After alignment with my new LR UCA's, are my numbers right???

The guy that installed my LR UCA'S and aligned my truck had a hard time when it came to figuring out where to set them at. After much adjustment from the bottom UCA, and trial and error with the top, he set the pin at 0 degrees and tweaked the top nut around by sliding it until it was correct. The top nut sits about half way between the adjustable slot on top. Here are my numbers that came with the print out.

Left Right
Camber: -.03 0.2
Caster: 2.0 2.3
Toe: .01 .01

it also has cross camber and caster numbers too if needed


Do these numbers seem right????

 

Left Right
Camber: -.03 0.2
Caster: 2.0 2.3
Toe: .01 .01

thats easier to read

 

That looks pretty spot on! How does it feel?

 

The only driving I have done so far is in the snow with high winds, I have yet to feel a difference yet

 

just installed the LR UCAs and got my alignment. my numbers are just about the same as yours except for my right caster. gona be taking it to a diff shop next time. after asking them a few questions and as long as it took them to do it and with the caster still off on the right it became apparent that it was too far over their heads

 

yeah it took the guy that did mine about 6 hours to do, it was absurd. Where does your caster sit at and where did he set the nut at the top of the ball joint?

 

GEEZ!!! that is ridiculous, me and a buddy did mine 30 mins a side we even have the thing on time lapse to prove it and cuz it made a pretty cool vid. but then i took it to the tire shop to get an alignment and other than the 1.5 hr wait for it to be my turn the truck was off the rack and in a parking spot about 45mins ot an hr later and i forgot the numbers but i know they all were identical left and right and pretty much dead center in the range. i believe i would find a new shop to do work from now on if i were you, afteral the instructions on the lr uca's tell you how to set them up when installing them.

 

LOL. Where did you go?

 

some shop in reno, they had a brand new 30,000 dollar alignment machine but the guy didn't understand where the plate on top should have been set at. I think he ended up setting it at 0. How are yours set?

 

Caster should be between 2.4 and 3.1 for a lifted Taco.

Before aligning, most start with position "D" on the BJ cams, pull them all the way outboard and then torque to 120 ft lbs.
Sounds like this guy struggled a bit.

 

yeah i am beginning to think i should go have it re-done at different shop

 

what shop did you take it to? Im in the reno tahoe area as well

 

I had my trusted tire shop do my alignment after I installed my LR UCA's with the balljoint in the neutral setting. I asked for specific numbers and it only took the guy an hour to get these (I was surprised):

camber: 0, 0
toe: 0, 0
caster: 2.5, 2.5

I have a little bumpsteer but it drives perfect on the highway.

 

it was discount tire and break. It was cheap

 

This is ideal.

You want toe and camber to be close to zero as possible. And you want the caster to be at least 2.4º or greater.

 

what do you mean that you have bumpsteer? does it effect your ride a lot and how could you have fixed it in the alignment

 

Heres my post from the other thread.

Toe ~0* (out of spec toe can cause adverse handling and the scuffing and dragging or pushing of tires across pavement, you want both your tires straight ahead and parallel to each other, lifting should not affect this)

Camber would depend on your application mostly you want 0* this puts the tire as about as close to 90* to the road as possible. Some go fast guys may want a little negative camber to help with cornering. /-----\

Caster you want as much as you can squeeze out of these guys IMO, I think about 3* is a good number. This will dictate how your truck handles, too little caster and your truck will feel like it's 'floating' and following grooves and ruts in the road, wandering etc... too much and it makes it more difficult to turn. I'm of the opinion that you'll never seen enough caster on these trucks to make it an issue.

Since caster and camber are both adjusted via the cams at the LCA and the UCA is fixed there is only so much adjustment possible. When you lift you basically get positive camber and so to bring that camber down you have to take a hit in your caster angles.

If you were looking at your truck after you lifted it you might notice the positive camber which would look like this from the front. \-----/

This gives you decreased contact with the road way and wears your tires on the outside unevenly which severely shortens their life.

So like I said to bring them back down to as close to 0* as possible |-----| you have to take a hit at caster making it lower, this causes your truck to wander and track poorly. I could only get 1* with stock UCAs and 884 coils. With about .5 camber.

So when you add LR UCAs you get much greater adjustability because now we can add or remove both caster and camber at the UCA and LCA.

This means we can get ideal alignment numbers if we know how to set up the UCAs.

The stock specs are as follows: (note that they may not be the most ideal)

Camber -0.3* 1.2*
Caster 1.3* 2.8*
Toe -1/64" 1/32"

Just to re-iterate the ideal specs IMO are:
Camber 0*
Caster 2.5 - 3
Toe 0

and they should be easily attainable with these UCAs, just ask to set them to set camber and toe at 0 and then get caster as close to 3 as possible. Should drive great.







In Reno go see JT at Les Schwab on Kieztke and tell him Max with the silver Tacoma sent you. He should be able to set you straight if you have your BJs set straight out and pull the ball joint to the end of the slot away from the center of the truck. Though I think your numbers look fine (but not perfect). Add a degree of caster at the UCA if you don't like how it drives.

 

Bumpsteer is a sacrifice of tracking with caster adjustment. The higher your caster is, the better the vehicle will want to track in a straight line, especially at highway speeds. But also the higher your caster is, the more bumpsteer you will have, where your vehicle wants to pull to the right when you hit a bump with the right tire, and to the left when you hit a bump with the left tire.

My previous caster settings were 0.6 and .07. I had zero bumpsteer, but the vehicle wanted to wander all over the place on the highway.

My truck drives perfect on the highway with 2.5 caster. I don't mind a little bumpsteer on rough city streets. Its really not that bad and the high caster helps the steering straighten up quicker.