Hi,
A couple of years ago I had the Cognito UCAs put on, I also got new tires. My tires have worn in a very weird way mostly on the inside (On the front). What is wrong with my suspension I jacked it up today and checked all of the ball joints and took a good hard look at everything. I cannot figure out how to fix it, I have taken it in for countless alignments and nothing is seeming to work. My steering wheel shakes on the highway, and you always have to hold the wheel slightly steered to the left to get the truck to drive straight.

If the tires wear on the inside considerably and you get it aligned will it eventually just fall back into the way it was? I am not sure if origionally when the kit was installed that the shop used cognito's specs. About 6000 mi later I did realize that there were different specs and had it aligned according to them. I am posting some pics with this thread so that you can see what I am talking about.

Any Advice would be greatly appreciated, I am about to get new tires and I don't want them to get BBQd like these were.

Thanks Guys

Wheel bearins still good? Sounds like your camber is off from what your saying so its either not set up right or something is worn out like your ball joint or wheel bearings.

Here are the pictures

From what I could tell, the ball joints and wheel bearings looked good. I had the wheel bearing on the driver side replaced last year.

Needs to be re-aligned by a GOOD shop. The camber is off meaning the wheels lean in / \ when they should be straight | | which would cause the inside wear on your tires.

If my current tires are already toast, is there any point to getting an alignment? Or should I just get new tires and then get the alignment? Thanks for the help!

Any tips on shops in the STL area where I could go? I've been to several, dealers and other shops and I've consistently got the same results.

I have green keys, would turning them up just a hair help? Or would this be too much for the CV shafts?

All you need is alignment

You mention that you have the cognito control arms and green keys. How do you have the ball joints mounted on the control arms...On the botom of the arms or do they mount on the top going through the arm.
Since you have green keys you need to have the ball joints mounted below the arm like stated in the instructions.

Ok, I think you can see in these pictures. I am pretty sure that they were installed correctly. However, I think that the green keys are as far down as they can go. Should I turn them up a little before I go in for the alignment?

Also, if my tires are already fried (all 4 have the inside wear), will the alignment just fall back because they are worn so badly? Should I just get new tires before I get the alignment? Thanks guys

I just noticed that those pics don't show much, but I took a look and the ball joints are on the bottom, should I turn up my green keys a little but before I get an alignment? Thanks

WHOLY ANGLES on the cv shafts...

I forgot to mention that in those pics, the truck was jacked up. :) it's been a long week

Got ya. I would just get an alignment from a different shop...

Ok, will the tires push it back out of alignment quickly?

Tires and wheels have NO effect on alignment at all. You could put 14" wheels with car tires on it and get it aligned and then slap 20's with 38" tires on it and the alignment would be exactly the same. I usually get my vehicles aligned on the old tires and make sure it's right before I put the new tires on.

You are most likely running the front suspension too high, These trucks have very bad bump steer. Meaning that the toe changes drastically as the suspension moves through it's range of travel. It's a factory "feature". The bump steer is worse at the outer limits of travel. So if you are jacked way up there the toe will change more drastically than if it was in the middle of it's travel.

Just so you know the wheels will go toe'd out as you compress the suspension. Which is what is eating up the inside of your tires. I would lower the front about 1" and get it aligned at a different shop that knows what they are doing.

What ever you do don't change the ride height after you get it aligned or your toe will be off again.

I think my green keys are about as far down as they can go ,(how can I lower it more?) Should I take the green keys back out and put the purple ones back in. here are some pics again of the wheels on the ground. I kind of wish that I never bought these Cognito arms, everything was fine until i put them on.

Wow you are running a LOT of camber, this combined with just being too tall is why your burning off the inside of the tire. The nittos you have are really sensitive to alignment problems because the tread blocks tend to squirm.

The A-arms are not the problem, heck they may be the only thing keeping your alignment from being worse than it is. The guy doing your alignments is the problem. You should definately get the stock keys back in and lower the front end a bit and get it re-aligned at a shop that has their heads out of their azzes. Explain to the new shop what is going on and ask them to call you if they can't get the camber right, have them lower the truck until they can get it right.

Not all trucks require keys to lift them, my LMM can be cranked until I max out the droop travel.

ask the allignment shop for print out and post it. maybe someone with experience could look over the numbers for you.

Those CV angles are interesting....

This may not come as a big surprise for many, but I finally got my truck into the shop today. I took it to Don Brown Chevy in St. Louis. In only a few hours I got a call back from the mechanic saying that whoever had aligned my suspension after installing the kit never adjusted it where it connects at the top.

The keys and ride height did not need to be changed. The tech even commented saying that this was the best lift design he had ever seen, and asked me where I got it. As he was thinking about lifting his truck.

It really bothers me that my old shop pretty much lied to me saying that they couldn't get it aligned right due to the kit. This cost me a $1000 dollar set of tires, and cost them a customer. I am excited that I got this issue resolved for about $60 dollars, I am looking forward to getting my new tires in a few days. Also, the shaking on the highway will not be missed.

Just thought I would let everyone know how it turned out.

Tires and wheels have NO effect on alignment at all. You could put 14" wheels with car tires on it and get it aligned and then slap 20's with 38" tires on it and the alignment would be exactly the same. I usually get my vehicles aligned on the old tires and make sure it's right before I put the new tires on.

You are most likely running the front suspension too high, These trucks have very bad bump steer. Meaning that the toe changes drastically as the suspension moves through it's range of travel. It's a factory "feature". The bump steer is worse at the outer limits of travel. So if you are jacked way up there the toe will change more drastically than if it was in the middle of it's travel.

Just so you know the wheels will go toe'd out as you compress the suspension. Which is what is eating up the inside of your tires. I would lower the front about 1" and get it aligned at a different shop that knows what they are doing.

What ever you do don't change the ride height after you get it aligned or your toe will be off again.


Actually you can't just slap smaller tires on, go get an aligment and then put huge ones on and expect the alignment to be the same. I got caught up in that mix (bad shop). I went to get mine aligned and they said to put the stock tires/rims back on, which I did. yeah they aligned it alright, but when I put my 38's back on, talk about some camber out. My tires are f***** because of this. Beware of shops doing a "quick" alignment. I looked underneath mine and saw they didn't even touch the torsion keys (which were cranked) I know everyones vehicle will be different. Sorry to hear you caught a bad shop but glad you got it fixed!

Smore79,

I beg to differ, can you explain why different size tires would effect the camber, caster and toe? If you lean a tire at 1 degree.....why would it matter if you unbolted that tire and put a bigger one in it's place? My caster camber guage actually installs on the center snout of the spindle, it wouldn't know if you installed it on a go cart or big foot, it's just going to tell me the camber and caster.

I'm not sure why you were surprised to find that the torsion bars weren't adjusted during your alignment. That isn't something most shops will ever look at, and most guys in the know would assume you adjusted the ride height.

Lots of alignment shops just check toe and move you on out the door as that's the primary cause for odd tire wear. Slightly better shops will check all parameters but will do nothing more than make sure they are within factory specs which have a HUGE range. A good shop will not only check all parameters but set them to a particular setting based of your current tire wear and complaints.

This is why I do my own alignments, I just don't trust shops to take the time to do more than get it in the ball park.

Just got my new tires put on today. The truck steers straight, no vibrating, and these tires are SILENT on the highway. They were not cheap though, around $1300 bucks installed. I got it washed on the way home from the tire shop here are some pictures sorry about the poor quality.

I think I am going to drive these tires for about 1000 miles or so and get the alignment double checked (by my buddy at the chevy dealer). Thanks everyone for all of your help, this is a huge relief!