pro-trac alignment

Did they align all three axles? Your drive axles can lead the truck if they aren't perfectly lined out.

Bill

 

Pro Trac is a system developed by Mike Beckitt (spelling?) out of Altoona, Iowa. Various members of my family and me have been using a shop out of Des Moines, Allied Oil and Supply, for alignments for a few decades now. Ask in there about the Pro Trac system and you will get a chuckle. I was just in the other day for a steer tire and alignment, and Todd, who does there alignment work, just had to redo a truck that had gotten the Pro Trac alignment. Todd is having to redo a lot of trucks that have gotten Pro Trac done. He was telling me of one truck he did a couple of days prior to mine, that was from the SF Bay area that had the Pro Trac done a couple of times and still having problems. Todd corrected problems and owner is doing fine with it now. Todd ALWAYS does all axles when he does alignments, not just the steer axle.

Got into a squabble over this with Beckitt himself, and Kevin Rutherford from the "trucking business and beyond" show on XM. I told them both to go ahead and call Todd at Allied in Des Moines and get him on the show and prove him wrong. I told Todd and have asked several times since if they tried to contact him. Not in almost a year since the squabble began. Todd is also an instructor at a local Tech school, training people on truck suspensions and alignment.

Guess I am just biased, but only because I have gotten excellent alignments from Todd over the years, at the same or lower cost than anyone else. Todd took the time one day with me to actually go into detail and show the problems that he has had with the Pro Trac system. If you think I am full of it, direct all your questions to Todd at Allied, 515-262-9381. I am not the expert, he is. The entire shop is contientious about the work they do. Even the tire guys check things out when they change a tire, and if they find something suspicious, they refer to Todd who then does a thorough check of the suspension, bearings, etc and then brings it up to the owner on what they need to do to correct the problem. They have saved me considerable bigger problems and downtime by catching a bearing ready to go out and other things.

From everything I have learned, Mike Beckitt is a very knowledgable guy, but his Pro Trac system is highly dependent on the person using it. Results are all over the place. Alignments are as much an art as they are a science. To get the best, you have to rely on the person as much as the system. So many people doing alignments should not be doing them.

Your call. Do what you feel compelled to do.

 

Sounds to me like posiably a bad king-pin or even a steering shaft u-joint...... my u-joint was worn and made the steering wheel float a bit and started causing my steers to cup. I replaced the u-joint and had the front-end rebuilt too with hubs, berrings, king-pins, brakes, drums ect..... i now have 225K on my Goodyear steers with 8/32's left, even wear!

 

Maybe a little more info would be helpful--it seems we are all assuming the poster is talking about Steer Tires chopping? Is this the case? and if so--please describe the chopping--is it on both tires? is it consistent all the way around or sporadic spaced--or evenly spaced?

 

I just had new kingpins installed and then a 3axle pro-trac alignment by my KW local dealer. The truck is perfect now. It doesn't drift or wander and they even got the steer-ahead dead on. $189 was the price, plus a few dollars for shims on the drives. They were 1/16" off.
My dealer also noted that when the original owner upgraded to the AG400 they put the sway link bushings on the wrong side. That restricted
driveline movement and unfortunately it took it out on the input shaft...

As stated earlier, I think it is highly dependent on the person doing the alignment. I had to wait about a month for the specific guy I wanted to free up to do my work.

 

The $189 figure you use--thats just for the alignment right? not everything you mentioned having done?

 

Yea. I just pulled the receipt....here is how the totals broke down:

$189 CHASSIS ALIGNMENT - SPECIAL
+$53.99 additional labor
+$42.08 additional parts
+$197.32 Labor to correct AG400 sway bar end bolts

..I had many things done on the last visit. The bill was rather high...

 

Thats what i figures--not a bad price--I only posted because i read it wrong first time--because if you had gotten 3 axle alignment and KINGPINS for &189--I was fixin to lead a convoy of friends down there right now!! LOL