Hello all, i have read the write up on front end alignment and i was courious about the toe out for 37" or larger tires. i know it suggest a toe out for that size tire but what if you bounce back and forth between a 35" and a 37" tire? i use my 35" for the colder months and 37" for the summer months. does it really matter if i leave a toe out for the 35"? ant potential problems?

 

I just read the write-up about toe-out and 37" tires. I would like to know why the writer says 37" tires may require up to 1/8" toe-OUT.

 

Toe OUT for larger than stock tires is incorrect. Tires are exposed to a "pushing" effect as they are driven down the road. This pushing effect pushes the front of the tires towards the outside of the vehicle. Of course, because of steering linkage, they cannot move much, but this push can certainly be measured on an alignment machine. Larger tires require more toe IN because of their increased leverage allowing more of the road push to occur.

 

for our race car we always use 1/8 tow our if we have zero toe or some toe in it handles like doodoo.

so i can understand with larger tires slight toe out might handel better than to in.

 

this is absolutely correct. in virtually all cases, toe-out is incorrect for a rear wheel drive vehicle and for the reasons stated. so that it's clear, what i wrote is strickly based on what i have seen other guys do in the past and yield the results they were looking for, hence, why i say "you may actually want...." as opposed to saying something like "you need to..." for whatever it's worth, i run close to a factory toe-in even with my 37's and it seems to do the job well.

 

Different animals. Apples and oranges. No comparison..etc. etc.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Perhaps your clarification can be added to the write-up.

 

already done

 

Toe out causes wander- the vehicle doesn't know which tire to follow. Also the inside tread on each tire would be history in a very short time. A slight TOEIN is required to get the front tires to work in tandem, meaning a slight PUSH against each other. This causes the vehicle to track straight and true. It takes VERY little toein to accomplish this....

 

toe out on a race car, esp for autocross, lets the car start a turn much quicker, so its great for a course with lots of turns. On the highway, it will make your car want to wander all over the road. Unstable = bad.

Kurt