Too much camber correction??

[goalieman24]

I put on the front camber kit that adjusts from 1.25-3 degrees. Went and got an alignment and my front camber is +.4 on the left and +.1 on the right. The camber kit is set on the 1.25 which is too much. Should i leave it how it is with the positive camber(right is in spec, left is .2 out) or should i take it off and have it more negative? I guess the real question is.. is it better to be out of spec by having more positive or more negative??

 

[UCSLugRacerX]

What sized tires are you running? What type of driving do you do? Do you turn your car hard?

 

[UCSLugRacerX]

If you have too much negative or positive camber, you can cause some excessive tire wear. If you want to have next to zero excessive tire wear, then try to get close to zero degrees on both sides. If you want the car to be more responsive on the turns, then you'll want slightly more negative camber. From my experience, front wheel positive camber will actually cause your car to handle LESS sharply during turns, because upon shock/spring travel, in a turn, the tire's contact patch won't arc to a position, which will plant the tire squarly on the road.
Although cases will vary, due to suspension travel, and if the road may have off-camber, or crowned surfaces.

 

[goalieman24]

What sized tires are you running? What type of driving do you do? Do you turn your car hard?

225/50/16's..... the car is a daily driver but i do like to be able to go for "fun" drives quite often so handling is pretty important. I found someone that will buy the kits from me for almost how much I bought them for so I think I'll just take them off and have more negative camber.

 

[Ballin' GS]

More negative camber in the front ain't too bad. I'm assuming that if you have 1.25 degrees of positive correction now and have .1-.4 degrees positive, that without the camber kit you have around 1 degree negative camber give or take? If this is correct don't sweat it, that is quite good. THe negative edge of spec is .88 degrees negative. Just make sure your toe is set good.

 

[UCSLugRacerX]

Read this before you make a decision about how you want to adjust camber. This is from Tune to Win. This is written by Carroll Smith:

"Coefficient and cornering power vary with camber angle, relative to the surface of the road--not to the chassis. Invariably, maximum cornering force will be realized at some small value of negatve camber. This is due to "camber thrust" caused by the straightening out of the arc of the contact patch as the tread of the cambered tire rolls over the ground. If the tire is cambered in the negative sense, this force acts in the direction of the center of the curvature and increases the cornering power."
-Carroll Smith


Here is what Smith said about positive camber:

"If the tire is cambered in the positive direction, it acts away from the the center of curvature and decreases cornering power."
-Carroll Smith.

 

[goalieman24]

Thanks.... good quote too