Mileage

[MrMarty51]

Thank you but it was already done by the time I posted it

So You’re on the road with this rig now, well, when You wanna be on tje road ?

 

[NVW]

if your in to doing your own alignment. there is a bang up procedure I use that will get you dam close.

1. park the rig on a flat level slab with the wheels straight, once straight drive forward and back about 6 feet without turning the wheel so that the steering is relaxed and straight.

2. get you some kite string and two jack stands. place the two stands just in front of both outside front tires. your's is a dually so it will be a little tricky. tie one end of the string to a stand and then walk the string around the back side or the rig and back up to the other stand. fix the string so that its pulled decently tight and its positioned approx in the middle of the tires height. then tie it to the second stand.

3. at the rear tires use a twig or a fountain pen, placing it in-between the string and the very back edge of the sidewall so it's holding the string about a 1/4" to 1/8" out from the side of the tire.

4. This part take some time to setup... now go back up to the stands at the front of the truck. keeping the string pulled tight, move them outward away from the truck until the string is no longer touching the rear tire sidewall but only the twig you stuck on the tire at the back corner. do this on both sides of the truck. get you a ruler and on the rear tire, measure the distance of the string to the front rim edge and rear rim's edge. keep adjusting the stand further or closer to make the distance the same (front to back of the rear rim) do this for both sides of the truck, but keep the string pulled tight (but not so tight it pulls the other stand over)

5. once you have the string absolutely straight and parallel with the truck from the last step. then you can start measuring the rims edge front to back on the steer tires. measure them on both sides of the truck. this will get you the toe in / out measurements you want the front tires as straight as possible with a zero toe in / out meaning if you measure the left front rim front to back and you get a difference of 1/2" with the greater measurement is the front vs the rear, and you get a 1/2" difference on the right side front tire with the greater measurement on the rear vs the front. your toe in/ out is dead on. no adjustments needed!

now caster / camber is a whole nother game. you can't really mess with that without precision equipment, but you can use a carpenters level as long as the slab is level, place the level in the up down position using the rim's edge just to see how close it is. I have adjusted mine before but it's not fun at all. I wouldn't recommend messing with it unless you can eyeball the tires and really see something off.


Sorry for the long winded post, just an attempt to explain it the best way I can on how I have done a driveway alignment in the past.
my last time I did this and then later took the truck to the shop to get it done right. the guy told me it was damn close where he only made some minor tweaks!

Good writeup.

Another member did so as well, there are also pics which help.

Front End alignment on a GMT400 (or any vehicle) | The Truck Stop

 

[dbrannon79]

Good writeup.

Another member did so as well, there are also pics which help.

Front End alignment on a GMT400 (or any vehicle) | The Truck Stop

Yep, he did basically the same thing. only he used the frame to get the string parallel with the truck. the method I used takes in account for the rear tires so if the rear diff is off kilter due to worn bushings or some funny business, it will line up everything with the rear axle instead of the frame.

I also forgot to mention not to use the tire rubber for measurements, only go off the rim since they are bolted flat to the hubs and the tires can have some imperfections or out of roundness.. adding grease plates under the front tires is a good idea but you want to drive up on them and not jack up the front end, this way the suspension is still relaxed in the way it would normally ride on the road.

caster and camber adjustments always come first because they can through the toe off. for caster you have to know where the ball joints are to see the angle they're at. all I did on mine was guess by taking them mid way in their adjustments so it's a little on the positive side, think of how a wheel on a shopping cart is. then use the level to make sure it's straight up and down. there are some good writeups online about setting caster, it's usually a preference on how you want it rather than a "need to be like this" setting.