What are the signs for a misaligned truck?
Picture this;
You’re driving on the highway from Pretoria to Cape Town. Following the speed limits and suddenly your truck pulls to a side. Not sure of the cause but you keep on driving you have a deadline to meet. This is tiresome, you have to fight to keep the truck straight. You are already running late because you had to stop for fuel more than what you anticipated. Once you reach the destination you notice that your new tyres that you fitted for this trip, has rapid tyre wear-beyond repair. What do you do?? Nothing else but to buy new tyres and repeat the process?! Unless you could have prevented the cause all together.
We have come across a few questions about bad alignment or also known as bad wheel alignment, but the correct term is: misalignment. a few key factors was chosen out of numerous signs that could point to misalignment to provide better clarity on the subject;
· Tyre wear on the inner or outer sides of the tyres. Wave type of wear and/or rapid tyre wear.
· The truck will pull to a specific side and/or vibrate slightly. Vibrations can also be the leading cause for a different problem namely unbalance wheels.
· Your steering wheel is askew when driving straight (not always a correct indicator)
· Poor maintenance on the suspension components.
Bad roads can be your wheels’ worst nightmare. If you drive down poorly maintained roads, the slightest, tiniest alignment issues can be triggered by driving through pot holes or hitting a curb and even poor maintenance on the suspension while driving. All of the factors can accelerate uneven tyre wear if the alignment is knocked out. Wheel alignment is a preventative action plan to ensure optimal drive ability and safety. It will help your tyres last longer, your vehicle drive smoother, ultimately keeping your wheels pointed in a straight direction. And, when it drives more smoothly, the vehicle will use less energy to keep going. This will potentially save on fuel and ultimately tyre and repair costs.
One of the most common assumptions made for misalignment is-that if the steering wheel is askew the alignment will be out, this might not always be the case. Depending on the under suspension for most cases; the error is made based on the tow rods connected to the drag link, connected to the steering box, connecting to the steering wheel. If the drag link bend by a hard impact of hitting an obstacle, this will cause an askew steering wheel but not affecting the toe rod ends in anyway (Alignment is set on the toe rods ends).
In a different scenario the steering box could have been removed for repairs and not re-fitted correctly in the original position.
Or even if the tie rods ends have been changed on the one side, this could cause that either one of the sides faces more inwards than the other, this could be a cause for an askew steering wheel and the case will be that alignment is needed and the steering wheel need to be re-centred.
The preventative wheel alignment action does require check-ups as a good defence, depending on your preference and the conditions of which the truck drives every day.
NOTE: A plan is always better than winging it!
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