Caster - who has tested different front Caster settings to determine the best setting?

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watrob

watrob

10 Year 15 Year
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Brisbane, Australia
Hi, has anyone played with there caster to determine the best settings, it seems to me that the area of +3.00 degrees or more is needed on the 2" lifted 80's?


Has anyone spent some time testing the different settings, specially on the more bumpier roads where the frontend is throw around a lot more?
 
Best, driveability, 33" wheels, approx. 2" t0 3" lift, beach work so bouncy terrain, more caster heavier steering, currently have +1.65 caster, front a little high so will reset springs lower by 1" (will still leave a good 2" lift), theory is a 1" drop is around a +1.50 gain in caster giving me +3.15 caster, question is this enough?
 
I would define "best" as, what setting gives the better on-road handling: is my trip to the trail or whatever in my loaded down truck with the family inside going to be a white-knuckle experience, or reasonably pleasant? And safe.

I just altered mine to +3.5 or so this week ...

Caster hardly matters at all off-road.
 
surfpig said:
I would define "best" as, what setting gives the better on-road handling: is my trip to the trail or whatever in my loaded down truck with the family inside going to be a white-knuckle experience, or reasonably pleasant? And safe.

I just altered mine to +3.5 or so this week ...

Caster hardly matters at all off-road.
Click to expand...

I understand rough terrain, the problem is a at low tide the beach is smoother than a highway, so feel I need a high caster, nose down to keep for weight upfront so the there is not so much movement from the front suspension which alters the caster, is the standard caster on a 80 supposed to be +2.0 deg?

So if you altered yours to +3.5 what was it before?
 
watrob said:
Best, driveability, 33" wheels, approx. 2" t0 3" lift, beach work so bouncy terrain, more caster heavier steering, currently have +1.65 caster, front a little high so will reset springs lower by 1" (will still leave a good 2" lift), theory is a 1" drop is around a +1.50 gain in caster giving me +3.15 caster, question is this enough?
Click to expand...

I have a 4" on 35s. Caster, with the 1" spacers in front was "just" within spec. Loaded down, things got pretty squirrely. I finally removed the spacers and now I sit at +3.5-3.7 or something. I want to see how it drives loaded down now...

Side question: Why do people here have such a problem with the so-called "stinkbug" syndrome?
 
watrob said:
I understand rough terrain, the problem is a at low tide the beach is smoother than a highway, so feel I need a high caster, nose down to keep for weight upfront so the there is not so much movement from the front suspension which alters the caster, is the standard caster on a 80 supposed to be +2.0 deg?

So if you altered yours to +3.5 what was it before?
Click to expand...

Answered.

:cheers:
 
I prefer to have the backend higher than the front, I like the front end loaded as I have a fair amount of engine torque which creates lift, which cause the front to lift a 1 & 1/2" which causes the caster to go negative, so on gear changes your correcting the steering.

At +1.65 caster its not so bad but the vehicle sits dead level, so I will drop the front 1" which should give me +3.15. If need be I will add a 5mm spacer to the rear if I need to load the front up more. I already have 3 deg caster bushes installed.
 
It seems that 1 inch up or down changes the caster dramatically.
Does 1 or 2 degrees change the turning radius much?
 
GW Nugget said:
It seems that 1 inch up or down changes the caster dramatically.
Does 1 or 2 degrees change the turning radius much?
Click to expand...

From what I have read, the 80 series should run +3.0 caster at the least, so this would place the turning radius to factory specs, one would assume that a - deg caster would make turning radius smaller, how much smaller is a guess but it would only 12" to 18" one would think.

Negative caster creates more problems than the benefit you gain from a smaller turning circle, that's why when you go for your driving test they make you do 3 point turn?
 
GW Nugget said:
It seems that 1 inch up or down changes the caster dramatically.
Click to expand...

yes .. but it is different if you are going up and down ( on lift ) leveled .. I mean it's not the same result if you are going up of down just in your front suspension ( or rear for math sake )
 
The closer you get caster to 4 the less steering input is needed to get down the road straight.

People say there rig drives great with 1 or 2 caster only because they have never driven anything with more caster.;)
 
I have driven mine at +3, -1 and +2 degrees for several months each and didn't notice any difference in handling and stability. I was surprised because I expected it to wander at +1 based on my experience as a front end alignment mechanic for 3 years.
 
Mine is at +2. Not great but works. Guys doing 3 links are setting it at +6!
 
Thanks guys, so I have at the moment +1.65 caster with 3 deg caster bushes already installed, the front is a little high so I will drop it by 1" by getting the coils reset and giving a little more nose down and load the front up a little more. From what I have read a 1" drop will give me another +1.50 to +1.75 more caster, totalling around +3.15 to +3.40 hopefully.
 
Best for what? Crawling slickrock? mud? boulders? pre-run? autocross? getting groceries?
 
Driveability, I put coils on to handle a chopped up full tide beach, but at low tide its smoother than a highway and this is where I need good manners.

Have had the alignment done and everything is pretty good, rear spec is ok, but a +1.65 caster its a little darty thru power on gear changes as the front is not loaded enough, when the front lifts (as it is already a touch higher than the rear) caster would be going negative, then when the nose drops coming back into positive caster.

So, I need to drop the front 1", get into the +3 deg caster range and load the weight up onto the frontend.
 
With my 3.5 lift, I ran the yellow poly bushings and was quite satisfied. Over 1 year ago I installed caster plates,removed the yellow bushings, and went back to the factory rubber front lower control arm bushings (all 6 arm bushings).
I feel the handling is more stable - esp over harsh surfaces on the road at speed. My caster went from +.5 to +4.0 doing this method. The spec from Toyota is +2.0 to +4.0. I was concerned about the "heaviness" of steering wheel feel but it is a very minimal difference.

One of the pleasant suprises was the amount of the absorbtion the new rubber bushings take up versus the combo of the poly yellows and the remaining old rubber bushings. I can even feel a noticable difference going over the curb into my driveway. Dang thing rides like a 50k luxury wheeler...oh yeah :D it was at one point!
Dont get me wrong, I liked the ride and handling prior but like this set up better.
 
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