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Originally Posted by chevybuilder18
thank you. i did however notice the tires stand straight up and down when turned, this may have some positive effects right?
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Turning the wheels won't show toe angle really as much as castor and camber combined
From a handling stand point no. From tire wear standpoint it's fine as long as your not driving like an f1 racer. Take a chopper for example if you imagine when the bike leans that that is camber, and that the angle of rake on the forks is castor. If that bike had the wheels turned and the forks up and down the wheel would be straight up and down. If it had lots of rake on the front fork that wheel would tilt back a little which is great for stability in a straight line and helps the vehicle lean in on a corner and play the tires more.
Our trucks lean...a lot so having some negative camber negates the tendacy for the tire to roll out and not plant square when taking a corner. I will post a pic of my wheel at full lock and you will see what I mean
Back in the early 70s when these trucks were made they had fat sidewall tires and were built strictly utilitarian. Alignments were mad to give efficiency and tire life and good driving characteristics on the highway. As you can see 3.7 castor and +.7 camber and 1/16th-1/8ths toe in was factory specs but was fine for a stock truck with tires of those days. You would be hard pressed to see any car these days that conservative.
What you have to do is spec your alignment to match your tire and body roll. Ideally you want your camber to be zero in a corner at your most common turning speed. About 7* castor is normal anymore and is a non tire wearing angle and helps road feel in a corner and will be more stable at high speeds. Toe in is fine for driving, this will keep you stable on the highway through trucker ruts and such and won't wear tires down. Toe when set is set in a way that when your driving down the road the tires pull the suspension and gets rid of slack and is theoretically zero at speed, theoretically because toe changes with ride hight which is never at the same point when driving doe to bumps and such. Toe out can make the truck a little squirrelly at speed due to driving force pulling the wheels out and increasing toe angle all the more at speed. But a good benefit is increased turn in on a corner which means that the vehicle is more responsive to turning than it would be with toe in
I hope that helps in kinda understanding what all the alignment angles do and how.
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