Zone Drop Bracket Lift

I am looking for advice and there is no where better than here. I have read tons of articles but no real conclusions have helped. I have a 2013 4wd with the zone db lift. I have had an alignment issue with it since day 1. I have 275/65/20 on 9" wide tires and the 4.5" the lift calls for. I tend to always have negative camber and have gone through 4 sets of tires in 100k miles. These tires aren't cheap!!! I have bought the JBA offroad UCA, the rough country strut (to remove the spacer), and can still never get it to stop wearing my tires. Is there a better bolt kit to give more travel? I am tired of throwing money at this issue and the truck is paid off. I know Tacos tend to last forever but this tire wearing has to stop. Luckily I have a lifetime alignment so they are free. Any suggestions?

 

Have you ever tried a different shop for alignments?

 

Yes and they all come back with negative camber.

 

Did you mean 9” wide wheels? Sounds stretched

 

Was the lift installed correctly, something bent, sounds weird. I have a rough country lift and whenever I get the alignment done it take a lot of fan dangling.

 

Do you have the print out for the alignment?

 

Yes 9” wide rims. It’s been like this since the install and I don’t do any hardcore off-roading. Mostly dirt roads. I have another alignment scheduled for tomorrow and I will post the print out.

 

My buddy has the same lift and he had a hell of a time wearing out tires for years. He eventually got it figured out. I think you need an off road shop who knows alignments.

 

I’ve had a R/C D/B lift for almost 3 years now with no issues. I’m with @Sharpish on this, find a good Off-Road shop to do your next alignment.

 

Cams are maxed.

 

The SPC UCA's can be adjusted to get the camber you want. That might be your best bet.

 

That's what I had to do. Although mine wasn't that bad before I got them. They couldn't get it exact.

 

The wide rims probably take away a little of the “give” of the sidewall and the degree of negative camber will both wear out the inside edge of the tires.

 

If you are running what is recommended something is wrong. I like the caster even though it is out of spec. A little extra positive is nice in a truck with oversized wheels.

If the camber is that far out it is probably wearing the inner edge of the tire off. Although it is not that far out probably accentuated with wider wheels. The lower a arm is too far out from the frame and/or the upper is too far in.

Could be that both are just built slightly out of spec but when you combine them they compound the problem.

If nothing looks off with the brackets you may be able to file your way out of this. Like get a good diamond file bit for a whizzy wheel and have it. Slot the shit out of the adjuster hole so you can move the eccentric in more.

I'm not saying this is something that should be done normally. I'm saying like the manufacturer told you to pound sand, you don't want to remove the lift for something else, and there is no other choice.

 

I'm on a 6" Fabtech kit, and i had camber problems until I got SPC uppers. I suspect the issues were caused by the fact that I'm using the 6" Fox coil overs from BDS on a Fabtech kit. Regardless, the SPC uppers solved it for me

 

It doesn't really matter what strut you are using. If you are at the ride height the kit calls for you could have a wooden 2x4 jammed in there. Doesn't matter, the kit should allow for alignment without any additional parts or fudging.

Now if you install a 4" drop kit and decide to space the strut or add a stiffer spring to go 6", now you may be out of the range of the adjusters. That would make sense needing to get another part like arms to get the numbers where you need to be.

Of course this is tough to say through a forum with pictures, but did the alignment technician favor getting the camp within spec using the eccentrics before trying to get Caster inspect?

Sure you want all of it to be in the green but you should definitely favor camber first as it is a tire wearing angle.

 

That was my issue. I couldn't achieve the ride height I needed on the BDS spec coil overs without a ridiculous amount of preload due to differences in how the actual drop brackets on the kits are designed. My options were to run too much preload, swap coils on the coil overs, run a spacer on top of the coil over, or get SPC arms. I went with the SPC arms.

 

Since I have already spent a lot on uppers, think these may help?

 

No those wont do anything. They're just replacements for your factory cam bolts