Our rack, our floor
Wheel Alignment
A Hunter drive-on alignment rack with a road force balancer standing beside it, in our own bay. The tires go on and the geometry gets checked in the same visit, by the same people.
Why alignment is on the front of the building
Most shops our size fit the tires and send the car down the road to somebody else to get it set straight. That second stop is where a brand new set quietly starts wearing on one shoulder, because nobody who mounted them ever saw the toe numbers. We own the rack, so that second stop doesn't exist here.
What toe, camber and caster actually mean
Toe is which way the front tires point relative to each other, and it's the setting most responsible for tread wearing unevenly on one edge. Camber is how far the wheel leans in or out at the top, and caster is the steering axis angle that keeps the truck tracking straight without you fighting the wheel. A pull to one side, a crooked steering wheel on a straight road, or feathered wear across a tread are the three signs something in that geometry has moved. A curb strike, a pothole, new struts, a lowering or leveling kit, or just a lot of miles on Terrebonne Parish roads can all knock it out.
Bailey's Tire Service, the alignment rack is our own equipment, on our own floor. Call (985) 876-5082.
A lifted truck needs this more than most
We're an authorised MotoFab Lifts dealer, and a leveling kit or a lift changes the suspension geometry the factory alignment was set against. Skip the alignment after that kind of work and a new set of all terrains can wear the outside shoulder off in a few thousand miles, no matter how good the tire is. Same story with a set of wheel spacers. We check the geometry after we fit either one, not just when something feels wrong.
South Louisiana asphalt and the parish roads through pothole season are hard on front ends. A hit that doesn't dent a rim can still tap a tie rod end or a control arm bushing out of spec, and the car will drive fine for a while before the wear shows up in the tread. That's the case for checking alignment on a schedule, not just after a new set of tires.
The road force balancer sits right next to the rack. A vibration at highway speed isn't always a bad tire, and sometimes it isn't the alignment either. Having both machines in the same bay means we find out which one it actually is before you spend money on the wrong fix.