toe-in?

[Dmon]

To my way of thinking, having any toe-in or toe-out of either the front or rear wheels on a crawler would be bad. Due to the tires trying to either come together or go apart would result in a breaking of the traction on one or both wheels. So far as I know, the purpose of toe-in is to add stability on the road by centering the steering to the straight position which of course is not needed in crawling.

Is my thinking correct for crawlers, or am I thinking of this wrong?

[miner mike]

I've heard of people running toe out to help with turning raidius.Never thought of the loss of traction.

[gunnar]

I'd say your correct in general, I normally use toe-in to correct Ackermann angles, so the benefits at full turn outweigh the slight disadvantage when going straight.
With a zero-Ackermann setup, no toe-in is needed at all.

It really depends on the surface your running on, high-traction rough rock won't make much of a difference, but on loose material, you might see the tires slip.

[STANG KILLA SS]

ive often pondered on this as well. but more so running slight toe in on the rear. tried to think about gate pinching, offcamber turns etc. just running threw my mind what instances it might help, and what it might hurt. thought of it for years, never tried it though.

[JeremyH]

If you arent running zero ackerman knuckles (knuckles where the tie rod mounting hole is parallel with the knigpin), then your best bet is to run slightly toe out. This way, when you turn, the tires will turn at the same angle. Otherwise, the outside tire will be turning at a different angle than the inside tire.

As for rear steer, I run zero toe on the rear of my super. I run slightly toe out on the front...

[Grizzly4x4]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

If you arent running zero ackerman knuckles (knuckles where the tie rod mounting hole is parallel with the knigpin), then your best bet is to run slightly toe out. This way, when you turn, the tires will turn at the same angle. Otherwise, the outside tire will be turning at a different angle than the inside tire.

As for rear steer, I run zero toe on the rear of my super. I run slightly toe out on the front...

x2 I have been doing the same thing for years.

[gunnar]

Yes, it also depends on which way your knuckles face. If Ackermann knucks have the arm portion facing forward, toe-out is used, if the arms are facing rearward(like in a BTA setup) toe-in is used to correct or improve steering.

[indiana mudcat]

Good thread, I've been wondering the same thing for the last few days. I run BTA and 300's on my AX-10 and set the tires for just enough toe-in to get 50 degrees from both sides last saturday, I could tell it turned better in the comp sunday, but wondered if I lost anything elsewhere from the toe-in.

[Terranaut]

Originally Posted by Dmon

To my way of thinking, having any toe-in or toe-out of either the front or rear wheels on a crawler would be bad. Due to the tires trying to either come together or go apart would result in a breaking of the traction on one or both wheels. So far as I know, the purpose of toe-in is to add stability on the road by centering the steering to the straight position which of course is not needed in crawling.

Is my thinking correct for crawlers, or am I thinking of this wrong?

If you spend a lot of time on high traction surfaces you will see the tires fighting each other, may notice more rolling resistance, and the truck will seem like it can't make up it's mind which way to go. But on loose surfaces when you're scratching for traction the truck will simply go with the tire that has the grip.

But remember, when turning, the inside and outside wheels want to roll at different speeds due to the different radius, but they can't because your diffs are locked, so you're going to break traction anyhow, regardless of toe or ackerman settings. Even if you have free diffs front and back the front wants to go faster because, again, the fronts are turning on a larger average radius than the rears. You still break traction.

Cheers.