Perfect alignment not possible

[TacomaLC]

FWIW, I had a Honda Pilot Pull left (or right can’t remember) from the time it was new took it to the dealer several times. They couldn’t fix it. Swapped tires left to right helped. Turns out it was the tires. I guess sometimes a bad tire belt can cause it to pull.

I‘m also a fan (now) of road force balancing the tires. Those KO2‘s can be finicky.

 

[fullybalanced]

So my 19 LC seemed to be fine except for the steering wheel was about 2deg off to the left. Drove straight didn’t pull no issues. Took it to Toyota of ‘Gastonia (NC). And they changed me for an alignment $99 plus tax and problem solved. Took about 30 min. my alignment was off…. Extremely small amount and they fixed that too.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

Y'all are really awesome at what you do and while i have a great shop local to me (Bearden) they do not do alignments.
The truck place i had it "dialed in" is just trying to sell me an UCA which i do not need by every account I've read.
Now that i am learning more Ive come to realize the sensitivity of the 200, specially given AHC optioned.
I'm looking at my specs and I just don't think its setup well.
The FSM im looking at is saying 0 camber though. And im all sorts of confused now.

Any help at all is appreciated. Including a shop recommendation around Austin.

Without going down a road of why the FSM says 0 and all the background that Is required to see that a zero camber is more of a “best of the worse case scenarios.” Simply give yourself +.1º of camber. Your tire won‘t have to tilt between the inside and outside sidewalls when bouncing down the highway, and it will feel much better. Also, camber is the only adjustment that makes a car drift left or right. THe more positive camber you have on one side, the truck will drift that way. If you have a pull the the right, I bet camber is greater on the right side. You can go up to .25º more camber on one side over the other when you want the truck to drift a different way, or adjust for road crown (which talking about adjusting for road crown is a no-no in on my side of the industry, but I feel it is a fact that cannot be ignored).

Finally, changing camber from 0º to even something as high as 1.0º will never create an irregular wear pattern. It just won’t. The number one thing that cause tires to cup quickly Al side from a failed component is having the toe not set in relation to the rear tires.

For everyone, if you get an alignment. The tech drives it off the rack and you’re done. If you ever rolled the track right back on, the values won’t be the same, not even that close. There are so many factors that hold tension that require the truck to be rolled after a small adjustment. But rolling takes time that a shop my get away with you just dealing with a mediocre alignment. That’s another reason why when you do take a truck back for a second alignment, they usually get better.

 

[AnyMal]

Without going down a road of why the FSM says 0 and all the background that Is required to see that a zero camber is more of a “best of the worse case scenarios.” Simply give yourself +.1º of camber. Your tire won‘t have to tilt between the inside and outside sidewalls when bouncing down the highway, and it will feel much better. Also, camber is the only adjustment that makes a car drift left or right. THe more positive camber you have on one side, the truck will drift that way. If you have a pull the the right, I bet camber is greater on the right side. You can go up to .25º more camber on one side over the other when you want the truck to drift a different way, or adjust for road crown (which talking about adjusting for road crown is a no-no in on my side of the industry, but I feel it is a fact that cannot be ignored).

Finally, changing camber from 0º to even something as high as 1.0º will never create an irregular wear pattern. It just won’t. The number one thing that cause tires to cup quickly Al side from a failed component is having the toe not set in relation to the rear tires.

For everyone, if you get an alignment. The tech drives it off the rack and you’re done. If you ever rolled the track right back on, the values won’t be the same, not even that close. There are so many factors that hold tension that require the truck to be rolled after a small adjustment. But rolling takes time that a shop my get away with you just dealing with a mediocre alignment. That’s another reason why when you do take a truck back for a second alignment, they usually get better.

Thanks for the advice bro, its really nice to hear from experience rather than theory.

If i can bother you for one more quick q…, do our upper control arms have forward / backwards adjustment at the frame mount bolts? Or is this truck aligned solely at the lower arms?


Thanks! Whenever you do a write up, it will be much appreciated as well.