Alignment

Here are my current specs...truck is pulling slightly to the right (I am about to get new tires and my front right tire is balding on outside edge due to alignment being off) Just got my truck aligned to these specs but still pulling slightly to the right (may be crown in the road as well).

1) Could the bad tires be causing this? Ie: the balding on the passenger side is giving way to better front tire on driver side?

2) Are my specs off? Seems the toe is a little high right? Less toe down to .12 would promote straighter driving??

Thank you thank you thank you

 

Who did the alignment? I’ve had bad luck with dealerships doing alignments and no good ones. Everything would look good on paper but it wasn’t. When I picked up my ‘21 the truck pulled to the right and the steering wheel was off center. The dealership aligned the front end 3 times and all 3 times everything was in spec according to the printout but at the end the truck still pulled to the right and the steering wheel was still off center. Ended up taking it to a Goodyear service center out of desperation. They dialed it in perfectly first try.

 

Interesting, yes the dealership did mine. Wonder why they can't get it down? Is there a standard spec for Tundras? Like, why are my front tires different?

 

I’m not sure what the explanation is. I can only tell you that in my experience dealership service departments in this area are not good with front end alignments. In the end it was worth it to me to pay someone else to do it.

 

Thanks for your input. Frackin dealerships...

 

Dealer did one for me, I was told, we got it to 90% and then when we swapped the front tires, BINGO it was perfect. NOT !

 

A few things on the alignment, caster should always read .5 difference between left and right with the left side being lower. This offsets road crown. Camber is good on the right side at zero but the right should also read zero. Tires do make a big difference. Try swapping the tires left to right and see if it pull in the opposite direction or you could just wait for the new tires.

Just guessing but I bet the tech only did a quick tow adjustment.

 

^ This is key on the caster, otherwise the natural grading of the road to allow water runoff will pull you to the shoulder or to the right.

 

Are you a tech because your the first person on this forum that understands this.

 

Hahaha, nah.. just shoved 37s with non heimmed UCAs so needed to do a lot of research before getting my truck aligned to make the set up work.

not sure why many alignments don’t take this into consideration..

 

Because in and out as fast as possible, set the toe and let her go!

 

Thanks Gents, so said that they are trying to charge $112 to rip their customers off. Of course, it's in their benefit to rip their customer's tires to shreds. I am learning more and more about alignment....Angle of the BaDangle

Still don't know why there isn't a stock spec to be found anywhere.

 

Great point if the grade is consistent. The roads where i live are all over the place

 

Same here. I am in DFW and our roads are all over.

 

The spec is the middle of the green you see on your sheet. There are OK alignments then there are good alignments. Some shops see green in the numbers and figure that it's good and send it out.
You still might be OK. Change the tires and see if it still pulls. I've seen numbers that couldn't be brought to spec because of a spacer lift and the truck surprising didn't pull.

 

Thanks for your help. Really do appreciate it. What do you do for a living?

 

Just retired Toyota tech that specialized in front end and alignments.

 

Nice! Congrats on retirement. So, you have seen a few alignments. In your experience, to Tundras tend to wear tires out on the outside edges? Especially the front tires. If so, what is the number 1 thing to do to prevent that?

 

Unfortunately I was forced into retirement from carpal tunnel issues in both hands. But I'm OK with it and now recovering nicely but my tech days are over.

Yes you are correct, Tundras and Tacomas have an issue feather edging and wearing the outside edge of the tire. I found that running the camber at zero prevents the problem.

 

The Camber should be even, but its fairly close. Toe is on the higher end - you could have them bring it down to .12 if you wanted to give that a try and see. However, as others stated the main issue causing the pull is most likely the road crown - you have no Caster offset to compensate; I assume perhaps you could find a large parking lot, airstrip or stretch of concrete without a crown and experiment there to see if it still pulls? If it doesn't, then you know its the crown causing it and that you need a different Caster number on one side to offset,

 

What about my back tires? Why are the measurements so different? What should they be per se?

For the front, is there an "ideal" number for Camber, Caster, Toe? I have Defender 265/70/18 tires...