geometry setting - basic question
Discussion
Afternoon all,
I've got an Ariel Atom which I've slowly adjusted and tweaked the geometry settings over a number of years and now have it at a point where I'm happy with it. Originally, a friend and fellow Atom owner set it up for me with his equipment, and I went straight to a local tyre place I use and got them to do a printout on their Hunter kit so I had the "base settings" as shown on their kit for comparison, and I've gone back to them each time I've wanted it checked or to make adjustments.
I believe in order to do a geometry check (at least on my local tyre place Hunter equipment), you have to first "tell" the machine what the car is so that it loads up default factory geometry settings. Because my car isn't "main stream" it isn't listed, so originally they had to faff around to get a template to work from (think they picked a random vehicle but not 100% sure). Why do you have to start with a template (unless its purely to do a comparison as to what the car SHOULD be set up as per factory spec)? I have the readings I want (i.e. camber, toe etc), can I not take it to any (decent) place with alignment kit and get my car set up, or do they need a factory/baseline template before they can do readings/adjustments etc? I might be wrong, but surely a camber reading of, say, -1'30' is the same on any wheel on any car, as its just a measure of the wheel position relative to being perpendicular, and the actual car make/model is irrelevant? Or am I being ridiculously thick and missing something obvious?
Cheers
I've got an Ariel Atom which I've slowly adjusted and tweaked the geometry settings over a number of years and now have it at a point where I'm happy with it. Originally, a friend and fellow Atom owner set it up for me with his equipment, and I went straight to a local tyre place I use and got them to do a printout on their Hunter kit so I had the "base settings" as shown on their kit for comparison, and I've gone back to them each time I've wanted it checked or to make adjustments.
I believe in order to do a geometry check (at least on my local tyre place Hunter equipment), you have to first "tell" the machine what the car is so that it loads up default factory geometry settings. Because my car isn't "main stream" it isn't listed, so originally they had to faff around to get a template to work from (think they picked a random vehicle but not 100% sure). Why do you have to start with a template (unless its purely to do a comparison as to what the car SHOULD be set up as per factory spec)? I have the readings I want (i.e. camber, toe etc), can I not take it to any (decent) place with alignment kit and get my car set up, or do they need a factory/baseline template before they can do readings/adjustments etc? I might be wrong, but surely a camber reading of, say, -1'30' is the same on any wheel on any car, as its just a measure of the wheel position relative to being perpendicular, and the actual car make/model is irrelevant? Or am I being ridiculously thick and missing something obvious?
Cheers
Cheers for the replies fellas, much appreciated.
As far as I know, castor isn't adjustable.
I've heard good things about Northampton Motorsport but they are a bit of a trek from me.
I'd still like to know from any experts on here, if you can just hook any car up to a Hunter alignment system and just set the camber/toe to what I "want" without having any base template etc? If I know I want the camber set to X on the back, Y on the front, and the toe set to A on the front and B on the rear, can they do it? Or are my current readings somehow linked to the garage/alignment kit where I originally got them and you can't transpose them?
I hope that makes sense?
Cheers
As far as I know, castor isn't adjustable.
I've heard good things about Northampton Motorsport but they are a bit of a trek from me.
I'd still like to know from any experts on here, if you can just hook any car up to a Hunter alignment system and just set the camber/toe to what I "want" without having any base template etc? If I know I want the camber set to X on the back, Y on the front, and the toe set to A on the front and B on the rear, can they do it? Or are my current readings somehow linked to the garage/alignment kit where I originally got them and you can't transpose them?
I hope that makes sense?
Cheers
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