alignment questions. any good alignment shops

any good shop to get an alignment done at. i dont want a shops the will do a half ass job. i just dumped 1400 bucks on new tires. i also dont want a place thats going to let a wild child drive my truck. so throw up some good alignment shop youve used. josh if you read this i sent you a PM about this also knowing you were once a tire/alignment guy. thanks for any info.

jim and tracys alignment

Anyone know any place in town that can corner balance a car? I started a post about it a while ago but there are a lot more people on here now. I don't wanna but the scales but am tempted since I can't find anyone who can do it here.

I align my own stuff because I can't find anyone I trust let alone anyone that will touch my car and set it at the specs I WANT without charging $250.

After doing it for a living and knowing the tricks. I'll put my $200 camber caster guage up against a $50000 computerized rack. Their fancy rack is only as good as the person running it. And I have yet to find anyone capable of thinking outside of "the specs say this"..... mentality. Yaeh... well think about whats been modified on the car genious alignment guy..... now throw the specs out the window. lol

Jim and Tracy's have a good rep although I have no dirrect experiance. My buddy had them do his alighnment on his slammed pickup.... but all they did it seams is set it back to"specs"..... doh! now the tires are wearing on the insides up front...... hmmmmm I'll bet that camber and caster curve is totally different being "slammed" and so them there "specs" are kind of useless don't you think?

I'm back to mt $200 camber caster gauge thanks.

We use Expert Tire at work and they've done all the work on the Venge too. Rod is the man!

Dr.Auto wrote:

I align my own stuff because I can't find anyone I trust let alone anyone that will touch my car and set it at the specs I WANT without charging $250.

After doing it for a living and knowing the tricks. I'll put my $200 camber caster guage up against a $50000 computerized rack. Their fancy rack is only as good as the person running it. And I have yet to find anyone capable of thinking outside of "the specs say this"..... mentality. Yaeh... well think about whats been modified on the car genious alignment guy..... now throw the specs out the window. lol

Jim and Tracy's have a good rep although I have no dirrect experiance. My buddy had them do his alighnment on his slammed pickup.... but all they did it seams is set it back to"specs"..... doh! now the tires are wearing on the insides up front...... hmmmmm I'll bet that camber and caster curve is totally different being "slammed" and so them there "specs" are kind of useless don't you think?

I'm back to mt $200 camber caster gauge thanks.

so when did he re-torque the nut on his spindals?

Dr.Auto wrote:

I align my own stuff because I can't find anyone I trust let alone anyone that will touch my car and set it at the specs I WANT without charging $250.

After doing it for a living and knowing the tricks. I'll put my $200 camber caster guage up against a $50000 computerized rack. Their fancy rack is only as good as the person running it. And I have yet to find anyone capable of thinking outside of "the specs say this"..... mentality. Yaeh... well think about whats been modified on the car genious alignment guy..... now throw the specs out the window. lol

Jim and Tracy's have a good rep although I have no dirrect experiance. My buddy had them do his alighnment on his slammed pickup.... but all they did it seams is set it back to"specs"..... doh! now the tires are wearing on the insides up front...... hmmmmm I'll bet that camber and caster curve is totally different being "slammed" and so them there "specs" are kind of useless don't you think?

I'm back to mt $200 camber caster gauge thanks.

i wish i could do my own truck. ive done a few cars when i was in high school. but i dont trust my self. that was many years ago. so was it maxs truck they aligned is his 2wd or 4 wd. only reason i ash i cause i lowered mine with spindles. im not for sure if they can get it within specs.

i worked for lp anderson for the last five years, andi would still take all my cars to dan over there in the alignment shop. charges 40 bucks for cars, and 50 bucks for trucks.

turbotudor wrote:

i worked for lp anderson for the last five years, andi would still take all my cars to dan over there in the alignment shop. charges 40 bucks for cars, and 50 bucks for trucks.

well the place i set mine alignment up at are telling me they need my truck all day and its going to be around 95. i sent u a pm a few days ago you should check that.

shawnss wrote:

Dr.Auto wrote:

I align my own stuff because I can't find anyone I trust let alone anyone that will touch my car and set it at the specs I WANT without charging $250.

After doing it for a living and knowing the tricks. I'll put my $200 camber caster guage up against a $50000 computerized rack. Their fancy rack is only as good as the person running it. And I have yet to find anyone capable of thinking outside of "the specs say this"..... mentality. Yaeh... well think about whats been modified on the car genious alignment guy..... now throw the specs out the window. lol

Jim and Tracy's have a good rep although I have no dirrect experiance. My buddy had them do his alighnment on his slammed pickup.... but all they did it seams is set it back to"specs"..... doh! now the tires are wearing on the insides up front...... hmmmmm I'll bet that camber and caster curve is totally different being "slammed" and so them there "specs" are kind of useless don't you think?

I'm back to mt $200 camber caster gauge thanks.

i wish i could do my own truck. ive done a few cars when i was in high school. but i dont trust my self. that was many years ago. so was it maxs truck they aligned is his 2wd or 4 wd. only reason i ash i cause i lowered mine with spindles. im not for sure if they can get it within specs.

I am pretty sure that he dropped it with spindles, control arms, and springs.

Of coarse he's not running stock side wheels.... keep that in mind when you do an alignment also. The alignment specs are set with a certain size tire in mind. Just changing the overall diameter of the tire can alter you're alignment and wear tires..... and thats doing nothing but just changing tires.

[/quote] so when did he re-torque the nut on his spindals?[/quote]

Ok lets cut to the chase. What is you're point? Are you insinuating that the wheel bearing may be loose? Because they are not.

it was a question; did i hit an insecurity spot or something? if i was trying to be a smart ass i would have said, "well you might want to check the wheel bearing nut". just a mere fact that if it is torqued too soon (or not enuf times) it can loosen a tiny bit.

Novaflash2002 wrote:

it was a question; did i hit an insecurity spot or something? if i was trying to be a smart ass i would have said, "well you might want to check the wheel bearing nut". just a mere fact that if it is torqued too soon (or not enuf times) it can loosen a tiny bit.

Just seamed like a chicken shit answer...... like did u check to see if it has asymmetrical tires?

Sorry..... wasn't really sure how you meant it. but now I know you were sincere and just not throwing something out there like so many people.

But no.... I'm sorry... his truck really is wearing tires because it's not aligned correctly for whats been done and the twenty whatever inch huge freaking tires he runs.

well i got it done today. they said it turned out pretty good. only thing is that i went so low that he couldnt get it perfect. he said i only have -1 degree negative camber. its alot better than it was before. i only put about 2000 mile on the truck a year not to worried about it. thanks guy for the input.

where did you get it done at?

turbotudor wrote:

where did you get it done at?

i ended up getting it done a staleys tire where i bought my wheels and tires form.

-1deg camber won't wear tires very fast at all. what toe settings did he use?

Or better yet..... did he do what all good alignment guys are supposed to do and print out a sheet showing you're static angles that he set?

Which Stailies was this?

I guess what I'm getting at with toe...... is what size tires and rims does you're truck come with stock? Cause if you changed the overall diameter of the tire i. e. larger diameter..... and they aligned it to"specs" it will have more total toe then they intended and set it at and that WILL wear tires. Even though their special little machine says they set it at lets say .010 deg toe in with lets sat a 26" diameter tire and the new tires are lets say 27.5" in diameter you're toe will be alot more even tough their machine says .010 and that is because they measure the angle that the toe is set and the machine is figuring for a OEM size tire. So when you change that diameter you get more toe ..... unless you measure toe with an actual toe gauge.

Dr.Auto wrote:

-1deg camber won't wear tires very fast at all. what toe settings did he use?

Or better yet..... did he do what all good alignment guys are supposed to do and print out a sheet showing you're static angles that he set?

Which Stailies was this?

I guess what I'm getting at with toe...... is what size tires and rims does you're truck come with stock? Cause if you changed the overall diameter of the tire i. e. larger diameter..... and they aligned it to"specs" it will have more total toe then they intended and set it at and that WILL wear tires. Even though their special little machine says they set it at lets say .010 deg toe in with lets sat a 26" diameter tire and the new tires are lets say 27.5" in diameter you're toe will be alot more even tough their machine says .010 and that is because they measure the angle that the toe is set and the machine is figuring for a OEM size tire. So when you change that diameter you get more toe ..... unless you measure toe with an actual toe gauge.

Im not for sure if they check for toe or not. I might call on monday and check into it. i just told him i that i lowered it and that i had all the front suspension taken off the truck to install the new spindles. I told them i want to get anything fixxed that would cause my tires to wear fast. when i picked it up alls they said was that it has a slight pull to the left and that the camber was -1 now. other than that they really didnt tell me anything else.

thats pretty fucked that they just left it pulling to the left. try side to side the front tires. the pull will hopefully dissappear.

turbotudor wrote:

thats pretty fucked that they just left it pulling to the left. try side to side the front tires. the pull will hopefully dissappear.

that was with the old tires that were shot to shit. i just put the new wheels and tires on. so that might help. they didnt want to touch the new wheels?? but i havent driven it yet do to the shitty roads.

ya most alignment guys really don't give a care. they set to specs and let it fly. they don't think about different size wheels or nothing. that's your problem in their mind.

Josh is right.... most of the time when they give back you're vehicle and it still has a pull they just blame a radial tire pull without checking it. And half the time that is what it is. It just sucks when you have a radial pull and directional tires cause you cant do anything about it then. I pretty much despise how lazy alignment guys are especially having been there and done that and even on flat rate. There is just no excuse for it. The customer is at least owed a print out sheet of the angles when it's done.... but then again I've seen guys cheat on that to. They get it close then just push or pull on the car to bump it to where it should be cause it's close enough and print it while they hold it there.

shawnss wrote:

turbotudor wrote:

thats pretty fucked that they just left it pulling to the left. try side to side the front tires. the pull will hopefully dissappear.

that was with the old tires that were shot to shit. i just put the new wheels and tires on. so that might help. they didnt want to touch the new wheels?? but i havent driven it yet do to the shitty roads.

did you change the size of wheels and tires from what you had and or what was stock?

oh and toe is the most important part of an alignment. They had to of changed it. Some alignment guys are even talented enough to not adjust camber or caster even if there is a problem with it and mask the problem with a toe adjustment. kind of like...... having mold on sheetrock but just painting over it.... you don't see or notice it for a while but it eventually shows up again.

they are supposed to pull to the left, just slightly. its to compensate for the crown of the road. if the road wasnt crowned water would not run off of it.

Novaflash2002 wrote:

they are supposed to pull to the left, just slightly. its to compensate for the crown of the road. if the road wasnt crowned water would not run off of it.

true, but most alignment techs(good ones) can set the caster split just enough so it wont pull on flat roads or crowned roads.

well it was a old boy doing the alignment. so hes probley been around stuff for awhile.

turbotudor wrote:

Novaflash2002 wrote:

they are supposed to pull to the left, just slightly. its to compensate for the crown of the road. if the road wasnt crowned water would not run off of it.

true, but most alignment techs(good ones) can set the caster split just enough so it wont pull on flat roads or crowned roads.

you got it man. In my experience 0.2-0.3 camber split with normal radials works well. But with really wide tires there just isn't that much you can do because of the whole rut pull problem. Some guys split caster to compensate for road crown but I don't like the way it feels especially on the interstate. makes the steering heavy on right hand turns. Works real good on a circle track car though...

in any case... what's done is done. Lets how you're tires don't start wearing funny in a year.

Dr.Auto wrote:

turbotudor wrote:

Novaflash2002 wrote:

they are supposed to pull to the left, just slightly. its to compensate for the crown of the road. if the road wasnt crowned water would not run off of it.

true, but most alignment techs(good ones) can set the caster split just enough so it wont pull on flat roads or crowned roads.

you got it man. In my experience 0.2-0.3 camber split with normal radials works well. But with really wide tires there just isn't that much you can do because of the whole rut pull problem. Some guys split caster to compensate for road crown but I don't like the way it feels especially on the interstate. makes the steering heavy on right hand turns. Works real good on a circle track car though...

in any case... what's done is done. Lets how you're tires don't start wearing funny in a year.

yeah lets hope not. but on the other hand i only put like 1500 miles on it all last year. ive had the truck a little over 3yrs and ive only put 8k miles on it.

shawnss wrote:

in any case... what's done is done. Lets how you're tires don't start wearing funny in a year.

yeah lets hope not. but on the other hand i only put like 1500 miles on it all last year. ive had the truck a little over 3yrs and ive only put 8k miles on it.

I have had my car for 10 years going on 11 and it has 80,000! Pretty sure the first 2 years were about 40,000 of that. First day I had my car I drove it back and forth to town 5 times. Put 600 miles on it just cruising for hours on end. It was amazing!

I just did mine at SEARS at the car drives all fucked up now. It has so much fucking roll.

sqeemishpuppet took a look at it there and fixed the issue. that other mechanic jacked it up. It was swaying on the highway. He told me the rear camber toe wasn't tightened and all loose.

thanks! drives great now.