Help me diagnose this alignment/tire/suspension issue

2019 Crewmax. Platinum XP package with Ultra Hunter 20" rims and Terra Grapplers. Picked it up from the dealer in November, and drove it home 1200 miles over 2 days. I noticed as soon as I drove it off the lot it was pulling right. I thought it was just the roads and ignored it.

Got to the halfway point in our trip home, and realized it was still pulling right.

Had the 5000 mile service done here at my local dealership, which included tire rotation. For my own information, I called the dealer back yesterday and they verified that the rotation was front to back, not cross.

A couple hundred miles later, brought it back into the dealer, and they did an alignment for me no charge. Tech said it was all in the green and the pull was better, but that was as good as it was going to get.

Took it to a local shop that did all the suspension and tire work for me on my last 2 Tundras to see if they could make it better. Great shop. Owner is a straight shooter and discussed with me what our options were to make this better. Alignment guy would make a tweak, and test drive. Rinse repeat for 2 ½ hours. I know he was doing it as I sat there watching each time he drove out. BTW, I had the socal57 specs with me and that’s what I initially wanted, but with those settings, there was no change in the pull.

Here’s the numbers I got.
Before(Toyota dealership alignment)

............Left Right
Camber//0.1//0.0
Caster //3.1 //3.5
Toe ////-0.05///0.00

Current alignment after trying to correct right hand pull
............Left Right
Camber//-0.1//0.0
Caster //4.2 //5.2
Toe ////.10///.10


After alignment, it’s still pulling to the right. I’m going to swap the front tires this weekend to see if this makes any difference, but the owner of the shop said that most likely it isn’t a tire issue since I had the rotation done once already with no change in pull.


Anyone want to chime on in these numbers, or take a wild stab in the dark on what could still be causing the truck to pull to the right. All $.02 is welcome as I’m pretty much out of ideas. TIA

m

 

Most Toyota’s pull to the right, most roads are sloped to the right and our big, gnarly tires like to follow easy resistance...

 

On a completely flat road mine drives perfectly straight. However on most roads it pulls to the right cause of the crowning. It did take me 3 alignments to get it how I like it, but I get fatigued on long drives. I think it also has to do with how easy it is to turn the wheel with the power steering.

 

Thanks for the responses. I realize that most roads are crowned. However, my previous 2 Tundras had the alignments spot on and would track straight down the road even when slightly crowned. And this was with fatter and taller tires than stock. The pull on my 2019 is readily apparent. Put the steering wheel straight, and it veers to the right. I have to put constant pressure on the left side of the steering wheel to keep it going straight. The wheel is probably turned to about the 11 o'clock position to keep it straight. Crowned roads, and straight and level roads, same thing. Left lane when the road is crowned to the left, I can let go of the wheel and it will track straight down the center of the lane.

The shop said there was nothing visibly wrong with any of the suspension components. I purchased the truck with 20 miles on it, and it has had no accidents or incidents that would have damaged any components, but I'm starting to think that maybe something was hosed up from the factory that can't be detected with the naked eye. I'm really getting frustrated with this.

m

 

So I think I may be on to something. I called the alignment place and we discussed a number of options to try and correct this alignment pull. I swapped the front tires left to right and it made no difference. However, one other option that he suggested airing up the front tires to max pressure and see if that made a difference. These are terra grapplers, and the sidewall says 50psi max pressure. I had been running them around 38psi. I aired up to about 46psi and the pull to the right was noticeably less. So, I'm going to try airing them up a little more tonight to see if that helps even more.

Has anyone else experienced a possible bad batch of tires from nitto? It seems to me that the front to rear rotation the dealer performed, along with the left to right rotation that I did would indicate that there are problems with multiple tires if airing them up made the issue somewhat go away. Any thoughts? thanks

mike

 

You have wayyyy to much caster. Even so, the right should be no more than .5 more than the left. Your caster shouldn’t be any higher than 3.2-3.4 on the right with the left .5 less.

 

I know. The shop was attempting to correct the pull to the right. Even with caster that high, it still pulls to the right. If anything, it should pulling to the side with less caster. The attempt was to correct the pull without affecting tire wear.

 

Have you tried switching the tires around too see if it’s radial pull?

 

Yup. Dealership rotated front to back. No change. I rotated front tires left to right, no change. Inflated front tires up to 46psi, and pull got a bit less. I know its rare, but I'm thinking a problem with a batch of tires and I happened to get a couple from the same batch that are all pulling.

 

Did they check to see if you have a froze cam bushing bolt?

Every time I had a slight pull, the numbers where in the green so the tech never checked the cam bolts. Every time I was told there was a froze bolt. I would cut them out and replace them and get a new alignment. Pull would be gone.

 

Most technicians nowadays make the alignment perfect, meaning the truck will go straight down the road. But most roads slope slightly to the right to drain off rain water, therefore the vehicle will pull slightly to the right.

Back when I did alignments we did them to pull just slightly to the left so that way the car would go down the roads straight.

 

I get that, and I know what that feels like. In this case, I have to keep the steering wheel turned to the left about 5 degrees in order to keep it going straight down the road. Let go, and the steering wheel centers and the truck pulls to the right. Not just drifting, but actively pulling. With the caster set the way it is, if I let go of the wheel it should go shooting off to the left.

Thanks for the advice on the cam bolt. I'll take a look at that as well. I think the chances of this being the culprit are slim since it's been pulling right from brand new, and I only have 6700 miles on the truck at this point. Certainly worth checking.

mike

 

Just curious if you ever got your alignment fixed. My 18 tundra pulled pretty hard to the right from the beginning. After taking it in 3 times I gave up. They kept using the crown of the road excuse. Fast forward 25,000 miles and my tires were ruined. The side walls of the right side are worn all the way down. Toyota pretty much did nothing but call in another technician and he cross rotated the tires. Helped a little but I’m worried when I get new tires it’s going to be the same issue. The manager at the shop said I must be taking left hand turns too fast. What a joke