Your new truck probably needs an alignment

[izzy]

The original alignment was over a year ago (and about 22,000 miles) and I sadly don't think I got a printout. Here's what I got from the current alignment. It's certainly possible that the "before" specs aren't exactly how the Goodyear shop set it up b/c I routinely drive at speed down forest service and logging roads...

Toe in would explain your tire wear, why would they do that though and not just zero it out lol

Current spec is definitely better, they could have probably dialed the left toe back closer to 0.00

Your rear end specs look better than a lot of the 4 link charts I've seen on here.

Sponsored

 

[Taco Ji]

And if you're sensitive to your alignment being off I'm going to bet you'll be turned away by the dealer unless your steering wheel is literally 90 degrees the wrong direction

To be perfectly honest, I have 4,000 miles on my truck since March of this year. I installed 285/70/17 tires on a zero offset aftermarket wheels in April or June and as of today I do feel the steering pulling to the right. However I thought it was just the size of the tires and my driving on slightly slanted roadway where it is designed if it rains the water doesn’t pool on the road. I have an oil change coming up in another 1k miles so I’ll ask them to check my alignment to see if it’s off or not.

 

[izzy]

To be perfectly honest, I have 4,000 miles on my truck since March of this year. I installed 285/70/17 tires on a zero offset aftermarket wheels in April or June and as of today I do feel the steering pulling to the right. However I thought it was just the size of the tires and my driving on slightly slanted roadway where it is designed if it rains the water doesn’t pool on the road. I have an oil change coming up in another 1k miles so I’ll ask them to check my alignment to see if it’s off or not.

I bet the crown is more noticable with your wider track width too. Yeah see if they'll help you out. If you feel like it's off it's probably off.

 

[Xjim]

The original alignment was over a year ago (and about 22,000 miles) and I sadly don't think I got a printout. Here's what I got from the current alignment. It's certainly possible that the "before" specs aren't exactly how the Goodyear shop set it up b/c I routinely drive at speed down forest service and logging roads...

Your heading on the print out reads 2020 - 2023 model Tacoma. Not 2024 - 2025 ???

 

[gofastdan]

Your heading on the print out reads 2020 - 2023 model Tacoma. Not 2024 - 2025 ???

Yup. Even after them updating their database the '24 specs weren't in it. The alignment guy said that's pretty common with Toyota in his experience. He claims it's often a year or two after gen changes before Toyota actually gets around to updating specs.

 

[izzy]

Yup. Even after them updating their database the '24 specs weren't in it. The alignment guy said that's pretty common with Toyota in his experience. He claims it's often a year or two after gen changes before Toyota actually gets around to updating specs.

Not like the rear is adjustable without an aftermarket panhard bar anyways. The best any alignment shop can do is zero your front toe out.

Why the multi link guys have so much rear toe factory is uhhh a little weird...
But maybe it's just a Toyota 4 link thing, from 4Runner forum:

4 link is never going to be as dead center as a leaf rear end, just more moving parts. The leafs also center the axle probably more accurately than the panhard bar.

 

[tacorancher]

Why are all the alignment ranges different even on the same year and trim? Even from one dealer to the next the ranges are different. Does anyone know if there is a way to get the true range for your specific truck? I want to get my alignment checked at my off-road shop and I’d like to give them something to go off of. I also want to tweak the castor (within spec) to fit 34s.

 

[tacorancher]

Yup. Even after them updating their database the '24 specs weren't in it. The alignment guy said that's pretty common with Toyota in his experience. He claims it's often a year or two after gen changes before Toyota actually gets around to updating specs.

Really? Even for the dealerships ?

 

[gofastdan]

Really? Even for the dealerships ?

I certainly can't speak for the dealerships. I'm assuming most competent alignment shops subscribe to a service to update their databases and who knows where that service pulls from...

I will say though that in talking to my alignment tech, a really good shop should talk to you about your driving style and needs prior to doing the alignment.

To your point about a range of settings, even the same truck could have different alignment settings depending on driving style. You may want the truck to have the front end completely straight, which might get a fractional increase in fuel economy and decreased tire wear, but the downside is that the truck will tend to follow grooves in the pavement a bit more. Or, you may spend a lot of time on two lane roads, which tend to have a heavy crown so maybe you want the vehicle set up to pull slightly to the left to offset the fact that the slope of the road would naturally cause the vehicle to drift to the right.

Honestly, most people will never care about any of this, they just want an "alignment" and let the shop do the best they can. That probably means they'll just put it in the "range" spec'd by the manufacturer and call it a day. The more I learn though, the more there is a bit of an art to alignments, it's not just one size fits all, although most shops and likely the Toyota dealership will treat it that way.

Just my .02 based on what I've learned. I'm certainly no expert and probably have no idea what I'm talking about but in my mind it makes sense to me... ;o)

 

[izzy]

I certainly can't speak for the dealerships. I'm assuming most competent alignment shops subscribe to a service to update their databases and who knows where that service pulls from...

I will say though that in talking to my alignment tech, a really good shop should talk to you about your driving style and needs prior to doing the alignment.

To your point about a range of settings, even the same truck could have different alignment settings depending on driving style. You may want the truck to have the front end completely straight, which might get a fractional increase in fuel economy and decreased tire wear, but the downside is that the truck will tend to follow grooves in the pavement a bit more. Or, you may spend a lot of time on two lane roads, which tend to have a heavy crown so maybe you want the vehicle set up to pull slightly to the left to offset the fact that the slope of the road would naturally cause the vehicle to drift to the right.

Honestly, most people will never care about any of this, they just want an "alignment" and let the shop do the best they can. That probably means they'll just put it in the "range" spec'd by the manufacturer and call it a day. The more I learn though, the more there is a bit of an art to alignments, it's not just one size fits all, although most shops and likely the Toyota dealership will treat it that way.

Just my .02 based on what I've learned. I'm certainly no expert and probably have no idea what I'm talking about but in my mind it makes sense to me... ;o)

After looking at the charts I've seen here on 4G forums I think people should be happy if they leave the shop without an insane amount of cross toe LOL

But yeah there's more to it than zero toe but expecting anything but a performance or tuner shop to get it right it asking a lot.

Dynamic Autoworks/AR Tire is my go to for all my vehicles custom alignments included when I wanted specific specs.

 

[tacorancher]

I certainly can't speak for the dealerships. I'm assuming most competent alignment shops subscribe to a service to update their databases and who knows where that service pulls from...

I will say though that in talking to my alignment tech, a really good shop should talk to you about your driving style and needs prior to doing the alignment.

To your point about a range of settings, even the same truck could have different alignment settings depending on driving style. You may want the truck to have the front end completely straight, which might get a fractional increase in fuel economy and decreased tire wear, but the downside is that the truck will tend to follow grooves in the pavement a bit more. Or, you may spend a lot of time on two lane roads, which tend to have a heavy crown so maybe you want the vehicle set up to pull slightly to the left to offset the fact that the slope of the road would naturally cause the vehicle to drift to the right.

Honestly, most people will never care about any of this, they just want an "alignment" and let the shop do the best they can. That probably means they'll just put it in the "range" spec'd by the manufacturer and call it a day. The more I learn though, the more there is a bit of an art to alignments, it's not just one size fits all, although most shops and likely the Toyota dealership will treat it that way.

Just my .02 based on what I've learned. I'm certainly no expert and probably have no idea what I'm talking about but in my mind it makes sense to me... ;o)

This is helpful. What’s nuts to me is every range I see is different.

 

[izzy]

This is helpful. What’s nuts to me is every range I see is different.

Ideally, everyone's truck should be pretty much zero in the rear for every measurement and then zero up front for camber and toe.

Variation of rear specs on solid axle setups is just the assembly line guys torquing one side more than the other or something. Small differences in new bushings and etc.

If you show up to the alignment place with 600lb of overland shit in your bed that'll change your alignment too (they should be done with half a tank of gas and empty vehicle ideally)

 

[Kielly]

You are probably due for an alignment tbh. I try to get them done every 15k mi on all my vehicles.

I've had coilover setups on cars drop another 10mm or so after they break in, which could for sure change toe some.

Mine was very good until the stock SR5 street tires wore in, then I could tell it was a little off. Then I got 300 mile take off TRD OR wheels and the new tires masked any alignment issues for another thousand miles or so.

Really wasn't that off, but I'm pretty sensitive to my vehicles steer ahead being not dead center I could feel the .10 degrees off, I'm special (ocd) about my vehicles going straight.

Maybe so, but the truck still drives completely straight and there's zero uneven wear happening on my Duratracs, so I'm not too worried.

I'm a get an alignment when I clearly see I need one type of guy

 

[Baltimore]

My Goodyear shop let me know that manufacturers have to release the alignment specs before the top of the year for their systems to have it. When I stopped in late 2024, they didn't have it yet because Toyota was late to release the model year to market. They let me know in Jan 2025 they had received the 24+ spec sheets in their system and could now correctly perform alignments for the model year. Guessing other shops might be similar.

 

[tacorancher]

My Goodyear shop let me know that manufacturers have to release the alignment specs before the top of the year for their systems to have it. When I stopped in late 2024, they didn't have it yet because Toyota was late to release the model year to market. They let me know in Jan 2025 they had received the 24+ spec sheets in their system and could now correctly perform alignments for the model year. Guessing other shops might be similar.

Interesting - I’d like to compare my TH specs (the ranges I got from the dealer) with others here

Sponsored