The majority of people take the car or truck to the shop when a front end alignment needs to be done. For a simple daily driver that is used on the highway this may be the best, and easiest, alternative.
If you drive off-road, like to go off the beaten path, drive a little out of the ordinary, have the need to power around corners, or simply take pride in doing things yourself it is possible to do your own vehicle alignments. You can adjust your alignment to the style of your driving. I will cover these two topics in a later post.
For now I am going to cover the basics of camber, caster, and toe-in and toe-out. In order to even begin to attempt doing your own alignment you must first understand the basics of it all.
CAMBER : The camber is the angle of the tire as you look at it from the front or back of the vehicle. If you are standing directly in front of the vehicle looking towards the engine compartment evaluate the tires. The angle at which they sit is considered to be the camber of the alignment. If the top of the tires are angled in it is considered to have a positive camber. If the top of the tire is angled out it is considered to have a negative camber. The camber is almost always slightly negative to reduce friction during straight line driving and improves grip during corning. If your camber is off it can cause stability issues while straight driving or turning, and can cause excessive wear on the tires and suspension.
CASTER: The caster is the amount of the angle on the vertical pivot points of the suspension which directly affects the steering of the vehicle. The correct caster setting allows the vehicle to return to center after completing a turn and prevents a loose, or unstable, turn (especially at higher speeds). This makes the car unstable, harder to control, and can also lower the fuel mileage because the car must use more power to maintain its original line of travel.
TOE IN and TOE OUT: The toe can also be seen from the front or the back of the vehicle. This can be compared to a person that walks with their toes pointing in or out. Toe in on a car would be a tire that is pointed slightly in towards the engine. Toe out the tire would be pointed slightly away from the engine. A slight toe in, about ⅛ inch is optimal because it causes the tires to work against each other just enough to cause good steering, driving, braking, and optimum gas mileage.
Caster, camber and toe all work together as one to make the alignment of your car or truck perfect. If one is out then your entire system is out and it will not function properly. Something as small as hitting a pothole can throw the alignment of your vehicle off. Putting on different sized tires. New shocks or struts. Driving off-road. Corning fast can affect how your alignment acts.
Every vehicle has a manual with recommended settings for alignment. However, as I mentioned earlier, if you change from factory settings or you like to drive different from the norm you may want to read my other posts, learn how to align your own vehicles and tune your cars to match your driving.