I just went from a 33x11.50 16 to a 35x12.50 15. Should I get an alignment? Not sure if it matters going from a 16" to a 15" wheel. Also going to larger diameter tire. It sort of looks off just looking at the front end, but I suffer anxiety and tend to blow things out of proportion. Thanks.
Do I need an alignment?
- Thread starter 04RubiOR
- Start date
Seanmconroy
New Member
If you get a front end alignment you probably won’t regret it because it is better for your tires and less stress on the steering components
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Changing tires doesn't trigger a need to adjust the toe-in, tires don't affect it. In an alignment, there are three basic angles that are checked and possibly adjusted... the caster angle, the camber angle, and the toe-in angle. But on the TJ, only the toe-in angle is adjustable.
The toe-in angle is the most critical after installing new tires and is easy to measure and set with nothing but big pliers, a wrench, and a tape measure. Doing the measuring with a little care means you can set your own toe-in just as accurately as the best alignment machine with the most experienced tech can achieve.
But with no assurance your toe-in was correct before installing the larger tires, you might as well check/adjust it. Are you interested in doing it yourself? You can if you just own that aforementioned tape measure, wrench, and big waterpump pliers. Basically you're just going to be rotating the tie rod a little to set its length so the fronts of the tires are 1/16" to 1/8" closer together than they are in the rear. With the fronts of the tires being slightly closer together in front, that gives you "toe-in".
Like described at http://www.4x4xplor.com/alignment.html
If you really want to get set up for future toe-in adjustments, go buy some 1" square aluminum tubing & spring clamps. Using them as shown below just makes it a little easier to make the measurements, plus the measurements between the sides are generally more repeatable too. Cut each aluminum square tube to maybe 5" longer than your tire's diameter and then permanently mark them at points equal to your tire diameter. Measure between them at those points.
The toe-in angle is the most critical after installing new tires and is easy to measure and set with nothing but big pliers, a wrench, and a tape measure. Doing the measuring with a little care means you can set your own toe-in just as accurately as the best alignment machine with the most experienced tech can achieve.
But with no assurance your toe-in was correct before installing the larger tires, you might as well check/adjust it. Are you interested in doing it yourself? You can if you just own that aforementioned tape measure, wrench, and big waterpump pliers. Basically you're just going to be rotating the tie rod a little to set its length so the fronts of the tires are 1/16" to 1/8" closer together than they are in the rear. With the fronts of the tires being slightly closer together in front, that gives you "toe-in".
Like described at http://www.4x4xplor.com/alignment.html
If you really want to get set up for future toe-in adjustments, go buy some 1" square aluminum tubing & spring clamps. Using them as shown below just makes it a little easier to make the measurements, plus the measurements between the sides are generally more repeatable too. Cut each aluminum square tube to maybe 5" longer than your tire's diameter and then permanently mark them at points equal to your tire diameter. Measure between them at those points.
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