In my opinion, I think the truck needs more caster and as close to dead straight in toe as possible.

Toe is a tire wearing angle. Any toe at all and the tires will start chopping the tread blocks. .05 toe in on each side is a good aiming point. It may wander more, but you will also have less tire wear.

I think another degree at least on the caster will help it track down the road better. Ford really stands the caster upright on these trucks which is why so many lifted guys have issues. More caster will help the truck drive straighter and the steering will self-center more effectively. It does increase steering effort, but that should be minimal. I thought Ford would have welded a few more tenths of caster on the driver side like a lot of other straight axles. It supposedly helps with road crown.

Camber is a tire wearing angle as well. You definitely do not want any camber on a solid axle as that would be bad unless the axle was modified for that purpose (like in road racing applications). Your camber readings are expected as it is near impossible to have camber perfect at 0.00.

 

Thanks, I was about to pull the trigger on the SPC 2.3/2.6 kit before trying another alignment and I kind of wish I had.....

 

I think the camber is off. It will pull according to which direction the top of the tire is pointing. If you look at all your alignments, the left tire top is pointing to the left, and that last one, both tires point left. Look at what Hackenbush posted, both tires are near zero or tops slightly pointing in.

Roll a tire with one side leaning and follow the direction it takes and you will understand camber.

Toe has little effect on pull, mainly on tire wear and steering wheel centering. Too much in or out will cause excessive wear and wheel misdirection, causing wandering.

On our truck Caster is the big one, too little and any slightly worn part can cause death wobble. Caster sets the pull on the centerline of the wheel, the more there is the straighter it will track, too little and it will wander. Caster can also cause a pull if there is too much on one side and not enough on the other. They really should be within a half degree or less from each other.

One thing I did notice on his printout, the right rear wheel went from -.02 to -1.0 camber. They must have raised the truck or pushed it on the ramp to upset the heads. That can cause incorrect front readings since the fronts are aligned off the rear. The result you can see in how the camber slightly changed on the front.

That Bilstien does cause a slight left pull until it wears in. When I first installed in on the 2012 I had, it pushed the unsprung wheels to the left a bit when I was done installing it. After a few thousand miles though it stopped pulling as the pistons wore in. IOW leave it alone, its fine. Get the camber changed to tip the tops of the tires in just a bit, or have the right tip out a bit and the left tip in a bit. Get at least 3 degrees Caster, 4 is even better.

 

Thank you for that, how do you suggest they adjust just the camber without adjusting caster?

 

Also I found it interesting that the Ford printout had my RF camber at -.9 which is out of spec (range is -.6 to +. 9), but when the independent shop had it on their rack, it showed as in spec. Guessing Fords tolerances in their system may be a little tighter than what other shops consider to be acceptable. But both caster specs showed the exact same between both Ford and independent @ LF +2.6 and RF +2.9. I didn't see the exact camber numbers on the independent shop screen yesterday, but I will take a look today when I am there.
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By using the correct sleeve

https://tiresupplynetwork.com/produc...=7433998925871 is an example of what the sleeve looks like. They are made with differing specs, like .05 camber and 2.8 caster The camber can be changed by rotating the sleeve in or out while maintaining the 2.8* caster.

 

Talked to a dedicated alignment shop 45 minutes from me. He said he has done a bunch of Superdutys and uses fully adjustable camber/caster sleeves if either of the 2 are required. I gave him my specs and he said he will try and get it without the adjustable sleeves, but if any adjustment is needed, he prefers to use the fully adjustable ones. He seemed to know his stuff and I used him 1 time about 7 years ago and was happy with his work. We will see what the shop I went to yesterday, comes up with today. I feel like I should at least let them try to get it right, but have a feeling it'll not be productive. They wouldn't accept payment yesterday because they said they didn't get it to my satisfaction. Remember, this is a small town of 400-500 people, they treat customers right.

 

Small town shop tried 4 times, attempt 1 pulled to the left, attempt 2, pulled to the right and attempt 3 got close, but still to the left and attempt 4, almost exactly how it was when I went there yesterday. They gave up and told me no charge, and admitted they had a older machine that was "more live picture than laser" whatever that means. The brand was Sun. What's odd, and I told them and showed them Fords printout, is that their caster reading was spot on with Fords and their camber reading was in spec the whole process (I was allowed to be in the shop) but way off from Ford's camber numbers. They wonder if something is wrong with their rack/system. Going to the dedicated shop a week from Friday. Here is a few pics from the small shop, you would think it would have been just fine, but nope, always a pull and always the wheel was off. I got the wheel centered in 2 tries once I got back home and it still has a slight drift left. Top 2 are their first couple of attempts after numbers and the bottom is Fords numbers with no attempts. Don't pay attention to Fords current measurements, as they had the steering wheel turned showing me my bad u-joint. Why would the camber be so drastic between the 2 alignment machines?? One thing I said to the tech, because he was showing me how he was adjusting the passenger toe, is why he was using the drag link end to adjust toe, he said because that's the only way to do it...... I was confused because I thought the drag link end was 100% for centering the steering wheel?

 

I didn’t forget about you summers. I searched high and low for that dang paper and can not find it for the life of me, and it is driving me absolutely nuts. I save everything, and I mean everything for my vehicles. I’m gonna hot up the ford dealer and see if they kept a record of it, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

 

Thank you, I appreciate it! If not, no biggie. I am going to an actual alignment shop and he knows his stuff, knows all about Superdutys and has camber/caster kits in stock, he said he just uses the fully adjustable ones that are the cheapest. Usually SPC or Moog he said.

 

Ok, I got my '23 aligned after installing the SPC 23226 sleeve. Results were 4.7 L&R for caster. Camber was 0 L -.3 R. The truck drives beautifully now.

In hindsight, if my goal was 4 degrees of caster, I could have used SPC 23225 or 23224, 1.0 and 1.25 degrees respectively, instead of a 1.5 degree sleeve, 23226. If you are wondering what sleeve to use, maybe this will be helpful.

Does anybody think that I have too much caster, and what would be the negative impact of 4.7 degrees?

 

Im going to let the alignment shop figure it out, lol. Thanks for the suggestion though.