To those with the "5100 lift"...

[FatTiresRollin]

I will be installing my 5100s and Daystar rear spacer tomorrow. To everyone and anyone who has done this 1.75" or 2.5" lift or just has an opinion...will the truck be relatively driveable for a few days without having the alignment done? You may or may not have seen my post in the "what did you do in your 4runner today" thread, but I have to get my rear bumber cover replaced. I was hoping to just have the body shop knock out the repair, oil change, tire rotation and the alignment. It will be a little while before the bumper cover comes in, gets painted, etc...

So I am just looking for what the general consensus is with the driveability (safety) of the truck w/ the lift and no alignment. I can schedule an alignment as early as Monday if needed, just would like to put the truck in the shop once and reduce the hassle.

Thanks in advance for the input!

 

[///AIRDAM]

when i did my lift, it actually looked pretty good, and drove fine. after the alignment was done i got a printout of how the tires actually were. the camber (tires in or out at the top) was out about 3degrees (very minimal would take 1000+ miles to start wearing the tires) and the toe (tires pointing in and out) was only out .5 degrees (would take 5000+ miles to start to see wear) you can make it a week or two easy with no ill effects to your tires.

 

[FatTiresRollin]

If it is safe to drive without the alignment...I may leave it that way to wear the tires faster. This will give me a reason (to sell to the wife) to get new 285s!:madgrin:

"I'm sorry hunny...I don't know why those tires only lasted 25k miles...I told you those factory tires were unsafe and just plain junk!"

 

[///AIRDAM]

although the toe and camber were minimally out of alignment, the caster was not all that great either. the caster being off seems to make the steering wheel "darty" and not want to track back to -0- all that easily and scrubs the tires when you are high speed cornering (40mph + turns) this to a woman may feel unstable, which a lifted 4runner, with a somewhat twitchy steering, on skinny stock tires, may not be the safest thing to let her drive down the road for an extended period of time. a lifted 4runner, on skinny tires, with a darty steering, may end up in a roll-over if she got in a bind. i wouldn't recommend leaving it for an extended period of time.

 

[FatTiresRollin]

I don't let her drive my truck anyway...She might back it into a retaining wall or something :doh:

Seriously though, I would never actually drive the truck around without the alignment done for an extended period of time. I just wanted to make sure the 1-2 week time frame wouldn't be out of the question. I did not spring for the UCAs, so my "aligned" truck still won't be optimal.

I will just have to figure out another way to wear these tires down faster....

 

[eddiebx]

Not sure how much you drive in a 1-2 week time frame, but if it's only a couple of hundred miles then you should be ok tire wear wise. How safe the handling feels is really best for you to judge, obviously use some common sense and adjust your driving habits accordingly until you've gotten it properly aligned.

I will add this, back in high school when I lowered my honda and didn't think an alignment was necessary, I wore a brand new set of tires down to the cords in under 6 months because my toe was so far out of whack. In case you were wanting to wear out your tires in a hurry (but please don't really do that, it's probably not the brightest of ideas)

And well there's always 4WD burnout contests :noidea:

 

[///AIRDAM]

yeah i like seeing tire smoke. do like this guy. chain it to something and let 'er rip. i like burn outs. just video it and post it dont leave us hanging


PowerShopCentral.com ATV burnout - YouTube