Camber, Caster and Toe: What Do They Mean?

. The three major alignment parameters on a car are toe, camber, and caster. Most
enthusiasts have a good understanding of what these settings are and what they involve,
but many may not know why a particular setting is called for, or how it affects
performance. Let's take a quick look at this basic aspect of suspension tuning

UNDERSTANDING TOE
When a pair of wheels is set so that their leading edges are pointed slightly towards each
other, the wheel pair is said to have toe-in. If the leading edges point away from each
other, the pair is said to have toe-out. The amount of toe can be expressed in degrees as
the angle to which the wheels are out of parallel, or more commonly, as the difference
between the track widths as measured at the leading and trailing edges of the tires or
wheels. Toe settings affect three major areas of performance: tire wear, straight-line
stability and corner entry handling characteristics.
For minimum tire wear and power loss, the wheels on a given axle of a car should point
directly ahead when the car is running in a straight line. Excessive toe-in or toe-out
causes the tires to scrub, since they are always turned relative to the direction of travel.
Too much toe-in causes accelerated wear at the outboard edges of the tires, while too
much toe-out causes wear at the inboard edges.

So if minimum tire wear and power loss are achieved with zero toe, why have any toe
angles at all? The answer is that toe settings have a major impact on directional stability.
The illustrations at right show the mechanisms involved. With the steering wheel
centered, toe-in causes the wheels to tend to roll along paths that intersect each other.
Under this condition, the wheels are at odds with each other, and no turn results.
When the wheel on one side of the car encounters a disturbance, that wheel is pulled
rearward about its steering axis. This action also pulls the other wheel in the same
steering direction. If it's a minor disturbance, the disturbed wheel will steer only a small
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amount, perhaps so that it's rolling straight ahead instead of toed-in slightly. But note that
with this slight steering input, the rolling paths of the wheels still don't describe a turn.
The wheels have absorbed the irregularity without significantly changing the direction of
the vehicle. In this way, toe-in enhances straight-line stability.
If the car is set up with toe-out, however, the front wheels are aligned so that slight
disturbances cause the wheel pair to assume rolling directions that do describe a turn.
Any minute steering angle beyond the perfectly centered position will cause the inner
wheel to steer in a tighter turn radius than the outer wheel. Thus, the car will always be
trying to enter a turn, rather than maintaining a straight line of travel. So it's clear that
toe-out encourages the initiation of a turn, while toe-in discourages it.

With toe-in (left) a deflection of the suspension does not cause the wheels to initiate a
turn as with toe-out (right).

The toe setting on a particular car becomes a tradeoff between the straight-line stability
afforded by toe-in and the quick steering response promoted by toe-out. Nobody wants
their street car to constantly wander over tar strips-the never-ending steering corrections
required would drive anyone batty. But racers are willing to sacrifice a bit of stability on
the straightaway for a sharper turn-in to the corners. So street cars are generally set up
with toe-in, while race cars are often set up with toe-out.

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With four-wheel independent suspension, the toe must also be set at the rear of the car.
Toe settings at the rear have essentially the same effect on wear, directional stability and
turn-in as they do on the front. However, it is rare to set up a rear-drive race car toed out
in the rear, since doing so causes excessive oversteer, particularly when power is applied.
Front-wheel-drive race cars, on the other hand, are often set up with a bit of toe-out, as
this induces a bit of oversteer to counteract the greater tendency of front-wheel-drive cars
to understeer.
Remember also that toe will change slightly from a static situation to a dynamic one. This
is is most noticeable on a front-wheel-drive car or independently-suspended rear-drive
car. When driving torque is applied to the wheels, they pull themselves forward and try to
create toe-in. This is another reason why many front-drivers are set up with toe-out in the
front. Likewise, when pushed down the road, a non-driven wheel will tend to toe itself
out. This is most noticeable in rear-drive cars.
The amount of toe-in or toe-out dialed into a given car is dependent on the compliance of
the suspension and the desired handling characteristics. To improve ride quality, street
cars are equipped with relatively soft rubber bushings at their suspension links, and thus
the links move a fair amount when they are loaded. Race cars, in contrast, are fitted with
steel spherical bearings or very hard urethane, metal or plastic bushings to provide
optimum rigidity and control of suspension links. Thus, a street car requires a greater
static toe-in than does a race car, so as to avoid the condition wherein bushing
compliance allows the wheels to assume a toe-out condition.
It should be noted that in recent years, designers have been using bushing compliance in
street cars to their advantage. To maximize transient response, it is desirable to use a little
toe-in at the rear to hasten the generation of slip angles and thus cornering forces in the
rear tires. By allowing a bit of compliance in the front lateral links of an A-arm type
suspension, the rear axle will toe-in when the car enters a hard corner; on a straightaway
where no cornering loads are present, the bushings remain undistorted and allow the toe
to be set to an angle that enhances tire wear and stability characteristics. Such a design is
a type of passive four-wheel steering system.

THE EFFECTS OF CASTER

Caster is the angle to which the steering pivot axis is tilted forward or rearward from
vertical, as viewed from the side. If the pivot axis is tilted backward (that is, the top pivot
is positioned farther rearward than the bottom pivot), then the caster is positive; if it's
tilted forward, then the caster is negative.
Positive caster tends to straighten the wheel when the vehicle is traveling forward, and
thus is used to enhance straight-line stability. The mechanism that causes this tendency is
clearly illustrated by the castering front wheels of a shopping cart (above). The steering
axis of a shopping cart wheel is set forward of where the wheel contacts the ground. As
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the cart is pushed forward, the steering axis pulls the wheel along, and since the wheel
drags along the ground, it falls directly in line behind the steering axis. The force that
causes the wheel to follow the steering axis is proportional to the distance between the
steering axis and the wheel-to-ground contact patch-the greater the distance, the greater
the force. This distance is referred to as "trail."
Due to many design considerations, it is desirable to have the steering axis of a car's
wheel right at the wheel hub. If the steering axis were to be set vertical with this layout,
the axis would be coincident with the tire contact patch. The trail would be zero, and no
castering would be generated. The wheel would be essentially free to spin about the patch
(actually, the tire itself generates a bit of a castering effect due to a phenomenon known
as "pneumatic trail," but this effect is much smaller than that created by mechanical
castering, so we'll ignore it here). Fortunately, it is possible to create castering by tilting
the steering axis in the positive direction. With such an arrangement, the steering axis
intersects the ground at a point in front of the tire contact patch, and thus the same effect
as seen in the shopping cart casters is achieved.
The tilted steering axis has another important effect on suspension geometry. Since the
wheel rotates about a tilted axis, the wheel gains camber as it is turned. This effect is best
visualized by imagining the unrealistically extreme case where the steering axis would be
horizontal-as the steering wheel is turned, the road wheel would simply change camber
rather than direction. This effect causes the outside wheel in a turn to gain negative
camber, while the inside wheel gains positive camber. These camber changes are
generally favorable for cornering, although it is possible to overdo it.
Most cars are not particularly sensitive to caster settings. Nevertheless, it is important to
ensure that the caster is the same on both sides of the car to avoid the tendency to pull to
one side. While greater caster angles serve to improve straight-line stability, they also
cause an increase in steering effort. Three to five degrees of positive caster is the typical
range of settings, with lower angles being used on heavier vehicles to keep the steering
effort reasonable.

Like a shopping cart wheel (left) the trail created by the castering of the steering axis
pulls the wheels in line.

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WHAT IS CAMBER?
Camber is the angle of the wheel relative to vertical, as viewed from the front or the rear
of the car. If the wheel leans in towards the chassis, it has negative camber; if it leans
away from the car, it has positive camber (see next page). The cornering force that a tire
can develop is highly dependent on its angle relative to the road surface, and so wheel
camber has a major effect on the road holding of a car. It's interesting to note that a tire
develops its maximum cornering force at a small negative camber angle, typically around
neg. 1/2 degree. This fact is due to the contribution of camber thrust, which is an
additional lateral force generated by elastic deformation as the tread rubber pulls through
the tire/road interface (the contact patch).
To optimize a tire's performance in a corner, it's the job of the suspension designer to
assume that the tire is always operating at a slightly negative camber angle. This can be a
very difficult task, since, as the chassis rolls in a corner, the suspension must deflect
vertically some distance. Since the wheel is connected to the chassis by several links
which must rotate to allow for the wheel deflection, the wheel can be subject to large
camber changes as the suspension moves up and down. For this reason, the more the
wheel must deflect from its static position, the more difficult it is to maintain an ideal
camber angle. Thus, the relatively large wheel travel and soft roll stiffness needed to
provide a smooth ride in passenger cars presents a difficult design challenge, while the
small wheel travel and high roll stiffness inherent in racing cars reduces the engineer's
headaches.
It's important to draw the distinction between camber relative to the road, and camber
relative to the chassis. To maintain the ideal camber relative to the road, the suspension
must be designed so that wheel camber relative to the chassis becomes increasingly
negative as the suspension deflects upward. The illustration on the bottom of page 46
shows why this is so. If the suspension were designed so as to maintain no camber
change relative to the chassis, then body roll would induce positive camber of the wheel
relative to the road. Thus, to negate the effect of body roll, the suspension must be
designed so that it pulls in the top of the wheel (i.e., gains negative camber) as it is
deflected upwards.
While maintaining the ideal camber angle throughout the suspension travel assures that
the tire is operating at peak efficiency, designers often configure the front suspensions of
passenger cars so that the wheels gain positive camber as they are deflected upward. The
purpose of such a design is to reduce the cornering power of the front end relative to the
rear end, so that the car will understeer in steadily greater amounts up to the limit of
adhesion. Understeer is inherently a much safer and more stable condition than oversteer,
and thus is preferable for cars intended for the public.
Since most independent suspensions are designed so that the camber varies as the wheel
moves up and down relative to the chassis, the camber angle that we set when we align
the car is not typically what is seen when the car is in a corner. Nevertheless, it's really
the only reference we have to make camber adjustments. For competition, it's necessary
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to set the camber under the static condition, test the car, then alter the static setting in the
direction that is indicated by the test results.
The best way to determine the proper camber for competition is to measure the
temperature profile across the tire tread immediately after completing some hot laps. In
general, it's desirable to have the inboard edge of the tire slightly hotter than the outboard
edge. However, it's far more important to ensure that the tire is up to its proper operating
temperature than it is to have an "ideal" temperature profile. Thus, it may be
advantageous to run extra negative camber to work the tires up to temperature.

(TOP RIGHT) Positive camber: The bottoms of the wheels are closer together than the
tops. (TOP LEFT) Negative camber: The tops of the wheels are closer together than the
bottoms. (CENTER) When a suspension does not gain camber during deflection, this
causes a severe positive camber condition when the car leans during cornering. This can
cause funky handling. (BOTTOM) Fight the funk: A suspension that gains camber during
deflection will compensate for body roll. Tuning dynamic camber angles is one of the
black arts of suspension tuning.

TESTING IS IMPORTANT
Car manufacturers will always have recommended toe, caster, and camber settings. They
arrived at these numbers through exhaustive testing. Yet the goals of the manufacturer
were probably different from yours, the competitor. And what works best at one race
track may be off the mark at another. So the "proper" alignment settings are best
determined by you-it all boils down to testing and experimentation.

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Another Resource (British)

Wheel Alignment
Service shops use sophisticated wheel balancing systems, Caster and Camber
ranging from laser wheel alignment to full 3D imaging equipment.

Wheel Alignment Service

For the correct vehicle handling, even tyre wear, safest stopping distances, increased
fuel economy, less driver fatigue, while also maximising your investment in your tyre
purchase. The correct wheel alignment settings for your car should be set.
Surveys carried out have found that more than eight out of every ten cars checked
required a wheel alignment adjustment. How will you know if you have a potential
wheel alignment issue?
First thing is a visual check on a regular basis. See the illustrations below

The other questions you need to ask yourself are as follows;

1. Is your steering wheel straight when you drive your car?

2. Does your car pull or drift to the left or right?
3. Are you experiencing uneven tyre wear?
4. Does your car understeer or oversteer?
5. Do the tyres squeal on roundabouts?

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6. Does your car wander when driving in a straight line?

If you have any of these symptoms you could have a problem that can
be addressed with a four wheel alignment check.

Driver Fatigue
Looking at the illustration below, if a car is constantly trying to pull left
or right the driver has to correct this pull all the time. This will over
time have an effect on their concentration. Over long journeys this
could lead to motoring mistakes and errors.

Fuel Consumption
Wheel alignment settings are designed in to the vehicle geometry to give the most
comfortable ride with the optimum road handling. This achieves the lowest rolling
resistance for the tyres. With the correct wheel alignment for your vehicle you will
achieve the best fuel consumption figures.

Tyres
The cost of tyres is a constant investment for the motorist. Most
people do not understand that the modern tyre is a very technical and
integral part of the vehicle. For the tyre to work to its full design
potential, the correct alignment settings for the vehicle must be used.
If used you will get the maximum life from your tyres.

Understeer / Oversteer
These words are used a lot by motoring journalists. It all sounds very
technical, but most of us do not understand what this actually means.
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Understeer is when the car does not turn enough and has the effect of
wanting to go straight on. Over steer is the opposite when the car
turns tighter than intended, this can lead to cars spinning. Both of
these conditions are a symptom of miss alignment. See the
illustrations below.

Wheel Alignment Angles

The wheel alignment angles all have an important role to play in the
performance of the motor vehicle. Below the five most important
angles are explained.

Front Toe
Front toe sometimes referred to as "Tracking", relates to the way the
actual width of the track varies from the front to the rear of the front
wheels (see below). As viewed from above the front road wheels will
be either pointing towards the centre line of the vehicle or away from
it. If the wheels are pointing away from the centre line this is referred
to as Toe Out (also called Negative Toe). If the wheels point towards
the centre line it is called Toe In (also called Positive Toe).
These settings are built into the steering geometry to reduce the tyre
wear to a minimum and counteract the tensions built up by the
geometry angles. If these angles are not set equally to the centre line
this will be shown up as the steering wheel not being straight.

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Rear Toe
Again the rear toe on a vehicle is set to give minimum tyre wear. It is
also used to assist straight line stability. Wheels need to be set equal
on both sides of the vehicle, otherwise a thrust angle is introduced.
The effect of this will be uneven tyre wear and the steering wheel will
not be straight. See below.

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Thrust Line
Thrust Line, also referred to as Thrust Line, is the angle of the centre
line in relation to the rear axle or the theoretical rear axle. If this angle
is 90 degrees it will affect the relationship between the front and rear
wheels. The car will drift either left or right, again indicated by the
steering wheel position See below.

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Camber
Camber is the angle of the road wheel measured vertically. Negative
camber is when the top of the wheel is leaning into to the vehicle (see
below). Positive camber is when the top of the road wheel is leaning
away from the vehicle. This angle is set to assist the vehicle when
cornering as well as assisting straight line stability. The camber angles
must be equal either side of the vehicle. If not the vehicle will pull of
drift either left or right. If the camber is not set correctly the tyres will
show wear on just one side. Too much negative camber will wear the
inside edge of the tyre, too much positive camber will wear the outside
edge of the tyre.

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Castor
Castor angle in a car simulates the angle of the forks on a push bike.
It is designed to give the vehicle straight line stability. This angle is
only adjustable in a few vehicles. This angle is often over looked on a
problem vehicle. The cause of castor problems is usually accident
damage. Both castor angles do not need to be the same as the effects
of the road. Camber can influence the vehicle drifting left or right. In
the UK, cars are often set with the left castor slightly higher than the
right to compensate for the road camber. See below.

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