Question about IFS
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From: Houston, Texas
Question about IFS
Ok....having never owned anything that had any kind of independent suspension, I have a question. I see trucks all of the time that are lifted and have front tires the lean either inward or outward.....so what did these guys screw up on their suspension lift?
Just something that I have always wondered.
Just something that I have always wondered.
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From: Forest Hill, MD
Alignment is really important on the TTB trucks especially after a lift is installed. The tires leaning in or out when viewed from the front is called camber. Positive camber is when the top of the tires lean out. Negative camber is when the top of the tire leans in. Camber is measured in degrees from vertical. This can be caused by anything from mismatched components to underrated front coils to improper alignment and even hitting a pothole or curb the wrong way. Sometimes the exact cause is difficult to narrow down. I drove my old 93 Ranger 4X4 around for over a year with about 3.5 - 4 degrees of negative camber before figuring out the coils included in my 4 inch Skyjacker lift were for a 4 cyl. Ranger. Mine was a 4.0L V6 and the springs just could not hold the weight, maybe it was the winch. Anyway Skyjacker sent me 6 inch springs which actually gave me a little positive camber, but was in the range that it could be adjusted out during alignment. Any camber measurement outside the factory range will kill front tires very quickly.
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Yeah, I know what camber is, but surely so do the folks at the local alignment shop......and I figure if they can pay to have the lift installed, then whoever installs is knows that it needs to be aligned.
Ho, any idea as to what drop brackets they are missing?
It is weird, because some of the trucks I see have positive camber and some have negative....if a drop bracket was left out, it seems like they would all point the same way.....and surely, the alignment shop would not overadjust this setting.
Ho, any idea as to what drop brackets they are missing?
It is weird, because some of the trucks I see have positive camber and some have negative....if a drop bracket was left out, it seems like they would all point the same way.....and surely, the alignment shop would not overadjust this setting.
Last edited by JeremyH; Jun 8, 2004 at 06:02 AM.
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From: Senoia, GA
most of the time the problems lie in the pivot brackets. i sold my lift off of my 93 f-150 to my friend running an 83 f-150 and he had to weld a plate of 3/8" steel plate to drop it down even more. I dunno why, seems to me it would be the same!
plus when when Ford designed their trucks they never imagined that so many ppl would take their perfectly designed suspension and modify it! Hell they never thought that some ppl would wanna run 35" tall tires much less 44's. So when iy was designed it was designed very well for what it was intended for.....a smooth ride down the hwy, not to climb a 75* incline with locked front and rear axles and 40" boggers!
-cutts-
plus when when Ford designed their trucks they never imagined that so many ppl would take their perfectly designed suspension and modify it! Hell they never thought that some ppl would wanna run 35" tall tires much less 44's. So when iy was designed it was designed very well for what it was intended for.....a smooth ride down the hwy, not to climb a 75* incline with locked front and rear axles and 40" boggers!
-cutts-
Last edited by fishmanndotcom; Jun 8, 2004 at 11:02 AM.
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Yeah.....but the problem doesnt occur on SA'ed fronts.....why they went to IFS, I'll never know. If people say for ride.....screw that. My jeep rides like a caddy.
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From: Forest Hill, MD
The problem mainly lies in the relation between the drop brackets for the pivot end of the axle halves and the height of the spring installed. If you were to put 4 inch springs on a TTB truck without pivot drop brackets you would end up with alot of positive camber, conversly if you put 4 inch drop brackets on the truck with stock springs you would end up with negative camber. Extreme examples I know, but you can see by what I went through with my Ranger just because the springs are 4 inches and the drop brackets are 4 inches doesn't mean everything will work out ok. Yeah a good alignment shop can fix camber problems up to about 3 degrees pos or neg with eccentric upper ball joint spacers which are machined with an angled hole to angle the steering knuckle in the direction it needs to go. Because of the size limitations of the upper ball joint spacer 3 degrees is about the most that can be eliminated with them. Believe me alot of alignment shops have no clue and won't even touch a TTB Ford with a lifted suspension.
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From: Senoia, GA
Originally Posted by JeremyH
If people say for ride.....screw that.
-cutts-
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Joined: Mar 2003
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From: ontario
another reason
a couple of other ways to get bad camber angles is toe in or out, with the ttb if you have too much toe in you will see your front end raise or lower depending on if you are going forward or reverse.the toe in forces the tires closer together raising the front and when you back up it is the opposite, it happens a bit even properly alligned but real bad when you are out, one more reason I want a d60 front end for my bronco 
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