Control arm adjustment ?

[snowshoveler]

I have a 99 quad cab 4x4 short box.

New Michelin's going on next week and an alignment as well.

The front end is tight and no abnormal wear in the usual places.

I don't drive it much and try to stay on top of repairs and maintenance

I have had it lined up in the past and that lower control arm adjustment bolt was never touched.

The bolt was seized. Easy enough fix. I used a zip saw and cut the bolt out and then drove the center out.

Replaced with factory parts.

My question is...I thought there was a discussion on adjusting this to push the housing forward on the bottom for better handling.

I looked but can't find that info again.

The guy doing the alignment will do what I suggest and knows a nice bit about these trucks himself.

We both have the question on this though.

Regards Chris

 

[Tractorman]

5 hours ago, snowshoveler said:

My question is...I thought there was a discussion on adjusting this to push the housing forward on the bottom for better handling.

 

Moving the lower control arm forward will increase positive caster.  This will utilize the weight of the truck to improve the handling of the truck for straight line driving and to improve returning the steering wheel to center after cornering - the positive.  It will also add more steering effort (especially sharp turns) and put a bit more load on the power steering and steering gearbox under certain conditions - the negative. 

 

Personally, I have set mine to 4 1/2 degrees positive caster years ago and I like it - I think it is well worth the trade off.

 

- John

[Stormin08]

check out THURENFAB tech section...great info.

 

you dont have enough adjustment to overkill the steering.

[snowshoveler]

Thanks folks...

 

[snowshoveler]

Was bored so I went to work and swapped out the BFG all terrains for the Michelin defenders. 

Only drove it back home which is about a mile, that is all it took to really like the new tires.

Sounds crazy but I think the old tires which still have a lot of tread...must have poor casings.

It drives much better now.

Chris

[Tractorman]

Not surprising.

 

- John

[Evan]

Tell them you want positive castor. Sometimes they wont touch castor because it's a non tire wearing angle. Though they should be checking it on the rack but are just looking at computer screen seeing if alignment is in the good green range. On our trucks pretty much all they set is toe and center steering wheel.

 

I tape measure aligned my toe have a slight toe in only because I want it towed so when suspension cycles it cycle to zero toe. Ounce I upgrade steering I'll set toe at zero. I can do this because toe will no longer change as suspension cycles because each tire will be tied to gether with a solid bar instead of being interrupted with the drag link going through it.

Set my castor by feel through trial and error.  I have adjuster about maxed out and truck tracks straight and pulls back to straight on its own coming out of turns. Castor at 0deg will not track as straight or want to return to center coming out of turns. 0 is in the green range on they're alignment machines.

[snowshoveler]

My buddy with the alignment machine will set it where ever I tell him.

I have the control arms set long now. 

It drives great and handles better than you would think for a heavy truck.

Just want it where its going to be happy the longest...

Chris

[Evan]

Alot of positive castor is making the steering gear box work harder. But like mentioned earlier theres not enough adjustment to really get that much positive. 

 

I've thought about getting rid of the castor adjuster washers and adjusting castor with adjustable lower control arms

[snowshoveler]

My truck did steer heavy with the BFGs but seems a lot easier with the Michelin's.

I swapped the steering box long ago for a chebby one from a 2500 gasser.

Does not leak and run synthetic fluid.

So far so good there.

Chris