don't even specify what kind of stock numbers they want.

 

Put my UCA's in last night. Sitting at Firestone waiting on the alignment. Tech says he does alot of lifted trucks. Will see.

 

great thread , thanks.

 

Here's my numbers. Not ideal caster from what i've read here, but it feels good. I go back for new tires in a month or so. Gotta have a talk with the tech. They didnt touch the UCA's as far as i can tell. I set the ball joint neutral with the SPC logo facing tire and tightened it in the middle of the slot. All the way outbaord had the camber way off. idk

before
left right
.9 camber -0.1
1.8 caster 2.1
-0.86 toe -0.91


after
left right
1.0 camber -0.2
1.8 caster 2.1
.02 toe 0.0

 

I would be interested to hear an experienced opinion here, but to me the imbalance in your camber is pronounced

 

IMO

Camber is off... a degree isn't a lot but still they ought to be able to get you to 0* or extremely close. However, I do believe it's still in spec according to Toyota. I just wouldn't be happy as I want my alignment ideal and that why I bought the LR UCAs. It's probably okay though, all things considered. If your truck begins to pull, I'd look here. I believe this set up will make your truck pull to the right if it does pull.

Caster is okay, IMO ideally you'd have them set even but you're off .3 degrees so it's not much and some to subscribe to the idea of slight more caster on the right side to counter road crown so I'd be happy with your Caster numbers.

Toe is fine.


Just my .02

 

Not impressed by camber measurements.

And -.2 is out of spec. IIRC.

Looks like the fixed your toe and didn't even touch anything else.

 

An alignment sheet from Les Schwab shows specs as -.3 - 1.2 camber and 1.3 - 2.8 caster.

But yeah now that bjmoose mentioned it, it does look like they fixed your toe and touched nothing else. Which is kinda lame. Especially as you're at the limits of being in spec with camber.

 

Thanks for the input guys. They didnt touch the UCA's. Once they see how easy they are to adjust, maybe they wont be intimidated. I got the lifetime alignment at Firestone and when I went there i had forgotten the install sheet to give to the tech. When i go back for sneakers next month, i'll try to explain a little to the tech and show him the spec sheet. I feel a little funny trying to tell these guys their business. Don't want to insult there intelligence. lol. On another note, any good tech should be open to learning about something he's not too familiar with. I looked at my before and after spec sheet again, and it says on top : Toyota Truck and SUV : 4x2 : 2009-10 : PreRunner Access Cab V6 Auto Trans : with P265/65/17 Tire

Not sure if it makes a difference, but my truck is 09 double cab, 4x4, with 265/70/17

 

It is always an adventure with firestone. I too went with their lifetime alignment service a couple of years ago and maybe its a good thing. Each time I've had it done, it has required a return trip to get it done correctly.

Most recently was last week after installing camburg UCAs. The numbers on the spec sheet are decent enough but it just doesn't feel right at highway speeds.

These are my sentiments exactly.

 

Lots of good info, great thread.

 

Had Firestone do a re-check yesterday. I had to convince the tech that he could achieve a higher caster number because of the Camburg UCAs and still maintain good toe and camber.

Here are the final numbers.

Before:

Left Right
0.09 Camber -0.06
2.11 Caster 2.09
-0.01 Toe 0.03

After:

Left Right
-0.09 Camber -0.11
2.96 Caster 3.02
0.01 Toe 0.02

So far it feels much better though I've yet to get it out on the highway.

 

I too am about to expirience the before and after, also I will be doing what you did to keep good clearances.

 

Great info here!! Thank you everyone that has contributed!

I'm getting LR UCA's any day now..ordered last week. I have been fighting a wandering truck for way too long and it is getting old. Even fighting a cross wind has been an ordeal!

 

How do these trucks drive if the caster is set too high? What caster setting is considered too high on these? After Les Schwab did an alignment I'm at 1.9 and 2.3 and now the truck is a little skittish on the freeway. These settings must be too low so now I'm thinking of increasing it but don't want to go too high.

 

After my lift, I was running at about 1* and hated it. I'm running 3.2* now; huge improvement and no complaints.

 

I'm about to install LR UCA's with toytec ULK and dakar leaf packs $$

I want to run 2.5" lift in the front....is any running same setup and if so what are your UCA's set to and what were your final alignment numbers?

 

IMO you'll never have enough adjustability to get to the point where you have too much caster. Just have them set it as high as they can without affecting camber.

Also IMO it's not worth it to try and bump caster on the passenger side to counter road crown, just set it even and deal with whatever road you're on at the time.