Post-lift, driving to alignment shop

[mtweller]

I'm throwing my Tough Dog kit on this weekend and was curious if you guys were mostly able to drive to an alignment shop, or needed to tow after the install. If it was just up the street, it would be a no-brainer, but the shop I'm targeting will be about a 30 mile drive from my friend's house where we are doing the install. Just trying to align resources accordingly, and don't want to wreck band new tires, but also don't want to go to all the trouble of towing if it's simply overkill.

Thanks in advance.

Ramon

 

[terdrocket]

Eyeball adjust the UCA's and tie rods and measure with tape measure, string, etc. Get camber and toe looking ok and drive it. You should be fine.

 

[Taco2Cruiser]

I feel 30 miles at below 45 mph will be okay. It’s on the line, it will cause a tad bit of irregular wear, but I doubt you’ll ever notice it.

Just make sure you don’t disconnect/adjust the tie rods. If you through off toe, even a little, you can cause some serious tire scrub within a quarter miles.

If seen people unscrew inner from outer tie rods to get coil overs in. They felt it was easier then popping the outer tie of off from th spindle. And in some ways, it does prevent outer tie rod boot damage if the tie rod is stuck. But... they had toe about a 1/4” off on on side and within the 5 miles they drove it, the tire was scrubbed so bad that it was unbalanceable.

You don’t need to remove any tie rods to get the 200 coil overs in or out. It just takes a bit of fanagling, and removing the sway bar end links get a bit more droop.

 

[mtweller]

Thanks guys, I'm beginning to feel like it actually MIGHT be worth towing there. I really despise poorly worn tires.

 

[IOPTURBO]

When I lifted my 4runner I just called AAA and let them tow it. It was the simplest solution.

 

[bloc]

As long as your toe is remotely close, which is quite easy to get in the ballpark (sight line along the outside edge of the tire to the rear tires) you won’t wear the tires appreciably and you likely won’t be able to notice any handling issues.

Your toe being far out can definitely impact handling and tire wear, though over only 30 miles it’d have to be quite extreme to harm the tires.

 

[Volunteer]

I drove mine about 4 miles, wouldn't have wanted to go 30 though that boat was floating all over the road. I just took it slow

 

[mtweller]

Thanks again for the input. The alignment guy that I was recommended to by fellow club members (ONSC), is 4.5 miles from my house. Since he can't get to me until Monday morning, I'm putting the lift on Sunday and will have all day with no rush - so towing her to my house from my buddy's shop (where the install magic will happen) and then driving early Monday to drop her off.

Appreciate all the feedback!

 

[ytaebnairb]

@mtweller
Can you post your alignment numbers after you get your lift installed? Also, did you use UCAs? I did not based on posts to this forum, but I may rethink that once I put new tires (maybe wheels) on post lift on my 200.

Thanks!

 

[mtweller]

@mtweller
Can you post your alignment numbers after you get your lift installed? Also, did you use UCAs? I did not based on posts to this forum, but I may rethink that once I put new tires (maybe wheels) on post lift on my 200.

Thanks!

Will do. I am not replacing the UCAs, basically for the same reason. Hoping it works out nicely

 

[gaijin]

Thanks again for the input. The alignment guy that I was recommended to by fellow club members (ONSC), is 4.5 miles from my house. Since he can't get to me until Monday morning, I'm putting the lift on Sunday and will have all day with no rush - so towing her to my house from my buddy's shop (where the install magic will happen) and then driving early Monday to drop her off.

Appreciate all the feedback!

Sounds like a plan - just a reminder that all 4 wheels must be off the ground when towing

HTH

 

[mtweller]

Sounds like a plan - just a reminder that all 4 wheels must be off the ground when towing

HTH

On the tow rig?

I have access to a F550 (thanks @GLTHFJ60) and a 12.5k# trailer, so all set!

 

[ytaebnairb]

Will do. I am not replacing the UCAs, basically for the same reason. Hoping it works out nicely

I see some positive camber on my front, just interested to see how yours turns out. I may do some UCAs when it is time for tires (larger 33") and perhaps some wheels... :?

 

[mtweller]

I see some positive camber on my front, just interested to see how yours turns out. I may do some UCAs when it is time for tires (larger 33") and perhaps some wheels... :?

If mine doesn't fall into a good range, I'll for sure go ahead w/ the UCAs. This is as big / high as I am going so if it works without, I'm not going to waste the $

 

[Volunteer]

I just went through the same situation back in March installing the TD Suspension and new BFG ATs. I didn't want to go with UCA's if I didn't have to because I went that direction on my 2013 Tacoma and didn't really care for them. Also like you I'm never planning to go with anything more in the way of lift on this rig. Jason said he finds the alignment shops can get them within specs 50% percent of the time and I fell in that category its just inside the specs. I put 3000 miles on the setup so far and the tires are wearing evenly. Very happy with the suspension and tire combo so far it handles well on and off the pavement. I hope they're able to get yours dialed in as well

 

[mtweller]

I just went through the same situation back in March installing the TD Suspension and new BFG ATs. I didn't want to go with UCA's if I didn't have to because I went that direction on my 2013 Tacoma and didn't really care for them. Also like you I'm never planning to go with anything more in the way of lift on this rig. Jason said he finds the alignment shops can get them within specs 50% percent of the time and I fell in that category its just inside the specs. I put 3000 miles on the setup so far and the tires are wearing evenly. Very happy with the suspension and tire combo so far it handles well on and off the pavement. I hope they're able to get yours dialed in as well

Thanks Larry. The guy I'm taking it to says he has 25 years experience and aligns lifted trucks all day. Fingers crossed.

 

[linuxgod]

First and most important thing - make sure you put the taller rear spring on the passenger side, or else you're gonna lean. TD says to put it on the driver's side, but I can definitively say that's wrong. You'll notice when you pull the old springs out that the taller spring is on the passenger side where the gas tank is located.

My lift wasn't too far off, and I drove for about 200 miles before taking it to the alignment shop so the springs would have a chance to settle. Tires were fine. Rear springs were swapped though and so I had about 1.5" of lean which resulted in torque steer and an alignment which was off (couldn't get caster within specs) and I drove like that for about 5000 miles before swapping them.

When I later swapped in UCAs I eyeballed it and could visually tell I had too much positive camber and the toe was off. I drove about 10 miles to the alignment shop on mostly city streets (never exceeded ~40 I think but that's just the nature of driving around here) and the tires were fine.

Based on my anecdotal experiences I don't think you need to tow it unless you're waaaay off. In particular if you're not replacing the UCAs so long as you don't adjust the tie rods (you can pop them off the bottom of the steering knuckle though) and you mark the cam bolts if you loosen them so you can get them close to the original setting really you'll just find you have a bit too much positive camber (top of the tire sticks out a bit more than it should) and not quite enough caster (tires aren't quite forward enough). Aside from maybe a bit of tire squeal on 90 degree turn you probably won't even notice.

 

[linuxgod]

BTW here are my alignment specs. That shop that did mine specializes in race cars and lifted and HD work trucks.

He set camber negative because more than half my driving is towing with a lot of tongue weight, so the camber increases slightly with weight on the hitch. He chose -0.5deg by jacking the front up 1", which is about what I've measured when loaded, set camber to neutral (0), and then removed the jack.

I asked him to push caster as far positive as possible and he did. My SPCs are at 2deg and the rest was set with cam bolts. Above ~3.5deg I'd expect a bit of accelerated tire wear on the outer edges over time. Next time I do an alignment I will probably have him reduce the SPC to +1deg to try to reduce the total caster by about 0.5deg to hopefully help eliminate some minor rubbing I get on the KDSS arm and PS sway bar.

BTW I was one of the unlucky souls who couldn't get more than about 1.5deg of caster without adjustable UCAs.

 

[ytaebnairb]

First and most important thing - make sure you put the taller rear spring on the passenger side, or else you're gonna lean. TD says to put it on the driver's side, but I can definitively say that's wrong. You'll notice when you pull the old springs out that the taller spring is on the passenger side where the gas tank is located.

My lift wasn't too far off, and I drove for about 200 miles before taking it to the alignment shop so the springs would have a chance to settle. Tires were fine. Rear springs were swapped though and so I had about 1.5" of lean which resulted in torque steer and an alignment which was off (couldn't get caster within specs) and I drove like that for about 5000 miles before swapping them.

When I later swapped in UCAs I eyeballed it and could visually tell I had too much positive camber and the toe was off. I drove about 10 miles to the alignment shop on mostly city streets (never exceeded ~40 I think but that's just the nature of driving around here) and the tires were fine.

Based on my anecdotal experiences I don't think you need to tow it unless you're waaaay off. In particular if you're not replacing the UCAs so long as you don't adjust the tie rods (you can pop them off the bottom of the steering knuckle though) and you mark the cam bolts if you loosen them so you can get them close to the original setting really you'll just find you have a bit too much positive camber (top of the tire sticks out a bit more than it should) and not quite enough caster (tires aren't quite forward enough). Aside from maybe a bit of tire squeal on 90 degree turn you probably won't even notice.

Linuxgod is "Spot On" Longer spring on the fuel tank side for sure.