Alignment Problems - Caster Maxed Out

Go to a different shop. Firestone has their head buried so far up their ass they can't do anything right. Take a picture of your eccentric bolts and I'll tell you if they are maxed out or not.

You can also sacrafice a little bit of negative camber to get more positive caster. I actually prefer this, but I live in the mountains and always wear out the outsides of my tires first. I have my camber at about -1* so I can get over 3* on caster.

 

Looks heavily preloaded with the truck off the ground, but the ride height picture he had in the parking lot looks completely fine.

 

There's no way picture three is on the ground. Misalignment is maxed out and touching the uniball cup. My guess is it's just a picture he took before he dropped the truck on the ground and went for a spin to settle the suspension.

Preload itself won't affect alignment. It affects ride height...which affects alignment. But as I said earlier, if the second picture is actual ride height with that preload, it shouldn't matter with regards to alignment.

That said, too light of a spring rate, too short of a spring, and clapped out springs all impact overall ride height. I agree he's got way too many threads showing indicating the springs are shot or too light, but new springs won't change the alignment problem if he maintains that ride height.

I've had 4 different Firestone's attempt to align my truck. One guy...at one of the shops was worth his paycheck. The rest were morons. I gave up and got my lifetime alignment money back.

 

Springs (be it leaf springs or coils) are not buy once cry once. They are consumables. Since you bought them used, chances are they're well used, especially with that much preload. I'd suggest you step up to 14" long coils at 600, 650 or 700 lb spring rate (depending on what your future plans are for bumpers, skids, winch, sliders, etc).

Right after dropping it or that's how it sits all the time?

 

Yeah that's high. IIRC factory is 20" on a second gen. Take out a little less than 1/2" of preload and it will drop the truck about 1". You basically want that uniball bolt almost dead nuts in the middle of the cup at ride height.
I stand corrected on the ride height picture!

 

No. Driving style and terrain wears them evenly.