Alignment Advice

My numbers are lower front and rear except for toe? Positive is toe in, right? Tracks good and I run the tires at 30# front and rear running light. I still plan to go up one tire size when the time comes.

 

What is your camber and toe set at? Recommended tire pressure for these trucks is 32 psi.

With those Caster #'s your truck should handle good given the Camber and toe is correct. I'm thinking that your toe might be off?

 

Camber and toe are set to spec, see my alignment printout above. I have C-rated Revos, LT tires need higher pressure.

 

I just got done taking care of the same issue. Went to a 3" lift truck was wandering all over. Installed new UCAs and had the truck aligned. First shop completely fucked up my alignment. I ended up having a horrible pull to the right, drove like shit. It drove better before I took it in. I was able to find a second shop that does specialty/custom alignments. Truck drives perfect now. I talked with another user on here that had to have his truck aligned 8 times to get it right. Not many good alignment techs out there in my opinion. If you find one that trully knows how to align a vehicle treat him right.

 

Can you give the values that your truck was aligned to. And what UCA did you use?

 

Didn't like the tires at 32/34, trying the other direction now, fronts at 44, rears at 40. Max pressure on the LT Revos is 50psi.

 

I don't think it's been mentioned yet..but the chalk line PSI test insted of guessing might be a bit more efficient...

Draw a chalk like across the the tire and drive ~100yds see how the line wears and adjust the tire pressure from there. It'll give your tire the correct footprint which will lead to even wear across the tire and should allow you to set the alignment from there and keep your tires in good shape.

 

Right, plan to do so later today if possible, right now just seeing how different pressures affect the way it handles and the directional stability.

 

::nods:: Good luck!!

 

I am running Camburg Ball-Joint UCAs. Here is my alignment numbers:

 

Thanks for all the info everyone, very helpful in getting this figured out. I'm not giving up until I find the right combo of tire pressure and alignment specs!

 

Your Toe and your camber isn't very good.

You might need UCA's.

They may have gotten your Caster to what you requested, but in doing so, you lost the other readings.

The IFS when you change one thing it affects the others. So to get all your alignment specs correct, you may need UCA's.

Your toe on both sides need to be the same. slightly Toe-in would be better.

And your Camber needs to be 0* or slightly neg. also.

Then the Caster of 2.4* will work great!

But all these things need to work together.

Good Luck!

 

Well, 44/40 was brutal. Encouraging results from 38 all the way around, firm and responsive without being harsh, may have a winner!

 

Agreed, we'll see what the next alignment can do.

 

Well how was the ride as far as the new shocks compared to stock, as you were going bar ditch to ditch?

 

The ride is great, considerably better than the stock shocks IMO. Very firm and well dampened without being harsh or intrusive. No more bouncing and jiggling over bumps.

 

That’s good, and also a reason that I didn't go to the completely level look. Most have stated that the ride got quite a bit firmer with the front set at the 1.75" and 2.5" lift settings on the 5100's. Maybe I'm just used to these trucks as I'm on my 4th, but they never have driven as nice as any of my wife's cars. By this I mean take a 1000 mile trip in a car versus a truck and you’re going to be ragged by the end in the truck?? IMO.

 

Well it is a truck as someone else pointed out.

 

I am getting my TSB performed next week hopefully on the rear springs. This will give me a chance to really question the dealer on the alignment. They installed the lift/leveling kit before I purchased the truck. I have been pricing UCA's in case I have to go that route and they are not cheap! Anybody have a recommendation for the best price on UCA's? And again I appreciate all who have offered advice.

 

I'm going to try and get a new alignment this afternoon, my taxi business buys all its fleet parts from a local Ford dealer and they have a very good alignment tech, the service manager will work with me and let me watch so I'm going to give them a shot.

I'll post up specs and driving results as soon as I have them. Going to try and max out the Caster as close to 2.8* as we can get it, set Camber perfectly to 0*, and set Toe to maximum positive spec of +.07* toe in. Caster and Toe determine a vehicle's directional stability, maxing both of those adjustments should hopefully take care of my wandering problem. Driving to work this morning with the tires set at 38 front and rear, will take the long way on the freeway and make sure that feels as good as it did last night and also will check them with the chalk test in my office parking lot.

More to come...