DavidW

iTrader: (4)

I have a 2010 silverado that I dropped a few inches and it couldn't be aligned and I have a few questions regarding the whole thing if someone who knows a bit about front ends could answer that would be great

Apparently the tech ran out of adjustment on the upper control arm. The suspension modifications on the front are 2" drop springs, shorter sway bar end links. I will attach a pic of the alignment sheet showing the old and new as well as the stock specs.



Question # 1
Is it weird that it can't be aligned with only a 2" drop? (I realize this is more of a vehicle specific question but even a general answer would be appreciated)

Question # 2
With my old alignment specs the tires wore horribly on the inside shoulder, what was the bigger cause of this, the camber or the toe, or were they about equally responsible?

Question # 3
how hard on my tires will this new alignment spec be on my tires?

Racerdad

I'll take a shot.

Q1: Hard to give specifics, but 2" is actually quite a big change in front-end geometry. You might have to look into some different upper control arms. I think the slammed S-10 guys use old F-body ones for this purpose. But that's more of an idea than a recommendation. There must be aftermarket parts for this, but I'm not familiar with this truck.

Q2: Probably toe (out). I used to run toe out on my autocross car, and this was exactly what it did. Setting its toe back to 0, and leaving camber at -3* made tires wear almost normal. Camber has an effect, but toe has the bigger one.

Q3: That doesn't look bad at all. Your previous toe spec WAS bad (just read this now). Depending on how vigorously you take corners, this could lead to a bit more wear on the outsides, since the reduced camber will allow the tire to roll over more easily. You may or may not notice it, though. It really doesn't look bad to me.

Hope that helps.

Wangspeed

iTrader: (2)

I agree with Racerdad on pretty much everything. I wouldn't worry about the new alignment too much. The inside shouldn't get eaten up so quickly now. Make sure you get a re-alignment when you swap tires. It's cheaper than eating up a new set of tires.

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

Spring drops are very bad on alignment. If you want to get it back to stock, look into drop spindles or lower control arms. That way you can preserve the oem suspension geometry rather than just popping a shorter spring in there and forcing everything to lean.

You will be ok with it as it is now though, minor camber wear but just rotate your tires every oil change and you're gonna be fine.

DavidW

iTrader: (4)

I would look into the other options for the truck, but I chose the drop springs because I wanted the increased spring rate to reduce body roll and improve handling. The popular two choices to drop these trucks are drop struts (which lower where the spring plate is on the strut) but I think that would be the same as a shorter spring alignment wise and drop spindles.

Thanks for the replies some good info there, if anyone has something to add its greatly appreciated