Camber kit, toe wear and camber wear

[kapone]

I get a lot of questions here at the shop pertaining to camber wear and if you need a camber kit because the inside of the tires are wearing rapidly. I wanted to post some examples of camber wear and toe wear so that people can be informed and not spend extra money on camber kits that are not needed.

this is the first picture. If your tires look like this. THIS IS NOT CAMBER WEAR !!! ITS TOE !!!

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t207/APTIRES/tirewear2.jpg

Notice the tire is on 80% of the tread is good and the very inside is showing cords. That is a waste of a tire considering 80% still had good thread on it. That is a irregular toe setting commonly found on lowered vehicles. For this situation a camber kit will do nothing to save you on tire wear. YOU NEED AN ALIGNMENT...

The next picture is an example of camber wear on a tire.

http://i161.photobucket.com/albums/t207/APTIRES/tirewear1.jpg

Notice the gradual wear of the tire from inside to out. This is caused by a properly aligned car with an aggressive camber setting on normal everyday driving.(no track use) Even thou the inside is more worn than the out side its a gradual wear and the tire was used properly through out its life. If you want to get a little more life out of that tire or just like the ability to adjust the car for different use (if you track the car) Then a camber kit would be helpful in this situation.

now this is not the diffinative example but it dose apply to the more common situations and I hope it helps in the decision on buying a camber kit or just spending the same money on an alignment.

[RoadRacer]

Good info!

[norachelhere]

< agress with ^

[treekiller]

Excellent pictures, i preach Toe over camber when Tire wear is involved. even with 2.5 degrees negative camber I can get 20,000 miles from a set of tires and that's taking them to the track. funny thing is I still wear them evenly since the camber wear and the track wear balance out.

[kapone]

I'm bumping my self for a good info tread ...

[senor honda]

Thanks for posting up the pics with your analysis.

We both agree that Negative camber wears the inside of the tires,
but incorrect toe SEVERELY wears tires............

I saw this last week when someone brought in a car with
toe wear so severe that the tread was feathering all the way across the tire.......when I put the gauges on it, the toe was off the scale.

He could live with a minor amount of negative camber, but the severe
toe would have eaten his tires, had he not got it fixed properly before leaving..........wish he had seen me first..........-Bob

[edmel89]

Im droping my car with Dropzone adj. Coilovers and sturt package, with a Skunk2 front camber kit, and rear control arms, is this a good set up, and then I'll go get it aligned. Sound good?

[senor honda]

Everybody has their own opinions. If the front camber kit is the Skunk2 one where the top ball joint slides in a slot for adjustment, that is the best design I've seen as far as strength and adjustability. -Bob