tightened my torsion bar yesterday.. took me about 30min, but my truck is all leveled out and i like it. the front suspension is tighter.. so i can take turns better, i love it.

 

Are you going to get it aligned or not?

 

O, and did you get any pics? I would like to see some pics of trucks with cranked tbars

 

awesome...i cranked mine but i need to take some pics :D

 

what do you mean aligned?

 

Front end alignment. Without a proper alignment you may feel a pull to one direction, the steering wheel may not be straight when your going straight in more serious cases, and your tires will wear badly as well...

 

damn, i guess i'd better go do that tomarow because it does pull to the right just slightly, hope it doesnt cost much

 

About $50 to get aligned, but if you don't, you'll wear your tires and probably they will become noiser. One pair of my tires, when on the front, is noiser than the others because I ran them about 6000 miles after cranking before a wheel alignment. I'd do it.

 

Alignment: $50.00
Premature need for new tires: $ A lot more :)

 

I never aligned mine and have put 30k miles on the tires I have with no adverse wear. And you can tell its out of alignment. Just rotate them every oil change.

 

You must have EXCELLENT, calibrated vision. How do you KNOW it's out of alignment? Usually, you tell by tire wear. If your tires aren't wearing unevenly, chances are it IS in alignment.

Sorry, but you gave bad advice. It doesn't pay take a chance just because yours LOOKS out of alignment and you believe it's not a problem. That's hardly and informed opinion and it's misleading.

My advice is still go get the alignment done. You're not driving the "other guys truck".

 

:roll:

 

lol!

 

What's the joke? I guess I don't feel the need to justify myself because I am pretty confident with the things I say. If I don't have a good idea about what is being discussed, I stay out of it.... I am not one of the members that goes spouting random useless and incorrect facts out of my behind.

If the guy's truck is pulling badly, he can get an alignment if he pleases. Personally, I don't care, so what's it to you?

 

how about this... both of you continue this in Pms.... and to exjvn... just go get it aligned youll be happy you spent the 50 bucks... well worth it.... GOD I WISH I WAS A MODERATER..... lol jk

 

If you want to take chances with your truck, feel free; but to berate someone for giving GOOD advice on this forum is assinine. People who make adjustments to their suspension have every reason to get an alignment. Its much better to err on the side of caution than to prematurely wear tires.

Did it ever occur to you that you're not NOTICING the uneven wear because you're on an aggressive tire-rotation schedule?

 

some places (Firestone) give lifetime alignments for $125
worth it if you do aggressive off-roading or plan on lifting your truck

here is a an excellent link that fully explains why you need to have an alignment after changing the relative height of your chassis in relation to your suspension
whether you put in a spindle lift or just crank up the t-bars you really need to have your front end adjusted

 

Jeez, you're touchy. I was laughing at your roll-eyes emoticon. Be as sure of yourself as you like -- you were still wrong and giving bad advice. It's my opinion but I'm firm on it as well. I do question whether you have a "good idea" about what's being discussed.

You never did answer my question about how you "know" your truck is out of alignment. You said you can "tell" it is. I wish it were that simple and if you think it is you truly DON'T know enough to make an informed contribution -- AGAIN THIS IS IN MY OPINION before you go off again!

But the point is: you are giving someone advice that almost any informed person KNOWS is bad because you haven't seen his truck or conditions. To somehow think he WON'T wear his tires because yours haven't worn is bad science AT THE LEAST. I won't say what the worst might be, lol! :)

 

For whatever it is worth, I have never had an alignment on my truck and I have adjusted the preload on my torsion bars some.

 

I had the opposite. I did the tweak and ended up with slightly cupped tires. I wish I'd done the alignment IMMEDIATELY.

On the other hand, it should be possible to be OUT of alignment and have the tweak put it back in.

Dave, how much "preload" did you add, measured in ride height? My guess would be 1" or less. We had bunches of people that did about an inch say when they went in for alignment it was not a problem.

Contrariwise (sic), we had folks who dialed it up to 2" or so who had big misalignments. It's very dependent on how good you alignment was to begin with, I do believe.

 

I guess the question then is whether you adjusted the bars to compensate for sag or to actually change the height of the truck. If you adjust the preload to compensate for the SAG, then in theory you would be bringing the suspension back to where it was when the truck rolled off the assembly line which *should* be in alignment. In theory, if the suspension is in the exact same position as the last time it was aligned (on the assembly line) then the likelihood of having adverse tire wear from the adjustment is minimal. If you have adjusted your preload such that the suspension is in a different position than it was last time it was aligned, then it *should* be realigned or you *may* experience excessive tire wear.

In any case, the relatively low cost of an alignment to correct a potential problem as well as any other alignment issues that may have arisen since your last alignment will certainly be much less than the cost of one new tire.

 

I adjusted my torsion bars for a ride-height change, but I did it at the same time that I changed wheels and tires to larger sizes, so an alignment was DEFINITELY called for.

 

Ah, that would describe me as well, Brian. That's exactly what I did as well. I guess the combination of the two is the "killer", eh?

 

I have larger tires, though they are the same width (and model) as the stockers on the same rim. I don't remember how much it went up, but the truck is not level. I still have at least and inch difference between the front and rear, but at the same time the front is higher than it was stock.