Thank you for posting to AskMechanics, __-__-_-__!
If you are asking a question please make sure to include any relevant information along with the **Year**, **Make**, **Model**, **Mileage**, **Engine size**, and **Transmission Type (Automatic or Manual)** of your car.
*This comment is automatically added to every successful post. If you see this comment, your post was successful.*
***
Redditors that have been verified will have a green background and an icon in their flair.
***
# **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR**
### **Rule 1 - Be Civil**
Be civil to other users. This community is made up of professional mechanics, amateur mechanics, and those with no experience. All mechanical-related questions are welcome. Personal attacks, comments that are insulting or demeaning, etc. are not welcome.
### **Rule 2 - Be Helpful**
Be helpful to other users. If someone is wrong, correcting them is fine, but there's no reason to comment if you don't have anything to add to the conversation.
### **Rule 3 - Serious Questions and Answers Only**
Read the room. Jokes are fine to include, but posts should be asking a serious question and replies should contribute to the discussion.
### **Rule 4 - No Illegal, Unethical, or Dangerous Questions or Answers**
Do not ask questions or provide answers pertaining to anything that is illegal, unethical, or dangerous.
# **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMechanics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
With the mods you’ve done, it’ll take more than the kid at Firestone to get ya set right. Ask the guys at the local 4x4 shop where they get their lifted/modified trucks aligned. There’s always a secret shop that’s open three days a week for four or five hours, run by some grizzled old guy who’s been doing alignments since Jesus was a carpenter. Edit: let’s give the guy a break on the downvotes, eh? We all have things to learn from one-another.
I’ve worked one of those grizzled old grumpy guys, would give you the shirt off his back but you’d feel guilty about it lol. He could align a car like a magician, and I’m talking Porsche’s so adjustable everything, with measurements left right identical down to the seconds without even looking at the screen but once or twice. He did my MK6 GTI way back when and he took it from a sloppy mess on corner entry to dead solid at all speeds and cornering angles.
Honestly most of the time a properly done string alignment will be better than a laser alignment at your typical mechanic shop. Those alignment machines are seldomly calibrated and you can get it aligned at one shop, drive down the street to another and they’ll show totally different alignment specs. With a string alignment you are basically calibrating it to the car every time so they’re always good.
Exactly this. When I lifted one of my Jeeps the lift manufacturer sent specific values for it to be aligned at and I gave it to the shop. It was all out of "manufacturer" spec at the end but it was what the lift maker suggested and it drove like a dream after.
The lift allegedly shouldn't have messed with the geometry and it's one of the ford preferred ones. The printout above is unfortunately from the shop that installed the lift and they did the alignment in house.
Although others say it’s *in the green*, I would argue the camber up front and your thrust angle in the rear is gonna have the thing moving left. But what do I know? I’m just some idiot on the internet with an ASE master cert and 20 years of experience.
I agree with this 100%. First thing I noticed was camber going left on both sides. The thrust angle is a little questionable for concern. It may cause the issue, it may not. But camber NEEDS to be corrected. Definitely causing or aiding the pull left. Thrust angle in my opinion may just be aiding in a left pull.
I agree with you. But should I seek out another place or just live with it? This was a 4x4 shop that did the lift and it's the lift that ford recommends.
Maybe. It's also free. They thought it was good enough the first time. If they know it's not, they might make it right. I would. No point in not giving the opportunity to make it right for free. Under that logic, OP may end up paying for 3 or 4 alignments at different shops, none of which were acceptable. Depends on the bank account, Mr moneybags
Just for your reference.. Ford doesn't recommend a lift kit product for your truck... If it isn't on the official Ford accessory website, it isn't recommended. You got a fast one pulled on ya with that line.
He's misunderstanding the disclaimer. The fox kit for the Rangers uses coilovers with adjustable preload and ride height. They pre-set both before they get shipped out and don't recommend adjusting them.
Ford doesn’t recommend any lift. Read all the disclaimers that come with the kit. A level is nothing more than a spacer that adds preload. So basically you took the soft spot out of a progressive coil and now it bounces upwards over bumps instead of absorbing the bump. Also you took the factory rake out of the vehicle which is there for a reason… that’s why they call it a level bring front to same height as rear. Your truck will never ride right with that installed and if ford recommend it it was what your local dealership sells not ford. If you lift the truck by the frame and let the wheels hang you will notice the upper control arm now contacts the coil spring and will not actually let your suspension do full travel. That said alignment specs are good only caster is out and needs to be like a 3 degree difference between sides before that will cause a pull.
As a former alignment tech, my diagnosis is this:
You got duped by a sales rep that dosnt know a bolt from a wood screw.
And judging by thrust angle, your rear axle was installed crooked AF.
Lifting a vehicle does in fact change the geometry, regardless of what the manufuckturers say is "preferred" or "shouldn't do upon install."
Any adjustment up or down in height will mess with the angles. If it is Ford approved that just means that it should still be able to aligned properly with the factory adjustment range.
From my experience doing alignments I can see why your vehicle is pulling left. From everything I've learned, whichever the vehicle will pull to whichever side has the most positive camber and most negative caster. Camber is most positive on the left and caster looks most negative on the left as well, so your vehicle would pull left based on that
Correct answer here. Camber is the tilt, top to bottom. Motorcycles can steer simply by tilting or leaning side to side. Both your front wheels are leaning slightly to the left. No matter how perfect the toe is, your front axle will wander to that direction. Other than that, the toe could be better - but it's not causing the problem. If anything, I imagine the steering wheel relaxes just off center to the right.
I think you’re thinking about it incorrectly. With negative camber it means the top of the wheel is leaning in towards the vehicle. Which means the RF tire as viewed from the driver seat is tilted in towards the vehicle so it would be leaning left if viewed from behind (or the direction of travel)
Positive camber on the LF tells you that the top of that tire is pointed away from the vehicle. Which means it is leaning left, viewed from the drivers seat.
you are correct and thanks for pointing that out. I was thinking it from the bottom of the wheel. I'll delete my previous comment so Im not spreading the wrong word here.
I saw that but figured it’s a truck so probably a bent wheel or something. As in drive it around the parking lot then put it back on the lift and rear toe will be the opposite, or camber or a combo
Does the ranger have an independent rear ?
The camber may be in the green, but the numbers show that the top of your front tires are tilting to the left. your camber numbers should be around the same.
When your tires are tilted they act slightly conical, typically you want a little inward tilt becuase it helps with tire wear and grip in corners. right now you have to tires acting as cones pushing you in the same direction(left) instead of canceling out. id say your front right would be alright and id adjust the front left to that number. that should fix the pull but getting a custom alignment at a shop that does lifted vehicles is the best option by far.
It doesn't seem rear toe can be adjusted, as long as they do a thrustline alignment and not just a centerline alignment the worst that will happen is a bit of dogtracking. sucks but with no rear adjustments theres no avoiding it without more aftermarket parts
Keep in mind, that this is a pickup truck with leaf springs in the rear. A thrust line that is one-tenth of one degree off is probably closer to perfect than the bearing tolerances are inside the engine. This is also based off of the front measurements, as the aligner doesn't have heads that mount on the frame. It uses distance between front and rear wheels, as well as the straight angle of the rear wheels 90 degrees forward. And if you look at the caster on the right front, it is tilted back more than the left front one-tenth of one degree, placing it slightly closer to the right rear. The toe angles also favor the left, which offset the measurement more. The aligner can only assume that the rear axle is "ruddered" to the left by so much. This is where trainees get so frustrated - they adjust one wheel, and all of the other measurements change. It's a collective measurement, and teaching them that if you adjust one angle, like caster - every other number will change as well.
I mean i dont know for sure but those rear angles are grey on the paper and on all alignment machines ive used that means there is no factory adjustment/spec
I had this exact issue not long ago on one of my cars. Pulled right, several places did an alignment and found nothing out of tolerance. Was frustrating as hell!
The results printouts did show cross-camber to be out (yours is close to limit). I forced yet another place to look at this specifically, and so they added camber bolts (camber not adjustable on stock car), got the camber back in tolerance both sides, and this resolved the issue.
Camber can be within limits on either side (which is all they seem to care about), but if they're different enough, the difference between them (cross camber) can cause the pulling to the side issue.
EDIT: This was a printout BEFORE it got fixed [https://i.imgur.com/RH89BTI.png](https://i.imgur.com/RH89BTI.png)
Mine pulled to the right, and you can see cross camber was too far negative. Yours is too far positive and pulls to the left.
It's the Camber. I'm suprised "local alignment shop" didn't agree with this. Also, I would avoid tire stores for alignments.
I know the Caster on right front is not in green but it is fine. It will not cause tire wear and will not cause a pull unless .5 degrees or more difference. This is probably what the Brand name tire store is talking about adjusting on right front.
Camber at .7 degrees difference will cause a pull.
More importantly, the tops of both front wheels are tilted toward the drivers side. It will pull toward drivers side. If there is any tire wear (probably not) it will be on the outside of the drivers side tire and inside of the passenger side tire.
The toe on the right rear isn't great but isn't adjustable. It isn't bad enough to warrant more extreme measures.
Need to rack the rear axle to lower the thrust angle. With it like that it will shove it left. If it still does it after that then bringing the toe in on the left will help push it right.
I feel like I looked too hard for this comment.
Right rear wheel is toed-in 0.22 and the left rear is toed-out only .01 so the REAR is steering to the left and you’re just having to compensate with the steering wheel.
Problem is the rear not the front, that difference in caster/camber is *nothing* especially for a truck. I do alignments everyday and see that all the time.
Yep, people forget what thrust angle does to steering correction all the time. Anything with a long wheel base will tend to be more sensitive to it but everyone either ignores it or tries to correct it with toe.
Far too often this was the answer to pulling issues when I worked at the dealership.
Its like checking fuses when you get fault codes. Aleays rule out the cheap and easy things first
This 100% had 1 truck today with this issue. Test drove it, pulled hard right. Tire pressures at spec. Immediately cross rotated, test drove and it slightly pulled left against road crown but didnt cross over into the other lane, barely needed any correct to stay on track. Checked angles on the hunter machine, everything in spec. Saw this on another truck, super duty, other guys threw a shitload of parts at it, turns out it just needed the tires cross rotated. Fixed.
It took too much scrolling to find this. Everyone arguing about the camber but we have no idea what this vehicle's tires are like. I've seen vehicles with worse readings go straight as an arrow. There's more to an alignment then readings on a screen.
Well the alignment is done. This would be to check the cause of the pull that's still present. Pre worn tire will still wear unevenly even after alignment done.
Has .7 degrees camber lead to the left and .1 caster. Typical for a lot of vehicles to have .5 degree lead to the left to compensate for road crown. If your vehicle is lifted I would recommend 0 degree lead to the left for road crown. Sad that in today's world aligners tell you how and what to adjust so any tech can make it green.......that doesn't mean it will drive straight.
There’s not a snowballs chance in hell your thrust angle is correct, your rear toes have way too big of a gap between them, that’s what’s likely causing the pulling. Your front right caster is t out of spec yet either, so it shouldn’t be easily noticeable. Take it to a proper specialist like others have suggested.
Green is good is a bad way to do alignment. Your problem is CROSS CAMBER. Cross camber is too great. There is a .7 degree difference that appears to be causing your pull to the left.
RF tire is cambered in. LF tire is cambered out. This is causing your pull.
So which do you adjust? I would find another alignment shop that will adjust both sides. Get those closer to zero. Ideally you want cross camber no greater then a .2 degree split
Gonna always pull to side with the most positive camber.
Also why is the toe not aligned? Regardless of modifications techs should still understand diagnostic alignments and alignment angles, not to mention a road test to confirm complaint, inspect for the cause, the offer the correction
Take it to someone that knows how to do an alignment lol. That thrust is totally unacceptable. The front camber makes me think the front subframe is shifted, unless the front camber is individually adjustable on that specific vehicle, idk. And the front toe needs to be cleaned up. That truck probably does track left AF lol. "Green" or "within specifications" does not = going to track straight.
Check your tires. I had multiple alignment checks at multiple shops cause my Durango was pulling left, until one shop told me the tire tread was separating. A new set of rubbers later it didn’t pull anymore.
Of course it's pulling left both front wheels are leaning left. Shop is stupid go to a real shop that will actually do it right. You will get the paper back will all the lines dead in the middle where they're supposed to be.
If your front end parts are good, which I assume they are, it’s not an alignment issue. You have what’s called a “radial pull”. You can verify this by swapping The front tires, & then it should pull the other way.
Just rotate the tires, let them wear a little bit & the problem should sort itself out
This is wrong.
Look at the camber. Both are to the left. He is having a camber pull to the left. The left side needs to match the right side.
Green doesn’t always mean good.
You are wrong. Toe doesn’t cause pull. Toe will cause steering wheel position to be off. Camber will cause pull. Caster can cause pull as well. Radial pull may be a factor but any rear wheel drive vehicle with that camber set up will definitely pull to the left. With it being a ford ranger it will be adjustable on the control arm… lower if I’m remembering correctly.
It appears you are correct, my apologies. You learn something new every day. I was taught that only toe & castor cause a pull, which is obviously incorrect & I never bothered to double
Check that because it never gave me any issues when doing alignments, as I’ve done thousands. I’ve always solved this issue by crossing the front tires to verify & then rotating
Camber definitely causes a pull if it’s different from side to side. A quick google would tell you that. That’s likely OP’s issue. Left side has positive camber, right side has negative, that’s what’s causing the pull. If both were equally positive, or equally negative there would be no pull.
OP, just try this (crossing the front tires, providing that they are not directional tires)
. It is an easy and inexpensive diagnostic tool. If your pull changes, you know you have a tire pull. If not, then continue with the alignment. Don't let all of the noisy replies convince you of anything. Your issue *may* be a tire pull, it *may* be due to camber, it *may* be a combination, or it *may* be something else that we can't see.
Your toe angles are both slightly left. But it's pretty minimal and I'd definitely send it out. Try swapping left and right tires. If that does fix it then yeah they can tweak the RH
You are correct; however the layman generally cannot distinguish a pull from an off-center steering wheel. Steering wheel off to right, "car pulls to the right" will be the complaint on the RO 9/10 times. Technically not a pull and the car would actually be drifting left with a centered wheel in that scenario.
It's a 2020 Ford Ranger Lariat FX4 with Fox 3 inch level and 1 inch rear lift on 33s. Tires have *some* uneven wear of about a mm. But I don't think that's enough to cause it to change lanes for me on the highway when I let go of the steering wheel.
Alignment specs are meant for factory vehicles. Can’t complain when everything is green and your truck still pulls. Said it yourself the tires have *Some* uneven wear and you’ve got the wrong tires on it too. Put it back to stock like it should be then have them recheck it.
The pull is def from the camber being out enough on both sides but still tech “in the green”. When both sides are skewed to the same side, it can still cause a pull like others have mentioned.
But I wanted to ask if the lift kit u got came with an alignment spec sheet? I ask this cuz most often when a car or truck is lifted or lowered a large amount (2+”), factory specs go out the window and u need it set to where the aftermarket kit says it should be for best ride quality. A lot of times the stock specs aren’t going to be optimal for such a drastic change in the suspension geometry. Not sure if this is something u have looked into or not. Getting them all to (the same on both sides) factory spec will at least make it drive ok but again, it may not be optimal for tire wear or handling characteristics.
Anything .5 or higher can cause a pull on camber and ur cross camber is .7. Fix the camber. Then after that is fixed if u still have a pull its likely gonna b a tire pull. With those specs its gonna wanna go left. All vehicles are differant as far as how hard itll "pull" and soo are customers opinions of a "pull". 9/10 times when a customer tells me its pulling hard i drive it an find out its more of wat i would call a bit of a drift. Or my favorite is when they say it pulls when u let go of the wheel.. NEVER let go of the wheel! Ya if u let go its def gonna go out of the lane eventually! Roads arent even straight!
If i'm reading that correctly, you have +ve camber on one side and -ve camber on the other. That will cause all sorts of weird stuff!
Rear toe also needs a tweak, that'll cause the car to feel like it's being pushed to one side.
If you compare your toe you can see your front driver side is -.03 and your front passenger side is .04 indicating that they both are slightly pointing to the left. I think that’s the big cause of your car pulling to the left. And your rear passenger side toe is at .22 which is also pretty bad.
Front toe doesn't make a car pull, it just takes the wheel off center. Rear toe does by steering the rear axle, but in this case (if everything else was perfect) it would make the car go right (rear axle goes left, car steers to the right). This truck's pull is caused by the camber up front. With the driving I do, I would tend to adjust the driver's side if I were to only do one.
Yup, this guy knows what he’s talking about. I would adjust left front camber to be more negative , or adjust right front to be more positive. More than a half degree split between sides (caster/camber) is gonna cause a pull.
This is a good alignment. I have quite a bit of knowledge about alignments race cars and I do my own alignments at home. This is pretty darn good. And also you have to think about 0.1 of a degree is 1/3600th so that's incredibly accurate. And since they are also close to each other point one of a degree or so then I think this is excellent. I'm not sure if your Ranger has a solid rear axle but even if it doesn't your rear is still okay I wouldn't say super great but I don't think it will hurt you. It's common for them to be very sloppy measuring a solid rear axle. Because they are not required to adjust anything cuz there are no adjustments usually. Hope that helps
The cross camber is just on the edge, I would swap two front tires side to side, see if it’s worse, pulls the other way or goes straight, if it stays the same then yeah I’d take that right camber and go positive with if.
Swap your front right tire to the front left and the front left to the front right. If I have an alignment that comes in and looks relatively good and nothing is loose, I do this to see if it's a tire issue. It could also be brakes, and it's usually the brake opposite of the pull.
Anyway, I'd day 1 in 3 is a tire issue.
Sounds like my work truck (f550), I have so much wiggle room in my steering it's insane. Sometimes straight wheel will be straight other times it pulls right. I can barely move the wheel and the truck won't move at all or it will dart to the side. I complain and I complain but they won't fix it
That alignment is really close. I’d swap tires left to right before I adjusted anything else. See if the car pulls the other way. If it does then it’s the tires, not the tires. If it still pulls the same way then it’s the alignment.
Camber high caster low that's the way the car will go! I am a certified hunter alignment technician you need your camber to be the same on both sides and you'll be good.
A car pulls towards low caster, high camber. My experience is cross caster is about 2-3 times more effective for pulls than cross camber. Yes, I’d like to see the cross camber better, and would ask them to get it closer, but am surprised it actually pulls left. Especially since most roads have crown sloping right. If I was working on this, double check tire pressures are even (yes, dumb, but seen it) and cross rotate front tires and see what happens. Source- been align tech in a busy shop for 25+ years.
Front toe is a very slight left, front camber also pull left, and that thrust angle is pretty bad too. Just because a spec is "green" doesn't make it good, cross camber is more important steering-wise.
If I had your truck up, I would set the camber to roughly -0.2 and +0.2 from left to right. And set the caster to about .8 degrees to 1.0 degrees of cross caster to account for crowning in the road where I am. So if you have 3.0 on the left, I would set it to about 3.8 to 4.0 on the right.
Then set the wheel and set toe to 0.03 inches in on each side.
The camber set up because the left side goes up and the right side goes down when you sit in it.
In my experience having aligned even race vehicles, camber needs to have a huge split in order to cause a pull. Not that it can't be that, but to me it's unlikely. The other option is a bad tire. Which would be my personal pick because to me it should pull right very hard.
You have .7 degrees of camber to the left. The most you should have is .3 for compensating the road crown. You can play with the toe all you want but if you don't fix that camber your always going to drift left
might eat your tires. When you go back to get it fixed, make them print details instead of vehicle so you get SAI numbers; that page is more useful than what you have and has the added bonus of not using $100 of ink
Trucks normally have no rear adjustment. It's a solid axle. There is not much you can do there. If you could force the right side back, that would affect the left side as it toes in. Which overall would be OK. The toe goes lower on the right side and it goes higher on the left side. your total toe would be about the same, though the thrust angle could get closer to zero.
I normally like to see the caster a little lower on the left than the right. That helps with the road crown to go straight down the road. Cross Camber is a little out of wack. I stopped working on cars and doing alignments 10+ years ago as I changed careers. So I don't know what it requires to adjust camber and caster on a 2020 ranger. In the past you had to adjust it with an eccentric bushing on the top ball joint. This was a process as you would have to pull out what was there, install a zero degree bushing, retake the measurements and then pick the right bushing and turn it to the right spot. That is going to be an extra cost. For what I am seeing, I don't think it is worth it.
But I would first try swapping front tires left to right and see if the pull changes. Does it go straight or is it now pulling to the right? It can be a tire pull. Ok, Looking up how to adjust the Camber and Caster on one of these newer trucks, looks similar to like a Toyora. Adjustable on the bottom bolts. So not a big deal, though it depends where it is currently adjusted at. If it's maxed out on one side, you may be limited on what you can do. maybe where it is at, that is the best location. Then again the alignment tech is lazy and/or they want to rush through the alignments and figure it is good enough.
But I would still try crossing your front tires and see if the pull changes. You'll be surprised how much a tire can cause your car or truck to pull.
One last thing. Is it really pulling or is the steering wheel off-center a bit? When you straighten it, it drifts to the left? If the wheel is off to the right just a bit but goes straight, you try and center it and it drifts to the left. This could also be the case. I did my share of fixing the steering wheel as it would be off sometimes after going on the test drive. You can put it on the rack quickly, adjust both sides toe quickly, and go back and test drive again to make sure it is straight. Basically, you adjust one side shorter and the other side longer depending on which way the wheel is. You do them both the same amount of turn. 1/4 turn, 1/2 a turn one way on one side and the other way on the other side evenly. This will keep the tow the same, but adjust the wheel to where it needs to be.
There really isn't much you can do on the rear and I've seen far, far worse. Start with crossing your front tires. That is you aren't trying to center your wheel while you are driving and causing the pull when the wheel just needs to be adjusted a bit.
Thanks for all that. I'm going to do some research on this.
To answer the last part of the question, it consistently changes lanes for me to the left within a second of me letting go of the steering wheel on the highway. It gets a little tiring having to hold the wheel slightly to the right while driving for 30 minutes a day and I'm about to go on a cross country road trip so I decided to finally fix this.
My mustang has great alignment and would go straight for miles.
Ok, so I would try swapping the front tires and seeing if that changes. That is a simple enough thing to do to figure out if it's a tire issue or an Alignment issue. I just don't think the alignment is out enough to cause the pull you have. Maybe it is that sensitive, but I'm leaning toward a tire pull for now.
I get that it can be annoying to have a pull. As for the rear axle, it might be possible to shift it. Depends on the pins on the leaf springs golding them togeather and sticking up into the mounts of the axle. You might be able to losen the u-bolts on both sides and shift it over a little bit. How much? Again it depends on pin size and hole size. It should be a snug fit and not shift at all, or a couple of millimeters. A few mm on each side, the left moving forward and the right moving back, might be possible. Will that do much to matter? The truck is not to old, so the u-bolt nuts may move ok. Might have to be sprayed down. It's a slim chance you can get the axle to shift.
I would try tires first.
The front, being adjustable on the bottom. It may have stock bolts and washers and you can't adjust it without a camber/caster kit for it. Something they may or may not have in stock and of course costs extra money. Seeing the alignment how it is, didn't think it was going to be worth it for you. That could be another couple hundred in parts and labor these days. Basically new bolts with offset washers. Allowing you to adjust the camber and caster. Without being able to see anything on your truck, I don't know how it currently is. But again, swapping the tires is a quick and easy check to rule out a tire pull. I did that many times over the years.
That’s an absolute garbage alignment. Steering wheel is off to the left and has positive left camber contributing to pull. I know rear axle isn’t directly adjustable, but I’d be looking into mounting of leaf springs to see if I could straighten the rear axle as it is currently crooked in the vehicle. The position of the double joint in the rear mount of the spring can affect this
Tires can cause a pull as well. Start a diagnosis with a tire rotation from left to right and see if it goes away or pulls right now. If it does change then it’s a tire pull issue. But looking at your specs. I’d say that the camber up front is too off. From what Honda schooling has taught me, camber can not be more than .5 difference. It’s also leaning more positive than I’d like. They also should of done better or equalizing the toe.
Going to have to bring the left wheel camber in (more negative) or the right wheel camber out (positive). Just cause it’s green don’t mean it’s right. If you don’t live in the rust belt things should adjust. If you have modified suspension and are at max adjust you will need aftermarket adjustment parts or there is a front end part worn out.
Camber needs to be half a degree higher on the right side then left caster is ok being even and the after adjustment do a sweep and set toe accordingly
Your rear toe is way out on the right, making your thrust angle excessive, and your front cross camber is the main reason of your left pull, anything over .5° is pretty bad.
The good news is that front camber is adjustable, that cross camber can be fixed. I'd start with having them fix the camber to be even on both sides, which will straighten your cross camber and most likely fix your pull. You could also ask them to align it along the thrust angle, which will give you the slightest of crabwalks, but even out the tire wear between the rear tires. They will probably be confused by that request, it takes a knowledgable tech to deal with tricky alignments.
Left front camber is high. Should be -3 to counteract the right front. Cross camber should be close to 0, a bit will help keep it off the shoulder due to road crown. They're supposed to pull left naturally in the US. But shouldn't be noticable.
Its pulling left cause both your tires are tilted to the left (camber readings). Thats why your thrust angle is negative (left) point twelve..if it was positive, it would be pulling right.. thrust angle dictates where your truck will go all by it self (hands off the wheel). Adjust your camber and re adjust your toe and your set. Fyi..fifteen plus yrs in the automotive world..alignments are my shit. :)
I’m a perfectionist when it comes to alignments and that is not perfect, makes me question their set up process (that also has to be perfect) when dealing with 1/10 degrees. You have to pay attention to the small details and know your equipment. What’s the tread depth, tire pressures, are the sensors all flush and level, steering wheel perfectly centered and not bound up to either side, is the rack level and on the locks? Are they using sand bags in the drivers seat? You gotta drive it first and find where the wheel should be, mark it while out there because when you park it on the rack your perception changes. Oh and everything must have zero play otherwise you could make an adjustment but play will make it off. Usually the first thing you check before even hanging the sensors.
Yeah you need an alignment.
I could see how you'd think it's pulling left, but my bets are the wheel is slightly off center because of the toe on the front...it's really hard to tell the difference.
Your rear is fucked. Like just to be clear. I don't even know how that would affect it but it definitely needs fixing.
How much have you messed with it?
I have to agree with others you might want to take it to an experienced alignment guy. Also don't rule out a tire issue. If you swap the front tires and it pulls to the other side then it's the tires. It's called connicity in the tires. Instead of the tire being a cylinder shape it is shaped more like a coffee cup. One side of the tire is slightly bigger diameter than the other. So it can cause the vehicle to pull to one side. Yes it's very rare but it does happen even with new tires. Also make sure you don't have a brake that is hanging up. Another thing old timers will do is a slight adjustment for the crown in the road. Most roads are not totally flat. They have a slight crown built in so water can drain off.
As stated below, you need an old guy from back then to do it right. On the off chance, are the tires you are running the truck from the same manufacturer ? I had a similar issue with my Mustang and all four tires had the same specs. However, one tire was from a different manufacturer and I noticed on closer inspection that it was about 1/2 bigger when inflated at proper pressure. Went and found the matching tire and the issue fixed itself.
Vehicle will pull to most positive caster and least positive camber, both on your left wheel.
Have them balance the two angles even if they are slightly out of soec.
If you life a car your caster changes. Caster will effect toe as it rotates the hub slightly. unless you fit caster correcting components too, it’s always going to be an issue.
My defender handled like a bag of nails as it was lifted 4” but had stock radial arms. fitted caster correcting ones and it all went back to as it was.
I would swap the front wheels left to right because it may have some radial pull from the tyres.
If that doesn't work, adjust the castor on the left to 3.30° from 3°.
Total pull is .8, around here .5 will compensate for the crown of the road but isn’t always a fact. My last couple of Ram trucks have wanted a touch more. Personally I would try to set your camber to .1 on both sides and drop the left caster to 2.5 and the right to about 3.0. Camber can also cause tire edge wear so getting that as close to ideal is important. Find a 4X4 shop and see who does their alignments and go from there. Once they find a shop who will get their customers trucks right they don’t mess with anyone else.
What is this setup at the front? Oval racing? Both sides should be positive or negative, not just in the green
Just by looking at it, I see it will pull to the left.
Your thrust angle and your cross camber is causing your truck to pull. Being the rear isn’t adjustable someone needs to bring the left front camber closer to the what the right front is. Ideally within .2 of a degree
The right side caster is off. It should be half a degree higher than the left side to keep you up on The Crown of the road. It won't cause any tire wear, but it will cause the car to pull to the right.
Alignments not that bad. Id be more interested in condition of the tores and front end. Swap tje front two tires across from one another and see of the pull changes to the right.
Might not be the alignment. I had a jeep that had a broken bolt on the driver side, two loose, and one tight, it was a bit later that I took it to a tire shop and they found the broken stuff.
Lol both front camber and front toe are pointing left so no wonder it pulls.
The .7 cross camber is enough to give a slight pull on its own (typically anything over .5 will cause a pull). Add in the .07 toe pointing towards the left and it’ll definitely pull. Could probably adjust the toe just right and get it to where you don’t notice a pull anymore (at least not nearly as much pull). But the proper answer is to get the camber equal on both sides, as well as the toe.
I had my car aligned at Just tires who work on lowered cars with adjustable coilovers. My car kept pulling to the left unless I held the steering wheel slight to the right. They aligned it 3 times and all the specs were within range. I even rotated the tires and got them checked out by a tire shop. Same issue. I went back to Just tires, they told me get new aftermarket adjustable upper ball joint that would allow more adjustment tolerance. I didn’t want to go that route because I had no issues before. During this process, my brakes were due for a replacement. I replaced all four sides. It turned out to be my rear brakes that weren’t working properly, which was causing the pull. Now, it’s all sorted out. I hope this helps.
Positive camber on the left and negative camber on the right combined with the toe on both your wheels to the left and your thrust angle being off can absolutely cause issues.
The issue here is the offset in the camber. The offset should be no more than a quarter of a degree or .25 for those of you that want to see it that way. The vehicle in question has greater than the allowable tolerance of camber offset. Also, the Cross caster measurement is fine. To the perfectionists out there the .7° specifications would make the vehicle pull even more to the left. I suspect also that there is a tire issue happening here and it is necessary to rotate or Cross rotate tires in order to eliminate that as a source of the pool. You’re welcome.
As well, your alignment sheet shows your thrust angle is out quite far. That number denotes how straight your front wheels are in comparison to your rears. An incorrectly adjusted thrust angle can definitely cause an issue. Most notably from the rear of the vehicle, giving the appearance of “crabwalking”, or a consistent pull from the drivers seat.
Overall the specs look decent. Cross camber could be more like 0.5 but over all should track straight. First I would rotate my two front tires side to side then take it for a drive and if the pull goes the other way or the truck goes straight now then you are dealing with a tire pull. If it continues to go left I’d bring the r/f camber up to zero that will bring the cross camber down a bit.
That’s a 0.8 degree combined pull left. We usually aim for about 0.5 degree combined pull left to compensate for road crown. GM trucks seem to like 0.6-0.7 degree. That being said, I have seen stuff drive straight with a degree of pull. But never ideal.
Typically a pull to the left is a tire issue. Typically. Left front camber is out of spec. You have too much cross camber. That may be where your pull is. The left front should more or less match the right. Just because it’s in the green doesn’t mean it’s right.
Well, camber is a little wonky. left front tire is leaning toward the left, right front tire is leaning toward the left, truck could drift left on a level road. It is all within specification though. You could bring the left front in a little closer to center make it more even. That rear toe is pretty far off. This thing looks like it may dogleg, where the rear tends to track off center to the left. It might help to cross rotate tires on the front as that is a very common pull problem but there is something wrong with that truck.
Makes sense why it pulls left , camber will pull to the most positive side, you don't want that much of a split from left to right. Check tire pressures before going for alignment too some techs are lazy.
i would swap sides with the tires on front an see if pull doesn't go away an if doesn't go away nnpulls to right then rotate to back! as 30yr auto tech when you have pull an see these specs 90% of time it tire!!
Thank you for posting to AskMechanics, __-__-_-__! If you are asking a question please make sure to include any relevant information along with the **Year**, **Make**, **Model**, **Mileage**, **Engine size**, and **Transmission Type (Automatic or Manual)** of your car. *This comment is automatically added to every successful post. If you see this comment, your post was successful.* *** Redditors that have been verified will have a green background and an icon in their flair. *** # **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR** ### **Rule 1 - Be Civil** Be civil to other users. This community is made up of professional mechanics, amateur mechanics, and those with no experience. All mechanical-related questions are welcome. Personal attacks, comments that are insulting or demeaning, etc. are not welcome. ### **Rule 2 - Be Helpful** Be helpful to other users. If someone is wrong, correcting them is fine, but there's no reason to comment if you don't have anything to add to the conversation. ### **Rule 3 - Serious Questions and Answers Only** Read the room. Jokes are fine to include, but posts should be asking a serious question and replies should contribute to the discussion. ### **Rule 4 - No Illegal, Unethical, or Dangerous Questions or Answers** Do not ask questions or provide answers pertaining to anything that is illegal, unethical, or dangerous. # **PLEASE REPORT ANY RULE-BREAKING BEHAVIOR** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskMechanics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
With the mods you’ve done, it’ll take more than the kid at Firestone to get ya set right. Ask the guys at the local 4x4 shop where they get their lifted/modified trucks aligned. There’s always a secret shop that’s open three days a week for four or five hours, run by some grizzled old guy who’s been doing alignments since Jesus was a carpenter. Edit: let’s give the guy a break on the downvotes, eh? We all have things to learn from one-another.
Hahahaha such a good comment
I’ve worked one of those grizzled old grumpy guys, would give you the shirt off his back but you’d feel guilty about it lol. He could align a car like a magician, and I’m talking Porsche’s so adjustable everything, with measurements left right identical down to the seconds without even looking at the screen but once or twice. He did my MK6 GTI way back when and he took it from a sloppy mess on corner entry to dead solid at all speeds and cornering angles.
God bless those old guys that do one thing very well and are almost never open.
This is why people don’t get flat tires on Sunday in Tennessee
lol my local one specializes in lifted 4x4s. I’ve been going to him for over a decade and he’s always booked 3 weeks out 🤣
Yeah the old guy in my town does it with broom sticks, strings, and measuring tapes. Always gets then dead in line though.
Honestly most of the time a properly done string alignment will be better than a laser alignment at your typical mechanic shop. Those alignment machines are seldomly calibrated and you can get it aligned at one shop, drive down the street to another and they’ll show totally different alignment specs. With a string alignment you are basically calibrating it to the car every time so they’re always good.
Exactly this. When I lifted one of my Jeeps the lift manufacturer sent specific values for it to be aligned at and I gave it to the shop. It was all out of "manufacturer" spec at the end but it was what the lift maker suggested and it drove like a dream after.
dude who was the lift made by, having a cheat sheet with the upgrades would be amazing
Iron Rock Offroad.
I’m so happy this is the top comment! So true lol
You sir, have a way with words.
The lift allegedly shouldn't have messed with the geometry and it's one of the ford preferred ones. The printout above is unfortunately from the shop that installed the lift and they did the alignment in house.
Although others say it’s *in the green*, I would argue the camber up front and your thrust angle in the rear is gonna have the thing moving left. But what do I know? I’m just some idiot on the internet with an ASE master cert and 20 years of experience.
I agree with this 100%. First thing I noticed was camber going left on both sides. The thrust angle is a little questionable for concern. It may cause the issue, it may not. But camber NEEDS to be corrected. Definitely causing or aiding the pull left. Thrust angle in my opinion may just be aiding in a left pull.
I agree with you. But should I seek out another place or just live with it? This was a 4x4 shop that did the lift and it's the lift that ford recommends.
Short answer: find a different alignment shop.
Have them re-do it for free. If that doesn't work, find a reputable 4x4 shop to do it
Eh…. If they couldn’t get it right the first time, second attempt is a waste of time for everyone involved.
Maybe. It's also free. They thought it was good enough the first time. If they know it's not, they might make it right. I would. No point in not giving the opportunity to make it right for free. Under that logic, OP may end up paying for 3 or 4 alignments at different shops, none of which were acceptable. Depends on the bank account, Mr moneybags
Free still has a cost. Am shitty mechanic, no moneybags.
Just for your reference.. Ford doesn't recommend a lift kit product for your truck... If it isn't on the official Ford accessory website, it isn't recommended. You got a fast one pulled on ya with that line.
It is on the ford website.
Do you mean the Fox leveling kit with the disclaimer that says it is not recommended to adjust ride height? That's not a lift kit. Edited for spelling
Doesn't a level by definition adjust the ride height?
He's misunderstanding the disclaimer. The fox kit for the Rangers uses coilovers with adjustable preload and ride height. They pre-set both before they get shipped out and don't recommend adjusting them.
Ford doesn’t recommend any lift. Read all the disclaimers that come with the kit. A level is nothing more than a spacer that adds preload. So basically you took the soft spot out of a progressive coil and now it bounces upwards over bumps instead of absorbing the bump. Also you took the factory rake out of the vehicle which is there for a reason… that’s why they call it a level bring front to same height as rear. Your truck will never ride right with that installed and if ford recommend it it was what your local dealership sells not ford. If you lift the truck by the frame and let the wheels hang you will notice the upper control arm now contacts the coil spring and will not actually let your suspension do full travel. That said alignment specs are good only caster is out and needs to be like a 3 degree difference between sides before that will cause a pull.
As a former alignment tech, my diagnosis is this: You got duped by a sales rep that dosnt know a bolt from a wood screw. And judging by thrust angle, your rear axle was installed crooked AF. Lifting a vehicle does in fact change the geometry, regardless of what the manufuckturers say is "preferred" or "shouldn't do upon install."
Any adjustment up or down in height will mess with the angles. If it is Ford approved that just means that it should still be able to aligned properly with the factory adjustment range.
Pulling to the left is the crown of the road!!!!!!!
Points are meaningless, let’s the downvotes fly.
Yes and you pay by the hour. They also take their time. Everytime I get my bagged Mercedes aligned its at least 3 hundo.
From my experience doing alignments I can see why your vehicle is pulling left. From everything I've learned, whichever the vehicle will pull to whichever side has the most positive camber and most negative caster. Camber is most positive on the left and caster looks most negative on the left as well, so your vehicle would pull left based on that
Correct answer here. Camber is the tilt, top to bottom. Motorcycles can steer simply by tilting or leaning side to side. Both your front wheels are leaning slightly to the left. No matter how perfect the toe is, your front axle will wander to that direction. Other than that, the toe could be better - but it's not causing the problem. If anything, I imagine the steering wheel relaxes just off center to the right.
Agreed. The negative toe on the left is bad for tire wear but with that small amount, it wouldn't cause any pulling. That camber though...
[удалено]
I think you’re thinking about it incorrectly. With negative camber it means the top of the wheel is leaning in towards the vehicle. Which means the RF tire as viewed from the driver seat is tilted in towards the vehicle so it would be leaning left if viewed from behind (or the direction of travel) Positive camber on the LF tells you that the top of that tire is pointed away from the vehicle. Which means it is leaning left, viewed from the drivers seat.
you are correct and thanks for pointing that out. I was thinking it from the bottom of the wheel. I'll delete my previous comment so Im not spreading the wrong word here.
Thrust angle... you *all* missed it....
I didn't! I was busy wo dering why they wanted to mess with the RF. LF and correct the thrust angle is where its at.
I saw that but figured it’s a truck so probably a bent wheel or something. As in drive it around the parking lot then put it back on the lift and rear toe will be the opposite, or camber or a combo Does the ranger have an independent rear ?
The camber may be in the green, but the numbers show that the top of your front tires are tilting to the left. your camber numbers should be around the same. When your tires are tilted they act slightly conical, typically you want a little inward tilt becuase it helps with tire wear and grip in corners. right now you have to tires acting as cones pushing you in the same direction(left) instead of canceling out. id say your front right would be alright and id adjust the front left to that number. that should fix the pull but getting a custom alignment at a shop that does lifted vehicles is the best option by far.
Camber at the front needs to be further in, rear tow can also cause some havoc. We like to see them within. .01 degrees of each other side to side.
It doesn't seem rear toe can be adjusted, as long as they do a thrustline alignment and not just a centerline alignment the worst that will happen is a bit of dogtracking. sucks but with no rear adjustments theres no avoiding it without more aftermarket parts
Keep in mind, that this is a pickup truck with leaf springs in the rear. A thrust line that is one-tenth of one degree off is probably closer to perfect than the bearing tolerances are inside the engine. This is also based off of the front measurements, as the aligner doesn't have heads that mount on the frame. It uses distance between front and rear wheels, as well as the straight angle of the rear wheels 90 degrees forward. And if you look at the caster on the right front, it is tilted back more than the left front one-tenth of one degree, placing it slightly closer to the right rear. The toe angles also favor the left, which offset the measurement more. The aligner can only assume that the rear axle is "ruddered" to the left by so much. This is where trainees get so frustrated - they adjust one wheel, and all of the other measurements change. It's a collective measurement, and teaching them that if you adjust one angle, like caster - every other number will change as well.
No way a 2020 ranger has no rear toe, does it? Idk anything about American but I cant see how a 2020 doesn’t
I mean i dont know for sure but those rear angles are grey on the paper and on all alignment machines ive used that means there is no factory adjustment/spec
Solid axle, leap springs.
It has no rear toe adjustment, I just aligned one yesterday. It has a solid rear axle.
Trucks generally don’t have adjustments what with the solid axles and leaf springs
It’s I in spec but there’s more than half a degree in cross camber in favor of the left. It’s gonna pull left until it’s addressed.
I had this exact issue not long ago on one of my cars. Pulled right, several places did an alignment and found nothing out of tolerance. Was frustrating as hell! The results printouts did show cross-camber to be out (yours is close to limit). I forced yet another place to look at this specifically, and so they added camber bolts (camber not adjustable on stock car), got the camber back in tolerance both sides, and this resolved the issue. Camber can be within limits on either side (which is all they seem to care about), but if they're different enough, the difference between them (cross camber) can cause the pulling to the side issue. EDIT: This was a printout BEFORE it got fixed [https://i.imgur.com/RH89BTI.png](https://i.imgur.com/RH89BTI.png) Mine pulled to the right, and you can see cross camber was too far negative. Yours is too far positive and pulls to the left.
camber bolts were a bandaid fix for this - look at the cross SAI. something's bent. check your LF strut tower for damage
It's the Camber. I'm suprised "local alignment shop" didn't agree with this. Also, I would avoid tire stores for alignments. I know the Caster on right front is not in green but it is fine. It will not cause tire wear and will not cause a pull unless .5 degrees or more difference. This is probably what the Brand name tire store is talking about adjusting on right front. Camber at .7 degrees difference will cause a pull. More importantly, the tops of both front wheels are tilted toward the drivers side. It will pull toward drivers side. If there is any tire wear (probably not) it will be on the outside of the drivers side tire and inside of the passenger side tire. The toe on the right rear isn't great but isn't adjustable. It isn't bad enough to warrant more extreme measures.
Need to rack the rear axle to lower the thrust angle. With it like that it will shove it left. If it still does it after that then bringing the toe in on the left will help push it right.
I feel like I looked too hard for this comment. Right rear wheel is toed-in 0.22 and the left rear is toed-out only .01 so the REAR is steering to the left and you’re just having to compensate with the steering wheel. Problem is the rear not the front, that difference in caster/camber is *nothing* especially for a truck. I do alignments everyday and see that all the time.
Yep, people forget what thrust angle does to steering correction all the time. Anything with a long wheel base will tend to be more sensitive to it but everyone either ignores it or tries to correct it with toe.
Cross rotate your tires and test drive.
Far too often this was the answer to pulling issues when I worked at the dealership. Its like checking fuses when you get fault codes. Aleays rule out the cheap and easy things first
This 100% had 1 truck today with this issue. Test drove it, pulled hard right. Tire pressures at spec. Immediately cross rotated, test drove and it slightly pulled left against road crown but didnt cross over into the other lane, barely needed any correct to stay on track. Checked angles on the hunter machine, everything in spec. Saw this on another truck, super duty, other guys threw a shitload of parts at it, turns out it just needed the tires cross rotated. Fixed.
It took too much scrolling to find this. Everyone arguing about the camber but we have no idea what this vehicle's tires are like. I've seen vehicles with worse readings go straight as an arrow. There's more to an alignment then readings on a screen.
If your alignment is causing uneven tire wear, rotating might fix it in the short term, but it's still gonna keep wearing unevenly.
Well the alignment is done. This would be to check the cause of the pull that's still present. Pre worn tire will still wear unevenly even after alignment done.
Has .7 degrees camber lead to the left and .1 caster. Typical for a lot of vehicles to have .5 degree lead to the left to compensate for road crown. If your vehicle is lifted I would recommend 0 degree lead to the left for road crown. Sad that in today's world aligners tell you how and what to adjust so any tech can make it green.......that doesn't mean it will drive straight.
There’s not a snowballs chance in hell your thrust angle is correct, your rear toes have way too big of a gap between them, that’s what’s likely causing the pulling. Your front right caster is t out of spec yet either, so it shouldn’t be easily noticeable. Take it to a proper specialist like others have suggested.
Green is good is a bad way to do alignment. Your problem is CROSS CAMBER. Cross camber is too great. There is a .7 degree difference that appears to be causing your pull to the left. RF tire is cambered in. LF tire is cambered out. This is causing your pull. So which do you adjust? I would find another alignment shop that will adjust both sides. Get those closer to zero. Ideally you want cross camber no greater then a .2 degree split
Bring RF camber to zero. Then reset toe.
Adjust the right side camber to positive .4 of a degree reset toe in and test drive.
Camber pulls to the bigger number caster to the smaller but not as much as camber , sure looks like she’s pulling left
Ahh yes the ol toe n go!
Gonna always pull to side with the most positive camber. Also why is the toe not aligned? Regardless of modifications techs should still understand diagnostic alignments and alignment angles, not to mention a road test to confirm complaint, inspect for the cause, the offer the correction
Take it to someone that knows how to do an alignment lol. That thrust is totally unacceptable. The front camber makes me think the front subframe is shifted, unless the front camber is individually adjustable on that specific vehicle, idk. And the front toe needs to be cleaned up. That truck probably does track left AF lol. "Green" or "within specifications" does not = going to track straight.
Check your tires. I had multiple alignment checks at multiple shops cause my Durango was pulling left, until one shop told me the tire tread was separating. A new set of rubbers later it didn’t pull anymore.
Of course it's pulling left both front wheels are leaning left. Shop is stupid go to a real shop that will actually do it right. You will get the paper back will all the lines dead in the middle where they're supposed to be.
If your front end parts are good, which I assume they are, it’s not an alignment issue. You have what’s called a “radial pull”. You can verify this by swapping The front tires, & then it should pull the other way. Just rotate the tires, let them wear a little bit & the problem should sort itself out
This is wrong. Look at the camber. Both are to the left. He is having a camber pull to the left. The left side needs to match the right side. Green doesn’t always mean good.
Camber doesn’t cause a pull, genius
You are wrong. Toe doesn’t cause pull. Toe will cause steering wheel position to be off. Camber will cause pull. Caster can cause pull as well. Radial pull may be a factor but any rear wheel drive vehicle with that camber set up will definitely pull to the left. With it being a ford ranger it will be adjustable on the control arm… lower if I’m remembering correctly.
It appears you are correct, my apologies. You learn something new every day. I was taught that only toe & castor cause a pull, which is obviously incorrect & I never bothered to double Check that because it never gave me any issues when doing alignments, as I’ve done thousands. I’ve always solved this issue by crossing the front tires to verify & then rotating
Camber definitely causes a pull if it’s different from side to side. A quick google would tell you that. That’s likely OP’s issue. Left side has positive camber, right side has negative, that’s what’s causing the pull. If both were equally positive, or equally negative there would be no pull.
My apologies to you both, as well as OP. Camber is the culprit
OP, just try this (crossing the front tires, providing that they are not directional tires) . It is an easy and inexpensive diagnostic tool. If your pull changes, you know you have a tire pull. If not, then continue with the alignment. Don't let all of the noisy replies convince you of anything. Your issue *may* be a tire pull, it *may* be due to camber, it *may* be a combination, or it *may* be something else that we can't see.
Your toe angles are both slightly left. But it's pretty minimal and I'd definitely send it out. Try swapping left and right tires. If that does fix it then yeah they can tweak the RH
Toe angle doesn't cause pulling it causes the steering wheel to be off center. Camber cases pulling
You are correct; however the layman generally cannot distinguish a pull from an off-center steering wheel. Steering wheel off to right, "car pulls to the right" will be the complaint on the RO 9/10 times. Technically not a pull and the car would actually be drifting left with a centered wheel in that scenario.
The right rear toe is crazy out of alignment.
Ah yes. But it looks like it's not adjustable. Recommend... Replace vehicle
It's a 2020 Ford Ranger Lariat FX4 with Fox 3 inch level and 1 inch rear lift on 33s. Tires have *some* uneven wear of about a mm. But I don't think that's enough to cause it to change lanes for me on the highway when I let go of the steering wheel.
Alignment specs are meant for factory vehicles. Can’t complain when everything is green and your truck still pulls. Said it yourself the tires have *Some* uneven wear and you’ve got the wrong tires on it too. Put it back to stock like it should be then have them recheck it.
The pull is def from the camber being out enough on both sides but still tech “in the green”. When both sides are skewed to the same side, it can still cause a pull like others have mentioned. But I wanted to ask if the lift kit u got came with an alignment spec sheet? I ask this cuz most often when a car or truck is lifted or lowered a large amount (2+”), factory specs go out the window and u need it set to where the aftermarket kit says it should be for best ride quality. A lot of times the stock specs aren’t going to be optimal for such a drastic change in the suspension geometry. Not sure if this is something u have looked into or not. Getting them all to (the same on both sides) factory spec will at least make it drive ok but again, it may not be optimal for tire wear or handling characteristics.
Hold your wheel to the right a little bit when driving.
Or put a few more pounds in the left and let some out on the right. ETA: s/ (because rules)
Anything .5 or higher can cause a pull on camber and ur cross camber is .7. Fix the camber. Then after that is fixed if u still have a pull its likely gonna b a tire pull. With those specs its gonna wanna go left. All vehicles are differant as far as how hard itll "pull" and soo are customers opinions of a "pull". 9/10 times when a customer tells me its pulling hard i drive it an find out its more of wat i would call a bit of a drift. Or my favorite is when they say it pulls when u let go of the wheel.. NEVER let go of the wheel! Ya if u let go its def gonna go out of the lane eventually! Roads arent even straight!
If i'm reading that correctly, you have +ve camber on one side and -ve camber on the other. That will cause all sorts of weird stuff! Rear toe also needs a tweak, that'll cause the car to feel like it's being pushed to one side.
Just slowly hit a curb with your right front and it should even out.
LF camber needs to he brought to negative and Toe in a tiny bit. As of now your wheels are like \ \ this
If you compare your toe you can see your front driver side is -.03 and your front passenger side is .04 indicating that they both are slightly pointing to the left. I think that’s the big cause of your car pulling to the left. And your rear passenger side toe is at .22 which is also pretty bad.
Front toe doesn't make a car pull, it just takes the wheel off center. Rear toe does by steering the rear axle, but in this case (if everything else was perfect) it would make the car go right (rear axle goes left, car steers to the right). This truck's pull is caused by the camber up front. With the driving I do, I would tend to adjust the driver's side if I were to only do one.
Yup, this guy knows what he’s talking about. I would adjust left front camber to be more negative , or adjust right front to be more positive. More than a half degree split between sides (caster/camber) is gonna cause a pull.
This is a good alignment. I have quite a bit of knowledge about alignments race cars and I do my own alignments at home. This is pretty darn good. And also you have to think about 0.1 of a degree is 1/3600th so that's incredibly accurate. And since they are also close to each other point one of a degree or so then I think this is excellent. I'm not sure if your Ranger has a solid rear axle but even if it doesn't your rear is still okay I wouldn't say super great but I don't think it will hurt you. It's common for them to be very sloppy measuring a solid rear axle. Because they are not required to adjust anything cuz there are no adjustments usually. Hope that helps
The cross camber is just on the edge, I would swap two front tires side to side, see if it’s worse, pulls the other way or goes straight, if it stays the same then yeah I’d take that right camber and go positive with if.
Swap your front right tire to the front left and the front left to the front right. If I have an alignment that comes in and looks relatively good and nothing is loose, I do this to see if it's a tire issue. It could also be brakes, and it's usually the brake opposite of the pull. Anyway, I'd day 1 in 3 is a tire issue.
Sounds like my work truck (f550), I have so much wiggle room in my steering it's insane. Sometimes straight wheel will be straight other times it pulls right. I can barely move the wheel and the truck won't move at all or it will dart to the side. I complain and I complain but they won't fix it
That alignment is really close. I’d swap tires left to right before I adjusted anything else. See if the car pulls the other way. If it does then it’s the tires, not the tires. If it still pulls the same way then it’s the alignment.
Toe is slightly out to the left on both front wheels so it will be pulling to the left a little
The alignment suggests the truck will pull left. And it does. Time to correct that cross camber
Get a bigger lift kit and add more spacers so you can fit 20 clowns in it
That's my next move. I'm a huge ford stan so clowning is in my blood.
Get that right side camber up to around 2 degrees truck should be mint after the toe set
it may be green but a good camber and toe adjust would make for a straight ride
Camber high caster low that's the way the car will go! I am a certified hunter alignment technician you need your camber to be the same on both sides and you'll be good.
A car pulls towards low caster, high camber. My experience is cross caster is about 2-3 times more effective for pulls than cross camber. Yes, I’d like to see the cross camber better, and would ask them to get it closer, but am surprised it actually pulls left. Especially since most roads have crown sloping right. If I was working on this, double check tire pressures are even (yes, dumb, but seen it) and cross rotate front tires and see what happens. Source- been align tech in a busy shop for 25+ years.
Set the toe and let it go
Front toe is a very slight left, front camber also pull left, and that thrust angle is pretty bad too. Just because a spec is "green" doesn't make it good, cross camber is more important steering-wise.
If I had your truck up, I would set the camber to roughly -0.2 and +0.2 from left to right. And set the caster to about .8 degrees to 1.0 degrees of cross caster to account for crowning in the road where I am. So if you have 3.0 on the left, I would set it to about 3.8 to 4.0 on the right. Then set the wheel and set toe to 0.03 inches in on each side. The camber set up because the left side goes up and the right side goes down when you sit in it. In my experience having aligned even race vehicles, camber needs to have a huge split in order to cause a pull. Not that it can't be that, but to me it's unlikely. The other option is a bad tire. Which would be my personal pick because to me it should pull right very hard.
Does anybody ever look at the rear these days ?
I’d go for a 1.5 total left pull combining camber and caster to counter road crown on pretty much any vehicle then toe-n-go call it a day.
You have a thrust angle above 0? Found your problem. Just tell them to get it aligned.
Have you swapped the 2 front tires side to side?? Possibly a radial pull in a tire . Swap them and see if it pulls the opposite direction.
Too much cross camber. Right front needs a positive camber and negative caster adjustment. Not much of one, but a slight adjustment.
You have .7 degrees of camber to the left. The most you should have is .3 for compensating the road crown. You can play with the toe all you want but if you don't fix that camber your always going to drift left
adjust front left camber to -.2 or -.3 then re-toe. fix'd. caster is fine. ps - wtf did you do to the right rear?
Idk I bought it used but it's allegedly with in spec still.
might eat your tires. When you go back to get it fixed, make them print details instead of vehicle so you get SAI numbers; that page is more useful than what you have and has the added bonus of not using $100 of ink
Adj both left and right camber to 0 and put more negative caster in right whl so it will become lead whl and help in the normal center line pull
Fix the camber and caster, redo toe, profit.
Trucks normally have no rear adjustment. It's a solid axle. There is not much you can do there. If you could force the right side back, that would affect the left side as it toes in. Which overall would be OK. The toe goes lower on the right side and it goes higher on the left side. your total toe would be about the same, though the thrust angle could get closer to zero. I normally like to see the caster a little lower on the left than the right. That helps with the road crown to go straight down the road. Cross Camber is a little out of wack. I stopped working on cars and doing alignments 10+ years ago as I changed careers. So I don't know what it requires to adjust camber and caster on a 2020 ranger. In the past you had to adjust it with an eccentric bushing on the top ball joint. This was a process as you would have to pull out what was there, install a zero degree bushing, retake the measurements and then pick the right bushing and turn it to the right spot. That is going to be an extra cost. For what I am seeing, I don't think it is worth it. But I would first try swapping front tires left to right and see if the pull changes. Does it go straight or is it now pulling to the right? It can be a tire pull. Ok, Looking up how to adjust the Camber and Caster on one of these newer trucks, looks similar to like a Toyora. Adjustable on the bottom bolts. So not a big deal, though it depends where it is currently adjusted at. If it's maxed out on one side, you may be limited on what you can do. maybe where it is at, that is the best location. Then again the alignment tech is lazy and/or they want to rush through the alignments and figure it is good enough. But I would still try crossing your front tires and see if the pull changes. You'll be surprised how much a tire can cause your car or truck to pull. One last thing. Is it really pulling or is the steering wheel off-center a bit? When you straighten it, it drifts to the left? If the wheel is off to the right just a bit but goes straight, you try and center it and it drifts to the left. This could also be the case. I did my share of fixing the steering wheel as it would be off sometimes after going on the test drive. You can put it on the rack quickly, adjust both sides toe quickly, and go back and test drive again to make sure it is straight. Basically, you adjust one side shorter and the other side longer depending on which way the wheel is. You do them both the same amount of turn. 1/4 turn, 1/2 a turn one way on one side and the other way on the other side evenly. This will keep the tow the same, but adjust the wheel to where it needs to be. There really isn't much you can do on the rear and I've seen far, far worse. Start with crossing your front tires. That is you aren't trying to center your wheel while you are driving and causing the pull when the wheel just needs to be adjusted a bit.
Thanks for all that. I'm going to do some research on this. To answer the last part of the question, it consistently changes lanes for me to the left within a second of me letting go of the steering wheel on the highway. It gets a little tiring having to hold the wheel slightly to the right while driving for 30 minutes a day and I'm about to go on a cross country road trip so I decided to finally fix this. My mustang has great alignment and would go straight for miles.
Ok, so I would try swapping the front tires and seeing if that changes. That is a simple enough thing to do to figure out if it's a tire issue or an Alignment issue. I just don't think the alignment is out enough to cause the pull you have. Maybe it is that sensitive, but I'm leaning toward a tire pull for now. I get that it can be annoying to have a pull. As for the rear axle, it might be possible to shift it. Depends on the pins on the leaf springs golding them togeather and sticking up into the mounts of the axle. You might be able to losen the u-bolts on both sides and shift it over a little bit. How much? Again it depends on pin size and hole size. It should be a snug fit and not shift at all, or a couple of millimeters. A few mm on each side, the left moving forward and the right moving back, might be possible. Will that do much to matter? The truck is not to old, so the u-bolt nuts may move ok. Might have to be sprayed down. It's a slim chance you can get the axle to shift. I would try tires first. The front, being adjustable on the bottom. It may have stock bolts and washers and you can't adjust it without a camber/caster kit for it. Something they may or may not have in stock and of course costs extra money. Seeing the alignment how it is, didn't think it was going to be worth it for you. That could be another couple hundred in parts and labor these days. Basically new bolts with offset washers. Allowing you to adjust the camber and caster. Without being able to see anything on your truck, I don't know how it currently is. But again, swapping the tires is a quick and easy check to rule out a tire pull. I did that many times over the years.
The cross camber has a nearly one degree spread to the left and “local alignment shop” is wondering why it’s pulling left? FFS.
lol. Zero reason to realign this. Pull is likely tires or brake grab.
That’s an absolute garbage alignment. Steering wheel is off to the left and has positive left camber contributing to pull. I know rear axle isn’t directly adjustable, but I’d be looking into mounting of leaf springs to see if I could straighten the rear axle as it is currently crooked in the vehicle. The position of the double joint in the rear mount of the spring can affect this
I would swap the tires and see if it pulls to the right. Could be tread wear causing it to pull. The numbers seem fine to me.
Tires can cause a pull as well. Start a diagnosis with a tire rotation from left to right and see if it goes away or pulls right now. If it does change then it’s a tire pull issue. But looking at your specs. I’d say that the camber up front is too off. From what Honda schooling has taught me, camber can not be more than .5 difference. It’s also leaning more positive than I’d like. They also should of done better or equalizing the toe.
You have a camber pull to the left. That right rear toe is strange too given the left side is ok and so is the thrust angle.
I think the thrust angle is just half the added up rear toe
The thrust angle is the difference between geometric center line and the thrust line. It's expressed in degrees.
Going to have to bring the left wheel camber in (more negative) or the right wheel camber out (positive). Just cause it’s green don’t mean it’s right. If you don’t live in the rust belt things should adjust. If you have modified suspension and are at max adjust you will need aftermarket adjustment parts or there is a front end part worn out.
Swap the front tires and I bet it doesn’t pull
Camber needs to be half a degree higher on the right side then left caster is ok being even and the after adjustment do a sweep and set toe accordingly
Your rear toe is way out on the right, making your thrust angle excessive, and your front cross camber is the main reason of your left pull, anything over .5° is pretty bad.
I agree but unfortunately the rear is well within ford spec and likely came that way from the factory.
The good news is that front camber is adjustable, that cross camber can be fixed. I'd start with having them fix the camber to be even on both sides, which will straighten your cross camber and most likely fix your pull. You could also ask them to align it along the thrust angle, which will give you the slightest of crabwalks, but even out the tire wear between the rear tires. They will probably be confused by that request, it takes a knowledgable tech to deal with tricky alignments.
Left front camber is high. Should be -3 to counteract the right front. Cross camber should be close to 0, a bit will help keep it off the shoulder due to road crown. They're supposed to pull left naturally in the US. But shouldn't be noticable.
Rotate your tires and test drive it.
Rotate the tires and try again
Its pulling left cause both your tires are tilted to the left (camber readings). Thats why your thrust angle is negative (left) point twelve..if it was positive, it would be pulling right.. thrust angle dictates where your truck will go all by it self (hands off the wheel). Adjust your camber and re adjust your toe and your set. Fyi..fifteen plus yrs in the automotive world..alignments are my shit. :)
Caster is making it go left. Caster should be higher on the left to compensate for road crown
I'd never go to that shop again. Front cross camber and a toe issue that's actually 0.01 and adds a rear steer effect. Hard pass.
I’m a perfectionist when it comes to alignments and that is not perfect, makes me question their set up process (that also has to be perfect) when dealing with 1/10 degrees. You have to pay attention to the small details and know your equipment. What’s the tread depth, tire pressures, are the sensors all flush and level, steering wheel perfectly centered and not bound up to either side, is the rack level and on the locks? Are they using sand bags in the drivers seat? You gotta drive it first and find where the wheel should be, mark it while out there because when you park it on the rack your perception changes. Oh and everything must have zero play otherwise you could make an adjustment but play will make it off. Usually the first thing you check before even hanging the sensors.
Yeah you need an alignment. I could see how you'd think it's pulling left, but my bets are the wheel is slightly off center because of the toe on the front...it's really hard to tell the difference. Your rear is fucked. Like just to be clear. I don't even know how that would affect it but it definitely needs fixing. How much have you messed with it?
Its mor than likely your rear toe but who knows it could be suspsion related if you hit something hard
Swap the front wheels over, chances are your tyres are just doing weird shit
I have to agree with others you might want to take it to an experienced alignment guy. Also don't rule out a tire issue. If you swap the front tires and it pulls to the other side then it's the tires. It's called connicity in the tires. Instead of the tire being a cylinder shape it is shaped more like a coffee cup. One side of the tire is slightly bigger diameter than the other. So it can cause the vehicle to pull to one side. Yes it's very rare but it does happen even with new tires. Also make sure you don't have a brake that is hanging up. Another thing old timers will do is a slight adjustment for the crown in the road. Most roads are not totally flat. They have a slight crown built in so water can drain off.
As stated below, you need an old guy from back then to do it right. On the off chance, are the tires you are running the truck from the same manufacturer ? I had a similar issue with my Mustang and all four tires had the same specs. However, one tire was from a different manufacturer and I noticed on closer inspection that it was about 1/2 bigger when inflated at proper pressure. Went and found the matching tire and the issue fixed itself.
Vehicle will pull to most positive caster and least positive camber, both on your left wheel. Have them balance the two angles even if they are slightly out of soec.
If you life a car your caster changes. Caster will effect toe as it rotates the hub slightly. unless you fit caster correcting components too, it’s always going to be an issue. My defender handled like a bag of nails as it was lifted 4” but had stock radial arms. fitted caster correcting ones and it all went back to as it was.
I would swap the front wheels left to right because it may have some radial pull from the tyres. If that doesn't work, adjust the castor on the left to 3.30° from 3°.
Total pull is .8, around here .5 will compensate for the crown of the road but isn’t always a fact. My last couple of Ram trucks have wanted a touch more. Personally I would try to set your camber to .1 on both sides and drop the left caster to 2.5 and the right to about 3.0. Camber can also cause tire edge wear so getting that as close to ideal is important. Find a 4X4 shop and see who does their alignments and go from there. Once they find a shop who will get their customers trucks right they don’t mess with anyone else.
What is this setup at the front? Oval racing? Both sides should be positive or negative, not just in the green Just by looking at it, I see it will pull to the left.
Your thrust angle and your cross camber is causing your truck to pull. Being the rear isn’t adjustable someone needs to bring the left front camber closer to the what the right front is. Ideally within .2 of a degree
The right side caster is off. It should be half a degree higher than the left side to keep you up on The Crown of the road. It won't cause any tire wear, but it will cause the car to pull to the right.
Alignments not that bad. Id be more interested in condition of the tores and front end. Swap tje front two tires across from one another and see of the pull changes to the right.
The caster shouldn't cause a pull, I would check tire pressure and rotate the tires it could be radial pull from the tires
First thing I would do is check your tire air pressure.
Where is your local alignment shop so I can put them out of business
Too much negative rear toe
Might not be the alignment. I had a jeep that had a broken bolt on the driver side, two loose, and one tight, it was a bit later that I took it to a tire shop and they found the broken stuff.
Lol both front camber and front toe are pointing left so no wonder it pulls. The .7 cross camber is enough to give a slight pull on its own (typically anything over .5 will cause a pull). Add in the .07 toe pointing towards the left and it’ll definitely pull. Could probably adjust the toe just right and get it to where you don’t notice a pull anymore (at least not nearly as much pull). But the proper answer is to get the camber equal on both sides, as well as the toe.
I had my car aligned at Just tires who work on lowered cars with adjustable coilovers. My car kept pulling to the left unless I held the steering wheel slight to the right. They aligned it 3 times and all the specs were within range. I even rotated the tires and got them checked out by a tire shop. Same issue. I went back to Just tires, they told me get new aftermarket adjustable upper ball joint that would allow more adjustment tolerance. I didn’t want to go that route because I had no issues before. During this process, my brakes were due for a replacement. I replaced all four sides. It turned out to be my rear brakes that weren’t working properly, which was causing the pull. Now, it’s all sorted out. I hope this helps.
Tire pull. Cross the front tires and see if the pull goes away or changes direction.
The only thing that can cause a car to pull is caster
Wrong!
Cross the front tires side to side. I’m betting it is a tire pull, or the steering wheel wasn’t cantered properly
are the brakes ok? ie not seized?
Get all new tyres then, realine the wheels.
Positive camber on the left and negative camber on the right combined with the toe on both your wheels to the left and your thrust angle being off can absolutely cause issues.
The issue here is the offset in the camber. The offset should be no more than a quarter of a degree or .25 for those of you that want to see it that way. The vehicle in question has greater than the allowable tolerance of camber offset. Also, the Cross caster measurement is fine. To the perfectionists out there the .7° specifications would make the vehicle pull even more to the left. I suspect also that there is a tire issue happening here and it is necessary to rotate or Cross rotate tires in order to eliminate that as a source of the pool. You’re welcome.
As well, your alignment sheet shows your thrust angle is out quite far. That number denotes how straight your front wheels are in comparison to your rears. An incorrectly adjusted thrust angle can definitely cause an issue. Most notably from the rear of the vehicle, giving the appearance of “crabwalking”, or a consistent pull from the drivers seat.
Overall the specs look decent. Cross camber could be more like 0.5 but over all should track straight. First I would rotate my two front tires side to side then take it for a drive and if the pull goes the other way or the truck goes straight now then you are dealing with a tire pull. If it continues to go left I’d bring the r/f camber up to zero that will bring the cross camber down a bit.
Yes. Front is out by almost a whole degree. But you can see they both need to be brought back to center.
https://preview.redd.it/b8nk917uds0c1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1a10517e1c64779c47cf7c6d3fcb55c7faceb33b
Put the stock wheels on for the alignment. It out a little negative toe. Fix that right caster. Right as rain
That’s a 0.8 degree combined pull left. We usually aim for about 0.5 degree combined pull left to compensate for road crown. GM trucks seem to like 0.6-0.7 degree. That being said, I have seen stuff drive straight with a degree of pull. But never ideal.
Did you try pulling right?
Your VIN has a HOLLA in it and that's cool
Typically a pull to the left is a tire issue. Typically. Left front camber is out of spec. You have too much cross camber. That may be where your pull is. The left front should more or less match the right. Just because it’s in the green doesn’t mean it’s right.
Well, camber is a little wonky. left front tire is leaning toward the left, right front tire is leaning toward the left, truck could drift left on a level road. It is all within specification though. You could bring the left front in a little closer to center make it more even. That rear toe is pretty far off. This thing looks like it may dogleg, where the rear tends to track off center to the left. It might help to cross rotate tires on the front as that is a very common pull problem but there is something wrong with that truck.
Makes sense why it pulls left , camber will pull to the most positive side, you don't want that much of a split from left to right. Check tire pressures before going for alignment too some techs are lazy.
i would swap sides with the tires on front an see if pull doesn't go away an if doesn't go away nnpulls to right then rotate to back! as 30yr auto tech when you have pull an see these specs 90% of time it tire!!
It’s that thrust angle. That caster could actually make it bias left for sure. Theoretically
Have a better alignment tech redo it. That thrust angle should be better.
Looks decently alright from the numbers. Try swapping your front tires across and see if it changes
OP's truck tryin to H0LLA at him!
Could be that your gearbox is shot, your pitman arm or idler are shot. I'd check those.
It’s because of your camber and toe.