Alignment pros speak up please

[duckman631]

Went to my local Dodge Ram Jeep dealer today to have them mount and balance my replacement 275/60/20 falken wildpeak at3 on stock 20 inch rims and had alignment done. Truck is 2016 1500 big horn crew short bed 4x4 with hemi. 75,700 miles on the truck. Below is the before and after Alignment sheet. It had a slight drift left when the wheel was straight but not a strong pull. I have no clue if it’s good since they don’t show any acceptable ranges on it. Let me know please how it looks or issues anyone sees so I don’t tear these new tires up and I’ll go back to dealer if there is a problem with the specs.

thanks in advance.

 

[regal81455]

https://www.thurenfabrication.com/tech/alignment-and-handling.html

Based on their suggestions you have too much toe and too much caster on both sides... others will chime in I'm sure.

 

[ram1500rsm]

It seems they just did a toe and go alignment. They didn't touch you caster and camber. the acceptable ranges are the little numbers you see in the boxes. The tech gave you a POS alignment job.

 

[duckman631]

It seems they just did a toe and go alignment. They didn't touch you caster and camber. the acceptable ranges are the little numbers you see in the boxes. The tech gave you a POS alignment job.

Great.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Great.

Lol, it'll run but they didn't touch anything else other than your toe. your caster being out specs doesn't wear your tires in any way, interesting to see how much adjustment there is stock on the high side of the caster though.
Your camber is on high side as well but technically within specs, i don't like that -0.6* camber cause you'll have a little faster wear on the inside of your driver front tire as literally that tire is putting more of its inside on the road as opposed to the passenger which should be facing straight up (0.1*) I prefer to ask my camber to be the same on both sides so i get the same camber wear on both sides.

This will give you a visual of what i'm talking about on the camber side.

 

[Ramcharger60]

With zero or any positive camber you will wear the outsides of the front tires. I have my caster set at over 6° and camber at -1°. It drives so much better and tire wear is even across the tires. I have 40,000 miles on my tires with this alignment. My brother n law has an alignment like yours and can't get 20,000 miles on his tires. They wear on the outsides bad. Talk to anybody that does performance alignments and they will tell you the same. Never cheap out on an alignment.

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[kurek]

Did they max out the cams on the lower control arms?

 

[jawzs2]

To chime in, your caster is what is probably giving you your drift to the left, think of the front wheels on a shopping cart. My preference is it should be within .5 degrees of each other, subjective of course.

 

[Gary2]

I would lose 1 degree caster on passenger side and call it good. If ya really wanted it good the left front camber could come down a little . Camber can make it drift if its riding on the inside or outside of a tire too much

 

[duckman631]

I would lose 1 degree caster on passenger side and call it good. If ya really wanted it good the left front camber could come down a little . Camber can make it drift if its riding on the inside or outside of a tire too much

I’ll talk to the dealer and see what my options are. Unfortunately where I live it’s pretty much dealer or a chain like mavis to get an alignment. Any of the regular garages don’t really care too much and just want to make a money grab. I’ve tried several over the years and always wound up with major tire wear.

 

[Ramcharger60]

Bring it to Daytona Beach..I'll get you fixed up

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[Gary2]

I’ll talk to the dealer and see what my options are. Unfortunately where I live it’s pretty much dealer or a chain like mavis to get an alignment. Any of the regular garages don’t really care too much and just want to make a money grab. I’ve tried several over the years and always wound up with major tire wear.

Thats a shame as its not hard to do especially with the right stuff.

 

[duckman631]

Thanks for the feedback everyone!

 

[duckman631]

Lol, it'll run but they didn't touch anything else other than your toe. your caster being out specs doesn't wear your tires in any way, interesting to see how much adjustment there is stock on the high side of the caster though.
Your camber is on high side as well but technically within specs, i don't like that -0.6* camber cause you'll have a little faster wear on the inside of your driver front tire as literally that tire is putting more of its inside on the road as opposed to the passenger which should be facing straight up (0.1*) I prefer to ask my camber to be the same on both sides so i get the same camber wear on both sides.

This will give you a visual of what i'm talking about on the camber side.
View attachment 216554

After driving for a few hundred miles, I’m noticing that the outsides of the front tires are actually looking like they have slightly more wear on the outside than the inside. Any thoughts before I take it back to dealer? Also even though it tracks straight for the most part, when I get up to 70-80mph on thruway, she still drifts left. My alignment sheet is in my first post on this thread. Thanks

 

[ram1500rsm]

After driving for a few hundred miles, I’m noticing that the outsides of the front tires are actually looking like they have slightly more wear on the outside than the inside. Any thoughts before I take it back to dealer? Also even though it tracks straight for the most part, when I get up to 70-80mph on thruway, she still drifts left. My alignment sheet is in my first post on this thread. Thanks

If anything she's probably following the side with the least caster so shes drifting left. Your cross caster is 1.4* and it should be less than 1 Typically 0.5* lower on the driver side.
Ask the alignment dude to do his best to put the camber in the same spread as well.(it doesn't have to match to the teeth but to give you an idea on what to ask and try to achieve)
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5
Toe +0.06 --- +0.06

 

[duckman631]

If anything she's probably following the side with the least caster so shes drifting left. Your cross caster is 1.4* and it should be less than 1 Typically 0.5* lower on the driver side.
Ask the alignment dude to do his best to put the camber in the same spread as well.(it doesn't have to match to the teeth but to give you an idea on what to ask and try to achieve)
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5
Toe +0.06 --- +0.06

Ok cool. So I’ll tell him to try to set as close to this as possible.... I’m guessing I read this as numbers all on left are drivers side and column on right is passenger not just a range for either side to fall within?
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5

 

[ram1500rsm]

Ok cool. So I’ll tell him to try to set as close to this as possible.... I’m guessing I read this as numbers all on left are drivers side and column on right is passenger not just a range for either side to fall within?
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5

correct, left is driver and right is passenger. Ask the dude to get you the same or close to those.

 

[duckman631]

Ok cool. So I’ll tell him to try to set as close to this as possible.... I’m guessing I read this as numbers all on left are drivers side and column on right is passenger not just a range for either side to fall within?
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5

If anything she's probably following the side with the least caster so shes drifting left. Your cross caster is 1.4* and it should be less than 1 Typically 0.5* lower on the driver side.
Ask the alignment dude to do his best to put the camber in the same spread as well.(it doesn't have to match to the teeth but to give you an idea on what to ask and try to achieve)
Camber -0.2* --- -0.2*
Caster +4.0 --- +4.5
Toe +0.06 --- +0.06

Have appointment at dealer Thursday morning. Hopefully they can fix. I made two long drives over an hour long one way up thruway since i got it back after the mounting balancing and alignment and over 70mph I get a vibration and still get slight drift to left. Starting to notice some tire wear already on outer edges Even though the camber looks like it should cause inner wear at least on drivers side. I hope they can get it close.

 

[Sherman Bird]

THE most overlooked issue in front end alignment is toe change under load. It's not taught anymore as far as I know. That wears tires much more quickly than most other out of spec issues. Also, tire scrub needs to be addressed. This is where the tire meets the pavement in relation to SAI/ tread center correlation. This is usually made worse by adding larger diameter tires/wheels without the proper spacer to compensate for the change in diameter. Looking at your sheet, you aren't likely to wear out tires prematurely, but I see where the drift is happening.

 

[ram1500rsm]

Have appointment at dealer Thursday morning. Hopefully they can fix. I made two long drives over an hour long one way up thruway since i got it back after the mounting balancing and alignment and over 70mph I get a vibration and still get slight drift to left. Starting to notice some tire wear already on outer edges Even though the camber looks like it should cause inner wear at least on drivers side. I hope they can get it close.

Good luck.