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Old 12-01-2023, 04:41 PM   #5
mr48chev
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Toppenish, WA
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Re: Alignment thoughts for a 1956 with stock arms / Tie Rod WITH Power steering

You absolutely do not want 1.5 degrees of camber with 10.4 inches of tread width unless you want to replace the tires in 2000 miles. That nonsense is out of alignment not in line.

That might fly with skinny tires with 4-1/2 inches of tread on the ground but with a 265-75-17 with a 10.4 inch wide tire the weight would be riding on the outer third or less of the tire. Actually This time 1project2many is telling you to put your truck out of alignement or his numbers are way off.

You do want 1/4 more positive camber in the drivers side wheel than on the passenger side. Not more than 1/2 degree positive camber in the drivers side wheel or you put too much weight on one side of the tread rather than having the weight evenly distributed. The wider the tires the less camber you want if you intend to have your tires last the miles that the manufacture says they should.

GM factory specs for a 56 pickup say 1-1/2 positive caster for an unloaded static truck and 3 degrees for a truck at capacity load. I'd go with the 3 degrees. It should track good but not put all that much force on the linkage.
1/8 toe in.

The 5 to 8 degrees some guys throw out is what most Ford hot rodders find works in a Model A through late 30's Ford I beam hot rod. Tracks great at speed and the car is light enough it isn't that much of a make your arms stronger turning at low speeds. Most Ford hot rods don't have wide tires on the front although "street rods" might.

I've aligned somewhere between 2 and 3 thousand front ends in my lifetime and have had guys walk in wanting their rides set at crazy specs they saw in a magazine or later on the net. Most of the time those specs came about because someone was setting up a car or truck for a specific type of racing. Remembering in the 80's when some magazine writer did an article and said to set the car up with 2 degrees negative camber. That works on a road race car or streetkana car or truck that isn't street driven but is about what you see on the local Honda lowriders with the tires leaning in at the top at crazy angles and those kids buying tires every 10 K instead of the 60 K those tires should go on a properly set up suspension.

The old factory specs don't jive with modern wide tires on any type of vehicle. The high camber angles were intended to have the car/truck drive straight on rough or dirt/gravel roads from the time frame and a 7.10 was a "wide" tire.
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My ongoing truck projects:
48 Chev 3100 that will run a 292 Six.
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