Which Control Arm to Adjust for Caster?

[DocMike]

Good point. My 35s are chewed up from wheeling them. I'm not seeing any funny pulling or whatever.

Just be careful to keep an eye on tread wear. I got an alignment from Goodyear and it was within spec according to their machine and made no adjustments. I still had a pull to t he right and ended up with unbalanced wear. Talked to my trusted mechanic and he told me an interesting story that I believe but not 100% sure if it is true.

He used to do alignments, and when he purchased his equipment, the installer asked how accurate he wanted it to be. Apparently, the machine can be calibrated to be "within specs" on a quick pass alignment. This is shorter that a true and precise alignment by about 15-20 minutes. Most shops want to do them as fast as possible to get a better profit per charge. This can sometimes miss minor adjustments that would be caught with the better alignment.

Not saying your Goodyear will be bad, but just word of caution. Unlimited alignments is fine, but money saved may be eaten up by having to buy new tires sooner than necessary.

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[@californiajeeping]

Adjust your upper arms to around 19.75" eye to eye and your lowers to the stock setting.

Typically this will set you close to 6 degrees.

Test and let us know how it does. You can adjust more if needed but that is what ive done on mine and another gladiator with no wandering issues.

 

[Oak]

Use the front upper control arms to adjust caster, and front lowers to adjust wheelbase! Give us a call if you need any additional help or have any questions, always happy to help out with the install

I'm trying to dial mine in. Caster is 5.0. How do you know if you need to adjust wheelbase? Do you recommend getting closer to 6 caster...have 3.5 overland lift.

 

[CrazyCooter]

I just installed my Clayton Ride Right 2.5 last night. I see you have a diesel, was your passenger upper frame bolt as miserable to access as it was for me?

Gravy........I've done 2 in the past month, but I had a tiny bit of anxiety after reading here how difficult it was and people were cutting the bolt off?

I don't like to give secrets away that devalue my profession and years of expereince, but here's your "Pro tip" for a fellow brotha JT owner: Ratcheting wrench to loosen it, then drop the forward end of the control arm strait down and rock it while wiggling the bolt out. Reverse the process to install. Crows foot on the torque wrench using the online calculator to convert the proper torque. Easy peasy!

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Gravy........I've done 2 in the past month, but I had a tiny bit of anxiety after reading here how difficult it was and people were cutting the bolt off?

I don't like to give secrets away that devalue my profession and years of expereince, but here's your "Pro tip" for a fellow brotha JT owner: Ratcheting wrench to loosen it, then drop the forward end of the control arm strait down and rock it while wiggling the bolt out. Reverse the process to install. Crows foot on the torque wrench using the online calculator to convert the proper torque. Easy peasy!

Use the crows foot at 90 degrees - not straight out. Even the torque wrench people say it will be accurate. The effective length isn't impacted like going straight out with it.


(for those who won't believe it...........

As I do plating and tech restorations, I'm on finishing dot com and this is one of the discussions -

 

[hjdca]

I'm trying to dial mine in. Caster is 5.0. How do you know if you need to adjust wheelbase? Do you recommend getting closer to 6 caster...have 3.5 overland lift.

I have the same lift. When I installed mine to Clayton specs, my caster approx 6.0. I then lengthened the front bottom control arms by 1/2 turn, and shortened the front uppers by 1/2 turn. This gave me a Caster of approx. 6.5 to 6.8 degrees... My truck rides better with the additional Caster. It has been about 25K miles like that now. I hope this info helps you.

PS. for Wheel base measure your tire clearance front and back in your fender wells. Note: half a turn on the control arms is barely noticeable.

 

[Oak]

I have the same lift. When I installed mine to Clayton specs, my caster approx 6.0. I then lengthened the front bottom control arms by 1/2 turn, and shortened the front uppers by 1/2 turn. This gave me a Caster of approx. 6.5 to 6.8 degrees... My truck rides better with the additional Caster. It has been about 25K miles like that now. I hope this info helps you.































































PS. for Wheel base measure your tire clearance front and back in your fender wells. Note: half a turn on the cont/QUOTE]















I just made some adjustments to mine today. Brought the top in 3 half turns. The gauge showed puI added about .5 degrees l. It's tough to know for sure

 

[Oak]

I have the same lift. When I installed mine to Clayton specs, my caster approx 6.0. I then lengthened the front bottom control arms by 1/2 turn, and shortened the front uppers by 1/2 turn. This gave me a Caster of approx. 6.5 to 6.8 degrees... My truck rides better with the additional Caster. It has been about 25K miles like that now. I hope this info helps you.

PS. for Wheel base measure your tire clearance front and back in your fender wells. Note: half a turn on the control arms i/QUOTE]

I just made some small adjustments today. I was at 5.0 and turned the top 1.5 turns. It's tough to get exact but looks like that was about .6 degrees.

I'm blown away by how much improvement I felt. I may do one more adjustment after confirming the new degree settings.

As to the wheel base, wherevwould you get specs to confirm the wheel well measurements?

 

[hjdca]

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