2023 ORP with Bilstein Lift - Alignment Questions

TLDR;
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Especially if you know a lot about alignments - What would you do if an alignment shop aligns your car, and tells you that its fine for the caster to be off? The car drives perfectly, by the way. See alignment printout below.

Do you know of a good reputable respectable alignment shop in the Austin, TX area?

Full Story;
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My Setup
6112 Front 1.9" in the 6/4 circlip for driver/passenger. 5160 Rear and B8 1.5" Rear Lift Springs. Standard weight springs all around.

My Story
I installed the suspension all around myself, and it was relatively straight forward. When it came time to loosen the camber/caster adjustment bolts on the lower control arms, I made several white markings on them. When it was time to reinstall, I put them back 100% to specs, hand tightened, dropped the car, rocked it back and forth many times, then torqued the bolts to 129ft/lbs, all done to Toyota's specs and as per their instructions.

The Outcome
The car tracked straight, steering wheel was straight, no shaking, vibrations, pulling or anything like that. The car drove beatifully. I thought, maybe I don't need an alignment? I was going to change tires anyway, so I decided I'd do an alignment once, not twice.

I drove for about 1500 miles on my Nitto Terra Grapplers without aligning the car, and I had absolutely no issues.

Later
I installed Falken Wildpeak AT4W in stock size so, 265/70/17 - and after the install, the car drove fairly well. It seemed, great. Later I noticed a slight pull to the right at highway speeds.

I took it to a highly reputable alignment shop in the Austin / Pflugerville area, he adjusted the toe and sent me on my way without a printout. The car drove great and the pull to the right was gone. I still went back and asked for a printout. The printout shows the cross camber, cross caster, etc all to be within specs. But when yuo look at the Left caster and Right caster, they're both off. Camber is good in both sides. Toe is slightly off on the right only. Steering Axis Inclination SAI seems off in both right and left, and Turning Angle diff is good all around (see below).

The car drives, beautifully. The mechanic (reputable guy, shop has been in business for 30 years) told me not to worry about it, that these are negligible numbers and that he thinks its okay and better than to mess too much with it.

I believed him and went on my way. But now, I'd rather get opinions, especially if you know a lot about alignment. Thoughts - see attachment.


Do you know of a good reputable respectable alignment shop in the Austin, TX area?

 

With a similar lift, my shop says they can only get 2.2 caster, so what you are showing looks about right. And yeah it drives fine. Actually, I may prefer it. There is less effort at the wheel when off-roading or fighting crosswinds.

 

One of the effects of a lower caster is that it becomes a little twitchy on the highway. Otherwise, you probably wouldn't notice it too much.

It's been years since I lived in Austin. My go to alignment guy is no longer in business there. Maybe check Cobb Automotive.

That being said, it looks like you alignment shop got your camber and toe in spec. Guessing that was all the Caster they could get out of it. If you look at the alignment cams, I'm sure they are pretty close to maxed out. Next step may be UCAs.

 

Maybe I'm misreading that printout... Doesn't look like anything got better. Basically nothing changed except toe.

Left toe was already in spec and stayed in the green. Right toe is now out of spec. All the other numbers are the same. He's saying he couldn't change the caster even a 1/10th of a degree?

My guess is when you told them the car pulls one way, they adjusted the toe to get rid of that and sent you on your way.

 

No, he didn’t even try to adjust the caster.

 

After three tries with two alignment shops, it’s finally dialed in perfectly and drives wonderfully.

It really comes down to how lazy the technician is or how much heart they put into it.

The kid who did mine today, loved his gig and I saw him having fun wrenching away and looking at the monitor and dealing with it for 45 mins until he got it right. This guy has to be, 22 years old or something.

The guy 30 years in business and with a solid reputation just didn’t get it right for me. He was lazy.

 

I've been following this thread

Happy it's working out now

But for comparison, here's how dialed in and close to one another my offroad shop got my specs.
Mind you, I have SPC UCA's, but still.
I've heard they sometime increase passenger castor a little higher than driver side on purpose to counter natural road lean to the shoulder.
GOODLUCK

 

I was told by all shops that caster will be off without UCAs, which I was fine with. Car tracks straight, feels good to drive, steering effort and how the steering wheel returns is perfect.

Bilstein (and Shock Surplus) and others claim that you need upper control arms on any lift above 2”, and I’m at 1.9”. I’m gonna say one probably needs UCAs for any lift, or at least for anything over 1”.

But I’m quite happy with the results.

 

Did you get a print out of the specs that finally fixed your issues? I have the same suspension setup and the shop I'm dealing with is having trouble getting mine dialed in.