Alignment specs after lift

OK. I am putting my lift on Friday night and taking it in Saturday morning to get my tires installed and an alignment done. I have heard horror stories about alignment shops that dont know what they are doing when it comes to aligning an aftermarket vehicle. The problem is, I dont do alignments and I dont know what I need to be looking for out of the results, numbers wise. Can anybody give me some guidance on this?

The vehicle is a 16 TRDOR and I am installing the JBA UCAS with Kings on all four corners. Shooting for the 2.5" range on lift. Tires will be KM3s which is not relevant to the question, but Im pretty damn excited about them so I thought Id share.

Thanks all!

 

Tire size is somewhat relevant to your question because you might rub if the tires are larger than stock especially if you're "only" going 2.5". I'm not dogging your lift, but obviously the higher the lift, the more clearance you'd get for wheels even if in small increments.

People get their panties in a bunch about alignment numbers. With the "proper" alignment, you can have larger tires and not rub. Otherwise you can cut, CMC, pinch weld, etc... TBH, I don't get too concerned for my alignment numbers. As long as the truck tracks straight and the tires wear even, then I'm a happy camper.

That being said, you'll probably want to max out the caster (over 3* pushes your wheels/tire forward away from the cab mount and firewall) and keep your camber and toe close to 0*. Just my recommendations from personal experience.

 

Tire size or really the true spec of the tire which I’m assuming you want 285s and the wheel specs determine if you’ll run in certain area and what caster you need to set.

But like the post before 2.5-3 caster should be enough. Camber and toe close to 0 as possible.

 

I am going with the 285/75/16 and they are on 16x8 wheel with I think 0 offset. They are the Micky Thompson Sidebiter IIs if anyone is more familiar. I have already done the CMC a short while back in anticipation of the lift coming. I have not yet trimmed all the fender plastic back yet just because I wanted to see how much trimming needed to happen in order to clear them. I am going from 265/75/16 with the same wheels and had no issues with rubbing until I added a shit load of armor and a winch and whatnot which dropped my front end down a bit more than stock. I expect I will actually gain closer to 3.5-4" from my current stance, but compared to stock I am guess about 2.5".

 

Hope you grabbed some 650lb or 700lb coils with your Kings.

You should be fine as long as you listen to our alignment numbers. I’m 16x8 with 0os and with a 2” lift. Caster is at 2.9, camber is at 0, my toe is like 0.1. I Also have a cmc with 285s, you might has well take a hammer and handle your pinch weld.

Good luck

 

Yeah I fully expect to have to do some pinch weld bashing. Just didnt want to go at it blind not knowing how/where the tires would sit. I appreciate your help!

 

Get a good alignment and a CMC/trimming of anything isn’t necessary with 285s.
I’m on 285/75/16 wheels are 4.5” BS 0 offset.

 

The ideal specs remain the same. The challenge is getting back to those specs when you change suspension components. That is the reason for aftermarket control arms which is where you will achieve your camber and caster angle. Toe is set from your tie rods. Unless going way extreme, you should be fine with those. The challenge that you will run into is that your modifications will change the position and sweep of your tires which will undoubtedly be larger and potentially further out of wheel wells that could cause them to rub. The way caster is adjusted is changing the position of the upper and lower ball joints. This can move a tire further back causing it to rub. The alignment tech is faced with two options. Either he adjusts to spec and it rubs or he adjusts it to not rub and your alignment is out of spec. This is of course if you haven't done your homework to make sure that all your components will allow for proper alignment without rubbing. It requires a lot of trial and error that hopefully has been done by someone else so you are not left guessing when you get it on the rack. That is the #1 reason that shops hate working on lifted trucks. There is way too much that can go wrong and they don't want to be the one dealing with a problem that isn't of their own creation.