what to expect at alignment shop?

[supermike]

Installed a rock crawler lift kit with all 8 control arm, then went to OC house of suspension for a alignment(refer by rebel offroad).
I'm paying $105 only to adjust camber(and I don't thing you can adjust camber on a jeep?!) in the front. IMHO thats ripping people off. I have had several lifted vehicle from Toyota jeep ford to Land Rover, no recall of anybody touching the rear or dropping the control arm. Am I expecting too much out of a $80 alignment job? Do alignment shop actually even do anything for your caster? How about rear? Any good alignment shop in LA or OC area?

*edit, He did hand written the spec on a form, L camber 0.4 R camber 0.2 L caster 5.1 R caster 5.0 setback 0.31

Sponsored

 

[rustyshakelford]

When we did my alignment, the rear was not square by just a bit. I paid $125 for mine. Was on the rack well over an hour probably. My caster was set to 6.

Brett

 

[supermike]

He did not even bothered to touch caster. I would assume adjust caster will have to drop control arm thats extra work. I'm okay to pay extra, gotta pay to play, just don't know what should I expect. I measure the control arm length according to the lift kit instruction before put it on, that's how I got my caster set initially.

 

[Renegade]

Camber is not adjustable on Wranglers. Caster can be adjusted via adjustable control arms (if your lift kit included them). Toe in and steering center are the only things adjustable on all Wranglers. If you don't have adjustable arms, taking your Jeep to an alignment shop may be a waste of time and money. Learning to measure toe in and centering the steering is your best bet. If you do have adjustable arms, I would recommend talking with the tech beforehand to get on the same page. I have a friend with an offroad shop. One of his good customers came back in after taking a Jeep to another shop for an alignment, and one of his control arms was adjusted 2" shorter than the others. The Jeep was crab-walking down the road. Just because someone works at a fancy shop with a big sign doesn't mean you will get what your lifted Jeep needs.

 

[TrailTorque]

@supermike

I believe @TTEChris could give you the best advice here.

 

[Tech Tim]

Always ask for a print-out showing before and after specs and stuff that in your JL file. It's nice to have to help diagnose problems in the future.

I'll echo what @Renegade said, they can't adjust camber on a wrangler. Well at least not easily.

 

[TTEChris]

Installed a rock crawler lift kit with all 8 control arm, then went to OC house of suspension for a alignment(refer by rebel offroad).
I'm paying $105 only to adjust camber(and I don't thing you can adjust camber on a jeep?!) in the front. IMHO thats ripping people off. I have had several lifted vehicle from Toyota jeep ford to Land Rover, no recall of anybody touching the rear or dropping the control arm. Am I expecting too much out of a $80 alignment job? Do alignment shop actually even do anything for your caster? How about rear? Any good alignment shop in LA or OC area?

*edit, He did hand written the spec on a form, L camber 0.4 R camber 0.2 L caster 5.1 R caster 5.0 setback 0.31

If all they are adjusting is camber then they are ripping you off unless they are including offset balljoints or something else that would allow adjustment of camber on a solid axle wrangler. $105 for full adjustment of all 8 arms to make sure the Jeep is square and the caster/pinion angles are correct sounds like a good deal, but that doesn't sound like what you are paying for?

@supermike

I believe @TTEChris could give you the best advice here.

Thanks, it may not be the best advise as I'm sure there are plenty of people that are more knowledgeable than me on these forums. I just like to give my advise from what I've learned over the years of owning/working on JK's & JL's.

I always get a little frustrated when people pay for alignments on a JL or JK without adjustable components(Not in his case if he has 8 adjustable arms.) On a high mileage Wrangler it is good to see if you have bent/worn components, but on a new Wrangler it is a complete waste of money IMO. All they can adjust is the toe, which in my experience doesn't change much(if at all) with a small lift, and center the steering wheel.

 

[WranglerMan]

When @TTEChris did my RC 2.5” boost and put on my new wheels and tires I asked about an alignment and he told me to save my $$$$ my JL rides just fine and the wheel does not pull, it does follow the crown of the road but from talking with Chris that’s expected with the larger wider tires but if I’m going down a flat road straight I can let go of my wheel and it rolls prefect.

I’m sure I could benefit maybe some by an alngment but when I did my 5k mile tire rotation the tech that rotated them advised they are wearing perfectly

 

[supermike]

Thanks everybody, really appreciated. I do have adjustable control arms, all 8 of them. I guess I will have a in depth conversation with the tech before doing the alignment.

Sponsored