Your Raptor and It's Alignment

[AlbertaRaptor]

Alignment after perch mod? yes...

Here is what I found on my 2010 SuperCab after I did the top perch adjustment:

I was experiencing a shutter to my steering wheel whenever I hit bumps. I would describe it almost as bump steer.

In the past bump steer was associated with unequal heights of you steering linkage when you measured your idler arm to the ground versus your pitman arm to the ground. This is why many guys installed longer pitman arms on older lifted vehicles with steering boxes.

Of course the Raptor doesn't have a steering box and after some investigating into shock valving and such I dug a little bit deeper into my own truck to find out what was going on.

My first thought was to install a steering dampner and the guy I was talking to said something that really made me think. He said if bump steer was happening on older vehicles due to changes in toe and camber over bumps then maybe my own issues were related to improper settings and I didn't realize it.

I had my truck on an alignment machine after moving to top perch and like many of us I was told the truck was still within spec, so it wasn't required to do an alignment.

Well no actually, I DID need an alignment I just ran into a mechanic who didn't want to **** around with trying to move the factory control arms within their slots to adjust it.

So I ordered a set of camber/caster adjustment cams from SDHQ and waited until they arrived.

When I got them I went to two Ford dealers I know and asked both of their alignment specialists if they ignored angles if they fell within spec or if during the alignment they tried to optimize the settings.

The one guy said it was extra to do the optimization and the other guy said, no I try to get it to the best settings everytime....one guess who I chose.

Here are my before readings....keep in mind toe isn't going to be 100% accurate because the wheel wasn't centered in with just a sweep for specs:

Left Caster 3.40 degrees Camber -0.64 degrees
Right Caster 3.02 degrees Camber -1.20 degrees
Left Toe .07
Right Toe 1.01....again this is just for reference.

The vehicle will pull to the side with the least positive castor and the most positive camber. Most alignment shops will use .25 degrees camber to pull left or .50 degrees castor to pull left by default so as to counter road crown. So although I was within specs my left wheel was pulling left and my right wheel wanted to pull right and THIS was causing issues whenever I hit bumps.

Specs are 2.70 to 4.70 degrees caster
-1.20 to 0.30 degrees camber
.2 degrees toe

I gave them these specs after some research that shows the optimal settings for the above: ( Raptor specs do not recommend an adjustment to counter road crown where other F150's do)

+3.7 degrees castor both sides
-0.45 degrees camber both sides
+0.2 degrees toe both sides

I asked him to set the specs as close as possible.

The entire job took 2.5 hours including the alignment cams being installed and this is what I got:

Camber left -0.47 right -0.48
Castor left +3.7 right +4.0
Toe .2 both sides

You'll notice I asked for .3 of a degree castor pull left to counter the road crown because I do happen to drive 40,000 miles per year and in Canada we do have a pretty strong road crown tipping our roads to the right curb for water drainage. A castor pull is most desirable as it is the least tire wearing angle.

I took the truck for a drive after and it drives dead straight with zero steering wheel alignment and wouldn't you know it...... my bump steer was 100% gone.

On top perch I got the truck within spec without upper control arm changes and the SDHQ cams did the job perfectly for my guy to get the alignment 99.999% perfect.

The truck drives like a million bucks now and I have a completly different opinion about my top perch adjustment.

I'm going to leave my shock valving alone for now, the only reason I'd adjust it is if I ever want to go to the mushy factory ride....I'm tempted, but maybe when money flow increases.

100% happy guys and I hope this helps.

Jeff

 

[pirate air]

You can move the lower control arms to adjust camber and caster without the cams, but its not the ideal way to do it. Buy the alignment cams, they're worth the money for more reasons then one. You can adjust toe without the cams;but since you did the perch mod the camber and caster most likely needs adjusted as well.

 

[pirate air]

Yeah I don't think people realize that just because its "in spec" means its good to go. Most manufacture specs are too lenient, often times on the edges of "in spec", or cross differences will still cause various problems. A good alignment takes some understanding and considerations to the vehicles type of use, it goes beyond getting it in spec and calling it good. I think your shimmy was mostly do to lack of positive caster.

Personally I like to keep mine above +4.0* for caster, usually lands about 4.2* to 4.3*. I don't shoot for cross caster numbers because the road crown changes too often around here, I just set both sides up even. I keep camber -.3*to -.2*, and toe is set the positive side, again for tracking improvement.

 

[puddle hunter]

....my head hurts after reading all that...

 

[Ranger]

So I took it to a second alignment shop, the guy says, "call me next week to set up an appointment, I'll put a pry bar in there and bend it into place."

So I took it to a third alignment shop. The guy hooked it up top his fancy computerized laser beam machine and says, "your camber and caster are totally fine, your toe-in is out of whack". He got it all done, gave me a print out, he took it for a test drive and charged me $50. All done. Thanks for your help guys. You are all right, if I had needed to adjust camber or caster I would have needed a kit.

 

[Netix]

whats the place you took yours too??? to get it aligned??
damn ADD and SDHQ are in the u.s, that kit would cost allot when shipped up here.
so like 80$ for 2, then shipping, taxes..... god pray you guys dont send UPS.... if it's USPS then im okay paying HST.
I went up to top perch and gotta get it aligned. I drove it all the way from burlington to toronto no problem it didnt wave or steer int he wrong dirrection. Top perch is beastly!!!
but tomorrow i will go find a alignment place and get it done. Hopefully i dont have to buy those kits and pay 100+ for them and wait like 2 weeks.......

 

[Ranger]

whats the place you took yours too??? to get it aligned??
damn ADD and SDHQ are in the u.s, that kit would cost allot when shipped up here.
so like 80$ for 2, then shipping, taxes..... god pray you guys dont send UPS.... if it's USPS then im okay paying HST.
I went up to top perch and gotta get it aligned. I drove it all the way from burlington to toronto no problem it didnt wave or steer int he wrong dirrection. Top perch is beastly!!!
but tomorrow i will go find a alignment place and get it done. Hopefully i dont have to buy those kits and pay 100+ for them and wait like 2 weeks.......

I ended up getting my alignment done at Tirecraft in Oakville for $50. (recommended to me by Staang). They also did an excellent job. Also highly recommended. Tirecraft Oakville Speers Rd. You can order the concentric bolt kit from any aftermarket place, even a parts counter at a Ford SVT dealership. UPS blows, you will get soaked $50 for brokerage on top of HST. Trust me when I say that your alignment is way off. You may not feel it, but your tires are wearing out every time you drive.

 

[SDHQJASON]

Completely agreed. You definitely need to get your truck aligned ASAP. It will eat your tires quickly if you don't. Check your local auto parts store for the alignment cams, they should have them available.

 

[Netix]

ummm i did the same thing. i have no clue about these numbers my head does hurt after reading this.
I did top perch. I bought from the dealership 2x cam kits. 1 for each side. I called my alignment place and they said i need 2 cam kits for EACH side. so 4 in total. ??? So far i read you only need 2 one for each side. someone please clarify this cause im getting a alignment tomorrow and im not using my raptor right now cause i dont want to mess up my wheels.
these little metal things cam kits are 120 EACH from the dealership here in Toronto Ontario

 

[pirate air]

You need two cam "kits" for each side (one cam kit for each point where the lower control arm contacts to the chassis, there's 4 points). Usually one box will have two kits, so you should only need two boxes.