budhayes3

iTrader: (19)

Hopefully I'll have the time after work Tuesday to align my truck after just dropping it with Belltech keys, 2" Belltech shackles, and removing the rear lift blocks. The front camber is noticeably negative, and it appears to be toed out also. I'm not sure if the adjustment cams are gonna give me enough movement to get the camber into or close to spec or not. I've done some research and found out that the SS's allow for up to -.6* of camber in the front, and I'm hoping to achieve that, but if I can't, how far do you think I can go before it turns into a major issue? I know that camber has to be pretty extreme before it'll give you a tire wear issue, just not sure how much is too much on a truck. Thanks in advance!

CHEVY6000VHO

iTrader: (2)

You don't wan't too much neg camber. o.oo or a few degrees positive is acceptable. You want both left and right camber right about the same. Your total camber is where you need to watch as well. Also if your setting at the max positive or negative allowable camber or toe, you will wear your tires prematurely. Even if it is within max allowable manufacturer specs.

Jim

CHEVY6000VHO

iTrader: (2)

Lowering keys do not give a quality ride. Spindles or springs are better.
A lot of the guys at www.silveradoss.com have great write ups on a few different lowering kit styles. The keys give the worse results from what most guys have already tried. They end up going with spindles and o.e. keys and a little adjustment on the torsion bars. Also, depending on how much your lowering the rear, a combination of hangers and shackles will keep your pinion angles at or almost stock. Therefore eliminating vibrations and premature failure of u-joints and possibly eliminating a destroyed driveshaft.
Just do a search there, as majority of guys there only have torsion bars. So the reviews are a bit more thorough than here.
Just trying to help.

Jim

unklej

iTrader: (1)

I have a comment on the positive camber comment...

Here goes, many auto makers spec 0.0 or slightly positive camber to induce understeer in their cars and trucks. This is done to prevent the normal driver from getting their vehicle into an oversteer (tail happy) situation. As far as the people who want more performance and handling from their vehicle, running some negative camber will make the truck handle better without sacrificing tire wear. Most normal tire wear comes from the toe being out of adjustment. You want to run 0.0 toe or slight toe in for vehicle stability. Toe out will help corner entry, but make the car darty on straight runs.

Jeff

budhayes3

iTrader: (19)

I'm planning at keeping total toe at somewhere between 0 and +1. Performance-wise, going as far negative as possible on the camber is the way to go...you just don't want to so far that you lose the contact patch of the tire on road and put all of weight and stress on the inner edge of the tire. I've pretty much always purposely gotten my vehicles to about -.5* of camber for the performance cornering results it provides, and never had a problem with inner edge wear. I'm just not sure if I'll even be able to achieve that spec with my current set-up, and I'm trying to find out what would be considered acceptable just in case. I've read that the SS camber spec is -.6* to +.4*, so I know that I'll be good to go with the spec I want if I can achieve it.

I posted this same thread over at SilveradoSS.com, and so far, no hits (although it is a holiday weekend).

I wish I could get in touch with this guy I used to know who was an engineer for GM, then moved over to Toyota. He taught me a ton about alignment geometry many years ago and was a big advocate of negative camber. I remember aligning his bright yellow turbo MR2...he brought his own specs with him and told me to ignore the screen and all the red I'm gonna see, this is the way he wanted it. I followed his instructions and drove the car and couldn't believe how well this thing handled and cornered.

As far as the torsion key/spindle decision, I went with the least expensive quick route, and I must say that I'm more than happy with the ride quality of the truck...and this is with the bumpstops trimmed too short (they're not even touching...whoops). When I get my new set of Belltech 6420 bumpstops in there I'm sure the spring rate feel will tighten up even more. I just hope that I can get the camber to come up positive enough that it's not an issue. If the factory's allowing -.6*, I'll bet I can go even more and be OK, considering the factory's tendency to stay on the conservative side.

I'm curious what the front camber specs are on certain sports cars, like the Corvette for instance??

budhayes3

iTrader: (19)

Absolutely, toe is the biggest factor in tire wear (aside from underinflation or overinflation of course). Most every vehicle that I've aligned with innner or outer edge wear has been either toed out or in. The only vehicles that I've seen with wear from camber usually have a bent component (knuckle, upper control arm, etc), and are visibly obviously negative (or positive if the edgewear is on the outer edge)....and at this time mine is visibly negative...not extreme, but noticeable to me.

CHEVY6000VHO

iTrader: (2)

Ok, the performance handling comes from neg camber and neg caster. The toe adjustment needs to be close to 0.00 as possible. The toe adjustment really doesn't have any performance characteristics to it. It will mainly just wear out your tires if it is off.
I have been doing alignments for 2 years now. I think I should know. There have been several guys with dropped cars that hand me there own performance alignment specs for there cars. The toe is not part of a performance handling spec. It still needs to be set as close to 0 as possible.
The neg camber that these guys want will definately wear out the inside edges of the tires. I tell them this in advance. Setting the toe to as close as possible to 0 will help reduce the tire wear.
Setting caster negative will thrust the front wheels forward to get the vehicles weight pushed more onto the rear wheels. This also helps 1/4 mile cars and trucks track straighter down the 1/4 mile.

Jim

budhayes3

iTrader: (19)

I belive you meant to say positive caster...neg caster pushes the wheels back in reference to a verticle line through the center of the of the hub/wheel assy. Negative caster will allow for easier steering, but sacrifice performance and control, as the weight of the vehicle is more over the front wheels. Just think of a shopping cart with the front wheels shaking back and forth as you push it...shopping carts have negative caster. Positive caster will result in more steering effort, and the vehilce will follow the road more (more affected by road crown and other road imperfections), but will provide for a better more concise steering feel, better cornering, and better return of the steering wheel after a turn is made.

In short, Neg Camber, Pos Caster = Performance
Pos Camber, Neg Caster = Good for grandma

CHEVY6000VHO

iTrader: (2)

Ooopps, sorry it is positive caster. Neg= in and pos= out. Just wasn't paying attention to what I was writing and trying to explain.
I can do it on our digital alignment racks a lot better than typing or writing it out.

Jim

Superado

iTrader: (37)

Make : CHEVROLET Model : SILVERADO Year : 2000
Manufacturer : GENERAL MOTORS CORP.
Service Bulletin Num : 020307002 Date of Bulletin: MAR 01, 2005
NHTSA Item Number: 10014945
Component: SUSPENSION
Summary:
REVISED FRONT CASTER AND CAMBER ADJUSTMENT PROCEDURE. ORIGINAL NOT YET RECEIVED. *TT