I've seen those specs and used them as a guide. I was fighting "Death Wobble" at the time and read LOTS of posts. The concenses for caster seemed to be... get as much positve caster as you can up to 4.5. After they fixed the right front tire wear I went back to the shop 6 months later to get it aligned again since I had also replaced the TB and steering box and added a DSS. They said alignment was fine but the shop agreed to add more caster up to 4.5. They charged me nothing BTW.

After replacing bad front rotors about 3 months ago now my truck drives GREAT. It steers straight and the PSC 3 turn steering gear (don't flame me on this...I know some don't like PSC but mines fine) with the light valving allows steering with one finger and no pull or wobble or wear.

Be sure to find a good FRAME shop for the alignment. I had no luck with the name brand alignment shops. A good FRAME alignment shop will know how to fix problems not just align it to spec.

Good Luck,
Dave

 

Sorry I didn't know you only drove in 2wd, then it doesn't matter what you have on the front or the back. My truck sees mostly 4wd and I can tell when the rear tires are starting to get down compared to the fronts. The truck starts to get loose on slippery surfaces. On one of my other 4X4s I used to run summer and winter tires, big tires on the back, smaller ones on the front in the summer. One day I put it into 4WD without thinking, I was only doing about 25mph and I lost complete control, it hopped from wheel to wheel and onto the other side of the road. Luckily nothing coming the other way but those tires came off right away and I run the same size tires all year round now.

 

You have been privileged to receive some exceptional input from Dave Miller. He reafirimed statement on very low toe settings. Caster must be within a narrow range. Camber should not vary more that .5 degree or you need the adjustable joints per statement. With a solid axle, you do not twist the axle to change cross values. That was proved in final settings.

 

Great, thanks again. Yeah I'm going to use the specs Dave mentioned. I found a frame shop here in town. I'll give them a call later today.

 

If you want any help understanding this call Mike at Louis Frame & Wheel in Fresno. Mention Dave with the big Red Dually Dodge diesel that gave him lots of copies of my Dodge front end fixes.

Mike was impressed with the 3rd gen TB setup. PSC 3 turn box and DSS and other stuff I added. I have had a few guys call him up and he will talk to you about your problem. Mike knows his stuff and I highly recommend him.

 

I know it's been a while but I thought I'd just give you guys an update. I got it aligned at Tim Pearson's Alignment shop. I was going to take it to a frame shop but apparently this guy is "the best in town." I was very pleased with his honesty and service. Can't find them like that anymore. Anyway, truck drives like a dream! Wish I would've done this sooner. I can get the specs up later but from what I remember for caster, the driver's side was set to 3.31* and the passenger side to 3.50*. The toe was set to 0.10* and 0.15*.

My truck already had adjustable camber sleeves on the passenger side, as well as adjustable caster thingies on the lower control arms. I like how Tim didn't try to sell me a new set. He said that the inner tire wear is normal since these trucks have a solid front axle. He said you just gotta rotate the tires often in order to prevent it.

 

Glad to hear you got it fixed. Did he adjust camber, caster or toe to get rid of the tire wear?

Did he get those caster and camber and toe adjustments using the control arm eccentrics or the offset cylinders on the knuckle or both?

 

I believe he adjusted all three components and used both the eccentrics and the offset sleeves. I asked him to print me out the before and after spec sheet. As you can see, my alignment was off be a good amount, especially caster. Notice the wide "specified range" that the machine gives on caster. I'm glad I took in the printout from www.dodgeram.org so he'd understand why it needs to be right on spec. He also told me that all alignment machines have a bit of error, so there's no way you can get actually get it right on spec. In other words, if the right camber shows 0.15* now, it may show 0.10* if you take it off and put it right back on again.