We were planning on taking a trip the last week of January to the mother ship for an alignment but are having second thoughts. I know that they would do a great job and I would love to visit the factory. But the time of year is not the greatest due to the cold weather. We thought we might take a trip to key west instead since the factory does not have any openings until around the first or second week in Feb.We would plan a trip out west when the weather is nicer. Does anyone know of a real good shop that could do an alignment as good or better than the factory that is in Florida? Thanks for any advice or recommendations.
Regards, Mark
I had a good experience at
Vodie's Auto Center 1240 West 17th Street, Santa Ana, CA 92706-3448 (714) 543-8297
Previous experience
alignment problem ? (http://www.foreforums.com/index.php?topic=4197.msg16505#msg16505)
We have an appointment at FOT for Monday, January 17. Two of the primary tasks are to install Koni FSDs all around, and perform ALL WHEEL alignment. I will probably post my impressions of the changes wrought by those services.
Our coach has pulled to the right since we bought it last April. We installed new tires in NAC and had an alignment done in Lufkin at the first service. There was no change in the pulling. I called the alignment shop three times to ask about what he did and what I should expect. He never returned a call. I will not be returning to that shop. I decided to see if the factory can fix the issue.
The pull to the right is slight, but constant. It hastens fatigue from driving. I expect one of the axles, probably the rear, is slightly misaligned. There appears to considerable room for adjustment of the rear axle in its mounting harness.
I added Safe-T-Plus with Henderson's trim kit to another coach. It was a great improvement and allowed setting the neutral steering point from the driver's seat. There were some steering and stability issues on the SOB coach. However, I prefer not to add the Safe-T-Plus on the FT for two reasons. 1) There is not a trim kit for the FT chassis. Adding it would require custom fabrication. 2) If the FT is aligned probably at all wheel positions, the steering characteristics should be excellent.
On our previous coach, we received excellent service from Big Moe in Austell (Atlanta area) Georgia. We had additional leaf springs installed and front aligned.
Although Big Moe is good at some things they know NOTHING about disc brakes, they screwed up royal on mine and fortunately another forum member was able to straighten it out before I HAD SEVERE PROBLEMS.
Best there is...
Josam - Truck Frame and Alignment Specialist Worldwide (http://www.josamusa.com/)
X2 for Josams in Orlando.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I had heard also from another friend about Josam in Orlando. I am going to call them and see what I can schedule. Thanks again.
Mark