Hi all,
just thought I would share my findings after I finally had my truck aligned, but first my setup.
I have the 850 J and 863 J springs with L shocks, Slee adjustable front and rear pan hard arms, and the Slee front control arms. For static weight I have a Kaymar rear bumper with spare tire carrier and jerry can holder extensions. My truck sits pretty much level with this configuration.
Well after getting my truck on an alignment rack I found that my caster is now:
+2.9 degrees left
+3.7 degrees right
As can be seen, I have .8 degree discrepancy due to some factor but this doesn't really seem to affect steering. Seeing as the caster spec is 2-4 degrees this puts me within spec. The truck drives great! It tracks straight, is tight in turns, and generally behaves very good.
One thing I did discover is that toe can also affect steering self centering. Before I took the truck in my wheel would not automatically center in slow speed turns. Turns out I was toed out. The toe is back to spec now and centering is good.
I'm very glad I decided to buck up the cash, take Junk's quasi suggestion, and go Slee's arms.
One thing though, when I go with a new front bumper, I'm going to need to make sure that I counteract the dropping that will occur, or I just might go too positive. Of course too positive really isn't that big of problem handling wise.
just thought I would share my findings after I finally had my truck aligned, but first my setup.
I have the 850 J and 863 J springs with L shocks, Slee adjustable front and rear pan hard arms, and the Slee front control arms. For static weight I have a Kaymar rear bumper with spare tire carrier and jerry can holder extensions. My truck sits pretty much level with this configuration.
Well after getting my truck on an alignment rack I found that my caster is now:
+2.9 degrees left
+3.7 degrees right
As can be seen, I have .8 degree discrepancy due to some factor but this doesn't really seem to affect steering. Seeing as the caster spec is 2-4 degrees this puts me within spec. The truck drives great! It tracks straight, is tight in turns, and generally behaves very good.
One thing I did discover is that toe can also affect steering self centering. Before I took the truck in my wheel would not automatically center in slow speed turns. Turns out I was toed out. The toe is back to spec now and centering is good.
I'm very glad I decided to buck up the cash, take Junk's quasi suggestion, and go Slee's arms.
One thing though, when I go with a new front bumper, I'm going to need to make sure that I counteract the dropping that will occur, or I just might go too positive. Of course too positive really isn't that big of problem handling wise.
