NTB fail. According to them caster will never casue a pull.

[stephen4785]

I dont personally know of anyone that I trust to do an alignment so I took my truck to NTB to have it done. The service writer hands me a sheet and the entire top half of the page showed the toe setting and camber but no caster. I asked them to get the sheet that says what the caster is and the service writer informs me that the caster on my 01 Dodge ram 4x4 isnt adjustable anyway and that caster only effects how hard the steering is. I try to explain caster to him and then we go talk to the mechanic which tells me the same thing and states that the caster isnt adjustable and wont because a pull anyway(even though there are eccentric bolts in the lower control arms).
Im getting pissed off at this point because I realise that this guy doesn't have a clue how to do an alignment. The the tech assures me he's right because he's been doing it for 17 years and been to all sorts of different classes on wheel alignment. So I told him he needed to go back to class and ask for a refund.
I think wheel alignments are pretty simple for any tech thats been doing it for several years.
rant over

[turbostang]

Just how exactly did you explain caster to him?

I'm not totally familiar with the eccentric bolts you speak of, but I can't imagine them bieng used to adjust caster - but rather camber.

Caster would only make any appreciable difference in steering effort and how quick it made the vehicle notice a difference in steering manipulation. Caster would only make a vehicle pull if it had an appreciable difference from side to side I'd think.

[Mach1]

Caster may effect pulling under bump, but cruising it shouldn't matter.

[Mach1]

Oh BTW, if you want someone to trust, check out Pro Tuning Performance (soon to be Texas Track Works) in FTW, they align all of my cars, race and street, and they show your caster on the printout and adjust it if it's adjustable.

[Grape]

1/2 degree split will cause a car to pull....... oval cars use 3-5 degrees of split for this reason.

[Grape]

Oh BTW, if you want someone to trust, check out Pro Tuning Performance (soon to be Texas Track Works) in FTW, they align all of my cars, race and street, and they show your caster on the printout and adjust it if it's adjustable.

tell him you want to see wheelbase and axle squareness............

[G..]

Brooks, the dodge trucks he is speaking of have a solid front axle with a eccentric bolt on the lower control arm/axle. You can adjust the caster on this model there where as they have no camber adjustment unless you change the upper ball jointand or bushing. And caster is what makes the vehicle track straight or pull or drift. Right side normally leads the left to compensate for the crown in a road.

Just how exactly did you explain caster to him?

I'm not totally familiar with the eccentric bolts you speak of, but I can't imagine them bieng used to adjust caster - but rather camber.

Caster would only make any appreciable difference in steering effort and how quick it made the vehicle notice a difference in steering manipulation. Caster would only make a vehicle pull if it had an appreciable difference from side to side I'd think.

[G..]

Caster may effect pulling under bump, but cruising it shouldn't matter.

You are wrong.

[turbostang]

Brooks, the dodge trucks he is speaking of have a solid front axle with a eccentric bolt on the lower control arm/axle. You can adjust the caster on this model there where as they have no camber adjustment unless you change the upper ball jointand or bushing. And caster is what makes the vehicle track straight or pull or drift. Right side normally leads the left to compensate for the crown in a road.

That makes more sense.

I'm not totally up on front end alignment theory, so forgive me. See, learn somethign new every day!

[4eyedwillie]

Caster will definitly cause pull. Like others have said thats what you use to compensate for road crown. It is the only adjustment that doesn't cause tire wear however, maybe thats what confused them.

[MstangsBware]

NTB along with most other places are idiots and not to mention crooks...Had an issue with the local NTB with a car I swapped for a guy. He took it there without me and they said he needed $1400 worth of work before the car could be aligned..The parts that they said needed replaced had been repalced during the swap or in the past 6 months. Shop said the car could not be aligned cause the front end was in such bad shape..We pulled the front U/L A-arms to install poly along with new shocks but nothing esle. He took it back and it was aligned in 30 minutes with nothing said...Same issue with another person that took their car to Firestone....The parts sheet from FireStone almost matched the parts sheet from NTB to the T...

[2000 vert]

I use automotive alignment in kennadale. It's two brothers and do it all manually. Only about 60 bucks I think. They know their shit. Very satisfied.

[CJ]

caster has effect on steering return, sensitivity, and can cause death wobble at extreme circumstances.

Unless your truck has been lifted, the caster should be fine (assuming the eccentric bolts have not twisted somehow).

[Tweaked Blazer]

I have been doing alignments for about 16 years and have done quite abit of peoples cars on here.NTB customers come to me with the same complaints,there cars are pulling and they say there not adjustable.In most cases its EFFORT,if you just put alittle effort into it you can adjust it.On these Dodge trucks you can get some caster out of them but the problem is if there off alot when you adjust one side it moves but so does the other side,just not so much as the other.Example if the right caster is 1.6 and the left caster is 1.6,when you adjust the right it will move to a 1.9 and the left will move to 1.8,so you cant move it much but it is adjustable.I work at Muffler King and if you want me too check it out just call me 214-328-4669.I dont get on here much anymore but a friend called me and told me to check this thread out.

[Mach1]

Can someone explain how caster would effect pull if the suspension is not going up and down? Like I said, I can understand under bump but if it's static I don't see it pulling.