Alignment ordeal

I've been using a place in sioux falls and its the first place I've ever taken a truck with steer tire wear issues thats actually fixed it. Very low tech but they actually seem to know what they are doing vs doing what a computer says. Agree its pretty simple and basic really.

But I don't see how there is any way to correct a camber issue with a shim?

 

Theres no adjustment for the camber. Using a shim between the axle and leaf springs won't change the camber. A tapered shim would change the caster but wouldn't affect the camber correct? Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to learn other outlooks

 

Camber can be changed by bending the axle.
This is where older trucks have the advantage on better tire wear. The older axles and king pin angles were just about true vertical going straight and kept vertical when turned lock to lock. You notice on newer trucks how one tire will lean outward at the top and the opposite tire leans in even more in a hard turn and that eats tires. True vertical on the old axles means much less steer tire scrub and edge wear in a hard turn. Although much wider turning radius was a result. It also seemed like manual steering trucks did and still do not have a tire cupping and scrubbing problem as long as everything else is good like the power steering trucks do.

 

Ok, I am dumb. I went back into my truck book and this is what I had written down. It had an angled shim on the right side and that was removed and replaced with a wedge shim. Chad said the wedge shim sets the caster to what Peterbilt used to do from the factory. He had no idea why the angled shim was on there as camber was not an issue. Sorry for the confusion and for speaking out my butt on what I thought I remembered.

That being said, if you read Mike Beckett’s material very few wear issues that most people attribute to camber are not camber issues.

 

Come on guys you can't compare a string measurement with a laser.....

 

That laser is only as good as the person using and calibrating it. You can lean against it and get everything in green if an operator wants to.

 

And just because it’s “within specs” according to that expensive machine doesn’t mean it’s right.

 

Could you take some pictures of the set up you have and post them up?
I will try to help if I can see what you’ve got.

 

Much like a wrench or a screwdriver the laser machines are useless if not used properly.

 

Exactly
factory specs are not the end all specifications for a perfect alignment.
They are “with in tolerance numbers “ for trucks being mass produced on an assembly line.
If You have a front end with no issues and read the tires correctly they will always tell the story of where the correct alignment needs to be.