FRONT ALIGNMENT HELP NEEDED

[GSPHerder]

No way thats not gonna eat your tires up. There isn't any majic, either its right or its not.

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[zaidenrk]

No way thats not gonna eat your tires up. There isn't any majic, either its right or its not.

I did multiple alignments and machine shows it’s perfect caster, camber and toe. All 3 have been adjusted to spec and fall within the parameters of the spec sheet that was posted with the trd lift kit posted on this forum.

 

[GSPHerder]

What is to spec/Perfect? Looking at the first pic you posted that is an insane amount of camber. Toyota offers a range so thier 19yr old tech can find something inbetween to send you on your way.

I gathered a good bit of research and based off one of the better shops in my AO the best i can gather is camber zeroed out is the way. Do you have the printout for your alignment?

 

[zaidenrk]

I’m a technician at Land Rover. I did all my own alignments lol. Didn’t take it to an outside shop. Our alignment machine is a hunter and it’s updated to 2027 models. I’ve been a technician at multiple different brands, about 20 years. I definitely don’t trust my local Toyota dealer as I went there for some warranty issues and they left my skid plate loose. Last one I did. I didn’t do a printout but based on machine specs, and the Toyota instructions and specs, everything seems to be in spec. However I do agree with you that the camber looks off to me. Only other thing I can think is to as you mentioned is zero the camber out and see if that fixes the issue? Maybe. Or I can give up pay $200 bucks and take it to the local offroad shop who said they can get it perfect lol.

 

[zaidenrk]

Oh and to add to that, the car is completely straight no dragging or pulling to any sides. It’s laser straight.

 

[GSPHerder]

It might run straight but its clearly riding on the outer edges of the tires. Thats gonna eat up the tires quick. Sometimes a different machine or different set of eyes might be worth it considering a new set of tires is running close to $2k these days.

 

[GSPHerder]

 

[zaidenrk]

Thanks im going to try this next time I have the car in the shop to do some maintenance. Which is probably next week.

 

[Porwal22]

I could be wrong, but it looks like your SAI (Steering Axis Inclination) & scrub radius is incorrect. It’s usually knocked out of factory specs, by changing upper / lower control arm ball joint locations when aftermarket control arms are switched out. You can have everything in “green” as they say. But it is still not adjusted correctly.
SAI & Caster (within reason) are not tire wearing adjustments. The dead giveaway that SAI / scrub radius is off, is slow steering wheel recentering after turning left or right - say turning left or right at a streetlight. It really isn’t noticeable unless you let go of the wheel in the middle of a sharp turn. If you have to “help steer” the wheel back to center, SAI is not correct. It should return to center with no help.
The angle that is adjustable, is known as the scrub radius. You can adjust that by playing around with different caster / camber angles. It’ll take you a few try’s when you set it up on the rack, but you will eventually get the tires to look “normal” where the tires are sitting correctly like the truck did before it was modified.
Check this video out - it explains in detail what I’m talking about.



I haven’t run a Hunter alignment rack in a few years, but I know somewhere in the menu there is a spec that’ll show you SAI & scrub radius. Thats the key to your front tires sitting correctly on their contact patch. Or as rednecks say “sittin straight”.

 

[zaidenrk]

Finally fixed it! Signed up for an all Toyota tech group on Facebook. A Toyota tech guided me on how to do it and sent me the specs. It’s finally fixed and sitting right. So the Hunter machine has the wrong specs on it. These are the correct specs. You have to manually put them in to the machine.
First pic is the specs the machine needs to be set to.
Second pic is what I was able to get my alignment to. The rest are pics of how my truck is sitting now. The bottom of the tire is now sitting completely flat on the ground. Car drives straight and for some reason my mpgs are back upto 19 mpg.

 

[Porwal22]

Great to hear that you got it squared away. That’s the thing about the internet. If you go digging around, you’ll run into someone who has the same problem as you, and they have the correct way to fix it.
I see that the toe was out to lunch, and you corrected it. Im just curious to know, did you end up adjusting anything else? It looks as if the camber & caster was not adjusted, the before and after is the same measurements. At least they have the SAI spec there (that you got from the Toyota tech). Most people tend not to have that.

 

[zaidenrk]

Yes I did have to adjust camber and caster the before measurements were highly inaccurate due to the fact that the machine doesn’t let you enter the specs until you have done rolling compensation then measure caster, then you have to go to a very specific place to enter in those specs and then it’ll direct you to new measurements. The real numbers for caster were like 5.0 and camber was 2-2.5.

 

[zaidenrk]

Actually if you look at my original post you’ll see how much positive camber the front wheels had vs the latest pictures. Very noticeable to the eyes.

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