I don't care to trust any alignment shops.   I've not had good
experiences with them, though I would love to have access to their tools to
do my own alignments....if the tools were actually accurate.....which you
never really know.

   I am sure there are some that do good work out there but I have never
found one and I have had some horrendous work done on friends cars as well
as a tie rod nut left un-tightened on my own race car...causing me to waste
thousands of bucks driving to Las Vegas for a roadrace and burning through
the only brand new race tire in my size...not to mention almost crashing
into a bunch of expensive Porsche factroy Cup racers....I had to race on
Hoosiers which were almost 3 seconds a lap too slow.....all because I was
trusting and a bit too rushed to do my own alignment...   My wife lost a
wheel driving away from a Les Schwabb alignment....No, $40 sounds
reasonable, for sure....but...

  I, too am due for another pair of Nokians before I head out in late
December...an excellent winter tire in the stock size....

  Hey, I have a bunch of springs hanging around...look about like my
Vanagon ones....Hmmmm...

On Wed, Oct 16, 2013 at 8:12 PM, Vern in Bend <vernmcintosh@eoni.com> wrote:

> Don, I was at the Bend Tire Factory store today getting some new Nokians,
> and I asked if they could align a Vanagon. The manager laughed and said,
> "Yeah, we've done a lot of them, it seems that Vanagon guys really like to
> change their springs." So I had to confess, "I changed my springs."
>
> Anyway, they quoted me $38. for a front alignment, which is much lower than
> I expected and seems like not only a fairly cheap investment considering
> the
> cost of the tires, but also too low to consider messing with it myself.
>
> Regards, Vern
>
>
>
>
>  so the RAO 8s are wearing the inside shoulders, more on the left wheel.  I
>> decided to dismount the front tires and swap them around to use up the
>> remaining tread, and to address the poor alignment while I had the wheels
>> off.......needs some camber adjustment, at least.
>>
>>
>>
>    Anybody have any sage advice on reducing the negative camber my front
>> obviously has?   Any gotchas I might encounter or hidden complexities that
>> won't be readily apparent or outlined in the Bently book?    I don't have
>> an alignment rack or lasers but I can usually do most vehicles acceptably
>> well without that fancy stuff...
>>
>>