Your Raptor and It's Alignment

[Towerhog]

Man.... Did you make out on that one. You can get a set of 4 wheels (usually taken off with a few hundred miles on em) from ebay for around 600-1200.

The dealer tech shouldnt have a problem setting the specs to your request. Just give the numbers to the service writer and tell him you want the alignment set to those specs. Easy Peazy.

 

[Zman12]

Man.... Did you make out on that one. You can get a set of 4 wheels (usually taken off with a few hundred miles on em) from ebay for around 600-1200.

The dealer tech shouldnt have a problem setting the specs to your request. Just give the numbers to the service writer and tell him you want the alignment set to those specs. Easy Peazy.

I tried to get them to settle with me for less so I could do just that, but they wouldn't pay me directly. So I finally laughed at them and said fine pay the 8300 to the dealer. The dealer and Ford are the only ones winning on this deal. I am just getting new rims without scratches. Which is what I had a week ago before this all happened. I still don't even have 500miles on the truck.

 

[ISFast]

If I didn't know better, I'd think we used the same dealer!

Hey I think I got a guy who does some bad ass alignments. Will let you know next few weeks.

Well I took my truck after doing mid perch at 150 miles to Firestone on Sunday. All I got was a ****** alignment and 4 scratched wheels. Yep my brand new truck with the ford beadlocks, I have a claim in for 4 new wheels waiting on a call from Firestone corporate! I am still so pissed it is hard to type about it.

Every place the alignment sensor legs touched it scratched the paint down to bare metal in some spots.

I tried to get them to settle with me for less so I could do just that, but they wouldn't pay me directly. So I finally laughed at them and said fine pay the 8300 to the dealer. The dealer and Ford are the only ones winning on this deal. I am just getting new rims without scratches. Which is what I had a week ago before this all happened. I still don't even have 500miles on the truck.

Thats funny I had them do the same thing on my Method DS wheels. They took my stock wheels and lugs off and went to put my methods on and used the stock lugs instead of the aftermarket ones that were in the cab and that I told them about. Well needless to say I didn't know about it until I got home due to they didn't get my alignment done due to my truck was to wide. To make it worse they tried to cover it up with a black sharpie and then tried to say that due to this being an offroad truck what does it matter. Anyways I told them that the stock wheels they took off were my offroad wheels and the methods they just put on were my street queens. They did finally get me taken care of with all new wheels. I tried to have them get me wheels and for me to take them some place and put them on and then I would buy the screwed up wheels from them but they wouldn't. I personally didn't care how it was done as long as it left the way it came in.

 

[hosseface]

I'm buying my own alignment rack.

Ditto.

Hunter Hawkeye Elite. Hunter rep is due in this morning to install.

He said it was an all day process. Will be training on it tomorrow.

Pretty pumped. We have wanted an alignment rack for a long time but just couldn't justify the $$$. We finally got tired of subbing out our alignments to all of the idiots at the tire stores with their 1985 Snap On Clamp On $500 alignment machine.

As all of you guys said - the main reason we went this machine is ZERO metal contact on the wheels. It takes 90 seconds to check alignment on any vehicle - most alignments can be done within 15 minutes.

Now, I can FINALLY do mid perch on my truck myself because I refuse to let anyone else touch my truck for anything. The alignment is what was holding me back.

Will post up more pics later today/tomorrow as it is installed.

The main problem with this machine is it is going to be hard to ever recoup our investment. These things run a pretty penny and then you have every jack leg tire shop doing "alignments" for $49.99. Classic case of you get what you pay for. Honestly, to ever make any money with a Hunter Hawkeye Elite the alignment needs to run about $150 - $180. I mean you have $40,000 right off the bat just in equipment not counting the lift, 2 air jacks, labor, insurance, building, utilities, general cost of doing business, etc, etc, etc.

 

[Towerhog]

Ditto.

Hunter Hawkeye Elite. Hunter rep is due in this morning to install.

He said it was an all day process. Will be training on it tomorrow.

When you talk to the Hunter Rep ask him if their hydraulic lift system will lift (at the frame) the raptor's wheels off the rack for any adjustments you may need to make. My dealer that I use has the same lift as you but the lift system couldn't go high enough to get the wheels off the rack so they could unload the suspension and install/adjust the alignment cams.

 

[hosseface]

When you talk to the Hunter Rep ask him if their hydraulic lift system will lift (at the frame) the raptor's wheels off the rack for any adjustments you may need to make. My dealer that I use has the same lift as you but the lift system couldn't go high enough to get the wheels off the rack so they could unload the suspension and install/adjust the alignment cams.

I will ask. Sounds like operator error to me.

Our lift and air jacks are Rotary and they will pick my truck up no problem.

Not to mention the jacks have a "pad" area to put various height rubber pads to assist with higher vehicles - I have a 1", 2" & 3" pad to put on the lift for higher vehicles.

 

[Towerhog]

Ahh... I guess they had a different rack. Their rack had the hydraulic lift system built into the rack itself. So disregard the question to the rep..

 

[pirate air]

Ditto.

Hunter Hawkeye Elite. Hunter rep is due in this morning to install.

He said it was an all day process. Will be training on it tomorrow.

Pretty pumped. We have wanted an alignment rack for a long time but just couldn't justify the $$$. We finally got tired of subbing out our alignments to all of the idiots at the tire stores with their 1985 Snap On Clamp On $500 alignment machine.

As all of you guys said - the main reason we went this machine is ZERO metal contact on the wheels. It takes 90 seconds to check alignment on any vehicle - most alignments can be done within 15 minutes.

Now, I can FINALLY do mid perch on my truck myself because I refuse to let anyone else touch my truck for anything. The alignment is what was holding me back.

Will post up more pics later today/tomorrow as it is installed.

The main problem with this machine is it is going to be hard to ever recoup our investment. These things run a pretty penny and then you have every jack leg tire shop doing "alignments" for $49.99. Classic case of you get what you pay for. Honestly, to ever make any money with a Hunter Hawkeye Elite the alignment needs to run about $150 - $180. I mean you have $40,000 right off the bat just in equipment not counting the lift, 2 air jacks, labor, insurance, building, utilities, general cost of doing business, etc, etc, etc.

That's freakin sweet! I noticed the four post in the back ground doesn't have rear built in swivels. Are you using a different rack for alignments or looking to do front wheel alignments only?

When you talk to the Hunter Rep ask him if their hydraulic lift system will lift (at the frame) the raptor's wheels off the rack for any adjustments you may need to make. My dealer that I use has the same lift as you but the lift system couldn't go high enough to get the wheels off the rack so they could unload the suspension and install/adjust the alignment cams.

We had two different hunter four post alignment racks with air jack trolleys. Both raised enough to droop the raptor suspension out. You have to have the spacers blocks beneath the pad for it to work.

 

[hosseface]

Been a little busy the last couple weeks DOING ALIGNMENTS!!! lol

Check out the new pics and you can see what we did on the lift. Its a add on kit that Hunter sells. Works perfect.

Its hard to believe how many "shops" that do so-called alignments and just simply set the toe.

We have been doing cars one right after another with camber issues, etc that require cam kits, cam bolts, bushings, adjustable rear toe links, etc. But when we get finished with these things not only are they "within spec" they are dead on, right in the middle.

 

[AZEngineer]

Need some help from the experts here. I just had Fox 3.0 coil overs installed in the front. The preload raised the front about 1.5". I had the shop that put the shocks in also install two alignment shim kits from SDHQ.

Also, my daughter was in a hit and run accident with the Raptor (posted a month ago). Just ruined a tire, scratched the wheel and scraped the rim. A quick check of the frame and rear end by the body shop said no frame or rear damage. But look at the toe for the rear. the alignment guy says those numbers say something is bent. I will drop it off for a computerized frame measurement Monday to know for sure.

Took it to a shop with the new Hunter Hawkeye system. The alignment guy had 30 years of experience and seemed to know his stuff. He was not able to get it aligned, can't adjust enough to get the passenger Caster right. On the Drivers Side lower control arm, the rear bolt and cam are as far to the passenger side as possible and the front bolt is about in the middle of the slot. On the passenger side lower control arm the rear bolt is as far to the passenger side as possible and it's not enough. Here are my numbers.



The alignment guy said the shim kit is crap. Good shim kits move the head of the bolt and the nut of the bolt together. He had shim kits like this for Chevy and others like Titans have them built in apparently. He said Ford doesn't and it's a bitch to align. Is this true?

Anyone else have the weird shift everything to one side of the truck alignment results?

Also I'm not happy with the handling with these numbers. The truck stock has nice quick turn-in and now it doesn't. What number do I want to get that feel back?