larryfs

My Denali has a factory alignment, with postive camber. The outer tread blocks take a beating. Only getting 30,000 miles out of 60,000 mile tires. How much negative can I go with out affecting highway stability. The wife drives it mostly.

I know the toe greatly affects stabily, but how about - camber ?
There is a reason the factory goes with slightly positive camber.

AU N EGL

I had to align my trucks wheels too. Put them at -0.75*

just put on my third set of 50,000 mile tires. at 97K now

TedDBere

I've never touched the alignment on the Denali. Never had a reason to.

But I do know if my Denali tracked on the highway like my vette I'd sell it. There's no way I'd accept the constant steering corrections caused by the crowns and ruts in the roads that I have with the vette.

ghoffman

Interesting that you say that. I have never touched the aglinment on my Silverado and the tire wear is balanced. When my poly bushings are freshly greased, my Vette tracks like my wife's Caddy CTS, very nicely, no darting. If they have not had any maintenance for a long time (like a month) the car is very hard to drive straight on rough roads (pretty much every road in NH). If you grease and shim your sway bars and bushings, this will go away to a large extent. I really need to do a bushing kit that has the low friction of a (new) spherical bearing kit without the noise, maintenance, and cost.

lbarnard

I have a 2007 GMC Yukon w/50,000 and I still have the factory original tires. I have never changed the alignment just 1 tire rotation.

RAFTRACER

If your tow vehicle is majoritily driven with the trailer in tow, carefully measure ride hieghts with trailer hooked up and loaded as you are going to track...Have someone "load" vehicle when being aligned as it is used ....just like the race/track car. I have done this to my Suburban that I have driven for the last 8 years and tire wear has been good. To accomplish this, basically I am ratchet strapping my tow vehicle to the alignment rack to simulate loading.......I also do this for fast drag race Corvettes simulating launch to maximize contact patch.......and low friction alignment to reduce parasitic losses in the alignment.

I'll be doing this to my new tow vehicle, although I dont think it will be as affected by the trailer wieght. I just bought a new C3500 crew-cab dually duramax......GM is trying to give them away...bought mine for 34% under sticker !!!!

ghoffman

Great idea Danny, but with all due respect, the 3500 will not even know your trailer is there, aglinement wise. My 2500 HD is no where as stout as your new truck and does engage the dual rate springs with the trailer hitched, but that is about it.

BrianCunningham

Glad I started a new contract, I'll have to check that out.

RAFTRACER

left over '08 2500 & 3500's have big $$ in rebates in bonus cash duramax= $10k, gas =$9k....at least in this region.....

Not sure what they have on '09s.........I didn't care.

RAFTRACER

I am with you buddy, but my '99 C2500 Suburban would change alot. Even with the wieght distributing hitch...

trackboss

I went 176k miles on my 2000 silverado 1500 without ever doing an alignment. Tire wear was as good as it gets and it steered straight as an arrow. Would probably still have it, but I picked up a brand new '08 crew cab 2500 duramax in december for $16k off sticker! Around here the incentives have gone away and I had the added benefit of a dealer that stopped selling gm as well as other vehicles in december so whatever they had left was priced to go. I almost feel like I stole the truck.

mousecatcher

polybronze?

http://www.elephantracing.com/suspen...11bushings.htm

jabrun

Rotating the tires fairly often helps a lot also, getting the fronts moved to the rear before they get cupped too badly on the outer edges. Then on the rear they can square back up a bit as they wear.

Tintin

The factory uses positive camber to delay the turn in on SUVs as most paddle footed drivers tend to panic with a flat or a skid and over correct leading to tipping the thing over. As stated by others, lifting the front end by weighting the back makes the camber even more positive.
If you are getting only 30K out of a set of tires and your wife drives the car most, you may ask her to use the brake before turning corners. This happens on my wife's car too. I have a 2007 Suburban and I will get at least 40K out of the original tires . I would not say that I am a soft driver, I have spun this thing on track recons and have a lot of tire noise when I am cornering on rural roads, although not with a trailer...
I think you may be better to get a weight distributing hitch if the tongue weight on your trailer makes a radical change to the rear ride height of your wagon rather than adjusting to negative camber. Negative camber is pretty tough on the front end components as the suspension tends not to be as compliant when angled out.
Tires are pretty cheap for these things, like $100 each. It isn't very much compared to a $50K car. I wouldn't play with the alignment if I were you..

c4cruiser

My 99 Silverado extended cab Z71 had 77K on it and on its second set of tires when I traded it in for a similarly equipped 08 Silverado. I had the alignment checked on the old truck a few months before I traded it and it was still at the factory settings. That truck handled very well with the factory alignment settings. I rotated the tires every 6K miles (every other oil change) and the tread wear looked very even.

My 08 actually handles better than the 99 did. But the 99 used torsion bars and the 08 uses coil springs so the suspension design and geometry is probably a factor.

Both of thee trucks are 1/2 tons and while towing my car does drop the rear end down because of cargo and tongue weight, With the trailer attached, I don't drive anywhere near like I do without a loaded trailer.

I agree that changing the ride height when towing either with a weight distributing hitch or something like overload springs, air bags, or air shocks may improve tire life, handling, and not adversely affect OEM alignment specs.