Alignment #'s
 

Hey Guys

I've had my 01 Blazer since 05 and put 31x10.5R15s on it shortly after buying it but no shops have been able to align it properly since I upsized the tires (from the stock 235s). Should the upsized wheels even have an impact on the alignment #'s? I would think it would just need to be realigned so either the shop I always take it to have been taking some major short cuts and not getting it 100% or I need to find the proper caster/camber/toe for these wheels. Getting pulls to the left and really bad wear on the outside of every wheel.

Any help would be awesome,

Thanks,

Eric

If you are actually getting wear on the outside of all 4 tires you have issues.

Now what is the shop saying? Have you talked to them about this? Because from the way you are describing it you have either a bent rear axle or have something going on with setback. The two things that wear the outside tread of a tire are Toe and Camber, Neither or which you will have on a straight axle rear vehicle, short of an actual physically bent part, whether it be an axle housing or a tweaked frame.

For the most part the short answer is for no more of a jump in tires size than you went, the alignment change would be marginal at best, and there would be no change from stock alignment specs needed. How often do you rotate your tires?

I have been pretty behind on the rotation and had them rotated just before the last alignment, before rotating, just the front were getting the wear, but now of course all four... The shop isn't letting me see the actual numbers or print out from the alignment and I've had it back to them twice for it to be fixed but they seem to make the pull worse and whoever aligns the wheel must have a crink in thir neck cause my steering wheel always changes as well. Simply not going back there but before I waste more money I wanted to check if there should be different camber or toe.

Thanks, I'll try another shop and hopefully it all runs properly again

Ask for it, however the #1 cause of cupped tires:

Lack of rotation.

Your best bet is to cross rotate the tires (IE "x" pattern not "H" pattern), or in your case if you just had them rotated go side to side in an "I" pattern.

Find another shop. Couple reasons.

1. THey are not showing you specs. I printed out where you where when I started, what factory "specs" where, where you where when I finished. EVERYTIME. Period. If you asked for it or not.

2. The steering wheel not being centered everytime shows a complete lack of "give a damn" Not once did I ever perform an alignement on anything but my own mud trucks that the steering wheel wasn't perfect before the customer ever sat in it.

As far as what the specs should be, factory is fine, it will not pull or wanderer with factory specs. If not able to be completly returned to factory specs, they should have notified you, told you why, and showed you what it was sitting at. Even out of spec a good alignment guy can set it where you don't have the problems you are having.


The one exception would be if the tires are just shot (not tried wise, but broken belts, road force). In that case it is damn near impossible to fix without replaceing the tires. In a few cases I did manage to curve it by force matching the wheel and tire and getting road force down.

When you goto a shop talk to the guy doing the alignment yourself, ride with him, and show him your problem. For the most part we prefer that. Our 15 minute testdrive of your car may not show us the same thing you see everyday. Most of the service writers suck and don't know how to tell us what you tell them.


May sound stupid look for a shop that deals in true "tuners" (not cheap ass imports) actual custom cars that are actually raced/ driven hard. They will have somebody that understands suspension angles and how to correct your problem.

1st, did you do any torsion bar cranking to fit 31" tires? If yes, then it's mostly a camber problem and maybe a toe-in. But mostly a camber problem.
2nd, tires size has nothing to do with getting your truck aligned properly.

A quick, cheap and easy way to see what's your problem, you can park your truck on a leveled ground, wheels straight, and measure on the front tires like 7" above the floor, from one tire thread center to another's. Make that on the front side and the rear side of front tires. That will show you if the toe-in is ok.
Then get a big level tool, put it on the outside (face of rims side) of each tire on the front (top to bottom). That will show you if the camber is ok.

No I didn't do any torsion bar cranking, all pretty well stock suspension wise, I'll do a rotation in a few months in the X pattern you're recommending; the wheels still have about 8/32s tread, new at 15/32 and ya, I'll be giving the next shop crap if they do this or don't show me the numbers

Thanks

Eric