Truck wanders on freeway after lift and alignment

I do, but they weren't on a Tacoma. They were on a RAM 2500 4x4 diesel. Don't wanna hijacktthe thread. I'll find another place to post em up. Back on topic LOL

 

Its all the mall parking lots....

This one time Jasmine was behind the wheel while we were on one of the race courses in Johnson Valley and hit a huge hole..steering wheel ended up in the 10 o'clock position women drivers

 

he is right CA hwys suck balz!

Try the 405 or 110, 91, 605...Fuck it they all suck ass!

 

Right again! Hahaha & most of them are driving the prius...

 

Yup theres no arguing with that haha

 

True story

 

I can! Hahaha there fugly, slow, handle like shit & 99% of the ppl that I see driving them look like they learned to drive at Disneyland, in other words drive like ass holes who don't realize the mirrors are there to look for other cars & not for looking at there stuck up selves. They drive like they think they own the road & there shit don't stink...end rant lol

 

Not surprised. The Prius has better weight-to-power ratio than a 4 cyl Tacoma. Plus the electric motor torque is instant.

 

Ask the mechanic to dial in more caster (> 2.5 deg like Chris said). More caster = better on-center tracking.

Toe angle of -0.01 deg works out to 0.003" runout over 16" (diameter of the rim), which is within the machining tolerance of your rims. Your toe is basically 0. If more precision is needed (say, race car), you would need to remove the wheel and bolt on a jig plate:

 

cool guys, thanks for all the input! i'm going to be calling up the specialized alignment shop in the morning to set up an appointment.

i didn't have high hopes for the les schwab alignment... mainly i just wanted at least some sort of alignment on there before i headed up to the mountains for some snowboarding that weekend after installing the lift. i also drive 50 miles/day RT for work, so...

so final question: with a simple 3" OME lift and aftermarket Camburg UCAs should there be any problem with getting those 0 Toe, 0 Camber, 2.4+ Caster alignment specs or was the Les Schwab tech just half-assing it?

 

My 2008 access cab 4x4 wanders quite often, I had a 79 f250 with 40" tires and it compares to that! This truck I bought 6 months ago, I had all the wheels balanced and an alignment checked, they said its good and nothing needs to be done. I have been to 2 shops now, they both did test drives and said nothing is wrong....quick tests though....This may sound funny but I can't take my eyes off the road at all or I am wandering off somewhere easily! This is a stock truck as far as I can tell! No accidents recorded etc. Is there something else I can do to fix the wandering issue? Its winter and I have no garage to play in, was thinking of checking for play everywhere, it has 60,000 KM on it now. I guess when spring comes I can check it all out but thought maybe these certain models have an issue with a part wearing out every 30,000km or so(like rear axle to spring mounting hardware for example). I had a car with this issue with its front hub bearings assembly lol. Thanks!

 

Manufacturer specs for alignment of your truck are:

Camber - 0.1* +/- 0.75*
Caster - 2.0* +/- 0.75*
SAI angle - 0.5* or less
Toe - 0.12* +/- 0.2*

This is changed dependent on several things such as tire size. Since your tire size is not listed in factory specs, I used the tallest tire listed. Also things such as SAI angle, which is not shown in your printout that I saw, can affect road wandering. Lift angle will change wander as well. Lift angle is the change from factory "rake". If you level a truck, this brings the front of the truck up. by doing this you increase the amount of air that goes under the truck, which at higher speeds can cause a slight "lift" allowing the vehicle to wander somewhat. I mention all of this just so that all of the information is out there. Not everyone has road wander, and as mentioned, road condition will GREATLY affect it as well. Personally if I had your truck on my alignment rack I would have dialed you in as:
Caster - 2.4*
Camber - .1* on left, .15* on right
SAI is not adjustable
Toe - .4* left .4* right, total toe .8*

Assuming you still had a slight stance that was nose-down. If your stance was nose high, and you had oversized tires and a large lift, I would be dialing in a bit of neg camber, and rack the caster up to max allowable of 2.75*

 

The tires are 265 70 r16. I imagine thats stock, everything else is. When my budget allows this spring I will have an alignment shop check it out and suggest the specs you showed me...hopefully he will agree. The roads don't matter as it does it everywhere pretty much worse at higher speeds.

Thanks for the tips!

 

The wandering is all in the lack of caster. under 2 is crap for these trucks. If you like a tight steering have them set it around 2.8. Drives great, straight, and still corners pretty tight. That's why you bought the uca's to fix the lack of caster from the lift. Take it back and tell him what you want.

 

You can't just blanket the wander as only with caster. As mentioned before there are a LOT of things that can cause wander. Though I think they should have put it at a bit more caster than they did. Remember also that when you increase caster you increase steering effort at higher speeds. you need to find the right balance.

 

are you talking to me or undersc0re (or both of us!)?

 

Probably me and you. Yes, caster is not the only thing that can cause that. Loose steering components and the wider tires will also want to wander. The more the caster the tougher the steering. As said before you will need to have the tech find a sweet spot that you like.

 

gotcha... it's starting to click now. i've got an appointment with a pretty well-recommended alignment shop for friday afternoon. i'll see how this pans out.