Just returned from a near 1,000 mile road trip from Portland through central Oregon to the South East corner in Jordan Valley while towing a trailer the whole time.
The trip started off great, however, I noticed on day one of the trip my front driver side suspension was hanging 1" lower than my passenger side. I wasn't sure why this would be so I inspected everything underneath for worn bushings, cracked or bent control arm / suspension components and noticed that for whatever reason, my torsion bars were messed with. You could clearly see fresh thread marks and where it looked like someone used an impact to adjust the bolt. This must have happened by the Toyota dealership where I was getting my alignment. NOBODY works on my car as I never take it to shops for service since I do all my own work. The adjustment to the anchor arm bolts was obvious and clear as I last adjusted them a year ago and would have been long covered in dirt, mud and dust. The two bolts were also much different in length than each other. I have NO CLUE why a Toyota tech would adjust my torsion bars to get my alignment "in spec". But I was furious and called the dealership to complain.
I'm guessing the reason I didn't notice it earlier while it was in my driveway, post alignment, was because I had the back seat removed, some heavy gear bags removed, and my tire carrier and sleeping platform removed in preparation for the trip. I assumed the rear came up a little making it look stink buggy. UGH.
One of the people in our group had a breaker bar and correct size socket to adjust the anchor arm but it was a short handled breaker bar and I didn't have any pipes or way of extending my leverage to turn the bolt. It kept feeling like it was maxed out after a turn or two and I didn't want to mess with it on my first day in the middle of nowhere destroying my alignment even further. I'm low key worried at this point that the techs managed to somehow damage the anchor arm unit / bolt but haven't had time to mess with it and it's 100 degrees outside currently. Will wait for cooler weather and take another stab at it.
Aside from that drama, the trip was rather uneventful but I did learn that the LC is NOT a good tow rig. While the heavy duty load Ironman suspension did a phenomenal job handling the load of the trailer and felt very planted and solid taking corners, driving at 65 MPH in 3rd gear revving to 4000 RPM through mostly up hill terrain was absolutely excruciating and I will never do that again.
