A Lesson Learned Thrust Angle

Up early this AM to take Ossumer to have the alignment done. At the door at 8:00am and right into the bay. Two guys started pulling the chrome wheel covers and attaching their equipment to each wheel. It wasn't long before the computer screen started to show some numbers that meant nothing to me at the time. The guys were really nice and started explaining the numbers to me and indicated that the biggest problem was my rear axel “Thrust Angle”  at –37deg it should be between – 6 and +6. OK sound good but what does that mean? It means that the back wheels are not at 90 deg to the frame like they are supposed to be and that the axel has to be moved back to correct the problem. My brain starts to see Big job big $ especially after they tell me they cannot see anyplace to adjust the axel. They find the ID tag on the axel unit and get the part number off it and go to the office to look up the specs and return in a couple of minutes and tell me they have the answers to adjusting it. Well about 45 minutes later they have the numbers on the screen showing +4 deg well within the limits for thrust angle. Now they have to do the front end apparently you should not even consider adjustments to the front until the back is correct. The front toe was adjusted within 20 minutes and they started cleaning up the equipment and I went to the office to pay the damages. I was very happy with the invoice for $172.00 for 2 guys for a total of 4hrs and 20min shop supplies, welding and cutting torch.

Now you might ask why did I have it in for alignment? When we picked the rig up back in June in Ontario and started back for NB I wasn't totally happy with the handling but hey I had been driving a Workhorse Chassis for the last 3 years and they are no sports car when it comes to handling and this felt real good compared to that and maybe I just needed to spend a few miles getting familiar with Ossumer. Well since June we put about 4000 miles on and was not 100% happy with handling especially in grooved pavement so decided we should have the alignment verified. I waited almost 2 years with the previous rig and ruined 2 tires by doing so and put up with a lot of white knuckle driving. I only had about 6 miles driving back home today and none of that highway and no crosswind but I could feel a real difference in the handling.

Since we were out and about with the rig we made a stop at CTC ( Canadian tire Store for our American friends) and had the propane tank topped off not bad at $31.00 since June. The only thing left was the diesel tank was showing below 1/4 full so a stop was made at Petro Can and that tank was filled up for only $358.00  ( $1.37 a litre) hopefully the next fill will be stateside and be a little better price. Ossumer is back home in the driveway and ready to roll if his owners will get their stuff loaded and their butts in the seats.