Help Please... Camber Adjustment

matthuber1 · September 6, 2008

Everyone, My truck has been pulling a little to the left, and the steering wheel is not straight when driving straight down the road, and i am starting to get irregular tire wear. I brought it to the repair shop for an alignment, they said they aligned it and its good. So, the garage i brought my truck to for an alignment says that the reason the wheel is off is because the camber angle is off and it has no adjustment - That it is fixed. I suspect this is a major line of BS. I know macphereson struts dont adjust... but a 2005 sierra 1500 4x4 has to. Am i right?

matthuber1 · September 6, 2008

I dont think the camber has anything to do with the steering wheel being out of center. the camber is the angle of the centerline of the tire relative to the ground.... This is fire'n me up!

minibike132 · September 6, 2008

Take it to someone more experienced with truck allignment. I don't do a ton of them so I can't really explain everything you probably want to know but I'll give what I got and maybe someone else will pick up where I leave off if you need more. You are right about what caster is, it's like a motorcycle's rake. Caster alone should not affect tire wear. If both wheels are set at the same caster there will be no pull, it has more to do with steering feel, how the truck reacts when you turn the wheel and how it returns to center. If one wheel has less positive caster then the other side the truck will pull to the side that has the less positive caster. For your wheel being off center I'm not sure if that is because of the pull or if it is really off center, I kind of have to road test and feel for that. If everything in the suspension is set to specs then the wheel can be off and it is easily fixed by figuring out which direction the wheels need to go and turning the tie rod ends an equal amount of turns in that direction. If they are turned the same amount it does not affect allignment of the suspension just the position of the steering wheel. Caster is absolutly affected by trim heights. If any modifications have been made in the way of lifts or if there are any permanent heavy loads (fifth wheel installed) then that needs to be taken into account when doing the allignment. Also if there are any sagging springs or any other reason that the rear is affected that needs to be measured and accounted for. Don't ask me how to do that I ship that over to someone that is more experienced with allignments then me. But just so you understand that if the back higer or lower it will affect caster since it is the relativity to the vehicle center line if you change rear height you change the front tires relativity to it. On your truck the camber and caster are adjusted at the same time with the same cam it's just a touchy adjustment, and that rear height is critical.

minibike132 · September 6, 2008

Oh crap you said camber. Doh.

minibike132 · September 6, 2008

The best way I can describe camber is if you are looking at the front of the vehicle it is the tilt of the top of the tire to the right or left. If it's off it will cause a pull and tire wear. It's pretty easy to adjust, there are cams on the upper control arm. If you look under the truck you should be able to see where the control arm attatches to the frame the bolts don't just look like bolts. They sit on a slot that moves the angle in and out.

Zembonez · September 6, 2008

The best way I can describe camber is if you are looking at the front of the vehicle it is the tilt of the top of the tire to the right or left. If it's off it will cause a pull and tire wear. It's pretty easy to adjust, there are cams on the upper control arm. If you look under the truck you should be able to see where the control arm attatches to the frame the bolts don't just look like bolts. They sit on a slot that moves the angle in and out.

Nice recovery Mike. I enjoyed the tech article about caster.