The Coil Rear Suspension...

I really like the idea of the independent coil-spring rear suspension on the upcoming Tacoma. Like most drivers, I'm on-asphalt 95% of the time, so the ride quality improvement is appreciated.

I noticed the other day the new Tundra has a coil spring rear suspension as well. It caught my eye because of the exaggerated camber on the rear tires!

I hate that look from the rear; you see it often in Honda CRV's, Accords, other makes as well. The rear suspension giving up too-much travel, with the rear tires angled-out on the bottom, sometimes so bad it appears something on the suspension is broken!

The back tires running at these lean angles would have to wear them prematurely on the inside edges.

So, wonder how the new Tacoma will manage the potential rear camber fiasco?

ToolCat

 

there shouldn't be any camber on the rear. its a live axle with coil springs. so there is no way to have any camber. if it had independent rear suspension, then yes, camber could be an issue then

 

The Tacoma and the Tundra do not have independent suspension. They have live axles.

The Tacoma and the Tundra do not have camber on the rear hubs.

Methinks your eyes were playing tricks on you.

Jeff

 

As others have noted, you won't be seeing any negative camber on a solid axle Tacoma. But even if there was independent rear suspension with adjustable camber, just having negative camber dialed into your suspension has nothing to do with being at the travel limits of said suspension. I think you're assuming that the only way to get negative camber is by weighing down the rear end of the vehicle but that's not true. And moderate amounts of negative camber just do not wear the tires adversely. Part of the reason for that is that going around corners loads the outside edges of the outer tires and that tends to even out the wear.

Yes, some of those lowered (mostly) Japanese boy racers are both slammed down as far as possible and have as much negative camber dialed in, but those cars are freaks and who cares. That's all just a fashion statement by people who know nothing about fashion.

The rear wheels on my '88 911 are at about -2.3-2.4 degrees negative camber, which is quite noticeable from the back, greatly improves the handling and does not wear the insides of the tires.

 

Somebody should tell the voiceover guy in the Toyota official YouTube videos...

 

There should be camber adjustment on the front only. On my solid axle front Land Cruiser there is a camber adjustment using bushings on the front trailing arms. Mostly I just need to adjust the toe in. Just need a tape measure and a wrench.

 

A stock 88 911 with -1.0 degree of negative camber will eventually wear the insides of the tires. If you truly have -2.3-2.4 degrees negative camber and don’t have inside tire wear you have some magic going on for sure.

 

On newer vehicles with ultra low profile and very wide tires - something like 345/30-19 or anything in that category I would agree with you but on older cars running much more compliant and taller sidewall tires(205/55 and 225/50's) having a moderate amount of negative camber just isn't an issue, plus, when you drive it hard in the corners it tends to put the tread very flat on the pavement. And on top of that many of us are running very soft tires that will wear out in 10K-15K miles anyway, the idea being you want the tires to wear out before they get hard and slick on a car that you don't put a lot of miles on.

 

I totally agree with you on the tire technology improvements and the fact that negative camber will help handling while cornering. As a Porsche technician for 40 years and having done thousands of alignments on all years of 911s I was simply stating that -2.3-2.4 degrees of negative camber WILL wear the insides of the tires. On a street car -1.5 degrees of negative camber is the maximum I would run on a 911 to preserve tire life while giving good handling while cornering. Track cars are a completely different discussion.