FAQ

Probably the one we think of first is reduced operating costs through longer tyre life. But that’s just the beginning. Not only do tyres on a properly aligned vehicle last longer, but some manufacturers suggest that there are significant improvements in fuel economy, component wear and even less driver fatigue.

While misaligned drive axles often produce a steering “pull”, misaligned trailer axles often produce “wander”. The  vehicle seems to track OK for a while after a steering correction, then drifts, first one way then the other.

Ideally, yes. Many of us tend to think of alignment on trucks the way we think of it on our personal motor cars. And there, generally, we think only of aligning the ‘front end’. On a passenger car, that may be enough. But on a vehicle that has tandem axles, like a truck, aligning only the front end is only doing a small part of the job.

Trailer axles can be misaligned in the same way that drive axles can. In fact, we use the same terms for trailer axle misalignment, ‘thrust’ and ‘scrub’. The difference is that while misaligned drive axles tend to push the vehicle out of straight-line travel, misaligned trailer axles tend to drag the vehicle.

When a truck is aligned, it means that all the tyres are rolling in the same direction that the vehicle is travelling in. While that is not always as easy to achieve, as it sounds, it does pay to go straight.