Extended cargo van with 94k and new tires and recently new front suspension: radius arm bushings, shocks, ball joints, tie rods. Drives very nice, just a little tighter and smoother than our 2003 with 80k (easy miles) and original suspension (near as we can tell). Van tracks fine, doesn't wander or veer under braking at any speed. The interesting thing is there is visibly noticeable positive camber on both wheels, even by my eye. The seller said his mechanic put in 1.5 degrees positive camber with the new suspension intentionally. We have had (2) 2003s and neither one had visible positive camber and both drove well behaved in all situations. Anyone had experience with this? any red flag here?

thanks

 

Have it aligned to spec's regarding camber----to my knowledge there's no advantage to adding camber. Of the four E-Series I've had aligned to Ford spec's tire wear etc has been perfectly workable. FWIW as I look at my own E-Series extended body vans they all seem to have a lot of positive camber as they sit when in a normal state; flat level ground with no or evenly distributed load. Adding more would make them look like dirt track race cars.

What I would do is add up to 5 degrees positive caster with stock type Ford OEM bushings rather than the various dual plane bushings some use for this. Adding positive caster is said to give better handling and steering response, eliminating most of the tail wagging the dog experience all too familiar with the extended body E-Series.

 

Thanks, I have been meaning to do those caster bushings on my current rig, 2003 light camper setup with high top, but wanted to upgrade the front brakes and put a rear stabilizer on first. But if the OEM Ford caster bushings can get me better road minding for only $40 it's really not biting into the budget enough to wait on. I only see them listed at Camber Bushings for certain degrees of camber, do you know how to order them to adjust for caster? Have you put the caster bushings in your rig(s)? Doesn't look complicated, my van is really clean underneath with almost no corrosion issues on fasteners (except those exhaust manifold bolts, argh!!) so I bet I could do it myself...

 

If you think there's nothing to properly aligning a vehicle then I won't waste my time convincing you otherwise---its your van so I say just go for it---I mean what could go wrong huh?

OR you can do this the right way and contract an actual alignment shop with measuring equipment rather than just "winging it" in hopes you're saving money. DIY tweaking the alignment spec's without knowing your starting measurements is just simply no advisable.

Do as you will---its your van and tires so no sweat off me whatever direction you go.

Good luck!

 

I would get an alignment but when I looked into this, last year I think it was, (the caster change) I believe the shop said the caster was not adjustable and they only put in the bushings they normally use to align the camber to within spec. if needed so the caster wouldn't change. but the manager said if there were bushings in there already that set the caster to +5 AND they matched the original camber angle (mine are stamped 1 and 1 1/2 degrees) that they would have no issue working with those... I think that is why I didn't go forward with it, at the time I hadn't any experience with getting one of those bushings out. I just did the ball joints on a '96 RWD F250 and both the camber bushings came out when I removed the knuckles, and that truck had plenty of built up gunk & corrosion. but if these aren't available OEM with different caster angles then I am less certain of success, the shop mentioned that they have had issues with the 2 piece bushing sets and prefer not to work with them. this is all assuming that my current camber bushings are correct, they are original and the van has always driven very well with regard to staying in its lane and straight braking at all speeds, only when I have been in heavy traffic (LA & NY come to mind) with tight lanes and highway speeds with less than perfect road surfaces that I felt serious concern, so real improvement would be welcome.

 

i tend to agree with JWA - stick with the OEM alignment spec's. early in my '95 E350 extended van i had the dealer do an alignment. they set rt side caster correctly and then duplicated those settings on the lft side instead of mirroring the settings. it sure handled strange. and they denied making the mistake until i flipped out and insisted the old timer in the shop check it out. you know what he found. i did find it interesting that they were ok with whatever camber the van had as long as the bushing values corresponded with what the book called for. last time i went there. but you got to wonder about ford also. here's the 2010 E350 caster specs: LH 3.9 Degrees +/- 2.9 Degrees, that is a range of +1.0 to +6.8 Degrees.... Increasing the amount of positive caster (that means front wheel leaning away from the direction of travel) will increase steering effort and straight line tracking (read self centering), as well as improve high speed stability and cornering effectiveness. Positive caster also increases tire lean when cornering (almost like having more negative camber) as the steering angle is increased.

now i get my van aligned someplace other than the dealer and as i recall they have a narrower range that they work from for caster - like 4 or 5 deg plus/minus 1 deg. it's been a few years so don't hold me to that, still that is stuck in my mind...as far as using caster/camber to improve handling, the greatest improvement on my van came when i spaced the rear wheels out and matched the track of the front. that narrow rear track is just wrong IMHO. i used spacers for a couple of years then when i went to 20's, i had it built in to the wheel offset. i do run big sway bars as well. corners real good for a big ol' van.

 

good stuff '95, thanks. what size spacers did you use? were the stock lugs long enough to accommodate them? I am looking at doing the brake upgrade with all new front suspension and a heavy duty rear anti sway bar. wider in the back sounds right but I would only try it if it was a simple spacer that I could remove and be right back to stock if it didn't suit my driving. btw I passed on this 2007, thought I could swap over my interior and be happy but pricing out a high top & windows made it over $10k project and I didn't think I could offset enough of that selling our '03 all gutted and ugly inside... custom slider windows with screens would have been nice though!

 

i should have said "adapters" as spacers are not really safe to use. so the adapters bolted up to the hubs with stock lug nuts. then the wheels attached w/ the studs in the adapters. i believe they were two inches thick. poke around the internet - back when i did it there were few willing to make adapters for 1 ton 8 lug vans. prices are half of what i paid in 1998. and yes they could be easily installed and removed. i found that the rear end felt much more secure during hard cornering - didn't feel like it wanted to tip over near as easily. but who knows, maybe i sold myself... if you are going to add a bar to the rear, you should upgrade the front bar as well. if you are upgrading an exisisting rear bar by going bigger, best check the front bar size and see if that needs upgrading as well. you want to maintain the balance and not stiffen the rear and increase oversteer as well as making the van feel twitchy when cornering. if memory serves my front bar is 1.250" and the rear is 1.125" and i did upgrade the suspension bushing to poly. i did a rear disc brake conversion around 2000 from tsm mfg. they were the only ones offering anything for a 1 ton. i also did the 2008 and up front brake upgrade. have not felt the need to further update the rear. and i tow a boat big enuff to need a three axle trailer. the front brakes are the ones to do first - there was never enuff mass in the rotor to absorb the heat generated so poof! warped brake rotors. i also added a hydroboost.