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How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 10:29 am
by RyanDS650X
The steering wheel is a little off and pulls to the right so the bronco is going in for an alignment soon. How much camber should the front tires have? Ive attached a pic to show what im working with.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:00 am
by RyanDS650X
driver and passenger shots
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:36 pm
by Deleted Account
I run mine at 0. +1 is ok too. Toe and caster split are a more important though. 1/2 to 3/4 more on the Right (pass) side is a good start. 1/16 to 1/8 toe in is perfect.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:46 pm
by philofab
Depends on who you talk to. That is definitely too much positive camber though. 1/2 degree of positive camber, 1/16 - 1/8 tow in, and as much caster as you can get works well for me. Seems to wear evenly are ride nice.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 3:54 pm
by johncharlesb
+1 to -1 would be acceptable, but I prefer 0 to -1/2. Although, I ran a bit of positive camber on my Bronco and 2wd F150 without issues.
It looks like you have too much toe in too, maybe why it pulls. What kind of alignment cams are in there now? Toe in will depend on wear of the steering components. Newer stuff gets less toe in, old sloppy stuff gets more so when you get rolling it winds up straight. Be careful of excessive toe and the death wobble and or wandering. Too much toe in can give you more positive camber too.
A decent alignment can be done in the driveway. Basically, I would set the alignment cams to get you camber first and set your toe after, drive, center wheel with tie rods, drive, recheck your camber, recheck your toe, adjust, drive. If there are adjustable cams (JBG) run the excess into the caster.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 9:34 pm
by philofab
Remember that camber and toe work together. A wheel riding on it's edge turns a little.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:03 pm
by RyanDS650X
Thanks for all the input guys. As some of you know, i bought this truck as it sits now. I dont know what alignment cams are in it. My brother will be taking it to an alignment shop to have the work done.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:08 pm
by SteveG
I run all my beamed fords with a bit of positive camber. They drive better (on the street) and wear tires better. I hate the way they feel on pavement with negative camber and they trash tires too fast.
A dirt truck is a different story, of course.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 4:07 pm
by vegasff13
Which shop in town is he taking it to? Im in Vegas also and havent had much luck with lifted ttb and alignment shops in town. Let me know if you find one that works out ok.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 8:22 pm
by RyanDS650X
Hes in Phoenix... Maybe a ford dealer would be your best bet though. Ford Country on Gibson is where i would go in Vegas.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:03 pm
by SteveG
RyanDS650X wrote:Hes in Phoenix... Maybe a ford dealer would be your best bet though. Ford Country on Gibson is where i would go in Vegas.
Dealerships rarely have GOOD alignment techs. Your best bet is to ask around. Go to a few (good) parts stores, to a few shops that don't do alignments and ask who they recommend, ask (good) body shops where they take their stuff.
Aligning beamed Fords properly can get expensive, so you don't want to have to pay for it twice. Make sure you get a before and after printout so you can refer to it in case of problems or changes.
If the shop you take it to bats an eye and hesitates about aligning an "off-road truck", keep looking.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 9:13 pm
by philofab
SteveG wrote:Dealerships rarely have GOOD alignment techs.
I had a buddy that worked at the local Nissan dealership. I was there for some reason and I saw another tech aligning a car. He was sitting on the front right fender and having someone else hit "print" while it was in spec.
I've also gotten numerous cars back from the alignment shops here and they drive worse than my tape measure alignment.
If I'm ever in AG during the week I'm taking my truck to Steve...
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:32 pm
by RyanDS650X
Im going to get ahold of R&H (Gun-its builders out in AJ) hopefully they can steer me in the right direction.
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:57 am
by David Kennedy
This truck does seems to have more camber than other cut-and-turned beam trucks. It currently has the Superlift adjustable camber sleeves in the upper ball-joint locations. Various lower coil spring seats and coil spring combinations have been fitted to the truck to try to dial it in. Autofab suggested that the coil springs need to be pounded on to get them to settle... but I never got a chance to do it.
I like the idea that Brian had of machining down the factory lower coil spring seats (
http://www.gofastbroncos.com/forum/view ... ?f=9&t=946) which would lower the front ride height and reduce the camber. I also have friend that's making custom height lower seats out of steel for dialing in TTB ride height.

- Coil SPring mount bucket.jpg (201.25 KiB) Viewed 1239 times
Re: How much camber for cut and turned beams?
Posted: Sat Sep 04, 2010 8:24 pm
by RyanDS650X
That helps out ALOT David, thanks for the extra info and the PM. Would the aluminum upper and lower intake maniflods and the cylinder heads make that much of a difference in the weight on the front end??