Best Camber, Castor and Toe Settings ????

[zskinner]

Hey guys i have a vp and have just got a front wheel alignment done and was wondering about the printout i got from the company that did the alignment for me. the printout says that my car now has -

* Left Tyre Toe - 1.0mm Toe In
* Right Tyre Toe - 0.9mm Toe In

* Left Tyre Camber - Negative 1.52 degrees
* Right Tyre Camber - Negative 1.86 degrees

* Left Tyre Caster - Positive 3.59 degrees
* Right Tyre Caster - Positive 3.23 degrees


Just wondering if these are all pretty normal figures that would make the car handle ok or if they would send the car a bit wild? just cos after this alignment my car seems to wonder a bit more than it did prior to the alignment.


and theres a bit of a difference in caster and camber degrees on each tyre, are those small differences ok or should each tyre's castor and camber degrees be more closer to each other?

cheers

[Shearer]

One thing I've noticed in with the caster there it slightly less on the right then the left. This is called Caster offset to make the car track straighter on slightly curved roads. Without this the car will pull to the left, and the problem gets worse of lowered cars.

I take you would have adjustable strut tops?

[zskinner]

ah true that, thanks ay at least now i know the caster is normal. yeah just got some adjustable strut tops installed not too long ago. havnt lowered the front of the car yet but will be in the near future, so figured i should probably get the adjustable strut tops when my original strut tops died a few weeks ago

[Shearer]

Adjustable ones are the way to go, the factory strut tops have very limited adjustment

[acarmody]

One thing I've noticed in with the caster there it slightly less on the right then the left. This is called Caster offset to make the car track straighter on slightly curved roads. Without this the car will pull to the left, and the problem gets worse of lowered cars.

I take you would have adjustable strut tops?

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

[Shearer]

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

I've heard that too. I dismissed it as B-S

[hiy_po]

just cos after this alignment my car seems to wonder a bit more than it did prior to the alignment.

If they adjusted the toe it may feel a bit more wondery (is that a word?). Its a common wheel aligner trick to add a bit of toe to cover any pulling, when you cant adjust the castor corectly

[levymetal]

I remember hearing AGES ago (and keep in mind it might be pure bullcrap) that its always better to have a SLIGHT pull to the left, that was if you ever fall asleep behind the wheel or something, you hit a barricade or something, as opposed to incoming traffic.

yeah i read that once too, but what if you were on a normal street and fell asleep and you and ran over a bunch of pedestrians instead? i think cars should track straight - it's not anyone's decision as to who dies first. i'm sure there would be a lawsuit in it if the car was purposely made to track left instead of straight anyway

[wortus]

I'd be putting as much negative camber on the car as possible until the inside of the tyres started to wear more then the outside and as much positive caster as you can, the VN's didn't have much positive castor because they had a delete option for no power steering and too mcuh caster the wheel would be too hard to turn. More castor helps to stop the car wandering around when driving in a straight line and makes the steerign return to centre better.
There should be some toe in maybe 1/8 of an inch all up because when you brake in a car with old (not saying worn out) bushes the wheels splay out at the front, think of it this way you brake and the castor rod is put inder tension so the lower control arms swing back a bit and this changes the wheel alignment settings.
I had to replace my bearing plates on my old VN about 2 1/2 years ago, I just used genuine replacements there was enough castor and camber and nothing to ever come loose. I figured if the old ones had lasted as long as they did then these would more than see the car out. The rest of the suspension was standard, original bushes except for the sway bar links and it had new shocks all round when I bought it in 1998.

[zskinner]

hey thanks heaps for all the replies. so im looking at getting another wheel alignment done, and after reading everyones replies and google-ing a bit i think i want something like this -

* Left Tyre Toe - 2.0mm Toe In
* Right Tyre Toe - 2.0mm Toe In

* Left Tyre Camber - Negative 2.0 degrees
* Right Tyre Camber - Negative 2.0 degrees

* Left Tyre Caster - Positive 4.0 degrees
* Right Tyre Caster - Positive 4.0 degrees


what do you's reckon? does something like that look ok or should i adjust something a bit differently? also i dont want my tyres to wear too much so would 2 degrees of camber per tyre be bad on tyre wear or should it be alright?

[Vlad01]

I am just about to do a total frontend rebuild. just got the last of my supperpro bushes today. lets you's know how it goes.
got a new rack too so yeah total as in total rebuild.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Your camber is way too negative. You will wear the insides of the tyres. The positive toe can counteract it but you will scuff the tyres and wear them prematurely. Ideally you want less than -1 deg camber, caster is good, but toe needs to be 1-2mm overall.

[voxbox]

Your camber is way too negative. You will wear the insides of the tyres. The positive toe can counteract it but you will scuff the tyres and wear them prematurely. Ideally you want less than -1 deg camber, caster is good, but toe needs to be 1-2mm overall.

^This. Castor is basically free camber - it only "applies" the camber to the wheels when they're off the straight-ahead. The more you turn the wheel, the more camber is applied. If you were setting a car up for circuit racing, then yes, you want to dial in a couple of degrees of static camber.. but not on the street. Anything more than -1deg and you're going to wear the tyres out in 10,000km. Or less. Same goes with that much toe-in, it'll scrub the crap out of your tyres in no-time.

[zskinner]

oh ok, well how about this then -


* Left Tyre Toe - 0.8mm Toe In
* Right Tyre Toe - 0.8mm Toe In

* Left Tyre Camber - Negative 0.8 degrees
* Right Tyre Camber - Negative 0.8 degrees

* Left Tyre Caster - Positive 3.8 degrees
* Right Tyre Caster - Positive 3.8 degrees


that would keep my tyres going for a while yer?

thanks heaps again for all the replies again guys, you's have been an awesome help

[FusionX]

That seems about right. My settings go something like this

Toe = 0.5mm each side (1mm total)
Camber = -1 degree between track days and -3 degrees for track days
Caster = 7 degrees (adjustable radius rods allow for larger amounts)

[zskinner]

sweet as thanks heaps ay, well ill get my alignment changed asap before my current alignment starts eating up my tyres

is it worth getting adjustable radius rods for the extra castor? or is it only really worth it for track cars?

[GRPABT1]

Bit of a grave dig but I'm just fitting some new gear to my VN including adjustable pillow ball strut tops, adjustable radius rods and manual steering rack. What would you guys recommend for good alignment settings to suit street and also circircuit as I plan to race this car? Keeping in mind it has manual steering but handling is paramount to heavy steering, my daily driver is a 4wd with heavy manual steering and big tyres so I can live with a bit of low speed muscle work.

[sktnvr5.0_v8]

i would also like to see what guy's think a good set up for a good track car might be! would be very helpfull..

[NPreston]

Here are the settings for my V6 VC track car.
Front axle:-
Total toe -2.3mm. Camber LH -03.42 deg. RH -03.87 deg.
Castor LH +1.71 deg. RH +2.25 deg. King pin angle LH +08.22 deg. RH 07.89 deg.
Rear axle:-
Total toe 0.3mm
Camber LH -00.18 deg. RH -00.15 deg. Rear axle is standard VL 4 pinion limited slip with the diff adjusted as tight as recommended.
Front camber angles achieved by adjustable tops and bending of the struts. I wouldn't recommend these setting for the road.

[Jxw]

seeing someone brought the thread back
i wonder if anyone has noticed that the reason your car will generally drift to the left when you let go of the steering is actually the camber of the road.... not so much a "safety feature" of the car if you fall asleep at the wheel, water runs off the road better and yes cars will head off the road and not into traffic

[GRPABT1]

If it pulls to the left your alignment isn't right, it should compensate for the angle of the road

[GRPABT1]

I ended up with about 2 degrees castor before the tyres hit the battery box (going to cut that out eventually) and 1 degree neg camber for the street with 3.5 all we could get from the strut tops for the track. Toe is set to 0 for now, might adjust that to some toe out at the track. The thing seems to handle brilliantly now at those settings and the manual steering is beautifully direct and quite firm but bearable. I doubt I could live with more castor and manual steering though but I may re-drill the lower arm for extra camber if I feel the need. For now though I am enjoying the new found grip and control I have, sorting out the front even seems to have increased grip in the rear.

[Jxw]

some roads have more angle to them than others, which is what i meant, a car will go perfectly straight on 1 and not on another.
great you found some settings that work well, new commies have the hole for the lower control arm bush moved 4mm don't they for more camber?

[GRPABT1]

You can probably get offset bushes but I will just re-drill the arm. My mechanic wants to get fancy and rose joint everything and make adjustable front lower control arms haha. I wanna keep it simple