Alignment issues

i think they fed you a load of crap.
who wants to fight a truck pulling in one direction
also as the tires ware it will start pulling more

 

With over 20 years as a Alignment Tech what you are feeling is
called Road Crown Pull. This is the normal slight downward angle of the road slope, for water drainage. A slight movement to the right in the right hand lane is about 5-8 seconds of drift to the right is normal.
There is road crown on both sides of the roadway, so left hand drift
in the left lane is also normal. If it requires more than gentle pressure
on the steering wheel to correct the drift, than you may have either a
alignment issue or a tire issue. Tire with a slipped or seperated belt can cause a pull also.

 

i was gonna say check your tires, my k5 blazer had a worn out tire, i needed an alignment bad and just one tire was worn uneven, it caused it to pull pretty good, soon as i replaced it no more pulling at all.

 

I had the same problem with my 2005 T2000 - I also noticed an alignment improvement with a shock change-out. I also have a three-axle done once every 2 months - saving me a buttload on steers.....

 

I had three Volvo's at one place I managed. The one guy always complained about having to constantly fight the wheel. The Stealership couldn't find any problem. In 125,000 it needed a second new set of steering tires.

Took it to an independent shop and they replaced the torque arms on the rear, the shocks and did a three axle alignment.

The driver said it steered better than when it was new. Those steer tires where still on it when the owner sold us out to Bulkmatic...

 

yes --pj hit it right on the mark---the truck is set up to go straight--but the slight crown in the road is what gives it the drift to the right--6-7 seconds for a lane change seems kinda quick---it also depends on the road as well-and the tightness of the steering box

 

Try an experiment. Next time you are on a 2 or 4 lane non separated highway and you have no one coming at you go to the on coming lane or cross the yellow line or zipper and watch what happens. The truck SHOULD now do a gentle pull to the left! The crown in the road is usually set up so the water drains to the shoulder. 2 lane roads it is crowned in the center the same on 4 lane roads with no median. It's an engineers fix to keep water off the road surface and to drain to the ditches or 'swell" and it might even drain to the side of the road with the better drainage. This means that sometimes you might even get that gentle pull to the left as the right side of the road might be higher than the left so water drains that direction.

Another reason it usually falls to the right is to get a vehicle to go that direction in case of the driver becoming disabled as in falling asleep or something worse but it doesn't always work that way as we have all seen those head on collisions.

Oh. if you do try that experiment do it at night so you can see the headlights of oncoming traffic and get the heck back across the center lane but remember this is a dangerous move just to see if it's true about crowing or to see if the truck does "PULL" and not drift.
The BEST way to see if there is a pull is to watch the wear pattern on your tires. There is a chart of wear patterns you can get from your tire dealer or download but you'd need to blow it up to really see the pictures.
Another thing to remember about steers is they do take a lot of the forward forces generated by the truck in turns, hitting pot holes and in curbing. Even a "gentle "bump" against a curb can put just enough torque on that wheel and steering assembly to put it out of alignment. Pot holes are hard on your steering and suspension in general. I've watched morons tailgating me and others or just rolling along behind me and I'll swerve to miss a pot ho;le and stupid will drive right through it! After a few times I come to the realization that it's not their truck and could care less and I've even seen O/O's do the same thing!

Another thing that you as an O/O or L/P should do is get an air powered grease gun or a regular one and once a week put 1 or 2 "clicks" or pumps in your grease fittings on the steering. Do NOT pump until you hear the seal pop and grease comes out as only idiots do that! That's why with MY equipment I did all my grease jobs and let the shop do the oil and rears.
WHY?
The seals do two things.
1) keep the grease INSIDE and on the part that needs the grease
2) keeps dirt OUT of those same parts!
When you "pop" the seal you allow dirt into the bearing or knuckle and you also allow grease to drop on the ground, fly up onto your equipment and generally make a DOT officer look at your equipment closer.
Keeping the front end greases keeps it lubed and "wet" and actually tight and not loose as the grease drys out.
Get a fold up creeper from Snap-on and a gun, the hose from your truck stop that will hook to the glad hand or put a quick release fitting on a tank and the air line and keep your equipment in better working condition than a "regular" service and save a ton of money rolling around under your $100,000 investment and do the job the proper way!

 

I think I have heard that line just about every time I got my W9 aligned!