Best alignment specs for stock truck?

Does anybody have any insight into what alignment specs provide the best handling for a stock TRD Pro truck? I had a dealer do an alignment check on my truck and now it drives worse than it did before. I’d like to go in knowing what the best settings are. Stock except 265/75/16 tires.

Much thanks!

 

There is a range of what is considered in spec, and that's what causes the dealer alignment problems. You can be in spec and still have it drive like crap particularly when on side is at one end of the range and the other is at the other end.

I like to have approximately 1/4 degree negative camber on both sides. Then between 2.5 and 3 degrees of positive caster, but you want to have .3-.5 degrees less on the drivers side to counter road crown and let the alignment rack computer determine exactly where the toe should be.

I see that you're in Lo-Cal. The best alignment shop I've found in the greater L.A. area is Bagge and Sons in Culver City. These guys are the best I've found and will generally let you look at the numbers as they're working on it as long as you're not an ass and get in the way. They will tell you that having negative camber will wear the insides of your tires but that's not true, at least at this small amount and that you're okay with that. Hell, having -2.5 on the rear of my old 911 doesn't wear the insides so minus 1/4 will not.

 

Thank you for the awesome response.

 

i mostly agree with this but to address your "best alignment specs" which is subjective and configuration dependent, more info is required.

best handling... where? how is your truck setup? highway, around town, offroad? drive fast, mileage-focused, etc? what model, size, and load range of your tires? these are fundamental questions to get a real answer, otherwise it's just generalizations.

i made something of a life mission to setup my truck for my kind of highway handling but i'm not setup like most around here. and you said the dealer's alignment has it handling worse for you... can you elaborate and provide more info?

 

I’d like mine set up for smooth, stable, highway driving at 65mph plus. When I brought it in it had a slight pull to the right. Now it feels like I have to work harder, it’s less stable, to drive it and it slightly pulls to the left.

 

I agree with your comments. Yes, it's very subjective and since both my truck and the OP's truck are more or less stock, I figured it was a good starting place. It's taken quite some time to understand why you want to do one end of the alignment range vs. the other or even go outside of the accepted range. I've spend a LOT of time with the 911 on an alignment rack and that's a car where you can really feel every change you make.

It's also just as important to find a really great shop that knows how to align, that understands why you want to do this or that and can tell you. And it's just as important to have a shop that has a well maintained and leveled out rig, something of particular import here in southern Ca where we've very recently had a couple of very large earthquakes that can completely wreck the rack's calibration.

I've been going to Bagge and Sons for at least a couple of decades and the best thing is that you make an appointment and your alignment on a Tacoma will usually take about 20 minutes and it's done right. Hell, on my old '93 truck, I had it aligned about ten years ago and never had to touch it again before I sold it. I simply would never trust a dealer or a tire store chain to have the type of people who know how to do this right. That's where you get the kids fresh out of trade tech who absolutely will point to the monitor and say "it's in spec so it's fine." I also had a different shop here actually try to eyeball the toe adjustment to counter a pull after they aligned it. I ended up driving it the couple of blocks to Bagge and they just laughed at how far out everything was.

The great thing is that it's only a bit over a hundred bucks usually for an alignment, so it's not the end of world if you want to try something different.

 

so you're on road tires? load range C or SL? if that's the case you are simple and @Sasquatchian is giving solid info. factory specs are fine for you, the key is to have even settings left & right, and the dealers seem pretty likely to overlook the details. if you want to take the next step here, post up your final alignment specs from the last alignment you have now.

 

I’m on BFG KO2s. LT265-75-R16. I’ll get the specs next time for sure.

Thanks

 

Stock truck?? Stock Specs at a dealer that knows what they are doing.

G.

 

I don't want to sound like a broken record here but if you go to a dealer and the truck is within spec, it can still drive like shit, wear your tires prematurely and hurt your gas mileage. There's a RANGE of adjustment that they consider to be "in spec." You could have 1/4 degree negative camber on one side and half a degree positive on the other and it'd be in the green zone. You could have 2.5 degrees positive caster on the left and 2 degrees on the right and it'd be in spec and it would pull you right into the ditch, but, damn, it was in spec. These trucks, in there stock-ish form, really tend to drive quite nicely with a touch of negative camber on both sides, and that little bit actually helps to offset the wear you get on the outside from going around corners. That's why you want to be on one end of the camber range and not the other. There will be a big difference in how it drives if you're at the "right" end of the range rather than a haphazard - it's in the green zone - guess. Not saying that a dealer can't do this but am saying that it would be exceedingly rare.

 

exactly true and exactly the reason getting alignments at dealers usually is a fail. the green zone on an alignment sheet is for monkeys who can't read numbers.