Can I adjust caster without messing up camber and toe?

I recently paid Goodyear for an alignment after installing suspension. I asked for a more than 3 degree caster and they wouldn't do it, said they could only do factory specs. They told me if I get the caster where I want it, I can bring it into the shop and tell them to keep the caster spec as-is while adjusting everything else. When I got the readout back it said the caster was 3.5 when they started and they lowered it to 2.5.

I started Googling and found this: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/how-to-do-an-alignment-at-home.252256/ about doing your own alignment and saw that by adjusting the two LCA bolts I could add caster. I Googled my question and found other vehicle forums saying it's fine to adjust only caster, then my mechanic said not to do it because I would throw off my camber. According to jberry813's sticky, you turn the LCA bolts differently depending on your intentions so I feel like there's some way to just focus on caster.


My UCAs are Icon Tubular Delta Joints, running skinny 33s. I don't want to pay another $100 to go to a specialty shop, plus I bought the 6-pack of alignments because I didn't foresee this issue so if Goodyear is going to keep doing my alignments I need to sort this out.

 

Interested in hearing responses, but I always thought that Camber and Caster fight each other so you have to find the happy point. That is why people say, "find a great alignment tech".

 

Well the thing I don't understand, is if you wheel often, and need alignments often, are people paying $100 or more everytime they do a long trip with a gnarly track? So you add gas prices and a $100+ alignment to your offroad trip and it's gonna limit how many trips I can do significantly. $100 a weekend is almost my truck payment.

Id rather use my Goodyear 6 alignments for $200 and just manage the caster myself, if possible. Right?

 

I’m so glad my alignment guys does exactly what I ask and he’s very good at what he’s does to boot.

 

To get max caster, you set the forward cam all the way in, and the aft cam all the way out.

Doing the above will upset toe (most likely some toe out), so you'll have to bring toe back to 0 before you adjust camber, since caster causes very aggressive camber change when the wheel is steered away from neutral.

Next you check camber. If you see negative camber, move the aft cam bolt in a bit to bring camber to zero (and lose some caster from step 1). If you see positive camber, move the fwd cam bolt out a bit to bring camber to zero (and lose some caster from step 1). How much negative/positive camber you start with depends on how much you're lifted.

You can set toe and camber reasonably well in a parking lot with a fish line and digital level, but caster is difficult to measure without an alignment rack.

 

Dang I only got 6 alignments from Goodyear for $200.

Sounds like I just have to pester the shop people and just try different Goodyears until I find the guy who'll bend the rules. Kind of annoying but at least there's hope. Do you usually linger at the shop while theyre doing it so you can speak the alignment tech specifically?

Doesn't sound like I can do the caster without messing up other things. I'm going to be reducing preload on the coils soon (truck sits at 2.5" lift and I only want 1"-1.5") so I'll need another alignment. Was thinking about messing with the caster in their parking lot since they do "free alignment checks" and when I get caster where I want, tell them not to mess with caster, but align everything else.