Pay an expert. Alignment bliss achieved.

Isn't part of that castor?

 

Shoes and feets. How do they work.

 

I think you are just having fun with this now.

 

Might as well. I can explain it, but I can’t understand it for them.

 

Exactly and it is the initiating of the turn that Stun is claiming is caused by camber. We can test that simply with a bicycle and see that not to be the case. We can see that in the tractor with the two high camber wheels. You can test it with really any two fixed rotating wheels in parallel. Get a cart with fixed wheels lean it on the side and you will see that you go straight no matter the camber unless you have a force to initiate the turn.

 

I did not see anything in this thread about non-constant inputs or transitions. This has all been about the pull of a suspension while driving in a straight line on a cambered surface.

I don't work in the field, but alignment is done in a static environment. Dynamic environments are part of the suspension design.

 

and there is no actual discussion going on here regarding the one thing that contacts the ground and actually does initiate the turn. how can this discussion even happen theoretically without the tires being a part.

if your tires are both leaning to one side and the vehicle weight sits on the corner of the tire instead of the flat tire patch, your tire will squeeze together on the concrete and grip it. and that is a force to initiate a turn. it grabs that side of the tire at the ground and pulls that way. some tire treads can complicate this, but the tire will squeeze, grip pavement, and hold traction on that side while the other side has no friction to hold it. which side will it turn to? the friction side, perhaps?

i can't believe i just joined in for this shit.

 

As you can plainly see, only the one in the center has decent alignment. Hoping the other two do not walk in circles.

 

Welcome.

 

Here I am trying to be nice and get everyone on the same page. I like Tacoma World people. Even the dicks here are good folk!

I got my truck aligned by someone else as I have neither the tools, the time, the test equipment, the space, nor the experience to align a Tacoma.

However, I was pit crew for a few years as my stepson competitively raced remote control cars. The complexity of the alignment and suspension set-up on a high level RC car far exceeds anything Toyota puts into the adjustable aspects of a Tacoma, so I know a few things about how things work and the resulting behaviour. We never accounted for road crown as the tracks were either rough dirt or totally flat carpet.

Before a race we might adjust the following on the kid’s car depending on track conditions:

Front and rear Camber
Front and rear toe
Front caster
Front steering ackerman angle
Front and rear roll centers
Front and rear anti-squat
Spring rate
Spring preload
Shock rebound and compression
Shock rate (linear or progressive)
Sway bar stiffness
Wheelbase
Weight distribution

All of these parameters affect the RC car in the same way as the “real thing”. It’s a good learning platform. Though I never learned to drive the things very well, I enjoyed tinkering to try to come up with a winning set-up for the boy.

 

Haha! That is where most of my alignment experience comes from also, but on a hobbyist level. I also worked on truing up my motorcycles. Sidecar alignment was fun also.

Most of my accomplishment would be measured in even and long tire wear.

 

Just thinking about motorcycle alignments, I haven't seen someone with a darkside rear tire setup in at least a decade, glad that trend is on it's way out.

 

Nope!

Some folk that I know who like to ironbutt have been discussing it.

 

It’s coming back.

 

So I just want to post in this thread to say I agree. I put a 2” lift (6112/5160 2015 TRD Pro) on my 2017 about a year ago. I kept the stock UCA’s as I only got 1.75-2” of lift. Had my truck “aligned” by the dealer. Best castor they could get was 1.6 and toe and camber weren’t great but were in factory spec. Paid $100 for that garbage. Got new tires a few months later (265/75/R16) and after some tire wear paid another $80 to the dealer when I still wasn’t happy as my steering wheel was at 11 o’clock and it didn’t feel great. Truck was under warranty so I didn’t want to go outside the dealer. They kept the castor at 1.6 but cleaned up toe and camber, steering wheel still wasn’t centered.

Fast forward a year and my tires were starting to show some strange wear on the shoulders and I was managing it by rotating every 5k, decided to contact an expert and make an appointment. Took it to Russ’s Alignment (SLC, UT) and they easily got 2.0 castor and toe and camber dialed. $68 later, steering wheel centered, truck drives straight, no bump steer, etc... so happy right now and lesson learned. Didn’t get a print out but they showed me the results on the rack as they aligned it. I found my alignment shop, that’s for damn sure.

 

We have a spot near us called Omni Brake and Alignment (Totem Lake, WA). We used them in the past with our cars and they were cheap also. They made the cars feel stellar. I would see some high end modded cars there quite often.

I will have them check out the Taco when I get new tires even though my wear looks very even.

 

I felt pretty good about Russ’s when I noticed several high end cars (Porsche, etc) going through their bays from “other” collision repair shops. Seems Russ does a lot of business with other repair shops and takes care of the alignments and suspension work after the other shops do the body work. Russ’s doesn’t look like much on the outside, but watching who’s dropping off vehicles throughout the day definitely gave some insight into their capabilities.

 

That is exact it. He is very friendly and gave out good advice also when we needed a suspension on our aging wagon.

 

100% agree. Once you start modifying your truck, it behooves you to take it to someone with more knowledge and expertise than “firestone” or a similar shop. I have been using OASIS alignment right next to SDHQ headquarters in chandler AZ. They charge $72 for an alignment and they include a 6mo warranty with it. I’m heading there for my THIRD alignment in the last year because my stupid self keeps replacing items like tie rods and LCA at separate times. Each time I mess with the truck, I take it to them & pay my $72 and they test drive the truck before and after. They are so knowledgeable and they set my castor to +3.5 and +3.9 without me even having to ask for that specifically because they know what works with toyotas lifted on bigger tires. Now that I’m on 35’s you’d better believe I’m going there every single time I need an alignment no matter what. My truck always drives straight and true and smooth. Shops like firestone are GREAT but they have their limitations. You MIGHT be able to find a tech at firestone that knows how to properly align a modified Toyota but that’s just a gamble that I’m not willing to make.

 

Oh shit, you said castor.

Duck and cover!