What is Camber Caster and Toe?
Hello, Guys here are some topics related to wheel alignment, including Steering alignment Camber, Caster and Toe. In this post, I will give some information on these topics.
Your car’s alignment is the most important factor for your car’s stability and safety. Wheel alignment ensures that all four wheels are optimised for maximum contact with the road.
Camber
It is an angle created by the wheel concerning the vertical axis of the car. It has positive, negative and neutral camber. The angle is very slightly tilted not a big deviation.
Positive camber means the top end of the wheel is tilted outward and the bottom end is tilted inward. It is mostly used in everyday cars. It has less contact with the road which helps in turning at low speeds and also reduces the wear of the tire.
Negative camber means the top end will be tilted inward and the bottom end will be tilted outward. It is used in track and off-roading vehicles. Because a positive camber will give stability issues on high-speed cornering, and with a negative camber, you will have a slightly wider stance.
The neutral camber has a 0-degree angle and it causes more tyre wear cause it has the most contact with the road.
Caster
It’s defined as the angle created by the steering pivot point from the front to the back of the vehicle. Caster is positive if the line is angled forward, and negative if backward.
Typically, the positive caster will make the vehicle more stable at high speeds and will increase tyre lean when cornering. This can also increase steering effort as well.
Toe
Toe represents the angle derived from pointing the tyres inward or outward from a top-down view – much like looking down at your toes and angling them inward or outward.
Correct toe is paramount to even tread wear and extended tyre life. If the tyres are pointed inward or outward, they will scrub against the surface of the road and cause wear along the edges. Sometimes, however, tread life can be sacrificed for performance or stability.
A positive toe occurs when the front of both tyres begins to face each other. Positive toe permits both wheels to constantly generate force against one another, which reduces turning ability. However, positive tow creates straighter driving characteristics. Typically, rear-wheel-drive vehicles have a slightly positive tow in the rear due to rolling resistance.
Negative toe is often used in front-wheel drive vehicles for the opposite reason. Their suspension arms pull slightly inward, so a slight negative toe will compensate for the drag and level out the wheels at speed. Negative toe increases car cornering ability.
Hope this article gives you a basic idea about Camber, Caster and Toe
