rxspeed87

what is caster and how does it effect handling

NickSimcheck

Caster or Cast is what angle your tires touch the ground at. if you have them angled to where the inner part of the tire sits on the ground before the outside it can help handling when going around a corner, cause more tire makes contact with the ground when the weight shifts to the left or (depending on witch way your turning) the right side. i wouldn't worry about it untill you get adjustible ****.
Nick

lane_change

iTrader: (20)

That's Camber not Caster. Caster is an invisible line drawn from the lower ball joint up. If you have your casters at fairly the same degrees then it will not affect your handling. If for some reason your cross is say more that 1 degree then your car may have a tendancy to pull to the lower degree side. It can also cause a WANDER affect where your car wants to go this way then that way and so on. It will not wear your tires out in any way whereas Camber (described by Nick) will wear your tires. He is right about a little negative Camber helping your cornering but just used the wrong word.

Scott 89t2

read this

http://www.ground-control.com/gctalk5.htm

lane_change

iTrader: (20)

Nice link. They described it better. Those ******** are trying to make me look dumb. Thanks alot.

Scott 89t2

no prob

Eric Michel

An example that I read some where a long time ago that worked for me was to look at a typical grocery shopping cart. A shopping cart gives you an example of a lot of positve caster, the roller bearing is behind the pivot bearing. When push a shopping cart with one hand (assuming nothing is wrong with it) it will naturally go in a straight line due to the positive caster, and turning it requires a bit more effort. Now consider a cart where the roller bearing is directly over the pivot bearing. If you try to push this type of cart (0 caster) it will tend to wander on you, but it will turn much easier than the shopping cart. Your usually best off going with the manufacturers spec on caster, on the FD I believe it is 6.5 degrees. I am running 4.5 right now, the car actually handles better especially under breaking into a corner but you do lose some of the secure feeling that positive caster provides. As the referred to artical mentions a lot of caster does mask issues with your suspension and tires but it does lower your ultimate turning force. Unless your road racing ang going for every tenth you will be much happier with the factory setting. Everything with suspension alignments is a trade off, handling for tirewear, comfort, and drivability, the stock settings are usually the best comprimise for street driven cars.

NickSimcheck

yeah, camber caster.. same thing! but not lane_change is right, i'm just a ill attention payer.
Nick

ZoomZoom

iTrader: (2)

I didnt read the link but I work at a shop that does alignments and I have to explain to customers everyday about alignments. The 3 angles we adjust are Camber, Caster and Toe. Toe is just like it says. Just picture pigeon toed people walkign around. Its either toed in or toed out depending on what direction the wheels are facing. Toe will wear just the shoulder of the tire. Also camber is how the tire sits on the ground as far as leaning to the right or left causing wear to one half of the tire either from Negative or positive camber settings. Most performance cars have a certain amount of negative camber anyways for handling. As far as Caster goes, Caster doesnt wear tires but most of the time people associate a "pull" with Caster. Catser will cause the car to pull left or right and sometimes camber and toe as well but they have to be WAY out of Spec. As far as Caster goes, most cars dont have an adjustment from the factory for Caster. In some cases especially on Trucks you can install whats called a "shim" or Cambolt to adjust some non-factory settings. also most rear ends are not adjustable but shims can also be installed if they are way out of spec.

SpeedRacer

Caster also effects camber changes while the suspension "bumps". Positive caster will make the outside wheel in a corner GAIN camber, while inside tire will lose camber. This allows you to dial in less negative camber for better straight line braking, while still achieving desired results in cornjers. Postive caster will make your steering wheel want to center when exiting a corner. Less postive or negative caster gives the steering wheel a looser feeling and when you turn sharp the wheel will actually feel softer and WANT to turn in rather than center when you let off it. Pretty much all cars have some degree of postive caster dialed in. With too much positive caster, you will be fighted the wheel in corners as it will have a lot more pressure trying to center itself. It will tend to make the steering response feel slugish.