Community Forums

wa8yxm · 03-31-2010, 10:53 AM

When you plan to tow a car you should take it to an alignment shop and have the alignment checked and adjusted

Make sure they understand that it's going to be a towed as the settings may need to be adjusted to give better service in towed mode.

Also. if you have any kind of a front end shimmy.. There are two shops that you need to visit, and usually they are the same shop..

Tire and alignment.

AFChap · 03-31-2010, 11:20 AM

I see you got the shimmy corrected ...apparently caused by irregular tire wear. There are some aspects of 4-down towing that can accelerate toad tire wear or help cause irregular wear. The dynamics of each model toad make some more prone to bad wear than others.

Depending on how often you tow, it is a good idea to have the toad alignment checked every 1 to 2 years. Even more important, if the tow bar is more than 4 inches off level (motorhome attachment point height above ground compared to toad attachment point height above ground) the tow bar could be affecting the load on the toad front tires and causing bad tire wear. The MH end should be no more than 4" higher, and should NEVER be lower.

BigRedLancer · 04-20-2010, 09:25 PM

My tow bar was a little high when I first installed it and I added a 4" drop hitch that brought it down to level. The repair shop that rotated the tires checked the front suspension parts. He said that everything in the front suspension seemed to be solid. Before he even touched the car, he mentioned that the tires themselves could be the cause of the shimmy. Since the shimmy is now completely gone, I have to decide if I can run the tires on the rear without a problem.

AFChap · 04-20-2010, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Since the shimmy is now completely gone, I have to decide if I can run the tires on the rear without a problem.

If the car drives ok with the tires rotated, I would just drive it.

NALSO · 04-21-2010, 09:48 AM

BigRedLancer.

I agree with AFChap, if the tires now mounted in the rear of the car

don't have any shimmy and the tread is good, drive it!

Don't miss-match tires on the same axle. In other words front mounted

tires should be the same make and size, the same applies for the back!

Henry.