2020 tacoma trd offroad with : 4runner trd pro 265 70 17 drifting right

hello all
purchased my tacoma 4 days ago. i live in southern california..
purchased trd pro wheels from tustin toyota and slapped some 265 70 17 wildpeaks on. noticed after driving it - it would drift to the right.

figured i would get an alignment. which i did.. still pulls /. drifts to the right.

here are my results... anyone able to chime in on what i should do?

ive read in other posts about having the alignment shop adjust the left caster?

 

Wrote a whole thing out before I realized you said T4R wheels and wildpeaks. Alignment is on point (toe doesn't cause pull as it's self-neutralizing) so it's likely radial pull (i.e. defective tire).

Swap your front wheels to see if the pull starts going the other way. If so, go to the dealership and have them validate a radial pull. They'll warranty the tire and you'll be good to go.

The caster thing is for stability, not a pull. More caster is more stable at speed and these trucks like being on the higher side of the spec (especially with lift). There's nothing on that sheet that will cause anything resembling a pull.

 

Thanks for the help. I bought my tires at America's tire aka discount tire. I am going to go there in the morning and have them swap the tires and if it pulls left then I will have them replace that tire.

Thanks

 

His rear cross camber will.

Does it drift more on certain stretches of road? Are those roads crowned?

Is your tire pressure equal side-to-side?

 

tire pressure is 35 all around - per the digital screen as well as my manual reader. the truck pulls right even when i hold the steering wheel straight as an arrow. on the highway it gets even worse due to going 65+ . our roads arent too crowned out here in california especially in orange county from what i can tell.

also i bought the truck 3 days ago and with the stockers no pull...so i am guessing its a bad tire. i dont think the rim would be bad as they are direct from toyota and i am sure they have a stringent pass rate.

 

thanks ronzio. i do think i may have a bad tire just because it gets worse as i drive faster. and i can also hold the steering wheel straight as an arrow and it will drift right as well.

 

That isn’t remotely close to what is needed for rear cross camber to make a difference and even if it did, it would push the axle right which would push the truck left, not right.

if you have a camber issue causing a pull in a solid rear axle, you have bigger problems than a pull.

 

Should probably have validated this but when you mean straight, do you mean manually force it to what appears straight to your eye? When measuring a drift on alignment, the technique is to allow the truck to naturally center itself without steering input (in which the wheel might not be perfectly straight) and then provide minor corrections to the drift to see if it keeps trending towards that side.

if you’re forcing it straight, it might just have slight toe issue because while toe doesn’t cause a pull, it can’t self correct if you’re forcing the wheel.

 

In your opinion, what is enough to cause a pull? I've always heard 0.5...he's at 0.7.

"Bigger issues" like a bent axle or out of square axle?

 

General rule of thumb on rear camber/caster is that it's either (1) an IFS system that is adjustable and has slipped, or (2) something is bent. #1 doesn't apply to a live axle because the hubs are square to the axle itself.

In the rear there is much more leeway on camber and caster because it's a trailing axle. Basically any pull from the rear has to overcome the inertia of the vehicle trying to move forward because the tires are in a fixed orientation relative to the frame. A pull in the front is directly impacting the steering system because there is a pivot point for the wheels so they will appear much earlier.

I did thousands of alignments when I was wrenching and I have never seen a leaf-sprung axle with enough camber to cause a pull that wasn't visually damaged in some way. Any pull from the rear otherwise was thrust angle issues where the axle wasn't square to the frame. Even on IFS vehicles, it's typically going to be at least a full degree of cross camber before you have a chance of feeling it but it still depends on other factors. I've seen nearly two degrees on the 2000's era Corolla/Matrix that didn't have issues with their trailing arm rear axle.

Caster pulls toward negative so if you have -0.6 left and -0.1 right like OP, you have a -0.5 push from the left which will push the axle right. The rear works like a forklift where moving the rear axle right will push the truck towards a left turn. This is the opposite of the issue OP is having so there's no way this is the cause.

 

hello velo geek - when i let go of the wheel it will pull right. if i hold the steering wheel it will still pull right. here is a video of me letting go of the steering wheel this morning for reference.

for refence this is a brand new tacoma: 200 miles on it

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EjYYaNVHoE7qdNsW6

i had discount tire cross rotate the front two tires and rebalance : no improvement
i had discount tire rotate front to back : no improvement

discount tire is going to try some BFG k02s this afternoon when delivered : most likely wont fix the problem but worth a try..

will have to call toyotoa next...

 

That's a weird one then. Center lane on a CA freeway is generally dead nuts level and where we used to check and that pull is super hard from the video. The alignment sheet looks good but those are sadly easily fudged if the tech wants to. Toyota will likely want to charge you because you swapped tires but if moving tires didn't work and pressure is all the same, it has to be something in the suspension.