Camber and caster are both wheel alignment specifications.
They affect how the car handles and how the tires wear.
Many performance modifications affect these specs, so it is important to understand what they mean, how they are affected, and how they are corrected.
Simply put, camber is the vertical angle of the wheels.
If the top of the tire is closer to the center of the vehicle than the bottom of the tire, you have negative camber.
If the bottom is closer than the top, you have positive camber.
It is important to understand that no specific measure of camber is "correct.
" The appropriate camber is different for each vehicle and each driver's preference.
For example, high performance cars, especially those that are raced on a track, perform better with a substantial degree of negative camber.
This allows the car to corner harder without understeer, but it also causes the tires to wear faster on the inside.
Most stock vehicles have either zero camber or a slight negative camber.
Any time suspension components are upgraded, camber change must be considered.
When you change the ride height of a vehicle you are raising or lowering the entire vehicle except the wheels, which stay the same hight off the ground.
This means you are changing the angle at which the wheel is attached to the vehicle which translates to a change in camber.
When lifting, the camber becomes more positive and when lowering, it becomes more negative.
Adjusting this value is different for every vehicle and application.
Many performance suspensions allow you to move the top of the strut in or out to adjust camber.
For some applications, a tapered plate is installed behind the wheel hub to make this adjustment.
When it comes to trucks, achieving the desired camber can be difficult.
Some have adjustable ball joints that can be moved in or out while others require replacing the ball joints with ones that have been manufactured to change camber.
Caster is a little harder to understand and much harder to physically see on a vehicle.
The best way to understand caster is to draw a vertical line through the center of a wheel.
If we rotate that line so that the top is closer to the back of the vehicle, we have positive caster.
If we move the bottom of the line closer to the rear, we have negative caster.
This value will have little effect on how the tires wear, but is can have a huge affect on how the vehicle handles.
This is one of the biggest causes of the infamous "death wobble" in lifted trucks.
It can also cause understeer because when the wheels are turned in either direction, caster also affects the camber.
Solutions for adjusting caster can range from changing the factory caster adjustment to changing the length of the trailing arms.
Both camber and caster can be difficult to understand and to physically see on a vehicle, but they are both very important aspects of a suspension upgrade.
If you want your vehicle to handle the best it can and your tires to last as long as possible, both must be adjusted to meet the needs of the vehicle as well as the driver.
Give us a call today to discuss how we will ensure that your suspension is upgraded correctly the first time.