Alignment or just shit roads?

Had an alignment job done when I put my KO2s on a week back and I've been paying real close attention to how the truck handles on straights to make sure I got my money's worth in the alignment job.

I let go of the wheel at moderate speeds on single-lane roads and the truck drifts right sometimes and left other times but it seems to be in the direction of how the road is sloped (the crown of the road I believe). The roads are somewhat bumpy and curvy in my area in that you need to make constant corrections so letting go of the wheel for an extend period is not advised.

I tried a longer flat stretch at higher speeds and only held the steering wheel firmly straight to adjust for road imperfections and the truck would go straight until the road started to a bend a little.

Alignment seems okay? Never drifts on really flat stretches/parking lots, no vibration in the steering, steering wheel position is normal when going straight.

 

The aggressive pattern and the sidewall tread that extends up will pull the truck from one side or the other, especially on pavement. Not so much on dirt.

I’ve run these on my previous truck and I experienced this, sometimes they pulled hard on a heavily crowned paved road.

They’re a softer tire, so they’ll wear more on pavement, at least the ones I had several years ago. Yours are a newer model so they may have changed the tread compound.

 

I always noticed a bit of drifting with the stock highway tires but it seems to be a bit accentuated with the KO2s. The react more to pot holes and cracks too but what you're saying is a good explanation.

 

If you ever do the Baja 1000 (all dirt) I hear they’re the tire of choice!

 

What size, load rating and psi?

 

lol so it says on the sidewalls.

 

265/70/17, C load, 34 psi.

 

Sounds like road crown to me

 

Try 37 psi.

 

37 cold? I thought I was already pushing it by going over Toyota's recommended pressure. Any disadvantages by going up to 37?

 

Maybe a little harsher.

The stock tire placard requires whatever PSI is required to attain a 2,149-2,172 lb load rating from a P-metric or ISO/ETRTO-metric tire.
The SR, SR5,and Sport use a P-metric; the Offroad uses a ISO/ETRO metric

SR/SR5-P245/75/16 109SL @ 32psi=2,172 lb
Offroad-265/70/16 112SL @ 30psi=2,149 lb
Sport-P265/65/17 110SL @ 29psi=2,149 lb, 1 psi=37 lbs load capacity

If you go to an LT the load requirement is reduced by a factor of 1.1.
2,149/1.1=1,954 lbs.

A LT/265/70/17 @ 37 psi has a load capacity of 1,964 lbs. 1 psi=37 lbs load capacity.

Basically, the reduction in load capacity is equal to running your stock tires at 26 psi.

 

working on this

 

Post the data sheet. We can see if it's a good alignment or not.

 

thanks attached the data sheet

 

Why on earth would a driver ever take his or her hands off the steering wheel?

Well, except to text or apply makeup...

 

any comment on my data sheet?

 

Speaking as a former tech, it's how you test for drift due to small alignments issues and to let the wheel settle to verify toe after an annoying customer bitches about their wheel not being straight all the time (hint: it's because roads are crowned).

 

The tough part is when you can't tell if slight drifting is due to alignment or road crown. I have concluded it must be road crown as it has drifted both left and right as well as not drifting on very flat roads.

 

Toe will not cause a drift but assuming they did steer ahead before recording numbers, the difference left/right is damn close to what I'd do to compensate for road crown. You don't generally set equal, you set left side slightly negative of right. Camber and caster are close to the opposing side and are opposing each other right now so those differences mean nothing. Rear toe/thrust shows your axle is slightly left in front of right (would pull left) but that's nowhere near what you'd need to get a pull out of it.

Basically, I think the alignment is mostly good and you're probably just getting issues related to road crown.

 

hmm ok thanks for the comments.
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