Palmetto 4x4...great shop in South Carolina, particularly the Lowcountry

Sup. I recently had a minor ordeal with my new UCA's. I upgraded a few months back to TRD Pro Fox shocks on my Limited, with the Coachbuilder TRD Pro kit. After the initial alignment, on a road trip from SC to Kentucky, I noticed the steering wandered a bit even though the alignment specs were "OK"; there just wasn't enough caster with the OEM UCA's, so I decided to upgrade to JBA Offroad UCA's. When I installed them, I took the truck to another alignment shop that an offroad shop in Summerville said they send all their alignments to. Older gentleman who was nice enough, but first, the guy couldn't get the toe right; after a call with David at CB, we found out he was using the outer jam nut on the CB outer tie rods, instead of the inner jam nut using the inner tie rod. Once he corrected it and the toe was fine, there were indeed huge caster gains...though at the expense of camber. He could not get the factory eccentrics adjusted enough to avoid very high negative camber. I called JBA and they said there should be no issue with getting my camber close to zero. Frustrated, I left this shop. A friend told me about Palmetto 4x4 in Ravenel, saying they are probably the best in the Lowcountry for 4x4 alignments. I went there and had it aligned; same thing, high negative camber that already started wearing down the inner portion of the tires. Larry, their alignment tech, repeated what I've read all over the internet...even though aftermarket equipment manufacturers say "this should work", it all depends on the individual truck. Larry said that with my truck, it just wasn't playing well with the CB TRD Pro kit and the JBA UCA's. He recommended I get SPC UCA's, said he knew full well how to adjust them, and pretty much guaranteed he could get it aligned. I ordered the SPC's and took it back to Palmetto 4x4, and Larry sure enough got pretty much perfect alignment with slightly positive camber, plenty of caster, and on-point toe. It felt like I was back to stock steering and handling; I could let go of the steering wheel and felt no wandering, no bump steer...just like the day I bought it.

Lawrence, the owner (different person than Larry, unrelated), has tons of experience off-roading, even out west, and was very knowledgeable, friendly, and most of all to a lame-core noob off-roader like myself, patient. I could've shot the shit with him for hours as he was very customer-centric, though I didn't want to hold him up. The young lady behind the counter was new, but also very friendly. And again, Larry knows his shit. I highly recommend this shop to anyone in the Lowcountry. As with all businesses, YMMV, but I was highly impressed with this crew. I thought to myself...this is what excellent customer service felt like before the pandemic hit.

https://palmetto4x4llc.com/

I hope this helps someone.

 

Nice you got it sorted out. So what was the problem? The JBA UCA’s? The Coachbuilder setup? The first go around with the alignment guy in Summerville? Or a combo of all 3?

Also how much is an alignment at Palmetto4x4?

 

Thanks brother looking to have my rig regeared.