Front end alignment

[Ljnasa]

Anyone have a recommendation near Slidell La. to get my front end alignment on my Grayhawk 31DS ?

Thanks for any help.

[katiedog]

Sorry don't have any Idea who might do the job in your area.
I have done my own for years but we got a 16 31ds and knew it was out of my skill set.
It took 3 hours on the rack to get it right at a RV and truck shop
that has one of the best guys in the Biz.
Hanvey Tire in Birmingham Alabama
$400.00 later it does drive better, just wish I didn't believe the dealer who said he checked it at PDI.
Jayco would not cover it since had been on the road for 6 months.
The tires were showing funny wear.

[Harvard]

Sorry, I cannot help you with a good alignment shop in LA but I can tell you the questions to ask to determine if a potential alignment shop has the experience you need..

Ford ships the E350/E450 with a front end caster set any where from +3 to +4 Degrees. That is a good setting for city driving. For highway speeds you want to have it set from at least +5 to +6 degrees, OTHERWISE:

POPULAR MECHANICS MAY 1973:
START QUOTE:
If too little caster exists, the car will wander and weave,
thus necessitating constant corrections in steering.
END QUOTE:

The specified range of Caster for the E350/E450 is
from +1.5 to +7.0 degrees.

As you can see almost any possible setting is "within spec"
for the "tweak the toe and you are good to go"
alignment services. Stay away from Ford
dealerships and have it done at a "good" truck front end shop.
You should need only ask if they have experience setting
the caster to be above +5 degrees on these Ford E Series RVs.

[foglght]

As stated above, the aligment shops at Ford usually just hide behind the ridiculous settings from Ford.

Getting caster up there is probably going to require inserts from Ignalls. Lots of threads on that.

Camber has a huge range and should be 0 or slightly negative (0.1-0.2), but it also needs to be similar side to side. Don't accept left camber being +0.5 and right -0.5. It WILL cause a pull and wonky handling.

Toe should be slightly + overall (toe in).

You need to spec these out when you drop it off. Make sure they understand this is what you want and you won't accept anything else. If they give you any hassle about it or start quoting Ford specs, LEAVE.

[Ljnasa]

I found a plac about 38 miles from our home. It is Penny’s it’s in Hammond la.

Thanks for all the advice, I will let you know how it turns out.

[Boudreaux]

Originally Posted by Ljnasa

I found a place about 38 miles from our home. It is Penny’s it’s in Hammond la.

Thanks for all the advice, I will let you know how it turns out.

Here in Lafayette, I took my Greyhawk to Lafayette Spring on West Willow ... Great place and great people ...

[katiedog]

Make sure RV is loaded the way you will be driving for the
majority of your trips.
I measured the gap from the front tires to the fender lip while on the rack
, then match that number when I hook up heavy trailer by adjusting
WD hitch and Helwig helpers.
Make sure they set your pressures before starting.

[Harvard]

It has occurred to me that I made a mistake when I first approached an alignment shop now over seven years ago.

I told the service writer "I want an alignment!!!!"

I should have said to the service writer, "my RV wanders at Highway Speeds!!!".

Just a thought. Maybe then I would have received more then a "tweak the toe and I am good to go" type of service.

[Harvard]

Wandering at highway speeds

Reply Post by 2kGeorgieBoy
Re: Wandering at highway speeds
Reply #36 on: March 14, 2018, 09:07:02 PM

START QUOTE:
Jeff.. Although we have a 2000 Georgie Boy 31' Maverick "C" on a Ford E450 chassis, I can fully agree on the caster effects, at least for us. When we got the unit in Jan 2014, the dealer had us take into a truck shop for an alignment. It turned out OK....A trip to Moab shortly there after brought out the problems. I then started reading the threads and comments here about the caster settings....esp., from Harvard. I checked the data from the first alignment and found that it was set at about 3 1/2 degrees positive...about in the middle of Ford's recommended range. Shortly before a cross country trip to Maryland in fall of 2016, I returned to the shop where the first alignment was done. I talked to the service manager and he knew of the problems with the E450's and was happy to increase the caster as I asked. The alignment tech was also familiar with it and ended up with settings close to 5.5 degrees positive. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! The unit tracked straight down the road, passing semis no longer caused a white knuckle hold on the wheel, and overall it was just a lot more enjoyable. It did however increase steering effort a little but not anything to worry about. But, be sure that the shop you go to is willing to "think outside of the box". Our first alignment was "plain vanilla", right in the middle like it was always done. Second time out, they were very willing to increase settings beyond what normally would be done, and still stay with in Ford's guidelines (0-7 degrees, I believe). I realize that our E450 chassis is an entirely different animal than yours, but I was trying to add support to the caster increase thinking and how it helped us......if you go down that road.
END QUOTE: