Alignments

[Jordan]

Where do you take your truck to get aligned? Since the long travel I dont feel safe going back to Sears for my alignment. Dave's in HB did a good job but it's hard to make an appointment with them and kinda out of the way for to drop it off one day and pickup the next me being in Rancho Santa Margarita. Where do some of you go? Local to South OC or not I just want to know some good places!

Thanks

<font color=red>"The more we play the more we pay"</font color=red>

 

[singlehanded]

I take my truck to the baja shop to get aligned but they built the front suspensionand know how it should be set up. I dont really trust most firestone ect. places with coilovers and extended beams to know what to do. for you I would go to Beeline if you are ever in the fullerton area, If you make an appointment your usually out of there in like 30 minutes. Phone number is 714-525-6136.

local

 

[partybarge_pilot]

Learn how to use a smart level and tape masure. With as many beatings as My junk gets regular alignments at a shop would be cost prohibitive. I haven't gone to a shop for an alignment in about 5 yr's.
No steering problems or funny tire wear.

 

[Kritter]

Find some place that will do lifetime and then take it back after every trip.

Kris
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.dmsrace.com>www.dmsrace.com</A>
"Jesus loves you, everybody else thinks you're an A-hole"

 

[sirhk100]

Well I gotta Ford so I'm not sure how they would do with a long travel Toyota but I've got lifetime alignments from Goodyear Tire Express. I go to shop down here in San Diego and they do a great job. I was up front with them and said it was modified (ball joints moved out and widened 3") and I told them I off road it and will be beating on it. They didn't care they said to bring back when ever as often as I want. Their exact words were "I doubt you'll put us outta buisness and the money to cover the labor isn't coming outta my pockets". It was $125 for lifetime or $90 for a 3 year unlimited (if you don't plan on keeping it forever)

Khris

'99YZ400, (for sale, $3900)
'92 Ford Exploder lifted work in progress,
lifted golf cart (sold)

 

[fishd00d]

I also went to a Goodyear Tire Express place, get the lifetime and like kritter said, take it in after every trip if you want. Its like $100-$150 for the lifetime!

Go Big Or Go Home
United Jumping Truck Society
U.J.T.S. Manwhore

 

[1992f150]

if its a chain store, will it only be good at that location or any of them?

Azusa: shame of the foothills

 

[BIG_FAT_LOSER]

I have has good luck with the level, tape, eyeball method. A moderate understanding of what shims and adjusters ect. affect tire wear helps.

<font color=yellow>United Jump Truck Society<font color=yellow>
U.J.B.S. President.

 

[sirhk100]

I was told any shop in San Diego county should do it for me but I've only gone to the same shop in Poway. They said if I go to one and they don't do it to call the Poway store that I always go to and tell them which shop wouldn't do it and they'd find out what the deal was.

Khris

'99YZ400, (for sale, $3900)
'92 Ford Exploder lifted work in progress,
lifted golf cart (sold)

 

[singlehanded]

I dont know that much about alignment, but what about my truck it is 8" wider overall infront and has 14"coilovers with around 18" travel and I can tell the front lifts up when on the gas. Will goodyear tire center be able to set it up right to get good wear?

local

 

[martininsocal]

if your truck is built with quality parts, it won't matter how much wider or taller it is. coilovers make it easy to adjust ride height/level the truck. any suspension/alignment guy with some real teaching will be able to figure it out pretty easy. most race based suspension are designed for easy tuning, so alignment with a laser is a breeze. The problem comes up when you have too mch lift and the parts aren't designed for it, then there simply isn't enough adjustment in the set-up to fix the problem. your best bet is to take it to an old school shop where the old guy will use a string and level and tape measuer, then it will be no problem. some of the new age mechanics can't fix anything unless they can plug it into a computer and punch a few keys...

If your gonna go, go BIG

 

[singlehanded]

But what about most coilover fords I've seen tires are / \ rather than I I. I was behind the sport-track explorer that was built by baja shop and S.I. and the tire were a lot farther out on the bottom,why is this. Is there any sort of adjustment that is different because the truck will lift up making the tires more straight up and down as you go? Obviosly it will come more in to play with high horsepower cars.

local

 

[martininsocal]

fords twin i-beam creates a lot of camber change through its travel. just the way the design is. a couple degrees of negative camber at ride height makes for better handling, positive camber at ride height makes for poorer handling. most lifted ford need to have bent beams and double adjustable aligment bushings to correct this. some folks just live with it and wear out tires faster. if you want to really figure out what is going on, get a book about chassis and suspension set-up for racing. with that book, you will learn how to do your own alignments with string and a tape measure. good luck.

martin

If your gonna go, go BIG

 

[DougM]

What do the race trcuks do for alignments since I doubt they take them down to there local alignment shop. Fords are obviosuly the hardest to do with I-beam setup but what do the Trophy Trucks do?
I would imagine they build in alot fo caster/camber into the design so they set at 0* but Do they just set toe or ??

inquiring minds want to know..

 

[sbro]

I'm sure race teams have an in-house mechanic that can handle alignments. It really isn't that hard to do yourself and get it in the ballpark. I don't think teams would set it to 0º camber/caster, most likely they have tried and true figures for slight positve caster and negative camber that work best for handling.

 

[JrSyko]

For all you San Diego people there is a great place to go in Pacific Beach called Dualtone. They specialize in doing custom cars, like lowered hot rods etc and I have seen some built trucks in there as well. They do a great job with my truck.

See ya in the dirt!

 

[AllwaysRcn]

Do they do drag cars as well? Lookin for someone (Good) to re-do my drag car! My string and tape is not doing my "Front Runners" any good.

 

[JrSyko]

I have seen the wildest custom cars in there so I figure that they could do a drag car?! Call them (619) 276-4525.

See ya in the dirt!