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Caster cannot be adjusted?

Lpsouth1978

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I had my Leveling kit, wheels, and tires installed over the weekend. I also had an alignment done, but the steering wheel was not straight and the truck pulls to the left pretty dramatically. I took it back in today to have the alignment done again and was told that the casters cannot be adjusted and the truck will ALWAYS pull to the left. This seems unlikely to me, but wanted to get the opinions of the good people on here.
 

BowersFJ

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Which leveling kit ? And did you do UCA’s ?


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BowersFJ

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If you look at the last page of the Readylift kits, they give a set of numbers to shoot for when aligning …. Would be curious to see how close your shop got to those numbers


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c3k

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I'm no alignment guy, but caster, cant, and toe are all different. (I'm sure you know that.) The caster is pretty much fixed by the UCA and LCA and the steering knuckle attach points.

So, I agree that caster can't be changed, but that has NOTHING to do with pulling to one side or another.

Caster: draw a line from the wheel pivot point, and compare that to where the contact patch is locate. Grocery cart front wheels have a lot of caster: they are stable. Less caster means the pivot point is closer to the contact patch, and you get twitchy/responsive steering. Too much means the wheels try to snap to one side or the other and are unstable. Think grocery cart front wheels that are backwards.
 

ferraiolo1

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They are making excuses for not adjusting the tie rods properly the first time.


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Richard320

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Try another shop.

To Adjust Caster:​
Moving the front or rear position of the lower control arm​
in or out, will change the caster angle and camber angle​
significantly. To maintain the camber angle while adjusting​
caster, move one pivot bolt of the lower control arm in or​
out. Then move the other pivot bolt of the lower control​
arm in the opposite direction.​
 

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Lpsouth1978

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Which leveling kit ? And did you do UCA’s ?


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I did the Motofab 3" front/2" rear. I did not do the UCA (though it seems I may need to). The guy at the shop said that the caster is "welded" and cannot be adjusted. Here is the sheet he gave me after the alignment today.

20220110_171135.jpg
 

BowersFJ

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Readylift does UCa’s with their 2” level kit …. Yes, they just want to sell UCA’s, but 3” without em is pushin it to the edge


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