The tyres which are the contact points of any vehicle to the rode is very crucial when it comes to safety. Tyres are the most important components of any vehicle, it’s the tyre that stops the car and a proper wheel alignment assures your car run well in everyday situation and tyres perform well even in the worst types of weather and road conditions.
Here we will discuss car wheel alignment caster, camber and toe explanation:
Car Wheel Alignment Caster:
Caster is something that makes the vehicle to be stable and predictable, the caster angle is the slope of the steering axis. This steering axis is the imaginary line that intersects the upper and lower ball joints of the knuckle.
The caster angle can be positive or negative, it is expressed in degrees. When the bottom of the steering axis line is in the front of the tyre’s contact patch positive caster occurs.
When the lower ball joint behind the upper one, unlike positive caster arrangement, the tyre and wheel contact patch hit the ground behind the steering system negative caster position occurs. And when the steering axis is at 0 degrees the zero casters occurs.
How positive and negative caster influence the performance of your vehicle:
Positive caster improved straight-line stability at speed. The positive caster creates a tension that wants to keep the front wheels straight while you are driving at speed. It keeps the vehicle travelling in a straight line and it also helps return the tyre to an upright position when coming out of a turn.
The positive caster angles run 3 to 5 degree on modern vehicle and this gives a good mix of highway stability and steering feel. In case you are not running power steering than 3 to 4-degree caster setting is a good setup to reduce the weight of the steering and maintain its benefits.
By making a simple correction to the camber and toe you can save money by reducing tyre wear. Are you now wondering what is camber? Below you can find the answer to your question.
What is the camber angle?
Camber is an angle of the wheels or a camber angle is the slope of the imaginary line that runs vertically through the centre of the tyre tread. At zero degree this imaginary line will be perpendicular to the road.
The camber angle can be expressed in degrees and it can be positive or negative which greatly affects the handling dynamics of your vehicle. The camber angle is measured while the vehicle is in stop position and it changes naturally while the vehicle is turning or cornering.
Let’s discuss about negative camber:
Negative camber occurs when the top of the vehicle’s tyre tucks inwards. To have a good tyre balancing for cornering grip and braking grip you need to maintain a slight amount of negative camber that is 0.5 to 1 degree.
It helps to improve handling by keeping the tyre perpendicular to the road and ensure the tyre’s contact patch is evenly loaded. During hard cornering and under load condition the negative camber helps to maximize the tyre contact patch. It not only benefits the cornering traction and performance of the tyre but, it also improves tyres longevity when used for performance driving.
Positive Camber:
What causes positive camber? Well, tilting the tyre centreline outward from the vehicle causes positive camber. The positive camber creates more stability as it will cause the vehicle to pull outside in each side.
In case you are normally driving on uneven roads then your vehicle needs stability which is provided by the positive camber. Positive camber provides greater stability in a straight line by reducing steering effort.
The positive camber leads to smooth steering, it induces the ability to drift. You can find a positive camber mostly on recreational vehicles and agricultural vehicles such as tractors.
Now, here will come to know more about vehicle technology which includes toe alignment:
What is Toe?
When a car’s wheel point to the right or left side or you can say a toe angle is a direction the car tyres are pointed as per the vehicle’s centreline. Toe angle is one of the three major wheel alignment configuration parameters. The toe angle has a considerable impact on a car’s directional stability and tyre wearing angle.
Wheel Toe-In and Toe-out:
When wheel centre lines extension tend to meet in front of the direction of travelling vehicle, this is called to be toe-in and if the lines are meeting behind the direction of travel of the vehicle then it is called toe-out.
How Does Toe Affect Performance?
The toe angle is expressed in either degree or fraction-of-an-inch. The toe-in effects are mostly provided for trucks, SUVs or rear-wheel-drive-cars as it offers better straight- line stability. If the vehicle is having a lot of toe-ins, then the chances of tyre wear out increases especially the outside edges of the tyres. That is why the majority of the real-wheel-drive car uses positive to-in that enable tyres to move appropriately.
You can find toe-out effects in race cars as the race cars required a very responsive steering system. The toe-out setting in front-wheel drive vehicles makes the front tyre stronger hence, increases the grip and help the vehicle to achieve directional wheel stability.
Final Words:
Achieving a proper wheel alignment and tyre balancing help to improve both the performance and longevity of your car tyres. There are several reasons due to which wheels suffer misalignment which affects the quality of your car tyre.
Above are the terms related to wheel alignment and wheel balancing that makes your car tyre maintain accurate alignment and prevent uneven tyre wear hence, optimizes driving stability, maximize tyre life and improves your vehicle’s overall handling performance.