How much negative camber is too much for a DD?

[Traum]

^^ Looks perfect! Steel belts for that extra bite and traction under slippery conditions!

[BMWRicer]

Originally Posted by Akinari

I have around -2 up front and around -5/-5.5 in the rear.

I know its your car, and you build it in a way that it pleases you, but what gave you the idea of putting that much negative camber on an SUV? Trying to start a new trend?

[meme405]

It's funny cause I got my car aligned last week. At drive height my front camber is -2, my rear is at -3.2ish. Caster and Toe are within spec.

When I slam the thing my rear camber is like 10 degrees or something ridiculous, the machine failed to read it properly cause it was so tucked out.

Inspected my tires after probably 3k km and they don't even show a slight camber wear, and I don't expect to see one really. It's Toe more than anything that kills tires.

[Lomac]

It will also depend on the type of tire you're running. Softer rubber will obviously wear much quicker than the harder stuff. The picture above was a set of old winter tires that had worn down enough that I was simply using them as all-seasons during one summer. I can't recall what the camber was set at (wasn't too extreme as I had Dale's correct the majority of it with my camber kit, but I do recall that toe in/out was as at 0.

[Akinari]

Originally Posted by BMWRicer

I know its your car, and you build it in a way that it pleases you, but what gave you the idea of putting that much negative camber on an SUV? Trying to start a new trend?

I've never really seen my car as a true SUV, but rather a wagon-like box especially when lowered. It's just a Scion xB with more interior space and CR-V underpinnings (which is adapted from the Civic anyway). The thing can't go offroad anyway, might as well lower it for better handling and add some camber for style. Plenty of 2G xBs (which resemble more of the size and look of an Element) slammed with tons of camber, no one ever bats and eye.

I haven't had any particularly severe tire wear like meme said, although I have driven my tires for around 5,000kms and there is some very slight feathering on both rear tires appearing, so went back in for an alignment to correct the toe again. Each of my tires costs less than a full alignment so I couldn't care less.

[J.C]

when i had -3, tire wear wasn't really noticeably bad
i believe its when you get in the -4s and above that tire wear just tanks

although toe is the main factor for eating up tires, after a certain amount of camber it also plays a huge role

[SumAznGuy]

It's a combination of camber, toe and front or rear tire on a front or rear drive car.
Even at 0 camber and 0 toe, the drive wheels will always wear more than the non-drive wheels especially if you like to hard accelerate from the lights.
Same thing for braking. Since 70-90% of the braking is done with the front tires, if you like to late brake, expect the front tires to wear faster than the rears.

On a fwd car, lots of camber with 0 toe will not cause too much camber wear on the rear tire.
Lots of camber with some toe on the front tires of a fwd car is asking to change front tires frequently.

On my S2000 with autoX spec alignment, my fronts wore pretty evenly but much faster than the rears because of the toe out.
On my ITR, the rear wheels were just along for the ride and most of the time the inside wheel was off the ground in a turn so the fronts completely wore out but the rears looked close to new for tread depth.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by Akinari

I have around -2 up front and around -5/-5.5 in the rear.

Originally Posted by Akinari

better handling

[yelnats8]

So I got aftermarket toe bolts and getting my car re-aligned tomorrow. I don't plan on getting a camber kit for the fronts so my front camber is currently at -2.4.

Would the car drive worse or would there be no difference if the camber in the rear was less than the front (say set at -1.5) or should I get the shop to make the rear camber match the fronts?

[Traum]

^^ Depends on the car. With a lot of FF cars, you actually want more front camber than the back because they would be understeering pigs if they run matching camber front and rear.

[yelnats8]

^ my car is RWD

[GabAlmighty]

Back end will be a little more inclined to get sideways