Tell me about my alignment

I swapped out the suspension on my 2012 baja with some Fox coilovers and an AllPro UCA. My hub to fender is now 23" up front and the AllPro expos bring the rear to 24". Now toss on some KM2 255/85r16's on ATX Mojaves and go get it aligned.

Here's what happened:

Code:

         Left    Right
Camber: 0.0      -0.3
Caster: 3.4       3.6     
   Toe: 0.08      0.09

Cross Camber:  0.3
Cross Caster: -0.1
Total Toe:     0.17

That was the best they could do because the cam bolts in the LCAs had seized. The truck rode pretty well but with a noticeable pull to the right and some rubbing of the passenger side tire on the inner fender well and cab mount when turning hard right (mud flaps removed of course).

Fast forward to today with some new cam bolts and another alignment:

Code:

        Left    Right
Camber: -0.6      -0.9
Caster:  4.1       4.7     
   Toe:  0.06      0.06

Cross Camber:  0.3
Cross Caster: -0.7
Total Toe:     0.12

The numbers sure look worse to me but that's why I'm posting. The truck rides great. There's no pulling and no rubbing (though I havent done any flexing) like before. Caster feels fine and I suspect it's why the rubbing is gone. Toe is close enough. But what about the camber... it's out of spec by a bit and both cross camber and cross caster seem a bit high. Should I be happy with these numbers? Will my tires be happy with them?

Thanks!

 

Holy mother of caster! lol

Caster might be a little much, but if you're happy with the ride, it's not hurting anything. The added clearance helps. I run 3.7 and 4. From what I read, most try for around 3 with aftermarket UCAs.

The camber looks a touch low IMO. I prefer a little positive than negative. Toe could be a little closer to zero.

 

Yeah, the 4.7 does seem a bit extreme. I asked for 3.5 or so but also mentioned the rubbing. The tech told me that he maxed out the caster to give me more clearance. What I dont get is why he didnt match the left and the right. I mean if 4.1 is enough for the left why not the right too? Same with the camber. Things would look pretty good if the right matched the left. But, it does ride nice. If it's not going to tear through the tires, I'm happy.

 

Having a little more caster on the right side compensates for the crown in the road. If they were the same, the truck would drift to the right, since the road slants to the right. Although having a .6 difference is a bit on the high side IMO.

 

Why positive camber?

 

Several of my dad's techs that ran the alignment machine were previously Toyota techs. They told me Tacomas like a little positive camber.

The guy I have do my alignments now (since my dad retired) told me the same thing. He's an older guy who's owned his front end shop for about 30 years. He explained having a little positive camber will keep tire wear even and helps a little with handling. I asked him why zero wouldn't be better, since it seemed to me like it would. He said it's not that simple and has to do with the way Toyota designed the suspension. As the suspension travels up and down, the tire's contact to the road constantly changes. He said factory spec is mostly in the positive range, not negative for a reason. I didn't ask for a full explanation. I trust he knows what he's talking about. I've known him for a long time.

I'm not expert in this area, just going off what I've been told by guys who I believe are. I've had even tire wear on all sets of tires I've had on my '05. My '14 only has 10k on it, so too soon to tell on this truck, but I expect similar results. Most of my friends who have lifted Tacomas take their Tacomas to him too . They've also had good results with handling and even tire wear. He's aligned our trucks with around .2 - .25 positive camber.

 

Huh, never would have thought that. I've always had a much better result from negative camber, but maybe it's just driving style or roads/ road conditions.

 

Yeah, it seems to me cornering would be better with negative camber for sure, especially off-road. I would think that would come at a cost of uneven tire wear, but I've never ran with negative camber, so I don't know if that's the case. He knows that 90% of my driving is on pavement. Perhaps that's part of his reasoning for my alignment numbers.