Your Raptor and It's Alignment

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pirate air

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Right after I got my truck, I performed the shock leveling mod, setting it to the number 2 position. I did this after work one night and by the time I got to the alignment, I was pretty spent for the day. So I just did a quick alignment and called it good. Since I had only adjusted my Toe that night, I knew my Camber and Caster angles where still out of spec. Eventually my front tires would show the effects. I'm going on a little road trip tomorrow (to find me a slutty chick named Camber....just keep reading), so I figured I better revisit my alignment today before me and my tires regretted not doing it sooner.

So I thought I would take some picture, write up a little (or maybe big) story, and share it with FRF; because who DOESN'T enjoy learning about their Raptor (or future Raptor:))? Now, I wouldn't call this a "how to" write up because no matter how much you know about steering, suspensions, and alignments, without the proper equipment, doing an accurate alignment is impossible. So this is more of a basic "how things work" write up. I'm going to keep everything in this write up Raptor related, so no, the points of adjustment that are shown here will NOT be the same on your Prius lol.

I think everyone understands what an alignment is, and why it needs to be checked and corrected every once in awhile. Typically I see vehicle owners getting the alignment checked every 30k, or after a new set of tires are installed. As long as you keep an eye out for abnormal tire wear, this is a fine way to go about it. But, depending on how hard/much you drive your Raptor off road, you may need to have it check more often then that. For instance, I've put about 2,500 miles (a couple hundred of them being off road) on my truck since I performed that last alignment. Comparing my measurement from that night, to todays measurement, shows that at some point while gettin "Baja" with the Raptor, I knocked the right front wheel/suspension even farther out of whack.

I had lost some positive Caster, and gained some negative Camber in the right front. In a tight steering and handling sports car, this unintended "adjustment" would've probably been immediately noticed. But with 35 inch tires, a foot of ground clearance, a sway bar gone MIA, and a soft suspension, I never felt the change. So for some of you, it maybe a good idea to get your alignment checked more often then not.


Basic alignment angles,

Toe, is the measurement of the leading or trailing edges of your tires. Positive Toe, or to "in", would mean that when looking at the tires horizontally from the front of your truck, they would look turned in towards each other. Negative Toe, or Toe "out" means the opposite. The tires would look like they're steering out and away from each other.

Total Toe is the difference or combined amount of Toe in each wheel. So if each tire had 6 degrees of positive Toe, your Total Toe would be 12 degrees positive. If one tire had 6 degrees positive and the other tire had 3 degrees negative, you would have a total Toe of 3 degrees positive. Zero Toe means, zero combined or difference of Toe.

Incorrect/out of spec Toe amounts can cause feathering/cupping over the tread blocks of the tire; it can cause a pull or a wander feeling when going down the road. Negative Toe has a greater affect on tire wear, pulls, and wandering then positive Toe.

Adding a slight amount (2-3 degrees) of Total positive Toe during an alignment will help the vehicle track straight down the road without affecting tire wear. It also gives you more cushion in the event that the alignment gets knocked out of whack. If the total Toe was set to zero, and it got knocked, it may go positive (not always a bad thing) or it may go negative, possibly causing tire wear, pull/wandering. By setting the total Toe slightly positive, it takes a harder whack to move the total toe negative (bad). Clear-as-mud!! lol


Camber, is the measurement of the vertical inward/outward tilt of the tire. Negative Camber means, when looking at the side of the truck, the top of the tire will look tilted inward. Positive Camber means the opposite, the tire would look tilted outward.

Or,
Positive/negative Camber can be remembered like this (if your a man that is); visualize a chick named Camber, shes hot, naked, and laying on her back in your bed; her legs are the front tires, her knees being the top of the tires; if her legs were closed, knees tilted in, that would be negative (BAD) Camber, if here legs were open, knees tilted out, that would be positive (GOOD) Camber.

Incorrect/out of spec Camber will cause tire wear and pull. Positive Camber puts the vehicle weight on the outside edge of the tire causing outside tire wear . Negative Camber puts the vehicle weight on the inside of the tire causing inside tire wear. Affects of Camber wear on a tire tread is smooth and uniform. The vehicle will pull to the side with the most amount of positive Camber. Ideally the Camber should be set as close to zero (on each side) as possible to prevent any tire wear or pulls. A couple degrees either way will usually not hurt anything.


Caster is the hardest to explain imo. Basically (in the Raptor's case) it's the difference between the upper and lower ball joint relative to the vertical center line of the hub. If you took your tire off and looked at your truck from the side, you should see that your upper control arm ball joint, is set farther back, or closer to the cab then compared to the lower control arm's ball joint. This would be positive Caster. If the upper control arm ball joint was ahead of the lower control arm ball joint, it would be negative caster. If the upper control arm ball joint and lower control arm ball joint are vertically aligned, neither one was behind nor ahead of the other, this would be zero Caster.

For the most part, Caster is a non tire wearing angle. In some extreme, nit picking circumstances, it will wear a tire/s; but thats going past the basics. I don't think it going to be beneficial to talk about (unless someone wants me to).

continued

The Raptor's spec's call for an equal amount of positive Caster on both sides. I can't remember a vehicle that I've aligned that didn't call for at least some positive Caster. Positive Caster gives the vehicle straight ahead stability and also helps the steering wheel return to center after a turn. Adding positive (or negative) Caster changes the axis angle that the tire is following when the steering wheel is turned. With positive Caster, when the back of your tire is being turned in, it is being forced down, meanwhile the other tire is allowed to come up. That's why, if you've ever noticed that turning your steering wheel at a stand still makes the front of your truck rise up on one side and dip down on the other, you are seeing the Caster angle at work.

Cross Caster, is the amount of difference (of Caster) between the front tires. The vehicle will pull to the side with the least amount of positive Caster. With that said, alignment techs will generally set the right side Caster angle slightly higher (more positive), to help counter a pull that road crown can create. Basically creating a pull (to the left), to counter the effects of gravity.


Last measurement/angle that I think is useful to talk about is Thrust Angle. Now, the Raptor's rear suspension angles are non adjustable. By this I mean sure, you could loosen the U bolts, and possibly get some minor adjustment. But it's not practical, nor a procedure Ford suggests doing during an alignment.

Most shops/dealers will perform a "4 wheel alignment" or a "4 wheel thrust angle alignment". You might be asking, why do I need (or why am I paying for), a "4 wheel" alignment when only the front wheels are being aligned? The answer is, so that your steering wheel will point straight.

Lets go back to the term Thrust Angle. Thrust Angle is the measurement of how squarely the rear tires are located under the chassis; or the position the tires are in, in relation to the vehicle's center line.

Negative Thrust Angle means that the front of the rear tires are pointed to the left. Positive Thrust Angle means that the front of the rear tires are pointed to the right. It is normal for the Raptor to have some amount of Thrust Angle. Ford's spec's, allow for 50 degrees +/-. My Raptor has 13 degrees of positive Thrust Angle (my rear tires point 13 degrees to the right). If I aligned the front end, and didn't account for the 13 degrees of positive Thrust Angle, my truck would seem like it pulled left (think rear-steer fork lift). To go down the road straight, I would have to correct this by turning the steering wheel to the right. Even though as far as the front end is concerned, it's all aligned correctly. Me being Mr. customer, would think my truck pulls to the left, or my steering wheel is off. This is why you need a "4 wheel" alignment, so the Thrust Angle is measured and accounted for. The front wheels will actually be slightly turned to the needed direction when the steering wheel is straight. The truck will "dog track" down the road, but its not enough to be noticed.
 
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pirate air

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Part 2

Finally, some pictures!


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Here's my fuel suckin monster, squeezing her Jennifer Lopez hips on the alignment rack.


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The adjustment for Camber and Caster can be seen here. I took the nut completely off to show the slot that is the range of adjustment. Both the front and rear, connecting points at the frame for the lower control arms have these adjustment slots. So a total of 4 adjustment points/2 per side/2 per control arm. The front one (shown) will affect Camber more, while the rear one will affect Caster the more. But doing either one will have affects on both angles, just one more than the other. FYI, clamping force created by the nut and bolt is the only thing that holds the arm in adjustment.....
Although making adjustments at these points for Camber or/and Caster will affect your toe, this is not where toe is adjusted.


DSC00532.jpg

This is where Toe is adjusted. By loosening the jam nut to the left of my finger, you can twist the tie rod, threading it in or out, creating more or less toe. Both front wheels have this, making the Toe adjusted individual. The steering wheel is first centered, locked in place, then Toe is adjusted after Camber and Caster angles are adjusted.


DSC00539.jpg

Here is what my front adjustment looked like after I was done. Why I wanted to show this is because, the adjustment amount that Ford gave my/the Raptor is maxed. My adjustment to add positive Camber is basically maxed on both my control arms. Why is this? Remember at the very beginning I said I leveled my truck to the #2 position? Because I did that, it made my Camber really negative (you also loose some of your positive Caster). There was just barely enough adjustment provided by Ford to get my Camber angle close to zero again. This also affected how much positive Caster adjustment I have left (which is not much). What it comes down to, is if your putting your truck to the third notch, or using a Truxxx leveling kit, it's probably going to be impossible to ever get your trucks Camber and Caster set right. How bad it wears the tires over time, is tough to say because I haven't seen what the measurements look like on the third notch, and every truck is different. Just because mine is basically maxed on the second notch, doesn't always mean yours will. But I feel its safe to say, Raptors on the 3rd notch (or Truxxx-ed), will be left with some ugly alignment numbers.

If your wondering why the shock mod did this, its because Ford didn't design the alignment adjustments for that tall of a ride height. As the suspension system cycles through its travel, the geometry of the system changes. The alignment is only good and in spec for the ride height that the vehicle was at when the alignment was preformed. You change the ride height and the alignment goes out of spec. Change the ride height too much, it makes the geometry change so vast, there just isn't enough adjustment to get it right again. A slightly longer or adjustable upper control arm would probably be the best way to fix this.


DSC00525.jpg

This is a picture of a Caster/Camber kit made for the F150. This "kit" goes on each of the 4 adjustment points I talked about earlier. After some test fitting on my Raptor, I think it will fit just fine, but I need to call the manufacture of the kit to see what they say. That kit shown is made by a company that specializes in alignment components (company's called Specialty Products). Ford may also make a similar kit for the Raptor, which I also need to look into. When you go to get your truck aligned, the dealer/shop may try to sell you a kit like this. I would suggest doing it for a few reasons. The kit doesn't add any more adjust-ability, it just makes adjusting the Camber and caster much easier. You could even index it after your alignment by drawing a line across the cam and onto the locating plate. That way, its easy to see if the alignments moved around. It should also help secure your control arms making it harder for your alignment to be knocked out, which leads me to this....

My road trip consisted of about 100 miles of off roading. And wouldn't you know it, I managed to knock my alignment out again! This time it was evident, giving a slight pull and leaving my orange indicator on my steering wheel pointing to 11 o'clock. Giving it some thought, I know I tightened/torqued everything I adjusted, so it wasn't created by something left loose. Nothing broke, it was doubtful I bent something, so I came to the conclusion that one or more of my control arm bolts had been pulled out of adjustment. Sure enough thats what happened. My left front control arm adjustment has been pulled about halfway across the slot. Why it moved so quick out of alignment this time I don't know, but I'm pretty confident I know how I did it.

It wasn't the crawling up and creeping down of the rocks; it wasn't the rallying up and down the twisty bumpy roads catching air and stuffing the Raptor's fender's full of tire like a Jenny Craig drop-outs mouth at an all you can eat taco buffet..... What pulled my truck out of alignment was the hard evasive braking. If you've ever stood on your brakes while traversing rough terrain, you know the feeling the truck gives while coming to a halt can best be described as violent. Its then that I think I pulled my alignment out, which is how I now believe I pulled it out the first time. The front of the lower arm was pulled away from the truck. You can imagine, 6000 pounds is trying to go forward but the tire's are locked up, skipping across the road, the tugging/jarring affect is over coming the clamping force that holds the control arms adjustment. I'm hoping the Caster/Camber cam kit helps hold the arm in adjustment better, so I'm not aligning this thing once a month!

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JP7

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Thanks Pirate - That was the most concise explanation of alignment terms I've ever read, and it should be a benefit to both experienced 'wrenches' and those new to working on their trucks. Can't wait to read the rest with pics!
 

bstoner59

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WOW!! That was the most informative alignment write-up I have ever read. THANK YOU!!
 

BIRDMAN

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yowza everything i ever wanted to know about alignment. thanks Pirate.
 
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pirate air

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Thanks guys. If you have any questions or thoughts, just ask.
 

BIRDMAN

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my thoughts are....i usually don't take automotive advice from someone with clean fingernails...but i will break my rule for you pirate. thanks for the pics.
 
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